I recently shared a text from the Jerusalem Talmud that is perfect for Halloween. Keeping up with the Spooky Midrash series, here is another one from the Babylonian Talmud, about rattling bones and prayer for the dead.
Judah and Reuben and the Confession of Their Shameful Sins
This text is from Tractate Sotah 7b. The legal text in question is all about the “straying woman” (sotah in Hebrew) whose husband subjects her to the bitter water ordeal in Numbers 5. This is a challenging and difficult set of legal texts that I hope to deal with at a future time, but in the middle of the discussion, the rabbis share a ghost story about rattling bones.
It begins with a citation from the Mishnah. There, the rabbis say that the priests conducting the ritual ordeal should tell the woman shameful accounts of past sinners, in an effort to get her to confess to adultery before going through the ordeal. The Babylonian Talmud asks what sort of accounts these are. (The translation that follows is from Jacob Neusner).
BT Sotah 7b
A. And they tell her things… [M. 1:4C]:
B. Our rabbis have taught on Tannaite authority:
C. He tells her lessons of narrative and events that took place [and are recorded] in the earlier writings [of the Pentateuch].
D. For example “Which wise men have told and have not hid from their fathers [by confessing their sin]” (Job. 15:18).
Rewards for the Confession of Sin
First of all, I probably ought to explain what “Tannaite” means. The Tannaim are the sages of the period most referred to in the Mishnah. Their period roughly covers 10-220 AD. The first of the Tannaim are Hillel and Shammai, and the last of them was Judah the Prince, who compiled the Mishnah. The Mishnah is the record of oral Torah teaching from this period. “Mishnah” and “Tannai” are from the same Semitic root, although the first is Hebrew and the second is Aramaic. Mishnah means “recitation” and Tannai means “one who recites.” So this section of Tractate Sotah asserts that its tradition comes from this most venerable period of Pharisaic Torah teaching.
E. Specifically: Judah confessed and was not ashamed to do so.
F. What was his destiny? He inherited the world to come.
G. Reuben confessed and was not ashamed to do so.
H. What was his destiny? He inherited the world to come.
I. What was their reward? What was their reward?! It was as we have stated [F, H].
J. Rather, what was their reward in this world?
K. “To them alone the land was given, and no stranger passed among them”(Job. 15:19).
Surprisingly, (perhaps), the shameful accounts are about two of the Patriarchs of Israel, Judah and Reuben. The Talmud only obliquely refers to them here. But you can go read all of the seamy details in Genesis 38 (Judah) and Genesis 35:22 and 49:4 (Reuben). I mean, they are shockingly scandalous stories. No one would want to know that their ancestors had done such things. The Bible is brutally honest in this way. This is not the sort of carefully edited propaganda that some critics have tried to depict it as being. But I digress.
Judah’s Good Example
Interestingly, the Talmud insists that there were both spiritual and material blessings for their confession of sin. They inherited the world to come, of course, but the rabbis produce a midrash based on Job 15, and imply that the inheritance of the tribes of Judah and Reuben in the land of Canaan was a direct result of confessing these sins.
But there is a bit of a problem. The Bible never tells us that Reuben confessed his sin. For the rabbis, who like for there to be a biblical foundation for all of their teachings, this is a major irritant. And so, the Babylonian Talmud provides us with a midrashic solution.
III.2. A. Now we find no problem in the case of Judah, for we find that he confessed, as it is written, “And Judah acknowledged them and said, She is more righteous than I” (Gen. 38:26).
B. But how do we know that Reuben confessed?
C. It is in accord with what R. Samuel bar Nahmani said R. Yohanan said, “What is the meaning of that which is written: ‘Let Reuben live and not die, and this for Judah’ (Deu. 33: 6-7)?
Rabbi Yohanan turns to Deuteronomy 33:6-7, where Moses blesses the tribe of Reuben, to find a hint that Reuben did indeed confess his sins. What he actually does here is fuse verse 7, which begins the next blessing, on to verse 6. By so doing, he generates a new text. Not only is Moses asking that Reuben be given life, but he is asking that Reuben be blessed for the sake of the confession prompted Judah.
Judah’s Rattling Bones
And now we get to the rattling bones. Here the Talmud provides a strange story to give testimony to the statement that Reuben confessed his sins because of Judah. You might expect a midrash that actually recounts Reuben’s confession. But no, this is the Babylonian Talmud, so it’s going to be delightfully weirder.
The story that follows depends on a non-biblical tradition. The Bible specifically tells us that the Hebrews brought the bones of Joseph the Patriarch with them out of Egypt. But it doesn’t tell us what happened to the bones of the other Patriarchs. So the midrash that follows assumes that all of their bones were also carried with their descendants throughout the wilderness wanderings. This is the premise for a wonderfully creepy story about Judah’s rattling bones.
D. “All those years that the Israelites were in the wilderness, the bones of Judah were rolling around in the coffin, until Moses went and sought mercy for him, saying before him, ‘Lord of the ages, who caused Reuben to confess? It was Judah [who set the example].’
E. “‘And this for Judah.’ Forthwith: ‘Hear, O Lord, the voice of Judah’ (Deu. 33: 7).
F. “Each limb then entered its socket [and stopped rolling about].
G. “But they did not bring him up into the Torah-session in the firmament.
H. “[Moses then prayed], ‘And bring him in to his people.’
I. “But he could not follow the give and take of the argument [that rabbis were discussing concerning the law].
J. “[Moses prayed]: ‘With his hands let him contend for himself’ (Deu. 33: 7).
K. “He had no tradition in hand pertinent to what was under discussion in the law.
L. “[Moses prayed:] ‘Be a help against his adversaries’ (Deu. 33: 7).”
Praying for the Dead-Settling Rattling Bones Down
There it is, the story about Judah’s rattling bones. And isn’t it fantastic? I’m telling you, rabbinic literature is a treasure trove of such wonderful things. I routinely find it to be deeply edifying for my own, specifically Christian spirituality. This story is just one good example. I especially like how the blessing for the tribe of Judah in Deuteronomy 33 has become a series of intercessions in the mouth of Moses for the deceased Patriarch. And, of course, this is colorful testimony that the ancient Christian practice of praying for the dead is a natural development from our Jewish roots.
