276 A History of Judaism
for discussion did not present themselves, they invented imaginary scen-
arios. These could sometimes reach levels of implausibility unacceptable
even to the rabbis themselves, as indicated by the occasional comments
of the editors of the text, that a matter is beyond resolution, as in the
following discussion of evidence that leavened bread, which should
be excluded from a dwelling on Passover, may have been brought into
the house by a mouse:
Raba asked, ‘What if a mouse enters with a loaf in its mouth, and a mouse
goes out with a loaf in its mouth: do we say, the same which went in went
out; or perhaps it is a different one? Should you answer, the same which
went in went out, – what if a white mouse entered with a loaf in its mouth,
and a black mouse went out with a loaf in its mouth? now this is certainly a
different one; or perhaps it did indeed seize it from the other? And should
you say, mice do not seize from each other, – what if a mouse enters with
a loaf in its mouth and a weasel goes out with a loaf in its mouth? now the
weasel certainly does take from a mouse; or perhaps it is a different one,
for had it snatched it from the mouse, the mouse would have [now] been
found in its mouth? And should you say, had it snatched it from the mouse,
the mouse would have been found in its mouth, what if a mouse enters
with a loaf in its mouth, and then a weasel comes out with a loaf and a
mouse in the weasel’s mouth? Here it is certainly the same; or perhaps, if
it were the same, the loaf should indeed have been found in the mouse’s
mouth; or perhaps it fell out [of the mouse’s mouth] on account of [its]
terror, and it [the weasel] took it?’
Beneath the humour lies a serious concern to establish the limits of
responsibility to search for evidence to ensure a life lived in accordance
with the prescriptions of the Torah. In contrast to the high level of
abstraction in contemporary treatises of Christians such as Origen (in
the third century) or Augustine (in the late fourth and early fifth), who
pondered theological issues about the nature of the divine under the
influence of Greek philosophy, the talmudic rabbis were engaged in
practical means to achieve sanctity at a human level. Greek philosophy
did not enter into the rabbinic tradition until Saadiah, long after the
talmudic period, when its adoption was under the influence of Islam
(see below).^17
Usually the rabbis relied on argument and logic, only occasionally
resorting to reliance on biblical authority alone. But there were excep-
tions, as in a story about Yohanan b. Zakkai found in the amoraic
compilation Pesikta de‑ Rab Kahana :