Avraham and Sarah in Provence - Hakirah

Avraham and Sarah in Provence : 249
would not see such willing deprivation as praiseworthy. Such extreme
asceticism is against the fundamental principle of the middle road
( ינוניב ךרד)
, 105 and thus he finds it impossible to explain this aggadah in
that way.
Rather, the Talmud’s statement speaks about the man that Rambam
has discussed in the hakdamah to the Peirush haMishnayos, who is
capable of Yedias HaShem and for whom the whole world exists. 106
Chazal call our attention here, to the irony of his plight. The world
with all its abundance only exists for the sake of the Yodei’a Hashem
Chanina. All the materialism that makes up the physical world is only
to produce Chanina, but Chanina must make do with a kav of carobs
each week, for in his pursuit of Yedias HaShem he had no time to
make any more money than would pay for that kav of carobs. Of
course he contented himself with what he had—being the חמש
107
108
וקלחב that he was and having acquired the quality of תוקפתסה,
but he did not desire poverty and had he greater wealth he would
have enjoyed G-d’s gifts. The following stories dealing with miracles
related to Chanina lead Bais Yosef 109 to state in his refutation of
Rambam’s claim, that had Chanina wished he would have acquired
wealth miraculously, and thus Rambam’s conclusions cannot be
drawn from Chanina’s poverty and clearly it was self-imposed for
ascetic reasons. But of course, according to Rambam, stories of miracles
are not to be taken literally. Chazal did not fill pages of the Talmud
with fantastic stories fit for children’s books. According to
Rambam, Bais Yosef is missing the point.
The whole point of this aggadah is to give philosophical insight
into the relationship with the material world that the Yodei’a HaShem
has. The focus of all the stories is Chanina’s interactions with his
wife. We are dealing here with the struggle and debate within the Yodei’a
HaShem himself. The simplest story to understand is this one:
One day the wife of R. Chanina said to him: “How long shall we
yet be troubled with the want of our daily bread?” And he replied:
“What can I do?” Said she: “Pray to G-d that He should give you
105 See Hilchos De’os chapter 1, and Shemonah Perakim, chapter 4.
106 See Kappach ed., p. 22.
107 “Happy with his lot.”
108 Contenting oneself with the minimum needed for survival.
109 Kesef Mishneh, Hilchos Talmud Torah 3:10.