Wimpfheimer_ Is it not so.pdf

52 ❙ Barry Wimpfheimer
speci®c narratological deviceÐthe emotional marker. Through a close reading of
these narratives, I hope to show analytically how the emotional marker, a seemingly
gratuitous detail, is the heart of a more textured understanding of these stories that
puts law in conversation with the emotional realities of human life. In shifting the
focus of these stories from their normative to their a²ective registers, I am
attempting to undermine the ubiquity of law as a lens for reading even as I
reintroduce a highly nuanced understanding of law as an important context for
comprehending the a²ective lives of these stories. Though I am breaking law's
monopoly on meaning by refusing to center my reading on the normative
rami®cations of these narratives, I am positing a thorough, detailed understanding
of those very normative rami®cations as the necessary background for understanding
a²ective meaning in these stories. This methodological choice allows me to
re¯ect more generally on the relation between law and literature in the Talmud and
on the role of halakhic narrative in rabbinic discourse.
RAVA'S ANGER (BAVA METSI¦A 97A)
Before examining this talmudic narrative, some words about the legal basis of their
discussion are necessary. Exod. 22:13±14 frames the liability of a borrower for a
borrowed animal through an exceptionÐthe case of owner presence. If the
borrowed animal is maimed or dies outside the presence of its owner, the borrower is
liable. If, however, the owner is present, the borrower is not liable. Tannaitic readers
consider the positive and negative formulations of this exceptional case redundant.⁴
Compelled by the doubled verses, these readers replace the verses' physical notion of
``presence'' with their own idea of ``presence'' as a contractual condition. The owner
must be ``with the animal'' in contract. In further elucidation of this new notion of
contractual presence, tannaitic sources require the borrower to hire the owner either
prior to, or simultaneous with, the hiring of the animal. This notion of prior
contractual presence forms the basis for the opening lines of our talmudic narrative.
Rava⁵ said: A man who wishes to borrow something from his neighbor
and yet be absolved of responsibility, should say to him, ``Give us a