The rabbis portray two arenas in which Torah is studied. Above the terrestrial academy of the sages, the Rabbis posit a transcendent, celestial yeshiva. This dual system seems central to the rabbinic doctrine of retribution in a sequential afterlife. In contrast to the standard dualist reading and accepted dogma, I propose a monist’s reading of these aggadic texts, which sees a single arena of human action and endeavor, with multivalent significance. My starting point is the dramatic narrative of the persecution, flight, and ultimate death of one of the leading Talmudic sages, Rabba bar Naḥmani. These esoteric stories go beyond familiar taxonomies as modes of concealment. Not cyphers to be cracked, they offer a nuanced way of thinking about the world, accessible through narrative as an adaptive mode of transmission.

拉比描绘了两个学习律法的领域。在圣人的地面学院之上，拉比斯（Rabbis）拥有超凡的天体神灵。这个双重系统似乎对后来的来世报应的犹太教教义至关重要。与标准的二元论阅读和公认的教条相反，我提议一元论者对这些敏捷文本进行阅读，这看到了人类行动和努力的一个单一舞台，具有多方面的意义。我的出发点是戏剧性的叙事，讲述了一位领先的塔尔木德圣人之一拉巴·巴·纳曼尼（Rabba barNaḥmani）的逼迫，逃亡和最终死亡。这些深奥的故事超越了常见的分类法，成为隐藏的方式。无需破解密码，它们提供了一种关于世界的细微思考方式，可以通过叙述作为一种适应性的传播方式进行访问。