Two and three
Dec. 15th, 2007 06:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rhuThe Talmud has a general aversion to pairs of things. There was a lot of superstition about pairs attracting demons, and in general I think this originated from a revulsion against the religious beliefs of the neighboring nations that there were two deities: one in charge of good/light/day and one in charge of evil/dark/night. So the Talmud recommends against walking two abreast, etc.
This morning after the early service at shul I joined a group that's been working their way through the volume on Sukkah and we learned about the minimum size of the hyssop bundle used in the sprinkling of the water of purification made from the ashes of the red heifer. And the minimum is: one root system with at least three stems, each of which has at least three seed sprigs. (cf Sukkah 12b-13a)
And I found myself wondering: if the Gemara had been formally codified a few centuries later, would it have forever captured an aversion to threes instead of twos? For that matter, to what extent did Paul and the early Christians, who were influenced by their Jewish upbringing, allow the cultural rejection of dualism to influence the construction of the concept of the trinity?
This morning after the early service at shul I joined a group that's been working their way through the volume on Sukkah and we learned about the minimum size of the hyssop bundle used in the sprinkling of the water of purification made from the ashes of the red heifer. And the minimum is: one root system with at least three stems, each of which has at least three seed sprigs. (cf Sukkah 12b-13a)
And I found myself wondering: if the Gemara had been formally codified a few centuries later, would it have forever captured an aversion to threes instead of twos? For that matter, to what extent did Paul and the early Christians, who were influenced by their Jewish upbringing, allow the cultural rejection of dualism to influence the construction of the concept of the trinity?