Human Dignity under Rabbinic Authority

In the context of the mishnaic dispute about how many fringes fulfill the mitzvah of tzitzit, the third chapter of the Talmud Bavli tractate Menachot (37b-38a) concludes with a compelling story about Ravina and Mar bar de Rav Ashi. The story relates Ravina’s decision to refrain, despite it being Shabbat, from informing Mar bar de Rav Ashi that his tzitzit had become torn in the street and was consequently invalid. According to the story, Ravina bases his decision not to tell Mar on the importance of k’vod habriyot relative to negative prohibitions in the Torah. This original telling is immediately followed by a second version of this story and a final coda in which narrative transformations progressively downplay and camouflage the strength of Ravina’s affirmation. This paper undertakes a close examination of the story, its literary construction and subtext; it proposes that this gemara reveals the purposeful suppression of a more robust rabbinic conception of k’vod habriyot within the framework of legal discourse.