Rabban Gamliel’s “Mistake” – Brachot 28a
Question
As a modern Orthodox Jewish man, I cannot find a rabbi who has chosen to reply to my question of the following Mishna.
In Berakhot 28a the Gemara relates: On that day several benches were added to the study hall to accommodate the numerous students. Rabbi Yoḥanan said: Abba Yosef ben Dostai and the Rabbis disputed in this matter. One said: Four hundred benches were added to the study hall. And one said: Seven hundred benches were added to the study hall. When he saw the tremendous growth in the number of students, Rabban Gamliel was disheartened.
He said: Perhaps, Heaven forbid, I prevented Israel from engaging in Torah study.
They showed him in his dream white jugs filled with ashes, alluding to the fact that the additional students were worthless idlers.
The Gemara comments: That is not the case, but that dream was shown to him to ease his mind so that he would not feel bad.
B”H
Robert Mandel
Answers
The section that you are asking about is one of the most poignant pieces in the whole of the Talmud.
The commentaries explain that Rabban Gamliel was of the opinion that it was forbidden to teach Torah to anyone who was not on an exalted level of purity and spirituality. That was why, during his tenure he would not allow the doors of the Beit Midrash (study hall) to be opened indiscriminately. When Rabban Gamliel was removed from his position as the Nasi, he was replaced by Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryia.
There was no difference of opinion as to it being forbidden to teach Torah to an unworthy student. What they disagreed about was whether students should be regarded as unworthy even if there was no proof. Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryiah was of the opinion that anyone who was seemingly worthy could come to learn Torah, whereas Rabban Gamliel felt that they had to prove their worthiness first. Once Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryia relaxed the rules, the benches filled up in the Beit Midrash, as hundreds of additional students were now allowed to come to learn there.
When Rabban Gamliel realized just how many hundreds of students wanted to study the holy Torah he became very discouraged. In order to lift his spirits he was shown a vision that let him know that his approach was correct. But, in truth, it was not. Rabban Gamliel made an error in judgement, and the vision was simply to make him feel better. Why? Because his original decision to block their entry into the Beit Midrash was done with the purest of intentions and without any subjectivity.
I once heard from my Rebbe a beautiful explanation of this section in Shas, which manages to synthesize the various disparate opinions. At the beginning, when they asked for permission to learn, the prospective students were really not of the correct spiritual caliber, and Rabban Gamliel believed that it was better that they not learn if their inner dimensions were corrupted. However, after sitting in the Beit Midrash and learning God’s Holy Torah, they started to change and to purify themselves, until they reached the levels of all of the other students learning there. It was when Rabban Gamliel saw the extent of the change in the students that he began to understand that, perhaps, his approach had been incorrect.
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