by Rabbi Yehoshua Levine

The Gemara tells a little story: If a man and his son both want to learn Torah, and the father can afford to send only one to yeshiva, the father has priority. However, if the son is eager and learns well, he has priority. Rav Acha bar Ya'akov, for example, sent his son Rav Ya'akov to study at Abaye's yeshiva. However, after a while, when Rav Ya'akov came home to visit, Rav Acha saw that he wasn't catching on very well. It appeared to him that he himself could profit from study more than his son could. So he told Rav Ya'akov to stay home and earn a living for both of them while he went to yeshiva. At that time there was an evil demon living in Abaye's beit midrash (house of study). This demon was so powerful that even when two people went in to learn together, and even during the day, he was able to harm them. Upon hearing that Rav Acha bar Ya'akov was coming, Abaye told his students not to invite him to lodge in their homes. Since Rav Acha would have no other place to stay, he would sleep in the beit midrash. Then, since he was such a great tzaddik (righteous person), it was possible that a miracle would happen for him, and the demon would be destroyed. When Rav Acha entered the beit midrash to sleep, the demon appeared to him as a snake with seven heads. He began to pray, and every time he bowed down, one of the heads was cut off. The next morning he said to the other students, "If a miracle hadn't happenend to me, I would have been in danger".

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The rabbis of the Gemara don't tell meaningless stories. They are profound thinkers and transmitters of a divine tradition. However, they don't speak to us directly in the manner of modern philosophy of science. Rather, they speak in a symbolic language which they called midrash or aggada. A midrash may appear to be a simplistic fairy story, such as the story of Rav Acha and his demon, but its images veil deep complexes of associations and meanings. One who comes to the midrash with a knowledge of the significance of its images within the midrashic system will understand the meanings conveyed by their interaction in this story. To others the meanings will remain invisible. Therefore, for us to understand a midrash we must first learn something of these complexes of meaning. In the pages which follow we will attempt to probe into some of the meanings hidden in the story of Rav Acha.

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