ABSTRACT
Pain is a major theme in the Talmud. Not only do the sages of the Talmud discuss the meaning of pain and how to handle it, but the text itself consistently broadcasts the vivid pain of those who composed it, i.e. the rabbis and others in their world. The Talmud's disclosure of suffering is a kind of pedagogy, teaching students of Talmud how to relate to their own pain, especially in the process of learning. The essay shows that the nature of this proper relation is, in the sages’ view, compassionate attention: pain acts as a warning that something has not been properly understood, and that something has disrupted the learning process, which the Talmud imagines as inherently pleasant. Sources examined in this essay show that students of Torah are therefore not expected to efface themselves or pained responses, but to understand their difficulty as an invitation to renew their efforts at understanding.
