The Gemara on 96b and 97a deals with Rabbi Yochanan’s strong concern that his Torah be quoted and attributed to him.  The Gemara explains this as stemming from the following idea and verse:

Rabbi Yoḥanan said in the name of Rabbi Shimon ben Yoḥai: With regard to any Torah scholar in whose name a matter of halakha is said in this world, his lips mouth the words in the grave, as though he is talking. Rabbi Yitzḥak ben Ze’eira said, and some say this was stated by Shimon the Nazirite: What is the verse from which it is derived? “And the roof of your mouth is like the best wine that glides down smoothly for my beloved, moving gently the lips of those who are asleep” (Song of Songs 7:10).

What does this really mean?  The Shalah Toldos Adam Shaar HaGadol explains that the verse used by wine is indicative of the nature of Torah. Just as the particular soil and vine lives on in the taste of the wine which can be sensed as unique, so too the Torah of a person lives on from those who study and quote them.  Maharsha here says that from here we can account for the difference in language that Yaakob used in referring to his loss of Yosef versus potentially losing Binyamin.

By Yosef it states: (Bereishis 37:35):

וַיֹּ֕אמֶר כִּֽי־אֵרֵ֧ד אֶל־בְּנִ֛י אָבֵ֖ל שְׁאֹ֑לָה וַיֵּ֥בְךְּ אֹת֖וֹ אָבִֽיו׃

 I will go down mourning to my son in Sheol.” Thus his father bewailed him.

By Binyamin it states (42:38):

וְהוֹרַדְתֶּ֧ם אֶת־שֵׂיבָתִ֛י בְּיָג֖וֹן שְׁאֽוֹלָה׃

you will send my white head down to Sheol in grief.”

Since Yosef learned his father’s Torah, if Yosef was dead, that means that Yaakov would also be dead in a way forever. That is why he would go down to the Sheol in mourning.  On the other hand, if Binyamin died it would be sad, and he would grieve, but it would not be a permanent death.

These Psychology of the Dafs are in honor of my father Z”L, who inspired the psychological and Torah ideas that are relayed in these posts.  While I try to bring new chiddushim in terms of how these ideas are brought out, expressed and shown to be latent within the teachings of Chazal, my father was the one who brought to me and many of his students a unique sensitivity to pedagogy, psychology and chinuch in Chazal. He cultivated this way of noticing within the words of Chazal great psychological depth, which I try to honor by continuing the study and search for more ways to see this and learn.

Translations Courtesy of Sefaria, except when, sometimes, I disagree with the translation

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