The Cultural Milieu of the Talmud

 The Gemara in Berachos (56b) says that if someone sees hair-cutting in a dream (there is a dispute if it means the act of hair-cutting or that he sees the word תגלחת, hair-cutting) he should mention the Pasuk about Yosef getting a shave before coming to see Paroh, before the Pasuk in which Shimshon warns of the consequences if his hair is cut comes to mind. This is in the midst of a list of eleven such items about which the Gemara says that a person should immediately mention a particular positive Pasuk prior to a negative Pasuk about that topic coming to mind.

One of the attendees at my shiur was puzzled by this Gemara. Why do we assume that any Pasuk will come to his mind that we must warn him to say a positive one before he thinks of a negative one? Maybe he won't think of any Pasuk at all!

I explained to him that everyone lives in a cultural milieu in which certain ideas immediately conjure up particular motifs that are well known to that culture. This is why so many English clichés come from the works of Shakespeare. For centuries his plays were a central part of the culture of the English language so that it was his words that came to mind right away when things occurred. The vernacular consequently became peppered with phrases from his plays.

If you think of American culture today, how many phrases do our minds go to that are part of our cultural milieu. Frankly Madam. Plastics. Stan the Man. The words of many Beatles songs. I can't believe I ate the whole thing. Winter is Coming. 

For the average Jew in the time of the Gemara the words of Tanach are what formed their cultural milieu. They were intimately familiar with each Sefer and the concepts they discussed. It was natural that when something occurred that their minds would immediately turn to a Pasuk that reflected that idea.

It saddens me that this is not so today.