"Internal Homeland" and "External Homeland": A Literary and Psychoanalytical Study of the Narrative of R. Assi and His Aged Mother

This article deals with an aggadic story in the Babylonian Talmud (Qidd. 31b) concerning Rav Asa who fled from his mother to "Eretz Israel," after she began relating to him with sexual innuendos. Consequently, he hears that she was pursuing him and solicits Rabbi Johanan for permission to flee.

Basically this story deals with the complicated relationship between two systems or languages: The aggadic system (which reveals the hidden desire between the son and his mother) and the halakhic system (which " covers" it with another " language" or a different set of explanations). This article tries to understand the relationship between the two systems, making use of the psychoanalytic model of J. Lacan.