Rav Papa stumbles

I saw a cute thought at Revach, and thought to respond to it. In parshat Reeh, we are told to assist the poor. Devarim 15:

ז כִּי-יִהְיֶה בְךָ אֶבְיוֹן מֵאַחַד אַחֶיךָ, בְּאַחַד שְׁעָרֶיךָ, בְּאַרְצְךָ, אֲשֶׁר-ה' אֱלֹהֶיךָ נֹתֵן לָךְ--לֹא תְאַמֵּץ אֶת-לְבָבְךָ, וְלֹא תִקְפֹּץ אֶת-יָדְךָ, מֵאָחִיךָ, הָאֶבְיוֹן.	7 If there be among you a needy man, one of thy brethren, within any of thy gates, in thy land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not harden thy heart, nor shut thy hand from thy needy brother;
ח כִּי-פָתֹחַ תִּפְתַּח אֶת-יָדְךָ, לוֹ; וְהַעֲבֵט, תַּעֲבִיטֶנּוּ, דֵּי מַחְסֹרוֹ, אֲשֶׁר יֶחְסַר לוֹ.	8 but thou shalt surely open thy hand unto him, and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need in that which he wanteth.
ט הִשָּׁמֶר לְךָ פֶּן-יִהְיֶה דָבָר עִם-לְבָבְךָ בְלִיַּעַל לֵאמֹר, קָרְבָה שְׁנַת-הַשֶּׁבַע שְׁנַת הַשְּׁמִטָּה, וְרָעָה עֵינְךָ בְּאָחִיךָ הָאֶבְיוֹן, וְלֹא תִתֵּן לוֹ; וְקָרָא עָלֶיךָ אֶל-ה', וְהָיָה בְךָ חֵטְא.	9 Beware that there be not a base thought in thy heart, saying: 'The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand'; and thine eye be evil against thy needy brother, and thou give him nought; and he cry unto the LORD against thee, and it be sin in thee.

Revach records the following devar Torah from the Gra:

"Paso'ach Tiftach Es Yadecha Lo", open up your hand to the poor (Re'eh 15:8). The gemara in Bava Basra (10a) tells the story how Rav Papa was walking up the stairs and his foot slipped and he was about to fall. Chiya Bar Rav MiDifti said to him, "Maybe a poor person came to you and you did not support him." What is the connection between an accident on the steps and not giving tzedaka?

The Vilna Gaon explains this enigmatic comment with the "Trop" the notes used when reading in the Torah the words Paso'ach Tiftach. The notes are "Darga" and "Tevir" which literally means "Steps" and "Break". After seeing Rav Papa's accident on the stairs, Chiya Bar Rav MiDifti's first thought was this must be a tzedaka issue.

This is very creative, and indeed attests to the Gra's incredible brilliance and creativity, to make this kind of connection. But ultimately, I think it is incorrect.

The gemara in Bava Batra reads:

רב פפא הוה סליק בדרגא אישתמיט כרעיה בעי למיפל אמר השתא כן איחייב מאן דסני לן כמחללי שבתות וכעובדי עבודה זרה

א"ל חייא בר רב מדפתי לרב פפא שמא עני בא לידך ולא פרנסתו דתניא רבי יהושע בן קרחה אומר כל המעלים עיניו מן הצדקה כאילו עובד עבודה זרהכתיב הכא (דברים טו) השמר לך פן יהיה דבר עם לבבך בליעל וכתיב התם (דברים יג) יצאו אנשים בני בליעל מה להלן עבודה זרה אף כאן עבודה זרה

As R. Papa was climbing a ladder, his foot slipped and he narrowly escaped falling. Had that happened, he said, mine enemy {=himself} had been punished like Sabbath breakers and idolaters. Hiyya b. Rab from Difti said to him: Perhaps a beggar appealed to you and you did not assist him; for so it has been taught: R. Joshua b. Korhah says, Whoever turns away his eyes from [one who appeals for] charity is considered as if he were serving idols. It is written in one place, Beware that there be not a base thought in thine heart, and in another place, Certain base fellows are gone out. Just as in the second case the sin is that of idolatry, so in the first case the sin is equivalent to that of idolatry.

Thus, firstly, there is an explicit derasha, a gezeira shava, which explains the seemingly random connection. And why arrive at that? Well, I would say only because Rav Pappa began to process by saying that the kind of death min haShamayim that he narrowly averted was one usually reserved for idolators and murderers. In order to mitigate the severity of Rav Pappa's self-judgement, and at the same time engage in the process of yefashfesh bemaasav, Rabbi Chiyya bar Rav miDifti proposed this novel gezeira shava.

Also, his foot slipped on the ladder, rather than the ladder breaking. Perhaps one can say that upon the ladder, he almost broke himself?

Also, which incredibly innovative, tevir is a relatively common trup symbol which appears mechanically at the place of the dichotomy of a clause ending in tipcha. And a fairly common servus of tevir is darga. There are probably thousands of pesukim which have the trup of darga tevir on it. As one example, simply flipping open a chumash at random, Vayikra 20:9 has a darga tevir on yekalel et aviv, so maybe Rav Pappa cursed his father. Vayikra 20:16 has darga tevir on the yiten shichvato, which continues bivheima. So does ervat achoto in Vayikra 20:17. So does kemaaseh eretz mitzrayim in Vayikra 18:3. And so on and so forth. It depends on which direction you are coming from. If you already identify tzedaka, then you can find this cute reference to the darga mentioned in the story and add the tevir. But realistically, going in the other direction, to get from darga tevir to tzedaka, that is extremely unlikely.

This is not the only story in what problems with giving charity to beggers was identified as the cause for punishment. It seems to have been a popular attributed cause. So perhaps this was cultural, with the extra connection of the gezera shava to assist.

However, I would offer the following explanation seriously. Chazal believe in mida keneged mida, so there should be some relationship between the punishment and the crime. This way, one is given a big hint in his examination of his own deeds. This is what Rav Pappa said, speaking about whom the punishment is usually targeted at. And Chiyya bar Rav helped along by extending it to tzedaka.

But something else could have inspired him to make this connection, rather than another. The accident was that Rav Pappa stumbled on a darga, which is a ladder (or also steps). And culturally, a ladder has a specific meaning to the Tannaim and Amoraim.

Thus, we see in Midrash Tanchuma that they had this conception of a ladder of fortune, controlled by Hashem. Hashem erects ladders, and people ascend and become rich, or descend and become poor.

If Rav Pappa was climbing a ladder, that corresponds with becoming wealthy. And the wealthy, while they are wealthy, have an obligation to assist those who are descending the ladder. He was not so careful in his steps, and missed a rung, and was almost nichshal, to his great detriment.

I would posit that Chiya bar Rav understood the message of this imagery, and quickly arrived at the meaning of erring in charity. And while diverting to this message, he also drew the connection to Rav Pappa's message about the severity of the error, in order to include it as well.