Sago Boulevard

R. Hershel Schachter has a great devar Torah on common sense and emunat chachamim at TorahWeb.org (via Hirhurim). According to the Midrash, Korach challenged Moshe’s authority by appealing to “common sense” arguments about tzitzit and mezuzah. (more…)

From Ki Teitzei (Deut. 21:23):

…[Y]ou must not let his corpse remain on the stake overnight, but must bury him the same day. For an impaled body is an affront to God.

The context here is the death penalty of sekilah (death by stoning). Rashi explains that “all who are put to death by stoning are hanged [afterwards]”. The Torah teaches that we are not to let the hanging body remain overnight, but the reason given (”for an impaled body is an affront to God”) requires explanation. Commenting on this verse, Rashi cites a fascinating drashah from Sanhedrin 46a:

“For an impaled body is an affront to God.” It is a degradation of the King, for man is made in the likeness of His image… This can be compared to identical twin brothers. One became a king while one became ensnared in banditry and was hanged. All who saw him would say “The king is hanging.”

So similar is the human body to God Himself that we’re worried somebody will mistake the former for the latter! The implications of this aggadah seem endless. Every year when I come across this Rashi I’m struck by how lofty a role the Torah accords to humanity. Even the most mundane aspects of life take on additional meaning when we appreciate that we are reflections of God.

It clear that Halakhah requires Jews to behave towards non-Jews in a manner consistent with the Torah’s ethical demands. What’s less clear is the reason for this. The Mishnah writes (Gittin 59a-b):

…One does not restrain poor pagans from collecting the gleanings, forgotton pieces and what is left on the corners of fields mipnei darkhei shalom (on account of the ways of peace).

The Gemara, there (61a), expands, based on a beraita:

One supports poor non-Jews together with poor Israelites, and one visits sick non-Jews together with sick Israelites, and one buries dead non-Jews as one buries dead Israelites mipnei darkhei shalom.

What does “mipnei darkhei shalom” mean? (more…)

In my response to Amba’s essay on “spiritual nomads”, I emphasized the inappropriateness of claiming to extract wisdom from Judaism without also embracing the mitzvot. This point is reinforced by a gemara in M. Shabbat (88b-89a).

At the time of the giving of the Torah, the rabbis explain, the angels appeared before God and asked regarding Moshe, “What business has one born of woman among us?” God replied that he is here to receive the Torah. The angels were outraged. How can God’s greatest gift be given to mere flesh and blood; it should be given to the angels instead. Moshe answered:

Sovereign of the Universe! The Torah which you give me, what is written in it? “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the Land of Egypt.” Said he to them [the angels], Did you go down to Egypt; were you enslaved to Pharaoh: why then should the Torah be yours?… “You shall have no other gods” - do you dwell among peoples that engage in idol worship?… “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy” - do you then perform work, that you need to rest?… “Honor your father and thy mother” - have you fathers and mothers?… You shall not murder”, “You shall not commit adultery”, “You shall not steal” - is there jealousy among you? Is the Evil Tempter among you? They [the angels] conceded to the Holy One, blessed be He.

On this passage, my rebbe R. Sobolofsky asks an obvious question. What were the angels really asking for? Didn’t they know that, not having physical bodies, the mitzvot would be of no use to them? He offers the following answer: The angels were asking for the wisdom of the Torah, for a way to grow close to God by studying His greatest treasure. Moshe answered them that this is impossible. The Torah’s wisdom is inextricably tied with the specific mitzvot that must be observed here on earth. You cannot have one without the other.

From the Gemara in Berakhot 4b:

The master said: “One should read Keri’at Shema and then pray [the Amida].” This supports Rabbi Yochanan, as Rabbi Yochanan said: “Who will merit the World to Come (Olam Ha-ba)? One who juxtaposes redemption [the blessing of Ga’al Yisra’el] with the evening prayer.”

My rebbe, R. Yitzchak Blau cites the interpretation of the students of Rabbeinu Yonah:

We link redemption and prayer because prayer, often referred to as avoda she-balev (service of the heart), exemplifies service of Hashem. This illustrates the fact that we do not view the exodus from Egypt as a self-sufficient act. No one can deny the joys of freedom, but the question remains what a person will accomplish with such freedom. Therefore, the Exodus from Egypt (Yetzi’at Mitzrayim) was only complete when the Jewish people accepted the Torah at Sinai (Matan Torah). We convey this point each day by following up our prayers about the Exodus with the quintessential avodat Hashem.
…
Ultimately, freedom is not meaningful without a vision of how to live a noble existence. Jewish history is significant not because we became free, but because we accepted the divine laws of the Torah.

Freedom, though a noble political value seems slightly out of place in a religious context. In this vein, a professor of mine used to offer the analogy of an orchestra. If musicians in a symphony play whatever please, each according to his own rhythm, that may be freedom. But freedom, in this sense, isn’t the appropriate value for an orchestra, whose function is to create beautiful music. The players should be free but must use that freedom to obey the notes on the page.

Similarly, the Gemara teaches that the freedom granted to Israel in leaving Egypt is of a specific type. The beautiful music is created when that freedom is used to worship God.

The famous story of the oven of achnai (Bava Metsia 59b) is one of the important sources demonstrating the significance and theological implications of halakhic deliberations in Judaism. As Rav Soloveitchik writes:

The strange Aggadic stories… about R. Joshua b. Chanania’s rejecting a Divine decision which favored a minority opinion over that of the majority [is] characteristic of the intimate Halakhic-covenantal relationship prevailing between man and God. (The Lonely Man of Faith)

The biblical verse used to justify R. Joshua’s rejection of the bat kol is similarly famous: “Lo Bashamayim Hi” - It is not in heaven. The context of the verse is also important, though:

This commandment that I command you today - it is not hidden from you and it is not distant. It is not in heaven [for you] to say “Who can ascend to the heaven for us and take it for us…” Nor is it across the sea, [for you] to say “Who can cross to the other side of the sea for us…” Rather the matter is very near to you. (Deut. 30:11-14)

Richard Silverstein understands this gemara as saying:

The Talmudic rabbis do not view Jewish law as divine per se. It is not fixed in its meaning as revealed at Sinai. It is alive. Jews may even interpret the law wrongly and God has no power to correct them because the sole interpretive responsibility is theirs.

In his comment to Nephtuli’s post, he writes:

I do not believe that the rabbis in the Talmud story “ignored” God’s “intent.” I believe they prob. took that into acct. in their deliberations & decided against Him nevertheless. After all, doesn’t God make pretty crystal clear that his original intent sides with R. Eliezer?

I think the suggestion that the rabbis somehow overruled divine authority by invoking “lo bashamayim hi” is seriously misguided. On theological grounds, the rabbis’ job is to apply divine law to situations not explicit in the Torah and to make additional provisions to uphold its spirit. The entire corpus of halakhic literature is devoted to identifying and explaining God’s intention in giving the Torah.

On texual grounds, that’s simply not what the gemara is saying. The reason the bat kol is rejected is clear. The rabbis “give no credence to a bat kol”. The heavenly voice is not permitted in the discussion because “lo bashamayim hi”. We don’t rely on prophetic means to interpret the Torah; we use only our faculties of reason.

But this is an epistemological point. The goal of deciding Halakhah is still to identify God’s intention. The rabbis don’t ignore God’s will; they ignore the bat kol because they are called upon to identify God’s will on their own. If we rely on a bat kol, then we indeed require someone to “ascend to the heaven for us”. The Torah tells us that no, “lo bashamayim hi” - it is not in heaven. The bat kol has no weight in the halakhic discussion. We have to figure out what God would say on our own.