Hassagot השגות

A Torah of Life (as Yom Kippur approaches)

From the 8th and final chapter of Masseches Yoma comes a discussion of the biblical source for the law that saving a person's life takes precedence over the laws of the Sabbath (85a-85b):

It once happened that R' Yishmael, R' Akiva, and R' Elazar b. Arayah were traveling on the road with Levi haSaddar (Levi the Arranger of Traditions?) as R' Yishmael the son of R' Elazar b. Azaryah followed behind.  The following question was asked of them:  Whence do we know that saving a life overrides the Sabbath?

R' Yishmael responded: "If the thief is discovered while tunneling in" (Ex. 22:1)...

R' Akiva responded: "If a man conspire against his fellow...remove him from upon My altar" (Ex. 21:14)...

R' Elazar [b. Azaryah] responded: If circumcision...overrides the Sabbath, all the more so should one's entire person override the Sabbath...

R' Yose b. R. Yehudah says: "My Sabbaths shall you keep" (Ex. 31:13)...

R' Yonoson b. Yosef says: "For it [=the Sabbath] is holy for you" (Ex. 31:14)...

R' Shimon b. Menasya says:  "The children of Israel shall observe the Sabbath" (Ex. 31:16)...

Rav Yehudah said in the name of Shmuel:  Had I been there, I would have said that my source is better than theirs.  "...and live by (or "in") them [=the commandments]" (Lev. 18:5), not that one should die by (or "in") them. 

Rava [or Rabbah] said:  A refutation may be offered for each of these opinions but not for that of Shmuel, for which there is no refutation....

Said Ravina, or if you wish, Rav Nachman bar Yitzchok:  Better one sharp pepper [=Shmuel] than a basket full of melons.

The day is short and the task is great.  I have wished for days to make a few suggestions about this powerful and complex passage.

1. The sages address their topic while on the road.  They have left the yeshiva and the fixed and certain coordinates of learning and law.   For the most part, they cite passages from the book of Exodus, in which the children of Israel wander, seeking fixity and home.
2. The sages are in a dangerous place, where highwaymen and wild animals lurk.  They speak of death--a thief who breaks in, a would-be murderer; even circumcision involves a (minimal) loss of skin and blood.    Their prooftexts (with the exception of Shmuel's reference to Lev. 18:5) explicitly refer to dying.
3. Shmuel (3rd c.) is not present at the (2nd c.) journey/discussion.  He was not "on the road."  He is settled, present, not there ("had I been there") but here.  His prooftext, and thus his teaching, speaks of being inside or within:  "bahem/ in them [=the commandments]" rather than tunneling in or seeking to be upon ("from above my altar").
4. Only Shmuel's teaching focus directly on living and being alive: "and live by/in them."

Shmuel, the little "sharp pepper" among the large sweet melons, finds life and settledness by focusing on both.  But this is an incomplete reading.  He can only focus on life and settledness because he imagines himself in the dangerous setting of the earlier sages: "Had I been there."

Concern for human life sets aside the Sabbath because (as it were) of the capacity to imagine being there, in the dangerous and wild place beyond, that apparent vacuum from which life is drawn. 

Did not our Sages hint that Yom Kippur, that "Shabbos Shabboson" (Total Sabbath), is for life, and not for death, as they asserted in the Mishnah (Yoma 83a): "any [case of ] possible danger to life sets aside the Sabbath"?  Shmuel points the way to life for all of us, not as scholars, but as Jews: we must imagine ourselves outside of all that is familiar and reassuring.  That is where we will find safety and life.

-- המשיג  H. A. Massig

Thinking about Mars, Gilad Shalit, Israel, Hizbollah

One of the most powerful images that I have seen recently is a photograph of Gilad Shalit in his army uniform. He is 19 years old but looks younger. My guess is that many of us have been moved by this photo. May he be speedily reunited with his family, and may his comrades held captive by Hizbollah likewise return home soon.

Another powerful image sticks in my mind: a photograph of Planet Mars. The photo was part of an email my mother forwarded to me: The email said: "This month and next, Earth is catching up with Mars in an encounter that will culminate in the closest approach between the two planets in recorded history. The next time Mars may come this close is in 2287. Due to the way Jupiter's gravity tugs on Mars and perturbs its orbit, astronomers can only be certain that Mars has not come this close to Earth in the Last 5,000 years, but it may be as long as 60,000 years before it happens again.... By the end of August when the two planets are closest, Mars will rise at nightfall and reach its highest point in the sky at 12:30a.m." In fact, this email was mistaken: Mars' close encounter with the Earth came in October, 2005 (science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2005/27may_approachingmars.htm). Nevertheless, the image got me thinking...

Who cares about Mars? Nowadays, among our acquaintances, mostly astronomers. But for most of human history, Mars was of interest to human beings because of its astrological significance. People believed that Mars, like the other planets, wielded a decided influence over the lives of peoples and of individuals. When I say, ‘people,’ I include most Jews, at least those who lived in Babylonia during the time of the Talmud and in Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East thereafter. I certainly do not include the Rambam, Maimonides, who was persistent and unbending in his opposition to astrology. He was an anomaly till modern times in this regard.

I think it is useful to think about these things as Earth and Mars have recently drawn close. I am not suggesting that any of us should start reading the horoscope. But I do think it is important to think about the astrological aspect of our Jewish heritage, for two reasons: First, this astrological aspect connects us strongly with the imagination. We Jews in the west have suffered, and still suffer, from a deficit of imagination since the Enlightenment. Second, and more urgent at the current juncture, thinking about Mars helps us to take seriously the situation which Israel, and the Jewish people as a whole, faces right now.

What is the place of Mars in the Jewish tradition? First, it has a name, mentioned in the Talmud and Midrashim though not in the Bible: מאדים. Ma’adim means "the red one," as in the expression, "Red Planet." Ma'adim/Mars was one of the seven planets along with Saturn, Jupiter, the Sun, Venus, Mercury, and the Moon. Saturn is "Shabtai," Jupiter is "Tzedek," the Sun is "Chamah," Venus is often called "Nogah," Mercury is "Kochav," and the Moon is "Levanah." Granted, we don’t think of the Moon and Sun as planets, but our ancestors did. In the Siddur, we refer to these planets weekly. They are referred to in the prayer "Ei-l Adon" that we sing before the Shma on Shabbat:

שבח נותנים לו כל צבא מרום.

These words allude to the names שבתי נוגה לבנה כוכב צדק מאדים. The sun is referred to in the previous stanza:

קרא לשמש ויזרח אור...

He summoned the Sun and it broke forth with light.

For Babylonians, Mars was associated with Nergal, their deity of fire, war, and destruction. The Greeks associated the planet with Ares, god of war. The Romans used the name of their god of war, Mars. The Sanskrit name also reflects the name of a war god.

What does our tradition say about Ma’adim?

Rabbi Hanina said to his disciples...He who is born under Mars will be a shedder of blood. R. Ashi observed: Either a surgeon, a thief, a slaughterer, or a circumciser. (bShabbat 156a, Soncino).

How seriously were the rabbis in making this kind of assertion? They were not of one mind:

Rabbah said: I was born under Mars [H.A.Massig: yet am not violent]. Abaye retorted: You too inflict punishment and kill. (bShabbat 156a, Soncino)

The prominent sages Rabbi Akiva, Rav, Shmuel, Rabbi Yochanan are all quoted as saying

אין מזל לישרשל

that Israel (the Jewish people) is immune from planetary influence. Yet they believe there is such a thing as planetary influence!

For example, there is a practical lesson on appropriate time for bloodletting in Masechet Shabbat:

Samuel also said: The correct time for bloodletting is on a Sunday Wednesday and Friday, but not on Monday or Thursday, because a Master said: He who possesses ancestral merit may let blood on Monday and Thursday, because the Heavenly Court and the human court are alike then. Why not on Tuesday? Because the planet Mars rules at even-numbered hours of the day. (bShabbat129b).

To which Rashi comments: ומזל מאדים ממונה על החרב ועל הדבר ועל הפורעניות

"The planet Mars controls war, sickness, and other calamities."

Today in our enlightened West, we continue to associate Mars with war. One of the best known works of classical music in the 20th century is the first movement of Gustav Holst’s orchestral suite, The Planets. That movement, written shortly before World War I, is called "Mars, Bringer of War." When we think of aliens, we often refer to them as Martians. H. G. Wells wrote his "War of the Worlds" about an invasion of Martians.

We’re not talking about Science Fiction or Astrology. Taking Mars seriously means taking war seriously, taking calamity seriously. This is appropriate at the time of year we are marking now: the three weeks leading up to the anniversary of the destruction of the Beit Hamikdash:

שולחן ערוך אורח חיים סימן תקנא

משנכנס אב )א( א ממעטין בשמחה; ובר ישראל דאית ליה דינא בהדי כותי, )ב( ב לישתמיט מיניה דריע

מזליה

[Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 551: "Once the month of Av begins, we limit joy.... Its mazal/constellation/planet is bad."] Taking Mars seriously is also appropriate this particular year, as Israel is battling an army (in Lebanon) and militias (in Gaza) that are candid in their stated desire to obliterate the Jewish state.

We could at another time talk about war and peace in the Jewish tradition. There is a dynamic tension between the experience of war and the experience of peace: "a time for peace, a time for war." Between the experience of war in the present of the hope of a war-free era of perfection: "לא ישא גוי אל גוי חרב לא ילמדו עוד מלחמה." Isaiah 2:4: May nation not lift sword against nation; may they wage war no more.

We are not there yet, we are in another, more complicated and messy place. We experience the distance of Gilad Shalit, Ehud Goldwasser, and Eldad Regev, we can only imagine the pain of that distance for themselves and their families; and we may have experienced the relative closeness of Mars. Mars, and all that it has represented for us, is too close for comfort. We hope for a more peaceful future. In the meantime, I believe it is essential for us not to confuse our modern world with the messianic era: we cannot wish away pain, hatred, and violence. We have to come to grips with it, and that sometimes means we must meet fire with fire.

May a more peaceful day come soon. (Posted and edited twice on 7/20/06)

-- H. A. Massig המשיג

A Thought on מלכות/Malchut/Kingship

מלכות/malchut/Kingship: a central theme in the liturgy of the Days of Awe and in particular of Rosh Hashanah

On Rosh Hashanah we declare the kingship of G-d.  In effect, we coronate  G-d annually at Rosh Hashanah.  The kingship of G-d is connected directly to the judgment of G-d:  He is "המלך המשפט," hamelech hamishpat/the King of Judgment or better yet "the King Judgment" since the two Hebrew words are in apposition.  He is King, therefore He is Judgment.  He is Judgment because He is King.

The judgment of Rosh Hashanah follows from the power and sovereignty of G-d.  Without that power and sovereignty, there is no judgment.  Hence, Rosh Hashanah is a tribute to the power of G-d.  It is a holiday in which power is commemorated, not for its own sake but for the sake of establishing G-d's dominion:  ובו תנשא מלכותך/u-vo tinnasei malchutecha/ "upon it thy sovereingty/kingship shall be raised."

Those who recoil from power, or who feel that Torah offers an escape from the messiness of power, will find Rosh Hashanah difficult to comprehend.

-- H. A. Massig המשיג

Learning, Service, and Kindness (Hebrew)

אבות א,ב

שמעון הצדיק היה משיירי אנשי כנסת הגדולה. הוא היה אומר, על שלושה דברים העולם עומד--על התורה, ועל העבודה, ועל גמילות החסדים.

גמרא שבת דף קד עמוד א

אמרי ליה רבנן לריב"ל אתו דרדקי האידנא לבי מדרשא ואמרו מילי   דאפילו בימי יהושע בן נו"ן לא איתמר כוותייהו אל"ף בי"ת אלף בינה גימ"ל דל"ת גמול דלים מ"ט פשוטה כרעיה דגימ"ל לגבי דל"ת שכן דרכו של גומל חסדים לרוץ אחר דלים ומ"ט פשוטה כרעיה דדל"ת לגבי גימ"ל דלימציה ליה נפשיה ומ"ט מהדר אפיה דדל"ת מגימ"ל דליתן ליה בצינעה כי היכי דלא ליכסיף מיניה ה"ו זה שמו של הקב"ה .

Golems of Metal and of Bone. Keilim 12:6 (גולמי כלי מתכות)

טז  גָּלְמִי, רָאוּ עֵינֶיךָ,    וְעַל-סִפְרְךָ, כֻּלָּם יִכָּתֵבוּ:
16 Thine eyes did see mine unformed substance [=golem], and in Thy book they were all written  (Psalm 139:16)

In tractate Keilim [="vessels"] ch. 12, section 6, we read:

ארבעה דברים רבן גמליאל מטמא, וחכמים מטהרין:  ... וגולמי כלי מתכות--כלים, פי"ב, משנה ו.

In four matters Rabban Gamliel declares [that a vessel is susceptible of becoming] impure and Chachamim/sages declare pure [i.e. non-susceptible of contracting tum'ah/impurity]: ... unfinished metal vessels/golmei clei mattechos/golems of metal.   

A golem of metal is a vessel that has not been fully processed: it wants hammering, scraping, polishing, or the addition of a loop or handle (see commentary R. Ovadiah miBartenura there; see also Rambam, Hilchos Keilim, 8:1).

We must understand that the status of being unfinished preserves a metal implement from impurity.  Only once it is completed as a vessel does an object become susceptible to impurity/pollution.

Let us turn to another context where we meet a golem, an unfinished thing.  Here we are speaking of human beings, not man-made implements:

אבות ה,ו  [ז] שבעה דברים בגולם, ושבעה בחכם:  חכם אינו מדבר לפני מי שהוא גדול ממנו בחכמה, ואינו נכנס לתוך דברי חברו, ואינו נבהל להשיב, שואל כהלכה ומשיב כעניין, ואומר על ראשון ראשון ועל אחרון אחרון, ועל מה שלא שמע אומר לא שמעתי, ומודה על האמת; וחילופיהן בגולם. כ

Mishnah Avot/Chapters of the Fathers, ch. 5, section 7.  Seven matters [pertain to] a golem/one unfinished and seven to a chacham/wise one.  A wise one does not speak in the presence of one greater than him in wisdom; he does not interpret; he does not rush to answer; he asks appropriately and answers on the topic; he addresses the first matter first and the last last; he says "I have not heard" in regard to something he has not learnt; he admits to the truth.  The opposite of these [pertain to] a golem.

We must understand how golem relates to am ha'aretz/ignoramus and boor/the uncivilized, two other terms that appear in Avot.

Ikkar Tosefot Yom Tov [Lippmann Heller], loc. cit.  See Mishnah Keilim, ch. 12, section 6.  [The golems] lack completion and adjustment...  Thus is a one who has intellectual achievements and ethical accomplishments though [these accomplishments] are not complete and are not ordered correctly.  Instead, they are confused and interfused with lack.  This is not am ha'aretz who understands social behavior/derech eretz (that is, solely the ethical accomplishments).  All the more so is this one not a boor (as in Avot 2:5 [H. A. Massig: "a boor does not fear sin"]).  Maimonides.

The golem is substantial and has accomplished much.  Yet he is not perfect.  To become perfected, one must move from being a golem to being a completed kli/vessel.   This is an intellectual and spiritual requirement.

In what way, a spiritual requirement?  The Rambam has written:

וקרוב בעיניי שכלי עצם ככלי של אשכרוע, ואין גולמיהן מקבלין טומאה.

It seems most likely that vessels of bone are like vessels of boxwood; their golems/vessels in an unfinished state are not susceptible of receiving impurity. (Rambam, Hilchos Keilim ch. 5, halachah 6).

We are vessels of bone.  In becoming perfected, we become susceptible of impurity.  Herein lies a dilemma.  We must become perfected, to become a keli/a vessel of Torah.  Yet the process of becoming fulling formed opens us up to the danger of great degredation. 

There is a great temptation in remaining a golem.  One preserves himself from the possibility of failure and the accusation of hypocrisy.  Yet the way of the golem is that of arrested development.  Only one who is a vessel can say:

טז  גָּלְמִי, רָאוּ עֵינֶיךָ,    וְעַל-סִפְרְךָ, כֻּלָּם יִכָּתֵבוּ:
16 Thine eyes did see mine unformed substance [=golem], and in Thy book they were all written  (Psalm 139:16).

-- H. A. Massig המשיג

Chanukah 5765

In his discussion of the sources of the festival of Chanukah, R. Yehiel Michel Epstein of blessed memory, in his halachic work, Aruch haShulchan, Orach Hayyim 670, writes (paragraph 5):

ועוד טעם לזה מבואר בספר חשמונאי לפי שעל ידי הגזרות בטלו אז מלהקריב בחג הסוכות העבר ובשמיני עצרת ולכן לזכרון זה עשו שמנה ימים חנוכה וממילא כשהראו להם מן השמים הנס של הדלקה הראום שהסכימו על ידם לעשות שמנה ימים

A further reason for this is explained in the Book of the Hasmoneans (Maccabees).  Since, as a result of the persecutions, they neglected to make the offerings of the previous Sukkot and Shemini Atzeret, for this reason they marked eight days of Chanukah as a remembrance of this (uncelebrated holiday).  When they were shown from Heaven the miracle of the lighting, they were shown that [Heaven] agreed with [their decision] to mark eight days.

Note the following selections from II Maccabees (from the Anchor Bible vol. 41a, translation by Jonathan A. Goldstein), alluded to by R. Epstein:

Joyfully they held an eight-day celebration, after the pattern of Tabernacles, remembering how a short time before they spent the festival of Tabernacles like wild beasts, in the mountains and in the caves.  Therefore, holding wreathed wands, and branches bearing ripe fruit, and palm fronds, they offered songs of praise to Him Who had victoriously brought about the purification of His Place.  By vote of the commonwealth they decreed a rule for the entire nation of the Jews to observe these days annually.  (II Maccabees 10:6-8; see Goldstein's discussion of the difficulty of some of these terms on pages 380-382 of the Anchor Bible vol. 41A)

To our brothers the Jews of Egypt, greeting, your brothers the Jews in Jerusalem and in the land of Judah. ... And now we ask you to celebrate the Days of Tabernacles [=Sukkot] in the Month of Kislev. (II Maccabees 1:1, 9)

These verses or at least the tradition of a connection between Chanukah and Sukkot shed light on the second explanation of the Talmud (tractate Shabbat, 21b) for the view of the School of Shammai that one lights eight lamps on the first day, seven on the second, and so forth. 

Beth Shammai's reason is that it shall correspond to the bullocks of the Festival [חג/Chag, that is Sukkot/Tabernacles]... (transl. in Soncino Talmud, Moed I, Shabbath I, p. 92)

The bullocks of the Festival are offered as burnt offerings in the following pattern: on the first day, 13, on the second, 12, and so forth till the seventh day, when 7 are offered.  (On the eighth day, only 1 is to be offered.) (See Numbers ch. 29.)  Famous is the midrashic comment that the 70 bullocks of the first 7 days of Sukkot express a concern for the "70 nations"/humanity and that the single bullock of the eighth day/Shemini Atzeret suggests the intimacy of G-d's relationship with the people Israel.

While it is true that we do not hold like the School of Shammai למעשה/practically, nevertheless, their view is still Torah and we can learn from it.  The connection which they draw between Sukkot and Chanukah shines even for us.  Even as we light in an ascending pattern, we can still learn from Beit Shammai.

I would like to suggest a few implications of the reasoning of Beth Shammai:

1. the Chanukah lights have something of the quality of a korban/offering, like the burnt offering of bullocks.  The house in which the lights are lit takes on something of the quality of the Bayit/Temple.  (Note the practice of treating the left-over oil from the lamps as notar/a left-over offering that must be burnt out of respect.)
2. the lights are addressed not only to the family that lights and Jews who pass by on the street but also to the world at large, the "70 nations."  All of these are incorporated into פרסומי ניסא/pirsumei nisa/the publication of the miracle.

May the light of Chanukah shine brightly.

-- H. A. Massig המשיג