Devarim 5766 – Gilayon #457
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Parshat Devarim
BECAUSE OF THIS OUR HEARTS ARE SICK, BECAUSE OF THESE OUR
EYES ARE DIMMED: BECAUSE OF
PROWL OVER IT.
(Eikhah 5:17-18)
Another time, they were
going up to
clothing. When they arrived at the
running out of the area where the Holy of Holies had been. They began to cry,
while Rabbi Akiva laughed.
They said to him, "Why
are you laughing?"
He responded, "Why
are you crying?"
They said to him: "If
from the place about which it is written, And the stranger who enters there,
shall die, now foxes prowl over it, should we not cry?"
He said to him: "For
that very reason, I am laughing. As it is written, I will bring two reliable
witnesses regarding my People, Uriah the Priest and
Zachariah son of Yevarech'yahu (Isaiah 8:2). What does Uriah have
to do with Zachariah? Uriah lived in the time of the
time of the
Zachariah's prophecy dependent on Uriah's. By Uriah it is written, Therefore,
because of you,
like a field. (Micah 3:12). In Zachariah it is written, Yet again,
elderly men and elderly women will sit in the streets of
fulfillment of Uriah's prophecy, I had some doubt as
to whether Zachariah's prophecy would come true. Now that I have seen Uriah's prophecy fulfilled, I know that Zachariah's
prophecy will also be fulfilled."
They spoke to him in
these words, "Akiva, you have comforted us. Akiva,
you have comforted us."
(Makot
24b)
What is the Difference Between the Hakham [wise] and the Navon
[understanding]?Nahem Ilan
The passage describing the
appointment of judges that appears at the beginning of parashat
Devarim is worthy of study from a variety of
viewpoints. Here I shall comment on four of them.
A) The passage dealing with the appointment
of judges is of tremendous importance because – truth be told – it deals not
only with the judiciary branch of government, but also with the executive as
well. One must remember that it belongs to a period that was not concerned with
the separation of powers, and anyone chosen to lead wore two or three hats: he
was the political leader, the judge, and also the military commander. The Book
of Judges offers irreproachable testimony to this phenomenon; it could have
just as well been called "The Book of Commanders." As a result, the
virtues that Moses seeks in judges are the virtues to be sought in leaders in
general.
B) Already at first glance the
differences between the virtues sought here for the selection of judges are
different from those proposed by Yitro in the book of
Shemot. These differences invite a variety of
interpretations – from the "Documentary Hypothesis" which attributes
the passages to different sources, through the effort to harmonize the two
passages by showing that their differences are a matter of rhetoric rather than
content, and ending with the RaMBaM's solution, which
simply combines the four virtues mentioned in Shemot
with the three mentioned in Devarim into a list of
the seven virtues of the ideal judge – comprised of four moral virtues and
three intellectual virtues. It is precisely because the two passages invite
multiple interpretations that it seems to me of vital importance to remark on
the interpretive act itself, which simultaneously teaches us something about the
biblical text and about the exegete's own world, his assumptions, his methods
of argument, and the literary and normative form he gives these passages. In
other words: every interpretation does not merely reveal something in the
biblical text; it first and foremost reveals something about the world of the
exegete, who, in a reflective process, roots his own views in scriptural
foundations.
C) Two of the three virtues
listed in parashat Devarim
are wise and understanding. These two are synonyms in everyday
parlance, but they should not be thought of in that way when Scripture is being
explained. The common view amongst exegetes since the days of the Tannaim to the present is that there are no redundant words
in the Torah. In any event, one must strive to uncover the difference between
the hakham [wise man] and the navon [man of understanding]. On this point,
the midrash halakhah Sifrei states:
That is what Arius
asked Rabbi Yosi. He said to him: "Who is hakham?" He told him: "He who observes
that which he has learned." Should not such a person be called navon? He told him: "It already said nevonim. What is the difference between the hakham and the navon?
The hakham is like a wealthy money changer – he
looks at what is brought to him, and if nothing is brought to him to see, he
takes out his own [coins] and looks at them. The navon
is like a poor moneychanger – he looks at what is brought to him, but if
nothing is brought to him, he sits in perplexity. (Sifrei Devarim, Finkelstein
edition,
13, pg. 22)
According to this parable, the hakham
excels in the knowledge he has acquired – "Sinai" as the Sages put it
– and that knowledge inspires his creativity even when there is no outside
challenge to stimulate him and demand that he clarify various aspects of his
Torah knowledge. The navon, in contrast, is
blessed solely with impressive analytic and deductive skills – an "up-rooter
of mountains," as the Sages would say – and as such he requires an outside
"point of support" that allows him to exercise his talents. Without
outside stimulus, he "sits in perplexity," as the parable puts it. It
is clear that Rabbi Yosi prefers the hakham to the understanding man.
However, when verse bring yourselves men who are wise,
understanding, and famous to your tribes is explicated in the end of the
tractate Eruvin (100b), it is implied that the navon
is greater than the hakham. What is this – a
corrupt text? A lack of understanding? A scribal error? A slip of the pen?
Certainly not! Here we find an expression of a disagreement in principle
between the Sages of the
ideal scholar. In the
and the knowledge and erudition it brings, while in
argumentative skills and the scholar's sharp intellect. Each region brought its
own worldview to the interpretation of the text. When the sages of the
difference between wisdom and understanding, they did not need lexical and
semantic clarifications. They based their interpretations on their own
value-scales, which they introduced into the biblical text. That is the
classical midrashic method. The opposing views held
by the Sages living in different places can be found in their opposing
interpretations of the difference between hakham
and navon.
D) Continuing to read the verse, we find Moses saying and I shall appoint them as your heads (
there brings a quotation from the Talmud (Sanhedrin) that is very close to the midrash Sifrei's
explication of the verse. Since Rashi's version is
more accessible and better known than that of the midrash, I will bring the Sifrei's
formulation:
Do not read va'asimem
be'rosheikhem [and I shall appoint them as
your heads] but rather va'ashamam
berosheikhem [and their guilt on your heads].
This teaches us that
its judges. And so He said: Son of man, I appointed you a watchman for the
House of
message from My mouth, you must transmit My warning to
them. When I say to the wicked, etc. but if you have warned the wicked man,
etc. (Ezekiel 33:7-9)
This derasha
depends upon the fact that the biblical text is not vocalized, and that the
letter shin is more often read as sh
than as s, allowing for the word va'asimem
to be read va'ashimam. However, here again it
is clear that the derasha does not derive from
a style of reading but rather from a position of principle; it does not derive
from the text but rather is brought to it: the leader is responsible not only for
his own deeds and failures, but also for the deeds and failures of those he
leads. It turns out that the "test of results" that serves in our day
as a strict and demanding criterion of leaders and their actions is only part
of an even stricter criterion set up by the Sages to measure the performance of
leaders. They consider not only the deeds and performance of the leader himself, but also that of those who follow and obey him. A
leader who makes great efforts – to no affect upon the public's behavior – fails
the Sage's test of results.
Nearing the conclusion of this
article I would like to point out that if one carefully inspects the Torah's
text, one will discover that the word va'asimem
is written out in a full spelling, i.e. with a letter yod
between the shin and the mem. I am
not saying anything new here. Medieval scholars already noticed and commented
upon this. It would seem that since the spelling is full, the derasha has lost its textual basis [the alternative
reading, va'ashimam, is no longer available]. But
that is not true. The derasha endures, and its
critique of leadership still echoes on. And what of its
scriptural grounding? Regarding that it can be said that they had a
variant spelling, and the change of spelling has no effect on the meaning of
the verse, so that the variation is entirely insignificant; and even if they
did not read the Torah that way, the idea is still good and important. Few read
and study the Sifrei, many more study the tractate
Sanhedrin; yet even more know Rashi. Even if what he
says about va'asimem/ va'ashimam
has no basis in the canonical text, it is well rooted in tradition, and it
continues to inform an awareness that holds leaders to a very strict moral
standard.
Prof. Nahem
Ilan teaches in the MA in Jewish Studies program of
with
Torah's Transcription into Seventy Languages is an Expression of its Universal
Message
On the other side of the
in the
of
Moses undertook to expound this Teaching
(Devarim 1:5)
To expound this teaching —
he explained it in seventy tongues.
(Rashi)
And on those stones you
shall inscribe every word of this Teaching, explained well.
(Devarim 27:8)
Explained
well – in seventy tongues.
(Rashi Devarim
27:8)
In the Tractate Sotah (32a),
the Sages elucidate explain well in line with Moses undertook to
expound this Teaching. Explained well, then, teaches that the words must be
elucidated and understandable. From this they learned that that copy of the
Torah included translation so as to facilitate comprehension by the nations of
the world.
by others; from the outset it saw its mission as bringing spiritual and moral
salvation to all humanity. With the entry of the Torah into the
Canaanites tribes: lest they teach you to do all that… – this reason,
too, was brought to the attention of these nations, and was repeated and
explained in this copy of the Torah, so that this be known and understood by
all the nations of Canaan; they can expect expulsion if they persist in their
views and their idolatrous ways. If, however, they return to observance of the
general commandments of humanity, there is no reason to deny them the right to
dwell in the land.
(Rabbi S.R. Hirsch, Devarim 27:8)
Jerusalem has sinned – Israel's Uniqueness as a Chosen People
Commenting on the passage in Lamentations –
she became an outcast, the Midrash asks: "
though they sin, it is nothing, but
the responsibility weighing upon the Jewish people is greater than that of the
nations; when the nations sin, they sometimes are successful despite their
sins, whereas for the Jewish people this is not so; iniquity and evil – which
do not weaken the foundations of other nations' existence – have the potential
to undermine the existence of the Jewish people. This is the uniqueness of the
Jewish people which finds expression is the well-known phrase "You have
chosen us from all the peoples," a choice which is the acceptance of obligations and their fulfillment
alone; this
alone is its z'chut – its privilege –
as the people of God.
(From Y. Leibowitz,
Sihot al Hagei Yisrael u'Mo'adav, p. 138)
We,
a group of yeshiva and midrasha students past and
present, have been alerted to the issue of sarbanut
get (the refusal of a husband to grant his wife a divorce) by articles
written by the great scholars of Israel who deal with this problem, such as
Rabbi Bakshi Doron, Rabbi She'ar-Yeshuv HaKohen, Rabbi Ya'akov Ariel, Rabbi Yuval Cherlo,
and others. The great scholars of
have been concerned with this issue throughout the generations, and to day it
is of concern to the entire community in
which looks to its leaders to hear a Torah opinion on the matter. We address
this question to our rabbis and wish to hear their opinions and solutions to
this painful issue.
On
Shabbat Parashat Devarim we
read of the appointment of the leaders of the tribes of
who gave just decisions of controversies between individuals. One of the
principal instructions given to the judges was to listen to the small and
the great alike. Accordingly, this Shabbat is an appropriate occasion for
comprehensive study of sarbanut get – articles
on that issue will appear in the Parashat Ha'Shavua sheets.
We
believe that the Torah – a Torah of life and all its paths are peace – must
find a solution to this painful problem
It
is not our place to issue halakhic rulings or to
determine which solution is best. We are not engaged in making accusations and
argument over the extent of the problem – we are only concerned with remedying
an existing injustice. This injustice makes us uncomfortable – we hear the cry
of the weak and believe that our Torah, which always answered that cry, must
also answer it now.
Accordingly,
we request of you to please ask your rabbis to offer thoughts, comments, and
solutions relating to this issue, in order to awaken a Torah discussion of sarbanut get.
[In the days of] the
they were busy with Torah and mitzvot and deeds of
kindness – why was it destroyed? Because they bore undeserved
hatred.
(Yoma 9b)
And
if we were destroyed, and the world destroyed together with us, because of
undeserved hatred, we will again be built up, and the entire world will be
rebuilt, through undeserved love.
(Rabbi A.I Kook, ztz"l,
Orot Ha-Kodesh
324)
As in past years, and this year in
particular, it is important for us to recall the destructive consequences of
ideological baseless hatred.
Therefore,
we shall visit the grave of
Yitzhak
Rabin of blessed memory
on the night of Tisha
Be-Av, Wednesday 2.07.06 at
for the Ma'ariv
service, reading of Meggilat Eikha, and recitation of Kinot
by his grave.
Entry has been organized under permission of
the military cemetery. Vehicles may be driven to the parking lot near the
grave, and the path will be illuminated for pedestrians. We will hold a Ma'ariv service, including the reading of Eikhah and Kinot
near the grave.
Please
bring Kinot, Eikhah,
and candles.
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