AND YOU SHALL ERECT THE

TABERNACLE IN THE FASHION THEREOF, AS YOU HAVE BEEN SHOWN ON THE MOUNTAIN.

(Shemot 26:30)

As you will have been

shown on the mountain

– the Divine and the Human

R. Joshua of Sakhnin said in the name of R. Levi: When the Holy One,

blessed be He, commanded Moses, Make Me a Tabernacle, he should have

just put up four poles and spread out the Tabernacle over them! We are

therefore forced to infer that the Holy One, blessed be He, showed Moses on

high, red fire, green fire, black fire, and white fire, and said to him: And

on the mountain (Shemot 26: 30). R. Berekiah in the name of R. Bezalah likened the matter to a king who, possessing an

exquisite robe worked in precious stones, said to a member of his house: "Make

me another like it," and the latter said to him: "My lord, the king!

Am I able to make one like that?" Said the king to him: "I

with my glory and you with your dyes [will make a worthy robe]." In

the same way did Moses say to the Holy One, blessed be He: "O God, am I able to make such as these?" Said He to him: Do it according to the fashion which I am

showing you, etc., with blue, with purple, with scarlet, and with fine

linen. "If," said the Holy One, blessed be He, to Moses, "you

will make below the same as that which is above, I shall leave My counselors on

high and, coming down below, will accommodate My Shekhinah

to the confined space in their midst below."

(Bamidbar Rabbah 12, Soncino translation)

Who saw the king's face. Two families used to have the right of

going in to see Rabbi, one the family of R. Hoshaia

and the other that of R. Yehudah b. Pazzi. When R. Yehudah b. Pazzi became connected with Rabbi by marriage, they wanted

to take precedence, but R. Ammi would not let them. He

said to them: It is written, And you shall

erect the Tabernacle in the fashion thereof [kemishpato

– literally "according to its judgment"], as you have been

shown on the mountain (Shemot 26). Is there then judgment for pieces of wood? What it means, however, is

that the beam that once chanced to be placed in the north should always be

placed in the north, and the beam that once chanced to be placed in the south

should always be placed in the south.

(Esther

Rabbah 4, based on Soncino

translation)

Halakhah Uproots Scripture

Binyamin Salant

In memory of my father and teacher, Rabbi Yeshaya

Salant

who died on the third day of

Adar Bet

And

you shall make the boards for the Tabernacle R. Abin said: It can be compared to a king

who possessed a beautiful appearance, and gave instructions to a member of his

household to make a bust exactly like him. "But your majesty,"–exclaimed

the other—"How can I possibly make one exactly like you?" The king

replied: "You shall [paint it] with your materials, but I will appear

in my own glory." This is what God said to Moses: And see that you

make them after their pattern,' etc.

Moses

said to Him: "Lord of the Universe! Am I a god that I should be able to

make one exactly like it?"

He

told him: "Make after their pattern in blue, purple, and scarlet; as you

have seen above, copy the pattern below," for it says, of acacia wood,

standing up, that is, just as it appears in the heavenly precincts. If you

will make below a replica of that which is above, I will desert My heavenly assembly and will cause My Shekhinah

to dwell among you below." Just as the Seraphim stand above, so do the

acacia boards stand below; and just as there are stars above, so are there

stars below.

R. Hiyya b. Abba said: This teaches that the gold clasps in

the Tabernacle looked like the glittering stars in heaven. (Shemot

Rabbah 35, following Soncino

translation)

This

midrash and others of

similar content express the gulf dividing the "Heavenly Temple" from

its humanly built version. This gap can be compared to the contrast between the

Written Torah – plain Scripture – and the Halakhah

that is founded upon the authority of the Sages of the Oral Torah to explicate

it in each and every generation.

There

is often a break between Halakhah and the plain

meaning of Scripture. A clear example of this can be found, among other places,

in parashat Mishpatim.

This

gap is often mentioned in the commentary of RaShaBaM,

the great master of peshat [plain interpretation].¹

He concentrates on two principles: the first, that "Halakhah is more important [than the plain meaning of

Scripture], and the words of our Rabbis are honest and true." The

second is that "Scripture does not desert its

plain meaning,"² by which he means to tell us that despite

the existence of a gap between Halakhah and the plain

meaning of Scripture, it does not imply a contradiction. Rather, the plain

meaning of Scripture exists on a separate plane from that of Halakhah. True, Halakhah does

rely on the plain meaning and is sometimes inferred from it, but at other times

the halakhah journies to

other precincts, sometimes even changing the plain meaning. RaShBaM

repeatedly cites Rav Kahana's

dictum from Shabbat 63a: "When I was eighteen years old, I had already

learned all the Talmud, but until now I did not know the principle that

Scripture does not desert its plain meaning." RaShBaM

explains that the halakhot and derashot are learned from changes and superfluous

words in the formulations of Scripture. He writes (on Shemot

21:1):

All

those who are knowledgeable of mind know and understand that, despite their

being of first importance, I have not come to explicate halakhot,

as I explained in Bereishit that haggadot

and halakhot spring from [attempts to explain]

the superfluous words of Scripture, and some of these can be found in the

commentaries of our Rabbi Shelomo, (Rashi) my mother's father ztz"l.

However, I came to explain the plain meaning of Scripture, and I shall

interpret the laws and halakhot in accordance

with general custom. Nonetheless, the halakhot

are the most important thing, as our Rabbis said: Halakhah

uproots Mishnah.

Halakah

leMoshe MiSinai (HLMM)

The

phrase Halakah leMoshe MiSinai

("a law received by Moses on Mount Sinai") denotes legal

validity and power having wide implications throughout the halakhic

realm. This phrase occurs many times and serves to legitimate rabbinic dicta. The

following wonderful midrashic story is well known:

Rav Judah said in

the name of Rav, When Moses ascended on high he found

the Holy One, blessed be He, engaged in affixing coronets to the letters. Moses

said, "Lord of the Universe, Who stays your hand?" He answered, "There

will arise a man, at the end of many generations, Akiva

ben Yosef by name, who will

expound upon each title heaps and heaps of laws." He said to Him, "Lord

of the Universe, permit me to see him." He replied, "Turn around."

Moses went and sat down behind eight rows [and listened to the discourses upon

the law]. Not being able to follow their arguments he was ill at ease,

but when they came to a certain subject and the disciples said to the master "Whence

do you know it?" and the latter replied "It is a law given unto

Moses at Sinai." He [Moses] was comforted. (Menahot

29b, based on Soncino translation)

One

may ask in the light of the above why Moses was suddenly comforted. Just a

moment earlier he could not follow the discussion, but when HLMM (halakhah l'Moshe miSinai) was mentioned he was comforted. It appears that

the midrash wants to teach us that Moses understood

that the significance of HLMM is that the authority to study and to teach, to

explicate and give rulings, had passed into the hands of the Sages – not the

precise details of Halakhah, but rather the

principles, the principles through which Halakhah may

be learned.³ R. Yehoshua ben Levi's drasha can be

understood along the same lines: "Scripture, Mishnah,

Talmud and Aggadah, even that which a senior student

will tell his teacher in the future, was already spoken to Moses on Sinai"

(Y. Peah 2:6). The

significance of the words "spoken to Moses on Sinai" is that

authority is granted to every novel interpretation that might be offered by a

senior student.

The

famous story of tanuro shel

akhna'i ["the oven of akhna'i"]

(Bava Metziya 59a) offers a further example of rabbinic

authority. There, in the midst of the debate between R. Eliezer

and R. Yehoshua there appears the colossal verse: It

is not in heaven. This dictum of R. Yehoshua

is based on the verse from Devarim (30:12), and R. Yirmiya

explains its meaning: "The Torah was already given at Sinai, and we pay no

attention to a voice from heaven (bat kol), because

it was already written in the Torah at Sinai: follow the majority."

This very statement is itself an example of the Halakhah's

power, as we shall see further below.

Halakhah uproots Scripture

Matters come to another climax

in Sotah 16a, were we read:

R. Yohanan said in the name of R. Yishmael:

In three places the Halakhah holds back [okevet] the Scriptural text: the Torah states with

dust, whereas the Halakhah allows [the blood to

be covered] with anything; the Torah states no razor, whereas the legal

decision is [that a Nazirite may not shave] with

anything; the Torah states a book, whereas the legal decision [allows]

any [form of document].

Rashi explains

that okevet means okeret

[uproots]. There Rashi also adds the concept of

HLMM to the dictum: "In three places HLMM comes and uproots the verse…"⁴

A

similar formulation can be found in Yalkut Shimoni (Parashat Mishpatim 317), where the dictum is prefaced by a comment attributed to R. Yohanan ben Zakkai:

"The Torah says with an awl, and the Halakhah

says anything can be used." The editor of Yalkut

Shimoni⁵ lists several alternative versions of the word in his

notes: "Okevet – okeret, and in the Jerusalem Talmud okeret, and in Sifri okemet

[makes crooked]." It is reasonable to assume that the word okeret was changed because of its severity. Perhaps

this same worry led the RaShBaM in his comments cited

above to write "Halakhah uproots Mishnah," a saying not found in any earlier text.

The Gaon MiVilna, an expert on

manuscripts, went even farther. Referring to the piercing of the Hebrew slave's

ear in parashat Mishpatim,

he writes: "The plain meaning of Scripture is that the doorpost can also

be used but the Halakhah uproots Scripture, and so it

is in most of this parasha, and in some other parshiyot of the Torah; these are of the great things of

our Oral Torah, i.e. HLMM, that it changes [the meaning] like clay under the

seal."⁶

In

order to emphasize the power and authority of the Sages, the Gaon later cites Makkot 22b,

which marvels at how foolish people are when they stand up before a Torah

scroll but do not stand up before the rabbis, who are empowered to change that

which is written. The Gaon brings an example from the

Torah, where it is written forty [lashes], do not add [to the number] (Devarim

25:3), and the rabbis came and

subtracted a lashing [the rabbis said only thirty-nine lashes should be given].

The Gaon adds: "And so it is with pigul [an invalid sacrificial offering] and in most

of the Torah. Therefore, one must know the plain meaning of the Torah in order

to know the seal…"

The

Gaon does not mention the opening line from Sotah, "In three

places" for the simple reason that the quoted section itself contains more

than three examples. The expression changes like clay under the seal is

a verse from Job (38:14), and its meaning

is that the inscription engraved in a seal is the reverse – mirror writing – of

the intelligible message it leaves in the clay. Similarly, the Oral Torah

sometimes reverses the words of Scripture. Like the RaShBaM,

the Gaon points out that despite the chasm between

the plain meaning of Scripture and the Halakhah, "One

must know the plain meaning of Scripture in order to know the seal."

A soul for a soul

The

gap between the plain meaning of Scripture and the Halakhah

can also be found in the words of RaMBaM and Rashi.

The RaMBaM makes a very interesting comment on this matter:

But the person whose property has been

damaged should be ready to resign his claim totally or partly. Only to the

murderer we must not be lenient because of the greatness of his crime; and no

ransom must be accepted of him. And the land cannot be cleansed of the

blood that is shed therein but by the blood of him that shed it (Bamidbar 35:33).

Hence even if the murdered person continued to live after the attack for an

hour or for days, was able to speak and possessed complete consciousness, and

if he himself said, "Pardon my murderer, I have pardoned and forgiven

him," he must not be obeyed. We must take life for life, and estimate

equally the life of a child and that of a grown-up person, of a slave and of a

freeman, of a wise man and of a fool. For there is no greater

sin than this. And he who mutilated a limb of

his neighbor, must himself lose a limb. As he has caused a blemish in a man,

so shall it be done to him again (Vayikra 24: 20). You must not raise an objection

the interpretation given in the Talmud, but it will be communicated vivâ voce. Guide for the Perplexed, 3:41, Friedländer

translation)

RaMBaM's promised

statement on the gap between Halakhah and the plain

meaning of Scripture remains unknown to us. When Yeshayahu

Leibowitz⁷ cites RaMBaM's statement,

he mentions that RaMBaM's son, R. Avraham, said, "My father and teacher never explained

his theory to me." Rashi on parashat

Mishpatim brings the Sages' controversy (in Sanhedrin 79a and Bava Kama 84a) regarding the phrases a life for a

monetary payment? Rashi (on Shemot 21:23-24 – Rashi

translations based on Judaica Press edition)

writes: But if there is a fatality with the woman and you shall give a life

for a life. Our Rabbis differ on this matter. Some say [that he must]

actually [give up his] life, and some say [that he must pay] money, but not

actually a life, and if one intends to kill one person and kills another, he is

exempt from the death penalty and must pay his [the victim's] heirs his value,

as [it would be if] he were sold in the marketplace. an

eye for an eye – If [a person] blinds his neighbor's eye, he must give him the

value of his eye, [which is] how much his price to be sold in the marketplace

has decreased [without the eye]. So is the meaning of all of them [i.e., all

the injuries enumerated in the following verses], but not the actual amputation

of a limb, as our Rabbis interpreted it in the chapter entitled Hahovel, he who assaults.

As

has been mentioned, the mentioned passages from the Gemara

discuss the subject and the ruling (as RaMBaM also

mentions) is that in both cases only a monetary payment is called for.

Aharei rabim lehatot

The

famous rule Aharei rabim

lehatot [follow the majority] is itself a classic

example of the power of the Halakhah to change the

plain meaning of Scripture. The phrase appears in parashat

Mishpatim (23:2) and constitutes a negative statement.

You

shall not follow the majority for evil [comma] and you shall not respond concerning a lawsuit to follow many

to pervert [justice]. Scripture is announcing two prohibitions, but the

Sages derive from this verse a rule that does not appear in Scripture, the

positive rule: "Follow the majority"! When deciding the law, the

Sages detached this phrase from the prohibition that precedes it, making it

into an important halakhic principle. Rashi was aware of how problematic this is,

and comments on the verse: "There are [halakhic]

interpretations for this verse given by the Sages of Israel, but the language

of the verse does not fit its context according to them." Later, he

writes: "I, however, want to interpret it according to its plain meaning,"

and Rashi explains why it is wrong to pervert

justice, even if those who pervert it are the majority. RaShBaM

later adopts this explanation.

In conclusion:

Although the dictum: "Halakhah uproots Scripture" is a rare and extreme

statement, and there are those who are cautious regarding it, Rashi himself cites it, using the word okeret [uproots] rather than okevet [holds back]. Similarly, Rashi adds the notion of HLMM to the dictum. The Gaon MiVilna deliberately leaves

off the introduction "in three places" to the dictum "Halakhah uproots Scripture." He, like Rashi, adds the concept of HLMM ;

by doing this they intend to grant the dictum a foundation and increase its

legal legitimacy.⁸

[1] Bereishit 1:1, s.v. Bereishit bara; Bereishit 1:5, s.v. vayehi erev;

Bereishit 37:2, s.v. eleh toldot; Shemot 13:9, s.v. le'ot al yadkha;

etc.

2 On

the meaning of this expression, see Prof. E. Tviyto, Hapshatot hait'hadoshot

bekhol yom pp. 53-4,

Bar Ilan Univ. Press 5763.

3 See

Sifra Behukotai chapter 8, 113c.

4 See Encyclopedia Talmudit,

idem. Halakhah, pg. 382.

5 Mossad HaRav Kook edition, edited by Rabbi Dr. Dov Heiman, with additional notes by Rabbi Yitzhak Shiloni.

6 Aderet

Eliyahu on Vayikra,

first edition, Dubravana 5564.

7 Sheva shanim shel sihot al parashat

hashavu'a, parshat Mishpatim, beginning on page 341, Keter

Publishing 5760.

8 All boldface emphasis in the quoted material is my own

– B.S.

Binyamin Salant is a member of Kibbutz Saad

Have them take for Me an offering: To me –

dedicated to My name.

(Rashi on Shemot 25:2)

Have them take for Me: The offering will not be given to

God in an unmediated fashion, rather each and every

individual will give his offering to the community so that it can be

transferred to the Lofty. From here we learn that it is for the community

rather than the individual to carry out the mission commanded by God. It is not

for individual donors, but for the entire community that the divine mission has

been set.

(Rabbi S.R. Hirsch ad loc)

"The commandments were

given solely in order to chasten people"

Hearken, my son, and take my words, and years of life will increase

for you: I commanded you many times to take something; this was in order to

grant you merit. I told you: And take to yourself a red heifer. Was that

for Me? It was not for Me but rather to purify you. I

told you take for Me an offering – was

it not in order for Me to dwell among you? It does not [merely] say take, but rather take

for Me; it is Me that you are taking. And

take for yourself olive oil – in order to protect your souls, which are

compared to a lamp, for it is said, The lamp

of the Lord is the soul of man. And also, And

you shall take for yourselves on the first day – but isn't that the

fifteenth [day of the month]? Rather, the Holy One blessed be

He says: I excuse your earlier sins and now begin a new accounting.

(Yalkut

Shimoni Mishlei 4, 935)

Charity is Greater than all of the Sacrifices

There is a positive commandment to give charity in accordance with one's

ability. One should be extremely careful about it – more so than with any other

positive commandment – because it can lead to blood shed if one does not give

it immediately and the poor man dies, as in the incident involving Ben Zoma. We have been commanded several times regarding it as

a positive commandment, and it also involves the prohibition not to ignore it,

as it is said: You shall not harden your heart, and you shall not close your

hand from your needy brother. Anyone who ignores it is considered worthless

and similar to an idolater, and anyone who is careful about it demonstrates

that he is of the seed blessed by the Lord, for it is written, For I have

– which also means "charity"] and justice. The throne of

Israel is founded and the true religion stands only through charity, for it is

said: You shall be established in tzedaka (Isaiah 54). Only through charity will Israel

will be redeemed, for it says: Zion shall be redeemed through justice and

her penitent through tzedaka, and it says, Keep justice and

salvation is near to come, and My benevolence to be revealed. And charity

is greater than all of the sacrifices, since Rabbi Eliezer

said: charity is greater than all of the sacrifices, for it is written, Performing tzedaka and justice is

preferred by God to a sacrifice. Rabbi Eliezer

said: Anyone who performs tzedaka and justice,

it is as if he filled the world with loving-kindness, for it is said: Lover of tzedaka and justice, the Lord's loving-kindness

fills the earth.

(Tur

Yoreh De'ah 247)

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