AND MOSES TOLD [ALL THIS] TO THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL. SO THEY TOOK THE BLASPHEMER OUTSIDE THE CAMP AND STONED HIM, AND THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL DID JUST AS THE LORD HAD COMMANDED MOSES.

(Vayikra 24:23)

 

The place of execution had to be outside the Israelite camp (Sanhedrin 42b, "outside the three camps"), outside the city. If the law court itself was outside the city, the place of execution had to be some distance away from it, so that it should not appear as if the court considered its highest attribute to be "the sword of justice." Altogether the essential character of the criminal court was to direct its efforts to finding reasons for freeing the accused rather than for pronouncing him guilty. The verdict of "guilty" was already before the court in the warning of the accusing witnesses and the real task before the court was to test and examine this pronounced sentence, and to find out if there were not some mitigating reasons for a "not guilty" verdict. Another reason, given there, for having the place of execution at a distance from the court is so that some time must elapse between the pronouncement and the carrying out of the sentence (the sentence had to be carried out immediately after the verdict), in which time some fresh reason for reconsidering the verdict might arrive. For while the condemned man was being taken away a man stood at the door of the court with a flag in hand, and a mounted messenger was posted just within sight; should one of the judges find some fresh reason in favor of the criminal, the one waved his flag and the other galloped off at full speed and held up the proceedings. More, even if the condemned man himself, on the way to the execution, declared he had something fresh for his defense, he was taken back even four or five times provided that, in the opinion of the two judges who accompanied him for this very eventuality, there was some foundation, however slight, for his assertion.

(Rabbi S.R. Hirsch on Vayikra 24:14)

 

 

Ezekiel's Words Contradict the Words of the Torah

Yehuda Pinchover

The haftorah for parashat Emor comes from the Book of Ezekiel and, like the parasha, it deals with the commandments for which the priests were obligated. The haftorah presents us with a great difficulty that was already discussed by the Gemara:

Rabbi Yehudah said in the name of Rav: However a certain man is well-remembered - Hananya ben Hizkiya was his name. If it weren't for him the book of Ezekiel would have been hidden away, since its words contradict the words of the Torah. What did he do? They sent three hundred flasks of oil up to him and he sat in an attic and explained them [away]. (Shabbat 13b)

Hananya burnt the oil for light so that he could sit in the attic, studying day and night. We are not told how Hananya ben Hezkiya solved all of the halakhic contradictions in Ezekiel, but his tremendous efforts bore fruit and that wonderful book was not hidden away.

Let us now examine some of the halakhic contradictions found in the Book of Ezekiel. A comparison of Ezekiel's laws of the priests that appear in our haftorah with those written in our parasha reveals that Ezekiel ben Buzi - himself a priest - usually gave stricter rulings than did the Torah itself.

A. The Torah only prohibits the High Priest from marrying a widow; it does allow a regular priest to do so. Ezekiel does not differentiate between a regular priest and the High Priest, and writes:

And neither a widow nor a divorced woman may they take for wives, but they shall take virgins from the descendants of the House of Israel; (Ezekiel 44:22)

B. There it also is written:

...also the widow who is only a widow, some of the priests may marry. (Ezekiel 44:22)

In contrast, we find our parasha saying the following about a regular priest:

They shall not marry a woman who is a prostitute or who is desecrated, and they shall not marry a woman who is divorced from her husband for he [the priest] is holy to his God. (Vayikra 21:7)

However, such a priest may marry any widow. In contrast, the Torah will not allow a High Priest marry anyone but a virgin:

A widow, a divorcee, a woman who is desecrated or a prostitute he shall not marry [any] of these. Only a virgin of his people may he take as a wife. (Vayikra 21:14)

C. Even though the priestly garb was kilayim - mixed wool and linen - Ezekiel writes:

And it shall be, when they enter the gates of the Inner Court, they shall be clothed with linen garments and no wool shall be upon them when they minister the gates of the Inner Court and within. (44:17)

D. Ezekiel says in connection with purification from the ritual impurity resulting from contact with a corpse:

And after his purification they shall count seven days for him. (44:26)

In contrast, the Torah makes no mention of the seven days following purification, but rather sets out the process thus:

On the third and seventh days, he shall cleanse himself with it, so that he can become purified. (Bamidbar 19:12)

E. Concerning forbidden foods, Ezekiel writes:

Anything that has died of itself or is fatally wounded, whether it be bird or beast, the priests may not eat. (44:31)

Are we to understand that all other Israelites are permitted to eat carrion?

F. Communal sacrifices: Ezekiel states that a bull should be sacrificed as a sin offering on the New Moon, while the Torah has it that the bull sacrificed on the New Moon was a burnt offering.

G. According to Ezekiel, seven bulls, seven rams, and a goat are to be sacrificed on Sukkot, while the Torah specifies thirteen bulls, two rams, fourteen sheep, and a goat as an offering of thanksgiving.

H. Ezekiel makes no mention at all of the festivals of Shemini Atzeret or the final day of Passover.

I. Ezekiel says that the Tamid offering is offered only in the morning; he also cites laws of the libation and of the meal offering that are at odds with the Torah's statements.

J. There is also substantial lack of agreement concerning the communal meal offering [minhat ha'tzibur] and the voluntary offering [nedava].

I shall not cite the Sages' attempts to solve these salient contradictions. R. Yehudah and R. Yohanan offer an interesting solution: "Elijah will explain this passage in the future" (Menahot 45a). That is to say: they admit our inability to solve the contradictions but they have faith that the day will come when "The Tishbi [Elijah] will come and solve difficult questions and problems." In other words, we must not struggle to propose forced interpretation in an effort to overcome these clear difficulties. The perplexed of the generation will not accept such explanations; they may even generate rejection. We must learn and teach that sometimes we must live with problems whose solutions are unknown to us - and with the possibility that there may be no solutions. This idea may be illustrated by a fundamental and revolutionary theorem of mathematical logic - Kurt Gödel's incompleteness theorem - which claims that in any sufficiently rich logical system there are propositions that cannot be proved or disproved.

On the other hand, the approach that requires the hiding away or censorship of materials from our tradition that seem at odds with prevailing views has been generally destructive. I believe that in our actual world - as opposed to the ideal world of mathematics - we must learn to occasionally live with contradictions.

Indeed, how fortunate it is that the Sages managed to avoid hiding away the Book of Ezekiel and that this book lays before us as part of Scripture despite the difficulties it raises. I shall demonstrate this with three of Ezekiel's revolutionary ideas that bear special importance in our day:

1. About two years ago, around a month before the disengagement from the Gaza Strip, I traveled to Gush Katif before its settlements were uprooted. We visited the Settlement Museum in Kfar Darom, where the guide began explaining that the local settlers were guided by a motto taken from Ezekiel (16:6):

And I passed by you and saw you downtrodden with your blood, and I said to you, 'With your blood, live,' and I said to you, 'With your blood, live.'

I responded: Indeed these are the words of Ezekiel, but that same prophet wrote the following harsh words which we should also not forget:

Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying: "Son of man, the dwellers of these ruins on the soil of Israel speak, saying: Abraham was one, and he inherited the land, and we are many-the land has [surely] been given to us for an inheritance. Therefore, say to them: So said the Lord God, You eat on the blood and you raise your eyes to your pagan deities, and you shed blood-and you should inherit the land? You stood on your sword, you committed abominations, and you contaminated each man his neighbor's wife, and you should inherit the land? (33:23-26)

2. In the haftorah for Parashat HaHodesh we read of Ezekiel's complaint against Israel's leaders. It reads as if it were written for our generation:

So said the Lord God: Enough, princes of Israel; remove violence and plunder, and perform justice and righteousness; take away your evictions from My people, says the Lord God. You shall have honest scales, an honest ephah, and an honest bath [a unit of measure]. (45:9)

Latter we find:

But the prince may not take of the people's inheritance to force them out of their possessions, only from his own possessions shall he give his sons inheritance, so that My people not be scattered each man from his inheritance. (46:18)

3. We must be thankful for Ezekiel's doctrine of reward and punishment, even if it does not easily accommodate the ideas found in the Thirteen Divine Attributes or the Ten Commandments. Ezekiel claims that it is possible for any sinner to repent and gain complete atonement:

The soul that sins, it shall die; a son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, and a father shall not bear the iniquity of the son; the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself. And if the wicked man repent of all his sins that he has committed and keeps all My laws and executes justice and righteousness, he shall surely live, he shall not die. All his transgressions that he has committed shall not be remembered regarding him: through his righteousness that he has done he shall live. Do I desire the death of the wicked? says the Lord God. Is it not rather in his repenting of his ways that he may live?(18:20-23)

And as stated in the Gemara:

They asked wisdom: What is the sinner's punishment? They were told: Evil will pursue the sinners (Proverbs 13:21). They asked prophecy: What is the sinner's punishment? It told them: The soul that sins, it shall die. They asked the Holy One blessed be He: What is the sinner's punishment? He told them: Let him repent and he shall receive atonement, as it is written: The Lord is good and upright, therefore he shows sinners the way (Psalms 25:8) - he shows sinners the way to repent. (J. Makkot 2:4)

RaMBaM explains the verse from Psalms thus:

It refers to the fact that God sent them prophets to teach them the ways of the Lord and bring them back in repentance; furthermore, that He endowed them with the capacity of learning and understanding. For it is characteristic of every human being that, when his interest is engaged in the ways of wisdom and righteousness, he longs for these ways and is eager to follow them. (Hilkhot Teshuva 6:10, Hyamson translation)

Happy are we to merit hearing the words of the prophet Ezekiel, a prophet of truth and justice who taught the world the ways of truth. May we continue in the paths of his wisdom and justice, seeking and pursuing them.

Yehudah Pinchover is a founder of Netivot Shalom.

 

 

All Torah that is without Labor...: Rabbis Yishmael and Shimon bar Yohai

The Rabbis taught: And you shall gather in your new grain (Devarim 11: 14) - what does this teach us?

Since it is said, Let not this book of Torah cease from your lips (Joshua 1:8) - [one might wonder] should this be taken literally?

"We learn from the verse And you shall gather in your new grain - act in accordance with the custom of the land [i.e., work for a living]"; these are the words of Rabbi Yishmael.

Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai says: "Can a man plow in the season of plowing, sew seeds in the season for sowing, harvest in the harvest season, thresh in the threshing season, winnow when it is windy - what shall become of the Torah? Rather, when Israel does God's will their work is performed by others, for it is said, Strangers shall stand and pasture your flocks (Isaiah 61:5). But when Israel does not perform God's will, they have to do their own work for themselves, for it is said, and you shall gather in your new grain. Not only that, but they have to do the work of others, for it is said, and you shall serve your enemies (Devarim 28:48)." Abbayeiy said: "Many did as Rabbi Yishmael [said] - and succeeded, as Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai [said] - and they did not succeed."

(Berakhot 35b)

 

On Delusions and False Messiahs

[After] Bar Koziba (Bar Kokhba) reigned for two and a half years, he said to the Rabbis: "I am the Messiah."

They told him: "It is written that the Messiah will be able to pass judgment by sense of smell, let us see if he can pass judgment by sense of smell." When they saw that he could not pass judgment by sense of smell - they [the Romans] killed him.

(Sanhedrin 93b)

 

A kokhav [star] rises from Jacob (Bamidbar 23:17) - do not say kokhav, say kozev [disappointer].

When Rabbi Akiva saw Bar Koziva (Bar Kokhba), he said: "That is King Messiah."

Rabbi Yohanan ben Torata said to him: "Akiva! Grass will be growing from your cheeks and he will have yet to arrive."

(Eikhah Rabbah 2)

 

Do not think that King Messiah will have to perform signs and wonders, bring anything new into being, revive the dead, or do similar things. It is not so. Rabbi Akiva was a great sage, a teacher of the Mishnah, yet he was also the armor-bearer of Ben Kozba. He affirmed that the later was King Messiah; he and all the wise men of his generation shared this belief until Ben Koziba was slain in [his] iniquity, when it became known that he was not (the Messiah). Yet the rabbis had not asked him for a sign or token. The general principle is: this Law of ours with its statutes and ordinances (is not subject to change). It is forever and all eternity; it is not to be added to or to be taken away from.

(RaMBaM Hilkhot Melakhim 11:3, English from pg. 223 of Twerskey's A Maimonides Reader)

 

As the Sojourner, So Shall The Native Be

You shall have one standard of judgment - Equal judgment for all of you.

(Bavli, Bava Kama 84a)

 

As the sojourner, so shall the native be - Just as I demand reparation for the native, so do I demand reparation for the stranger and his beast.

(Hizkuni, Vayikra 24:22)

 

For I the Lord am your God. - Lord of both the stranger and the citizen, no preferential treatment of the affluent over the indigent.

(Seforno, Vayikra 24:22)

 

As the sojourner, so shall the native be - The alien who comes from a foreign land and who is separated from his land is termed a ger, related to the word gargir - a berry - which is separated from the tree. One whose ancestors are from the same city is called an ezrah - as in (Psalms 37:35) Well-rooted like a robust native tree (ezrah = native tree) resembling a plant planted year ago. Thus the Torah is saying that justice should be equal for all.

For I the Lord am your God. If you do indeed render justice equally, then - I the Lord am your God. From the positive we infer the negative, for whoever does not apply the same standard in justice discards His divinity and denies the basic principle. It is well-known that all beliefs and laws of the nations are commentary on the Torah, and the rules of the Torah are basic principles of Torah. Ignoring them is a desecration of His Name. Whoever has it in his power to protest, but does not, desecrates the Name and exhibits respect for idolaters, and demeans the Instruction of Moses, and causes the loss of Jewish money. For the entire world is dependent upon laws.

(Rabeinu Behayey, Vayikra 24:22)

 

As the sojourner, so the native

It does not say the sojourner as the native, for that would imply that the level of the sojourner is beneath that of the native, for the lesser is dependent upon the greater. Therefore it says As the sojourner as the native - meaning: The native like the sojourner and the sojourner as the native. They are equal before the law.

(Ohr HaHayyim, Vayikra, 24:22)

 

Why was the Torah given in the desert? To inform us: Just as the desert is ownerless, free for all, so the words of Torah are free for whoever wants to learn. So that no one should say "I am a Son of Torah, and Torah was given to me and to my fathers, and you and your fathers were not Sons of Torah, but your fathers were strangers". Therefore it is written (Devarim 33) An inheritance of the assembly of Jacob - whoever assembles in Jacob, even sojourners who engage in Torah study are equal to the High Priest, as is written (Vayikra 18) Which when a human does them, he lives by means of them, I am the Lord. - It does not say 'Priest', 'Levite', and 'Israelite', but rather human. Therefore, One instruction, one law shall there be for you (Bamidbar 15:16).

(Tanhuma, Vayakhel, 8)

 

 

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