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The Rabbinization of Abraham

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When Abraham heeded G-d’s order he was already fully proficient in what was to become known as Kabbalah. He had even authored a major Kabbalistic text – Sefer HaYetzira (the Book of Creative Formation). He was an acclaimed astrologer and conversant in the magic of the East. In his youth, Abraham had turned his back on the negative forces of tum’ah (spiritual blemish) and adopted the pathway of spiritual monotheism.

-from Practical Kabbalah: A Guide to Jewish Wisdom for Everyday Life (pp 19-20)
by Rabbi Laibl Wolf

You shall not practice divination or soothsaying. –Leviticus 19:26 (JPS Tanakh)

The word “se’onenu” in the verse cited above (Lev 19:26) can be a derivation of the root onah (time season) or of the root ayin (eye). Consequently, two different prohibitions are based on this verse. One, quoted by Rashi on the verse, is the prohibition against “calculating times and hours.” It is forbidden to employ astrological (Rambam Hilchos Avodas Kochavim 11:8) calculations in order to determine when to engage in or refrain from a certain activity.

-Rabbi Doniel Neustadt
“Selected Halachos relating to Parshas Kedoshim”
Torah.org

I don’t always understand what I’m reading in the Jewish teachings, or at least I don’t always understand it well enough to agree with what is being taught. For instance, Rabbi Wolf plainly states in his book that Abraham was “an acclaimed astrologer” and yet Rabbi Neustadt, referencing Rashi and the Rambam, interprets Leviticus 19:26 as prohibiting the use of astrology. Furthermore, practicing various types of sorcery and magic is forbidden in Torah as described here:

Let no one be found among you who consigns his son or daughter to the fire, or who is an augur, a soothsayer, a diviner, a sorcerer, one who casts spells, or one who consults ghosts or familiar spirits, or one who inquires of the dead. For anyone who does such things is abhorrent to the Lord, and it is because of these abhorrent things that the Lord your God is dispossessing them before you. You must be wholehearted with the Lord your God. Those nations that you are about to dispossess do indeed resort to soothsayers and augurs; to you, however, the Lord your God has not assigned the like. –Deuteronomy 18:10-14 (JPS Tanakh)

So where would Rabbi Wolf get the idea that Abraham was an accomplished astrologer and “conversant in the magic of the East?”

There are two ways to look at this. The first is that Kabbalah suggests many things that we can’t derive from the plain meaning of the Torah text. While proponents of Kabbalah believe that it has its origins as an oral tradition that predated Jesus and indeed, may have been practiced in some manner by Abraham and even by Noah and Adam, other Jewish scholars attribute the rise of Kabbalah to a much later time, with the writing of the Zohar (presumably by Moses de Lyon, although this is not firmly established) in the 13th century CE. Given the historical “uncertainty” about Kabbalistic teachings, not everything we read about figures such as Abraham in Kabbalah can be taken as completely factual.

The second is that Abraham lived in an age far earlier than Moses and the giving of the Torah at Sinai and he can’t be expected to have understood all of the prohibitions it contained (and thus, may have possibly practiced magic and astrology in his earlier days, although this is pure conjecture). Nevertheless, there is also a tradition in Judaism that says Abraham was certainly aware of everything in the Torah, even though it had yet to be written down.

The Talmud states that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob all studied in the academies of Shem and Eber. The Talmud further proclaims that the Patriarchs kept the entire Torah before it was given. How was this possible? The Kabbalists explain that they kept the Torah in its spiritual form, for it was only subsequently through Moses that the Torah instruction became manifest in the physical observance of Mitzvot.

-Rabbi Nissan Dovid Dubov
“The Key to Kabbalah”
Chabad.org

But since this information takes us back to Kabbalah, we may tend to disregard it as a source of historical fact and relegate it to the status of almost legend.

But there are many observant Jews who consider everything I’ve just said about Abraham’s history as outlined in Kabbalah as absolutely true.

As a Christian who doesn’t have the benefit of a classical Jewish education, let alone a working knowledge of Kabbalah, how am I to interpret all this, as Rabbinic fiction or even fantasy? That seems a little harsh, but many of the statements about Abraham studying Torah in the House of Shem and practicing the magic of the East stretch credibility beyond the breaking point. Is it that I am just so ignorant of Jewish tradition and the Hebraic mindset that I am unable to grasp the deeper and hidden (Sod) meaning in Torah, or is there something else going on?

The process is evident even on the basis of a casual reading of Midrash Genesis Rabbah. The rabbinic ideal of “Talmud Torah” as the driving force in Jewish religious behavior is projected as a constant factor in the lives of the patriarchs: The children of the patriarchs study in the batei midrash of Shem and ‘Ever’ (e.g. Genesis Rabbah 63:10); Jacob strives to establish “a house of Talmud where he might teach Torah” in Egypt (Genesis Rabbah 95:3); Abraham was well versed in the prohibition of carrying on Shabbat without an ‘eruv’ (specifically an ‘eruv hazerot’ Bereshit Rabbah 49:2)…

-Isaiah Gafni
“Rabbinic Historiography and Representations of the Past” (pg 305)
The Cambridge Companion to the Talmud and Rabbinic Literature
Edited by Charlotte E. Fonrobert and Martin S. Jaffee

In his essay, Gafni speaks of the Talmud’s “Rabbinization of the past”.

If, indeed, we can assume that the contemporary rabbinic Judaism espoused by certain talmudic sages held up favorably when compared with earlier expressions of the faith, issues of past and present no longer suggest a one-directional regression from the glories of the past. With this in mind, we might better understand a well-documented phenomenon in rabbinic midrash, namely, the “rabbinization of the past.” (pg 304)

One way to establish and support an acceptance of Talmudic interpretation and judgment relative to Torah for post-Second Temple Judaism is to project the values and even the “reality” of Talmud (and later, Kabbalah) not only forward in time but backward. Peering at the Patriarchs through this lens, we can indeed “see” Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob studying Torah and Talmud in the study house of Shem when by historical knowledge and a plain reading of the Torah, such events seem very unlikely to have actually taken place.

However, the Rabbis may have had other motivations besides cementing the validity of Talmud for the Jewish people as Gafni points out.

But while the practical observation of the Law by pre-Sinaitic figures predates the rabbis, the more thorough rabbinization of the past by endowing it with a more focused stress on uniquely post-Destruction religious and social categories was clearly the work of talmudic sages, emerging primarily in amoraic (and not tannaitic) literature. The rabbis may have been motivated, at least in part, by a wish to avoid a type of supersession imagery embraced by the Church. However, in fact they were, to a certain degree, doing precisely what the Fathers had done, namely, applying to the patriarchs a more spiritualized behavior in manifesting their Jewish identity. (pg 308)

I find it more than a little ironic that the “rabbinization” of the ancient men and women of the Torah, which Christianity criticizes with great zeal, was possibly motivated in part, by the Jewish need to defend itself against early Christian supersessionism.

Viewed through the eyes of Gafni’s study, we can read many of the Talmudic and Kabbalistic “histories” of the patriarchs and matriarchs as, not exactly fiction, but a “rabbinization” process designed in the early centuries of the Common Era, to preserve the Jewish people as a people, which was a requirement in the face of the exile from the Land of Israel and hostile persecution by the official Church of the Roman Empire.

So we can hardly blame the Rabbis (well, I can’t anyway) when we read something like this.

But the children struggled in her womb, and she said, “If so, why do I exist?” She went to inquire of the Lord. –Genesis 25:22 (JPS Tanakh)

When she passed the academy of Shem and Ever, Jacob struggled to leave the womb, and when she passed a temple of idol worship, Esav fought to leave. – Rashi

It seems unlikely that a “Torah academy of Shem and Ever” really existed and even if somehow it did, that Jacob would struggle to escape his mother’s womb in order to study Torah (as an unborn child) there whenever she was near that place.

Strangely enough though, we have a sort of parallel in Christianity.

Miryam arose in those days and went quickly to the mountains, to a town of Yehudah. She entered the house of Zecharyah and blessed Elisheva. When Elisheva heard Miryam’s brachah, the child danced inside of her and Elisheva was filled with the Holy Spirit. –Luke 1:39-41 (DHE Gospels)

If the unborn John could dance in his mother’s womb at the sound of the blessing of Miryam (Mary) who was pregnant with Messiah and Savior, is this scripture a sort of “Christian rabbinization” of the Gospels or is it something more? If it is more, then what are we to make of the “rabbinization of the patriarchs?”

If we were prophets or people of vision, we would see what is important and what is not, what will bear fruits and what will remain barren.

But we are simple people in an age of confusion. Our lives are filled with uncertainties—anything could happen, we have no way of telling.

We cannot decide which mitzvah is important and which will bear fruit. Neither are we expected to make our decisions that way.

All that’s expected of us is to simply grab whatever G‑d sends our way, and do our very best at it. What will come of it? What is its purpose?

Only He needs to know.

-Rabbi Tzvi Freeman
“Un-Prophets”
Based on letters and talks of the Rebbe
Rabbi M. M. Schneerson
Chabad.org

The teachings of the Jewish masters are difficult for me to comprehend at times but then again, for the same reasons, so are the teachings of the Jewish writers of the Gospels.

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Dayenu

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When Ephraim spoke piety, He was exalted in Israel; But he incurred guilt through Baal, And so he died. And now they go on sinning; They have made them molten images, Idols, by their skill, from their silver, Wholly the work of craftsmen. Yet for these they appoint men to sacrifice; They are wont to kiss calves!

Assuredly, They shall be like morning clouds, Like dew so early gone; Like chaff whirled away from the threshing floor. And like smoke from a lattice. Only I the Lord have been your God Ever since the land of Egypt; You have never known a [true] God but Me, You have never had a helper other than Me. I looked after you in the desert, In a thirsty land. When they grazed, they were sated; When they were sated, they grew haughty; And so they forgot Me. So I am become like a lion to them, Like a leopard I lurk on the way; Like a bear robbed of her young I attack them And rip open the casing of their hearts; I will devour them there like a lion, The beasts of the field shall mangle them.

You are undone, O Israel! You had no help but Me. –Hosea 13:1-9 (JPS Tanakh)

I was reading the haftarah portion for Vayeitzei on Shabbat and realized something about the Jewish people and the rest of us. I think many Christians but particularly those who have attached themselves to some portions of the “Messianic” movement, feel a little bit envious of all the blessings God has bestowed upon Israel. I think this is one of the reasons why the early Church chose to apply a supersessionist theology, stating that Gentile Christianity has replaced the Jews in all of God’s covenant promises. We just can’t stand the idea that “salvation comes from the Jews” (John 4:22) so we must find a way to steal what the Jews have and pretend it belongs only to us.

I’ve probably always known this, but when reading the above-quoted passages from Hosea 13, it came into absolute clarity within me that as much as God has blessed the Jewish people, He has also designed ghastly curses for them in times of disobediance and rebellion, much more than we can see for people who are not Jewish, including Christians. I’m not saying that Christians haven’t been persecuted for their faith over the course of the past 2,000 years, but as we see in many of the exclamations of the ancient prophets, God is exceedingly determined to hold Israel accountable for any failure to the covenant they have with Him.

Christianity sometimes mistakes the level of accountability to which God holds the Jews as an eternal curse upon Israel, but even as God curses, so in the next moment, He blesses them abundantly.

Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, For you have fallen because of your sin. Take words with you And return to the Lord. Say to Him: “Forgive all guilt And accept what is good; Instead of bulls we will pay [The offering of] our lips. Assyria shall not save us, No more will we ride on steeds; Nor ever again will we call Our handiwork our god, Since in You alone orphans find pity!”

I will heal their affliction, Generously will I take them back in love; For My anger has turned away from them. I will be to Israel like dew; He shall blossom like the lily, He shall strike root like a Lebanon tree. His boughs shall spread out far, His beauty shall be like the olive tree’s, His fragrance like that of Lebanon. They who sit in his shade shall be revived: They shall bring to life new grain, They shall blossom like the vine; His scent shall be like the wine of Lebanon. Ephraim [shall say]: “What more have I to do with idols? When I respond and look to Him, I become like a verdant cypress.” Your fruit is provided by Me. –Hosea 14:2-9 (JPS Tanakh)

Dancing with GodIsrael’s special place in the heart of God is undeniable, but our God is a jealous God. As much as He loves, He also chastises. As much as He has compassion, He also gives discipline. It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God (Hebrews 10:31).

I realized with great certainty when reading the words of the prophet Hosea that in many ways, we non-Jews are “blessed” that we don’t carry the responsibilities of our Jewish brothers. Some of us would be more than willing to bear the full burden of the mitzvot but many, many of us do not realize the dread consequences of that desire. This is one of the reasons that Judaism is reluctant to allow Gentiles to convert; out of the fear that once faced with everything it is to be a Jew, for good and for ill, that some of the converts would abandon the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as well as the people of the Book.

There isn’t always a consistent interpretation of the meaning of the “Jerusalem letter” issued by the Council of Apostles and Elders as recorded in Acts 15. Some say it limits the “Torah responsibility” of Gentile Christians to just those restrictions literally recorded, while others say it is merely a starting point for non-Jews who have come to the faith to begin learning the full ways of the Torah. Yet we see that upon receipt of the letter, the non-Jewish disciples were “strengthened in the faith, and were increasing in number daily” (Acts 16:5 – NASB), indicating that there was some expression of relief and even joy that the non-Jews would not be expected to take on the full yoke of Torah. Paul’s letter to the Galatians also makes it quite clear not only that the non-Jewish disciples weren’t expected to take on all of the Torah mitzvot unless they converted to Judaism, but that the duties expected of them if they converted would be far and above what was (and is) required of a Gentile follower of the Messiah.

While Christians and Jews continue to debate the exact blessings and responsibilities assigned by God to each covenant group, it is readily apparent that Christians are not simply “Jews without the Talmud”. We are attached to God by the Messianic covenant and not only are we not obligated to the Mosaic covenant, we probably should be glad we do not carry upon ourselves the Torah of Moses. For with all the special attention and devotion God lavishes upon the descendents of the Children of Israel, they also embrace a tremendous responsibility with consequences to freeze the blood. Like Peter when he swore to follow the Master, even unto death, we should not be so quick to make oaths that we are not be able to keep, and as the Master urges us, we should let our “yes” to him be just “yes” and our “no” to him (if such be the case) be just “no”. We have been given a extraordinarily special gift as the result of the death and subsequent life of the Messiah. This must be sufficient for us without coveting what belongs to our Jewish neighbors (Exodus 20:17). Is not the love of God through Jesus Christ enough for any of us? Do we tempt God and throw the blood of Christ back in the Master’s face by wanting more?

And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. –2 Corinthians 12:9 (NASB)

One of my favorite Passover songs is Dayenu, which seems an appropriate title given the theme of this wee missive.

Dayenu is a song that is part of the Jewish holiday of Passover. The word “Dayenu” means approximately, “it would have been enough for us”, “it would have been sufficient”, or “it would have sufficed.” –Wikipedia

Of the various lyrics to this song, the following stands out as particularly relevant here.

If He had brought us before Mount Sinai, and had not given us the Torah – Dayenu, it would have sufficed us!

Adapted for we Christians, I think it should go more like this:

If He had given us His only begotten Son so that the world might be saved, and had not given us the Torah – Dayenu, it would have sufficed us!

It has sufficed us. By Christ, we are “more than conquerors” (Romans 8:37) of the sins in our hearts. We don’t need to be more than this. As Christians, we are sufficient in His love. We are good enough.

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Vayetze: The Shabbat Heritage

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In the Torah portion Vayeitzei , G-d blesses Yaakov, declaring to him: (Bereishis 28:14) “You shall spread out to the west, to the east, to the north and to the south.” The Gemara comments: (Shabbos 118a) “Whoever delights in the Shabbos receives an unlimited heritage, as is written: (Yeshayahu 58:14) ‘Then you shall delight in G-d… and I will nourish you with the heritage of Yaakov,’ of whom it is written: ‘You shall spread out to the west, to the east….’ ”

The reward for the performance of a mitzvah is, of course, measure for measure. (See Sotah 8b, 9b. See also Tanya ch. 39) What aspect of the mitzvah of Shabbos causes its reward to be “an unlimited heritage”?

Shabbos differs from all other mitzvos in that the performance of other mitzvos is achieved through labor and action. There are thus differences between the manner in which a very righteous individual will perform a mitzvah and the manner in which it will be performed by a simple person.

Observing Shabbos, however, consists of a cessation from labor. With regard to “not doing,” all Jews can be equal.

“Shabbos – An Unlimited Heritage”
Commentary on Torah Portion Vayeitzei
Based on Likkutei Sichos , Vol. XV, pp. 226-229
and the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe
Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson
Chabad.org

I know a discussion of Shabbat observance seems pretty far afield in relation to a plain reading of this week’s Torah Portion, but this is the association I found in the Chassidic Dimension’s commentary. Christianity has difficulty with some of the “linkage” offered by the Rabbis between specific events described in the Torah (the blessing God gives to Jacob in Genesis 28:14) and much larger and seemingly unrelated topics, but if you choose to look at them as metaphor, it’s a little bit easier to comprehend.

I’ve always had issues with reserving Shabbat to just the Jewish people. There are plenty of other commandments and blessings that I have no problem with being uniquely Jewish, but a weekly Shabbat rest in order to devote our thoughts and prayers to God? Why should only Jews do this? God sanctified the day at the end of Creation.

And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because on it God ceased from all the work of creation that He had done. –Genesis 2:3 (JPS Tanakh)

OK, I’m not that naive. God also directly associated the Shabbat with the Exodus from Egypt, thus:

Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the LORD your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day. –Deuteronomy 5:15

In doing my research for this morning’s “meditation”, I came along an interesting forum discussion on the topic of Shabbat and the Exodus at judaism.stackexchange.com where a similar question was raised by one man’s four year old son:

Why do you say “Mitzrayim” in Kiddush every week? “Mitzrayim” is a Pesach word!

Minus the Hebrew (which I can’t reproduce here), the father added a follow up question:

Tack-on question: Once you’ve established that Shabbat is linked both to Creation and to the Exodus, why is the terminology in Kiddush for these links slightly different? Shabbat is called – “a memorial to the deed of Creation” and – “commemorating the Exodus from Egypt” (translations from Wikipedia; emphases mine).

You can go to judaism.stackexchange.com and read the entire thread. I can certainly see how the Shabbat is inexorably linked to the Jewish liberation from slavery in Egypt and how saying the kiddush on every Erev Shabbat commemorates the Exodus event for the Children of Israel.

But must the Shabbat observance be exclusively for the Jews?

The reason why all Jews are entirely equal with regard to the mitzvah of cessation of labor on Shabbos stems from the fact that the mitzvah of Shabbos touches the essence of the Jewish soul. Differences between one Jew and another exist only on an external level; with regard to their essence, they are all equal.

The Chabad commentary describes why all Jews are equal on the Shabbat, regardless of social status or other apparent divisions, because of their Jewish souls, but the Shabbat also separates Jews and Gentiles. Is the “essence” between Jewish and Gentile souls so incredibly different that we non-Jews cannot also connect to the Shabbat?

Some non-Jews, such as those associated with the “Messianic” movement, chafe when told by some Jews that the Gentiles, Christians or otherwise, are not commanded to observe the Shabbat and there is no penalty for a Gentile who fails to observe a Shabbat rest in the manner commanded for Jews. OK, I’ll buy that part, but what about Gentiles observing the Shabbat as a moral conviction and in acknowledgment of God’s creative sovereignty over the universe? We all live in Creation and God made the Gentile as He made the Jew. Is it so bad if a Christian were to rest on the Shabbat as “a memorial to the deed of Creation?”

Being married to a Jew, I have sort of a built-in reason for observing Shabbat, though my wife and I don’t do this as well as we would like. Christianity cast off the Jewish form of Shabbat observance and worship along with anything else in Christian practice that could even remotely be considered Jewish thanks to the birth and expansion of Supersessionist theology in the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE, but this has been more harm to us than to the Jews.

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach has, on various occasions, suggested that Jewish values, including the Shabbat, should be disseminated to the nations, at least in some fashion, which never fails to cause a stir, both in Jewish and in Christian circles. But while the Chabad commentary says that the Jewish people enjoy an “unlimited heritage” due to their Shabbos observance, can not the rest of us choose to at least honor God’s absolute rule of Creation by honoring the Shabbat? Do we dilute Jewish uniqueness if we quietly light the candles on Friday night as well, praising and thanking our King and our God?

There’s nothing higher than finding truth on your own.

All worlds were made, all barriers put in place, every veil over G-dliness hung, and the soul plummeted from its pristine height into the confusion of this harsh world—

—all for this one thing alone: That you should uncover truth on your own.

-Rabbi Tzvi Freeman
“The Highest High”
Based on letters and talks of the Rebbe
Rabbi M. M. Schneerson
Chabad.org

In spirit and in truth I wish you all Good Shabbos.

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Friends

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On today’s daf we find a discussion of the halachos of taking interest. Some people have a misguided conviction that all non-Jews are bad. This belief is not only very damaging for our relations with non-Jews wherever Jews live, it is also false. The Sefer Chasidim discusses davening for a non-Jew who is a good person.

One non-Jew was a very kind person, always helping his friends both Jewish and non-Jewish. He helped out one particular Jew in many ways, proving his friendship and earning his undying gratitude. When the non-Jew ran into financial troubles and asked his Jewish friend for a very large loan, the prospective lender was in a bit of a quandary. Although his friend had no way of knowing this, the lender’s finances were excellent; he could easily get along without charging interest. His greatest desire was to give his friend an interest-free loan. But he wondered if this was halachically permitted. In general it is forbidden to give an idolater a gift, including an interest-free loan — especially the astronomical sum the non-Jew required. But the Jew reasoned that this may be permitted in this case. After all, hadn’t his non-Jewish friend done so much to help him in the past? How could he be forbidden from responding in kind?

When this question reached Rav Shlomo Eiger, zt”l, he ruled that the lender was permitted to give his non-Jewish friend an interest-free loan. “Not only are you permitted to loan this non- Jew money interest free; if he did many kindnesses for you, you are obligated to give him a loan without charging interest. This is clear in the Radak in Tehillim 15:4, and is halachah l’maaseh!”

Daf Yomi Digest
Stories Off the Daf
“Two Friends”
Bechoros 16

I can only imagine that everytime I post a fairly large quote from Daf Yomi Digest or a similar source, that most Christians reading my blog tend to tune out (and probably a few Jewish people as well). It’s not easy to comprehend what the Rabbis are saying in these lessons and even when understood, the relevance may seem mysterious. Would it be that big a deal for a Jewish person to offer an interest-free loan to his non-Jewish friend without consulting his Rav? What tends to escape most of us is the need to be absolutely sure (if you are an observant Jew) that you are following the commandments in the proper manner. Certainly, this Jewish fellow wanted to do a kindness for his non-Jewish friend, but the path of Torah isn’t always easy to negotiate without correct halachic guidance and the desire is always to perform every action, including actions of charity and righteousness, in the manner that God has laid out for the Jewish people.

This is a detail that often escapes even those Gentiles who are Christians and believe they are to follow the commandments in the same way as the Jews.

After seeing some recent references of how some Jewish people view non-Jews as somehow “lesser” or lacking the ability to truly perceive God, reading this “story off the daf” was very refreshing. It also presented me with a minor mystery.

The PDFs I receive daily from the Chicago Center for Torah and Chesed (the source of my Daf Yomi lessons) provide footnote numbers but not the footnotes themselves. Their website isn’t particularly illuminating and I can only assume that the source from which they generate their PDFs has more information than survives the PDF creation process. For instance, when Rav Shlomo Eiger, zt”l cites “the Radak in Tehillim (Psalm) 15:4, and is halachah l’maaseh,” there is obviously more information available that interprets the Rav’s intent. How does Psalm 15:4 make it clear that the Jewish person in this story must give his Gentile friend the loan interest free?

A base person is despised in his eyes, and he honors the God-fearing; he swears to [his own] hurt and does not retract. –Psalm 15:4 (source: Chabad.org)

In whose eyes a reprobate is despised,
But who honors those who fear the LORD;
He swears to his own hurt and does not change –Psalm 15:4 (NASB)

It would help to read Psalm 15:1:

A song of David; O Lord, who will sojourn in Your tent, who will dwell upon Your holy mount?

Inner lightSo the person who is worthy to dwell in the Lord’s tent is the sort of person who “despises the base person” but “honors those who fear God”. Putting this back in the context of our commentary on the Daf, it seems as if the Rav is saying that the Jew (who is worthy of sojourning in God’s tent) must honor his non-Jewish friend, who obviously is God-fearing, in this case, by providing an interest-free loan.

I still needed the Radak’s commentary on Tehillim 15:4 but these sorts of references aren’t always easy to come by on the web. I did manage to find the following at DailyTehillim.com (print version only, though):

David here outlines the virtues that render a person worthy of dwelling in Hashem’s “tent” and residing in His “sacred mountain.” According to the Radak, David refers here to the resting place of the soul in the afterlife; it is thus here where we are told how a person earns his eternal share in the world to come. The Radak draws proof to this reading from the chapter’s final clause, where David exclaims, “he who does these shall not falter, forever.” The term “forever” implies that David refers here to eternal peace, which would suggest that he speaks of the soul’s reward in the afterlife.

In listing these virtues, David focuses first on proper interpersonal conduct: honesty and integrity (verse 2), and refraining from crimes such as gossip, causing others harm, and nepotistic protection of unworthy relatives (verse 3). In verse 4, he imposes an important qualification on the virtues of loving kindness and concern for others: “Nivzeh Be’einav Nim’as,” which Rashi translates to mean, “The shameful one is despicable in his eyes.” Although this prototype acts with love and sensitivity, he is at the same time prepared to confront evil and its advocates, rather than extend to them the same kindness and compassion he shows generally. He respects those who deserve respect, while condemning behavior that warrants condemnation.

The Ibn Ezra and Radak explain this verse differently, as meaning that the person sees himself as “shameful” and “despicable.” Despite his many fine qualities, he recognizes how much more he has to grow and accomplish in order to achieve perfection. Rather than falling into the trap of stifling complacency, he constantly strives to improve and to accomplish more.

The message conveyed by this Psalm is thus a dual one. On the one hand, David promises eternal life to everyone who lives in accordance with the basic values of honesty and Godliness; the world to come is not reserved for only the great Tzadikim who have reached the highest levels of spiritual devotion. At the same time, however, to earn eternal life one must spend his life in the pursuit of perfection, working each day to grow and become better than he is. This Psalm does not demand that everybody be perfect, but it does not demand that everybody work towards and strive for spiritual perfection.

This interpretation probably isn’t the one referenced in the Daf commentary, but it does give us more insight into the Psalm and it speaks to the character of both the Jew and his non-Jewish friend. My take on this is that a person who truly seeks to be worthy of God and to obey His desires, must honor others, regardless of who they are, who do the same. If you want to be a holy and honorable person, you must honor those who are holy and honorable. This crosses the Jewish/Gentile and hopefully the Jewish/Christian barrier (remember there are additional reasons why a Jew may object to a Christian Gentile as opposed to a more “generic” non-Jew) in “mixed” relationships but I think it could be justified based on our source story and especially on the line, “One non-Jew was a very kind person, always helping his friends both Jewish and non-Jewish.” Showing compassion and favor is not performing righteousness unless these acts are applied to everyone. Only helping those like you isn’t helping for the sake of God, at all.

For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? –Matthew 5:46-47 (NASB)

According to the Daf commentary, not all Gentiles “do the same”. Some Gentiles do better and live up to what Jesus was teaching. Marrying the “daf story” with the teachings of the Master, we understand what he meant when he said “salvation is from the Jews” (John 4:22). Where do we non-Jews get the idea to do kindness, charity, and righteousness? From our own souls? Perhaps, if we are listening to the voice of God as He whispers to us, but where is that voice expressed in its clearest form? The Bible. Where do we get the Bible? The Jews. Even the New Testament (or the vast, vast majority of it) was written by the Jewish disciples.

We see that despite some rather negative viewpoints about Gentiles that exist in modern Jewish commentary, a Jew is not limited to showing goodness just to his fellow Jew, and that Rabbinic judgment supports and even demands a good and kind Gentile be treated with the same compassion that he has treated others. Jesus takes it a step further and tells us to love our enemies (in this, he isn’t talking enemies in war but those who are in our own community but who are unlike us) and he re-enforces the message that it is not just those people who are like us who we must feed and clothe and visit when ill. It’s anyone.

If you are a Christian, you cannot ignore this. If you are a Christian who has been taught by your Pastor and your church to disdain and revile Jews because we (Christians) have replaced them and that they (Jews) are following a “dead” religion (how can something be dead that teaches so many lessons of life?), then you may want to revisit the Bible and revisit God in prayer. Something obviously has gone wrong with your faith and as a disciples, you are not following the lessons of your Master.

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Rebuilding

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Today’s daf discusses the halachos of a firstborn animal.

Although secular and Torah law sometimes share similar rulings, many times they are at odds. And when it comes to the overtly metaphysical aspects of Torah, non-Jews are understandably clueless. The Chazon Ish, zt”l, once said that the simple understanding of a person not immersed in Torah is often the very opposite of the halachah. For example, if one’s animal caused damage to someone else’s property, a person unfamiliar with Torah jurisprudence would say that the owner is not responsible. After all, why should the owner pay for damage caused by his animal unless it was through his own gross negligence?

In one predominantly non-Jewish community, the local magistrates did not fine the Jewish owner of an animal that had caused damage to his non-Jewish neighbor’s property a cent. They did decide, however, that the neighbor who had suffered the damage could seize the animal in lieu of payment. And this is precisely what the offended neighbor did. Unfortunately, the animal was a bechor.

When the Jew approached his neighbor and broached the issue, the non-Jew refused to sell the animal back to him for the market value. “I have witnesses that the damage caused to my property by your animal was more than he is worth. Now, although the law does not obligate you to pay me for the damage it is perfectly within my rights to seize the creature. If you want it back we can talk about it, but I warn you that it is going to cost you…”

The forlorn owner—who was a kohen— wondered what he should do. Was he obligated to pay more than the value of the animal to the non-Jew? After all, it was not his fault the non-Jew had seized his animal.

When this question reached the Maharam of Rottenberg, zt”l, he ruled that the owner was not obligated to pay more than the animal’s value. “This seems clear from the Talmudic principle regarding redeeming tefillin and the like from a non-Jew. Such religious objects should not be redeemed for more than their value, as we find in Gittin 45. Just as paying more than their value will encourage non-Jews to steal tefillin and the like, paying more for a bechor is also likely to be used to our disadvantage by non-Jews.”

Daf Yomi Digest
Stories Off the Daf
“Reclaiming the Bechor”
Bechoros 15

I know the above quoted story is probably difficult for most of us to understand. For the vast majority of Christians and Jews, we wouldn’t necessarily see much, if any dissonance between our religious responsibilities and obeying the secular civil and criminal law of our local communities. There are however, some religious groups that do attend to a specific set of religious codes and sometimes collide head on with the secular law enforcement and court systems. I periodically see examples of this in news items involving the Chabad community in Brooklyn and very occasionally I’ve seen indications of a dissonance between how Mormons see their responsibility to secular law as different than the larger population (it can be very subtle).

This isn’t a new problem.

Later they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Jesus to catch him in his words. They came to him and said, “Teacher, we know that you are a man of integrity. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are; but you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not? Should we pay or shouldn’t we?”

But Jesus knew their hypocrisy. “Why are you trying to trap me?” he asked. “Bring me a denarius and let me look at it.” They brought the coin, and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”

“Caesar’s,” they replied.

Then Jesus said to them, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.”

And they were amazed at him. –Mark 12:13-17

While the “render unto Caesar” example doesn’t include every possible religious/legal conflict, it does act as a general guide that our faith doesn’t absolve us of behaving like good citizens in the places where we live and obeying the laws of the local, regional, and national authorities. That begs the question, whose law is greater, man’s or God’s? Obviously God’s, but I don’t see a particularly strong directive in the Bible that allows people of faith to blow off police officers and legal court orders because God trumps their authority. We know that even secular authority is established by God and Paul tells us in 1 Timothy 2:1-4 to actually pray for our leaders that “we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness.”

All of this is an extension of what I’ve been talking about in one way or another for the past week or so; the relationship between two unlike groups such as Christians and Jews. In terms of culture, getting along isn’t too much of a chore but when we add in our various religious requirements, we can sometimes encounter problems with each other as well as with the society around us. It’s not that we want the problems, but we know that our competing interests can get in the way of each other. Add to that centuries of conflict and mistrust that result in the prejudiced thoughts or ideas we have about who Christians are or who Jews are and how they’ve treated us in the past. It’s amazing to think sometimes that we even worship the same God.

But who, or what, is really responsible for the rift that separates the creatures of God?

When we can’t get along with someone, we like to blame it on that person’s faults: stupidity, incompetence, outrageous actions, aggression or some other evil.

The real reason is none of these. It is that the world is broken, and we are the shattered fragments.

And all that stops us from coming back together is that we each imagine ourselves to be whole.

-Rabbi Tzvi Freeman
“Getting Along”
Based on letters and talks of the Rebbe
Rabbi M. M. Schneerson
Chabad.org

We can sometimes blame the other guy or even blame supernatural forces for how fractured our relationships seem, but in fact, our relationships are broken because the world is broken. It’s as if a man who was intended to be an Olympic-class runner has his knees broken and is forced to limp along for the vast majority of his life when he should be racing around the track. That’s the world we live in. If it bothers you that Christians and Jews can’t get along (or that Christians can’t get along with other Christians and Jews can’t get along with other Jews), it should bother you. We weren’t made for these sorts of struggles. That’s why, instead of focusing on what keeps us apart, we need to contribute just a little bit each day, to putting the world and ourselves back together again. We aren’t whole, but we can strive to be.

What one thing can you do today to make your broken world just one little tiny bit better?

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Emergence

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You cannot reach deeper within another than you reach in your own self.

If you love yourself for your achievements, your current assets, the way you do things and handle the world — and despise yourself for failure in the same — it follows that your relationship with another will also be transient and superficial.

To achieve deep and lasting love of another person, you need to first experience the depth within yourself — an inner core that doesn’t change with time or events. If it is the true essence, it is an essence shared by the other person as well, and deep love becomes unavoidable.

-Rabbi Tzvi Freeman
“Deep Love”
Based on letters and talks of the Rebbe
Rabbi M. M. Schneerson
Chabad.org

That may explain a few things about what was taught by Jesus and Paul. For instance:

And He said to him, “ ‘you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.” –Matthew 22:37-40 (NASB)

Jesus is quoting Leviticus 19:18 when he says that loving your neighbor as yourself is one of the two greatest commandments. Paul says something similar.

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, because we are members of His body. –Ephesians 5:22-33 (NASB)

Instead of loving yourself, Paul suggests that husbands are to love their wives as they love “their own bodies.” Sounds kind of narcissistic to me. I think most religious people can understand loving God as the ultimate expression of our existence and both religious and secular people can support a husband loving his wife with a great and giving love, but what does this have to do with loving yourself?

As Rabbi Freeman points out, quite a lot, actually.

Strange as it may seem, being a masochistic, co-dependent, doormat kind of giver doesn’t really express love. Love isn’t having to completely devalue yourself in order to show value to another. If love is a mutual transaction between two people, no matter how much you love the other, if you loathe and despise yourself, the other will never be able to love you. How can you love someone who completely treats himself with complete contempt? You might feel compassion or pity for such a damaged person, but a mature and abiding love?

From God’s point of view, the transaction can never be equal since He loves us with a love that no human being can ever achieve. The closest we come to understanding it is the parallel between the Akedah where Abraham so loved God that he was willing to give up his only begotten son for God’s sake (Genesis 22:1-24), and how God sacrificed His most precious Son for us.

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. –John 3:16

Love doesn’t mean the absence of sacrifice for our own sake but the capacity to sacrifice out of a deep understanding of what love is, including loving the best in ourselves. We were made in His image (Genesis 1:27) and so the best in us is a gift from God.

Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. –Matthew 5:48 (NASB)

In this, as in so many other things, Jesus became our perfect example of how to be loved and how to love.

“This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you. This I command you, that you love one another. –John 15:12-17

Rabbi Freeman talks about loving with an unconditional love and only by loving yourself in that manner do you become capable of loving others and loving God in the same way. That’s quite a task. Very few of us love with absolutely no strings attached. Probably the closest most people come to unconditional love is the love a parent has for a child. An infant isn’t capable of returning love at the same level as a parent, particularly a mother’s love which knows no limits, and if we only love a newborn for the love a newborn can give back, we will be disappointed, and our parental love will be a sham.

Small plantBut how do we learn to love ourselves and thus others with that amazing “deep and lasting love?” I can’t pretend to give you the answer in absolute terms or say that I have achieved this kind of love with any sort of mastery. I can point to the starting place on such a journey and say that God has showed us that love. In the here and now world, Jesus expressed that love while dying on the cross. If God’s Spirit has any sort of effect in our lives, it is to give us the ability to exceed our human limitations and to exemplify the good inclination within us, shunning the temptation to misuse such a love to serve only our self-contained interests.

1 Corinthians 13 is the so-called “love chapter” and is often recited as part of the vows during wedding ceremonies. However, read within its larger context, Paul is not writing about the love between a man and a woman but love we express toward others that comes from God. Such a love is even greater than faith and perhaps this is because true faith in God emerges from the womb of love. True love of others emerges from God as a flowering plant emerges from fertile soil. It is when we learn to love in this perfect way that our love becomes holy.

"When you awake in the morning, learn something to inspire you and mediate upon it, then plunge forward full of light with which to illuminate the darkness." -Rabbi Tzvi Freeman