Rabbi Philip Weintraub
Congregation Agudas Israel
Parshat Ekev
August 11, 2012
Last week we heard the Shema and the Ten Commandments. Powerful material! From there, Moses wonders how do we live our lives? He asks:
יב וְעַתָּה, יִשְׂרָאֵל--מָה ה" אֱ-לֹהֶיךָ, שֹׁאֵל מֵעִמָּךְ: כִּי אִם-לְיִרְאָה אֶת-ה" אֱ-לֹהֶיךָ לָלֶכֶת בְּכָל-דְּרָכָיו, וּלְאַהֲבָה אֹתוֹ, וְלַעֲבֹד אֶת-ה" אֱ-לֹהֶיךָ, בְּכָל-לְבָבְךָ וּבְכָל-נַפְשֶׁךָ.
| 12 And now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God demand of you? Only this: to revere the Lord your God, to walk only in His paths, to love Him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and soul, |
יג לִשְׁמֹר אֶת-מִצְוֹת ה", וְאֶת-חֻקֹּתָיו, אֲשֶׁר אָנֹכִי מְצַוְּךָ, הַיּוֹם--לְטוֹב, לָךְ.
| 13 keeping the Lord's commandments and laws, which I enjoin upon you today, for your good. |
יד הֵן לַיהוָה אֱ-לֹהֶיךָ, הַשָּׁמַיִם וּשְׁמֵי הַשָּׁמָיִם, הָאָרֶץ, וְכָל-אֲשֶׁר-בָּהּ.
| 14 Mark, the heavens to their uttermost reaches belong to the Lord your God, the earth and all that is on it! |
טו רַק בַּאֲבֹתֶיךָ חָשַׁק ה", לְאַהֲבָה אוֹתָם; וַיִּבְחַר בְּזַרְעָם אַחֲרֵיהֶם, בָּכֶם מִכָּל-הָעַמִּים--כַּיּוֹם הַזֶּה.
| 15 Yet it was to your fathers that the Lord was drawn in His love for them, so that He chose you, their lineal descendants, from among all peoples — as is now the case. |
טז וּמַלְתֶּם, אֵת עָרְלַת לְבַבְכֶם; וְעָרְפְּכֶם--לֹא תַקְשׁוּ, עוֹד.
| 16 Cut away, therefore, the thickening about your hearts and stiffen your necks no more. |
יז כִּי, ה" אֱ-לֹקֵיכֶם--הוּא אֱלֹהֵי הָאֱלֹהִים, וַאֲדֹנֵי הָאֲדֹנִים: הָאֵל הַגָּדֹל הַגִּבֹּר, וְהַנּוֹרָא, אֲשֶׁר לֹא-יִשָּׂא פָנִים, וְלֹא יִקַּח שֹׁחַד.
| 17 For the Lord your God is God supreme and Lord supreme, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who shows no favor and takes no bribe, |
יח עֹשֶׂה מִשְׁפַּט יָתוֹם, וְאַלְמָנָה; וְאֹהֵב גֵּר, לָתֶת לוֹ לֶחֶם וְשִׂמְלָה.
| 18 but upholds the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and befriends the stranger, providing him with food and clothing. — |
יט וַאֲהַבְתֶּם, אֶת-הַגֵּר: כִּי-גֵרִים הֱיִיתֶם, בְּאֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם.
| 19 You too must befriend the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. |
Deuteronomy Chapter 10
I remember when I was in Israel during the Gaza War, I visited Sderot and Ashkelon. With Israeli ingenuity, business sense and Biblical humor, one could buy bumper stickers that said, Am Kashe Oref, we are a stiff-necked people. Playing on the similar letters as Ashkelon, the residents said, no matter how many rockets fall from Gaza; this is our home. In recent months, as rockets fall once again (thankfully not as frequently), I wonder about that. I saw a facebook photo Thursday that said, the fastest Olympic sprinter runs 200m in under 20 seconds, but in Sderot they have only 15 seconds from when the siren sounds to when a rocket falls. The implications are clear. (Note, for our Israel trip, we will not go anywhere where there is the possibility of danger! The tour company is in constant contact with the threat center of the Israeli government, tweaking our route if there were any security concerns!)
Returning to our text: How do we keep Gd’s commandments and laws if we do not know what they are? To answer that question, I have begun a journey that will take me the next 7.5 years. For the last week, I have spent 30-90 minutes per day studying Talmud. Gdwilling, I will continue this and along with tens of thousands of Jews around the world, will read/study the entire Talmud, all 2711 pages. While the first time this began was Rosh Hashanah 1923, there were already thousands of Jews that signed on. At the conclusion of the 12th cycle of Daf Yomi last week, there were over 90,000 people at MetLife Stadium (Giants/Jets Stadium) and hundreds of thousands more around the world.
Now in my Hebrew class the other day we discussed Talmud. Because the logic tends to be associative AND the rabbis were trying to teach, there are few simple answers. Even the question of where one sentence begins and another ends is a matter for debate. The basic structure is that the conversation begins with a Mishnah, a Hebrew text that articulates a law or question. The Gemara then debates the issues, offering biblical prooftexts, alternate material from the time of the Mishnah, known as Baraitot or Toseftot, depending on the content. The authors of the Talmud we mainly study today lived in Babylonia, modern-day Iraq, which for hundreds of years had a thriving Jewish community. This Talmud is more authoritative than the Jerusalem Talmud, which was completed sooner and is much less edited!
The Mishnah opens with a simple question, from what time do we say Shema in the evening? Yet the answer is anything but simple. It says we say Shema from the time the priest eat their Terumah. The Gemara, the Talmud, says, where do you get this question from? You have made several assumptions. How do we know we are supposed to say Shema? Why not use a specific time? ie sunset or when the stars come out? What about the cohanim? Why are they mentioned? The list goes on and on.
In the last week, I have thought about theodicy, why bad things happen to good people, demons and spirits, prayer, the meaning of prayers, visiting the sick, the importance of community, the importance of a minyan, where we find Gd in the Jewish tradition, when the heavenly spirit spends time with us, the importance of staying away from sin.
It has been an incredibly rewarding and frustrating experience and it has only been a week!
In the past to study Talmud, you needed to spend time studying Aramaic, Hebrew, grammar. Today it is far more accessible thanks to Artscroll and Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz. Rabbi Steinsaltz wrote notes and translated the Aramaic to Hebrew. Today his translation and commentary is being translated into English, with notes and photographs. When I am not studying directly from the Hebrew and Aramaic, I use these translations--one is even on my iPad to assist me.
I have been studying some of this material with Irwin and with Sherree in different ways. If you are interested in joining me, please let me know! As one of my teachers at JTS taught me, from his teacher, Rabbi Louis Finkelstein, study is where Gd speaks to us, and prayer is where we speak to Gd. or in the reverse: Prayer is where we speak to Gd, study is where Gd speaks to us.
To be a Jew is to question, to wrestle, to argue. Our texts are the exact same way. As I mentioned before there are different layers of commentary and arguments, but they continue for generations. In addition to the Talmud, there is the commentary of Rashi and the Tosafot, many of whom are his descendants. Printed on the same page of the Talmud, they continue the argument, hundreds of years later. In the back of standard editions of the Talmud are many more pages of commentary and books are written to discuss those. So how do we continue the conversation today? ONLINE! I am tweeting, contributing to the “unOrthodox Daf Yomi” Facebook group, posting on Facebook and bringing thoughts here. I hope that you will join me in this conversation. When I post something on Facebook or Twitter, respond to it, share it, talk about it. I’ll give you some examples from this week’s study:
What have I learned in the first week??? @TweetedTalmud
Bavli Brachot 2a/b. I still don't know what time to say Shema in the evening.
Brachot 3a: Sometimes two students hear different things. Trei Tanai Aliba Drabi Meir and same with R. Eliezer. What can we do to listen more closely to one another? Is life always a game of telephone?
Bavli Brachot 3a: Sometimes a short prayer is better--don't enter a ruin to pray or put yourself in danger.
Bavli Brachot 3b: King David didn't sleep much.
Bavli Brachot 4a: Our Master said: Teach your tongue to say: "I don't know, lest you become entangled in a web of deceit." (Steinsaltz)
Bavli Brachot 4b: You can tell an angels power by how many trips it takes to get around?
Bavli Brachot 4b: We say Ashrei thrice daily b/c it's a Hebrew alphabetical acrostic AND b/c it mentions Gd sustaining creation.
Bavli Brachot 5a/b: The rabbis think about suffering: sometimes you need a chaplain! "A prisoner cannot free himself."
Bavli Brachot 6a The Shechina is present whenever 10 gather to pray, 3 judge a case, 2 discuss Torah or 1 studies Torah!
- Bavli Brachot 6a It was taught in a Baraita, Abba Binyamin says if we could see the demons around us, we couldn't face them! Oy vey
Brachot 6b: Gd asks about someone who stops showing up to minyan. Do we? First criticism I ever got as rabbi was this! #DafChat#dafyomi
@TweetedTalmud Now I try harder to see who is and isn't in shul! Do you?
brachot 6b: Don't rush out of shul. Or in Talmud speak, אל יפסיע פסיעה גסה. Don't take big steps. #DafChat #dafyomi
6b: R' Zeira says you can run to shul on Shabbat! It's a mitzvah to rush to do a mitzvah. #DafChat #dafyomi
Brachot 6b: the best things in life come from hard work: entertaining at weddings, studying, comforting others. . . #dafyomi #DafChat
Brachot 6b: if you ignore a friend's hello, you are called a robber. Makes me think of Hadar Yom Iyun on respect. #dafyomi #hadar
When offered a blessing, take it! If Gd accepts our blessings, shouldn't we receive others? Says R' Yishmael (7a) #dafyomi#DafChat
Brachot 7a: Don't try to reason with a person in throes of anger. You won't get very far. Good idea: think 1st, speak 2nd #DafChat#dafyomi
Brachot 7a: the righteous shouldn't curse even those who deserve it (sinners/wicked) since Gd's compassion is for all. #dafyomi #DafChat
Brachot 7a: in the name of r' Yosi: one sincere regret is better than many lashes. Talmud:Yes to guilt, no to spanking. #dafyomi #DafChat
in the name of r' Yosi: one sincere regret is better than many lashes. Talmud:Yes to guilt, no to spanking.
Brachot 7a: timing is important. Gd and Moshe sound like missed lovers. When one wanted the other didn't and vice versa. #DafChat#dafyomi
Brachot 7b: Our mother Leah was the first to truly offer thanks-to both thank and appreciate the gift. #daf
Brachot 7b: if you can't physically get to minyan, see if the minyan can come to you. If not, pray at the same time. #DafChat #dafyomi
