Jewish Response to Anti-Semitism

Dear Jewish Response Staff,

I read a puzzling passage of the Talmud in Kiddushin 31a. It says that when G-d gave the Torah on Mount Sinai and began with the first two commandments: "I am the L-rd your G-d...You shall have no other gods before Me," the nations of the world said, "He is demanding His own honor." But when He said, "Honor your father and mother" the nations accepted the first commandments as well.

What is the meaning of this? I understand that honoring father and mother made more sense to them, but why did that cause them to accept the first two commandments?

Also, the Talmud says (Kiddushin 30b) that the honor due to parents is similar to the honor due to G-d. Why is this so?

Larry

Dear Larry,

There are two ways to serve G-d: out of fear, and out of love. The Rambam writes:

A man must not say: I will keep the commandments of the Torah and learn its wisdom in order to receive all the blessings written in it, or in order to get into the World to Come; and I will refrain from the sins against which the Torah warns in order to be saved from the curses written in the Torah, or so that I should not be cut off in the World to Come. It is not proper to serve G-d in this way, for one who serves in this way is only serving out of fear; this is not the level of the prophets or sages. Only the ignorant and the women serve G-d in this way, as well as the children, who are trained to serve Him out of fear until their knowledge increases and they can serve Him out of love.

One who serves G-d out of love studies Torah, does mitzvos and follows the proper path not for any worldly reason, not out of fear of punishment or to gain reward, but rather he follows the path of truth because it is truth. He will be rewarded as well, but that is not his goal. This is a great level and not every wise man reaches it. This is the level of Abraham our father, whom G-d called "the one who loved Me" since he served G-d purely out of love. This is what G-d commanded us through Moses, "And you shall love the L-rd your G-d." When a person loves G-d properly, he will immediately do all the commandments out of love. (Rambam, Laws of Teshuva 10:1-2)

The reason why G-d wants us to serve Him out of love is because He loves us with an endless, unconditional love, and He wants us to love Him in return. If we serve Him out of fear, like someone obeying a command given at gunpoint, that does not show any love.

All loving relationships among human beings are conditional, except for the love between a parent and a child. A father and mother love their child regardless of whether the child does anything for them. That is why G-d commanded us to repay that love with "honor of father and mother" - serving them out of love.

That is the similarity between honoring father and mother and honoring G-d. Both are services done out of love for someone who loves you unconditionally.

And that is why the nations, once they heard the command to honor father and mother, understood that in the first two commandments as well, G-d was not telling us to serve Him just because He is powerful and can reward and punish; He is telling us that when we think about His boundless love for us, we should be filled with a desire to reciprocate and serve Him and only Him. How could we serve an idol that never loved us, let alone did anything for us? Therefore they accepted the first two commandments.

Sincerely,

Jewish Response Staff

This entry was posted on August 3, 2011 at 3:03 PM and has received 102 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

Dear Jewish Response Staff,

I read on an anti-Semitic site a troubling quotation from the Talmud. I cant remember it perfectly but it involves one of the rabbis cursing the philosophers that their wisdom should rot. It sounds like the rabbis were afraid of the philosophers because they couldnt refute their arguments, so their only recourse was to curse them! I like the other things I have seen on your site and I hope you can explain this too.

Frank J.

Dear Frank,

Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chananya was famous for his numerous theological debates with Roman emperors, nobleman, heretics and non-believers. When he was about to leave this world, the other rabbis said to him, How will we defend ourselves against the heretics? He replied, When counsel is gone from the children, their wisdom rots (Jeremiah 49:7). When counsel is gone from the Torah sages, the wisdom of the gentile nations rots.

Why did he say that the wisdom of the gentile nations was going to rot? Why couldnt he have blessed the other rabbis that they should be able to carry on debates with the heretics as well as he had?

The world can be divided into four categories of beings: mineral, vegetable, animal and human. Vegetable is higher than mineral because it grows; animal is higher than vegetable because it moves, and humans are higher than animals because they ask questions, find answers and thereby come to recognize the Creator.

When we analyze these categories further, we observe a highly interesting phenomenon. A member of one category, when it does not perform its function, does not simply fall to the category below it; it becomes even worse. The plant needs water to grow. If it does not get water, it dries up and rots, becoming more useless than a stone. An animal needs more than just water; it needs food. It uses its mobility to search for that food. If it does not find food, it dies, and its carcass is more useless than a plant or even a stone. This is the meaning of the Biblical verse, In every pain there will be a gain (Proverbs 14:23). Each being, because of its pain, i.e. its lack, its need, must perform a function to satisfy that need, and it is the performance of this function that sets it above members of the category below it.

We observe that the masterful Creator gave each being needs that are commensurate with its abilities. The Creator made rain fall from the sky for the plants BECAUSE the plants are not able to go around searching for water. He did not give the animals rational and theological questions BECAUSE they are not able to search for answers. However, He did make the plants existence dependent on growth because they are able to grow. He did make the animals existence dependent on moving around because they are able to move.

Accordingly, Rabbi Yehoshua said to the other rabbis: The heretics only have questions because there is someone to answer them. Once I pass away and there will be no rabbis who can answer them, their wisdom will rot and they will have no more questions. This is not a curse; it is an automatic feature of the world.

He used the phrase their wisdom will rot to indicate that when humans fail to perform their function, they fall lower than animals, plants and stones. They rot, just as a dead animal and a dead plant rot.

What does it mean that the heretics will have no questions? The central question man was meant to ask is: Who created all these things? Who made this beautifully harmonious and carefully balanced universe? The heretics had this question and others relating to G-d, and Rabbi Yehoshua successfully answered them. But once their wisdom rotted, they ceased to have questions, because they pretended that everything in the world could be explained by the laws of nature. Somehow, the world created itself and evolved to its current state, they said. Someone who believes this no longer has any questions that reach beyond the physical world. He is considered rotten, lower than the animals, plants or stones.

The great medieval commentator Rabbi Avraham Ibn Ezra once had a debate with a atheist philosopher. At one point the Ibn Ezra went home, wrote a beautiful poem on a piece of paper and showed it to the atheist. I left my bottle of ink open, said the Ibn Ezra, and it accidently spilled all over this paper. The atheist said, That is not spilled ink! That is a poem written by someone with a brilliant mind. The Ibn Ezra said, The world is a lot more beautiful and well-designed than this poem.

The Torah says, G-ds portion is His people (Deut. 32:9). In a larger sense, this refers not just to the Jewish people but to all people who recognize G-d. These people are G-ds profits in the world. A man starts a company, buys machinery and materials, hires workers, produces products  all of the sake of the profit he will earn off it the company. Similarly, G-d created the entire world  mineral, vegetable, animals, humans and the celestial bodies  all for the sake of those people who will recognize Him as the Creator.

The Book of Jonah tells the story of how G-d had mercy on Nineveh and did not destroy it. Chapter 4, verse 11 reads: "And should I not have pity on Nineveh, the great city, which contains many more than 120,000 people who do not know the difference between their right and left hands, as well as many animals?" Rashi explains that the 120,000 people were the children, and the "animals" were the adults, who were like animals in that they did not know who created them. This seems puzzling: Why would G-d spare Nineveh in the merit of people who denied His existence?

The answer lies in the comparison to animals. Just as an animal cannot be blamed for not recognizing G-d's existence, because G-d is above its level of intelligence, so too these people. They didn't have enough intelligence to entertain the question of how the world came to be. Thus they were the only innocent ones, and Nineveh was saved for their sake. It was the more intelligent people, who did wonder about the origins of the world, and were therefore capable of recognizing G-d, yet refused to do so, who were considered sinners.

The prophets tell us of a future time when the entire world will be elevated. Even the stones and plants will praise G-d: The mountains and the hills will burst out before you in song (Isaiah 55:12). Then the trees of the forest will sing (I Divrei Hayamim 16:33). Animals will know G-d: The wolf will live with the lamp&the child will play by the snakes hole&they will not do evil or destroy in my entire holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of G-d as water covers the sea (Isaiah 11:6-9). People will reach the level of angels in perception of G-d: The sun will not be your light by day& but G-d will be your light by day (Isaiah 60:19). Your eyes will behold your Teacher (Isaiah 30:20). Let us hope for the fulfillment of those prophecies!

This entry was posted on August 3, 2011 at 3:01 PM and has received 166 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

Dear Jewish Response Staff,

Someone told me that the Talmud says the Land of Israel is higher than all lands. Is this a true quote? If so, were the rabbis so ignorant of geography? Please reply. Thanks,

Sam D.

Dear Sam,

Rabbi Yehuda Loew (1525-1609, known as the Maharal) wrote a book called Beer Hagolah explaining the passages in the Talmud whose view of the natural world seems to conflict with science and human knowledge. One such passage reads: The Land of Israel is higher than all other lands (Kiddushin 69a). Of course, there are higher lands such as Tibet, Nepal, Switzerland and so on.

The Maharal explains that the Talmud means that the Land of Israel is the highest in holiness and spirituality. This seems like a forced answer - the Gemara definitely gives the impression that the Land of Israel is physically higher.

However, we can say as follows. The world is spherical, and thus any place could be considered the highest. It depends only on one's purpose. If one's purpose is to speak about sunlight, the place where the sun is shining more directly should be considered the top. If one's purpose is to speak about the earth's axis, the north pole or the south pole is the top. For the Torah, what is important is where G-d is looking. Just as if a person holds a ball and looks down at a certain spot, that spot is the highest, so too the spot where G-d is looking, so to speak, is considered the highest spot.

Where is G-d looking? The Torah says that the Land of Israel is a land where the eyes of the L-rd your G-d are on it from the beginning of the year till the end of the year (Deut. 11:12). Therefore the Land of the Israel is considered the highest point on earth and this is the meaning of the Talmud. This is also what the Maharal meant when he said the Land is the highest in spirituality. It is highest in spirituality because G-d gives His attention to is, and that is why can be called the highest physically.

This entry was posted on August 3, 2011 at 2:59 PM and has received 87 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

Dear Jewish Response Staff,

The Talmud contains much obsolete scientific information. It says that the distance from the earth to the sky is 500 years' journey (Chagigah 13a). The Talmud gives one day's journey as 10 parsangs or about 25 miles. 500 years' journey is thus about 4.5 million miles. But today we know that the sun is 93 million miles away and the nearest star is more than a light year (6 trillion miles) away. Doesn't this prove that Chazal knew very little about astronomy?

Kevin

Dear Kevin,

Let us look at the rest of the passage you quoted:

When that wicked man [Nebuchadnezzar] said, "I will go up on the highest of clouds, I will be similar to the Most High" (Isaiah 14:14), G-d's voice replied to him, Wicked man, son of a wicked man, descendent of Nimrod the wicked who made the entire world rebel against Me during his reign! How long does a man live? Seventy years. The distance from the earth to the sky is 500 years' journey. The thickness of the sky is 500 years' journey, and the same is the separation between each of the seven levels of sky. On top of that, the feet of the angels called chayos are as big as everything else combined. Their ankles are as big as everything else combined. Their shins are as big as everything else combined. Their knees are as big as everything else combined. Their thighs are as big as everything else combined. Their bodies are as big as everything else combined. Their necks are as big as everything else combined. Their heads are as big as everything else combined. Their horns are as big as everything else combined. On top of that, the foot of the Throne of Glory is as big as everything else combined. The Throne itself is as big as everything else combined. Atop all this dwells the King, the Living and Everlasting G-d, high and uplifted. And you said, 'I will go up on the highest of clouds, I will be similar to the Most High?' You will only be brought down to Hell, to the nethermost pit.

If G-d's point was that Nebuchadnezzar would never be able to travel so far, why did he have to preface it by calling him a wicked man, son of a wicked man and so on? The answer is that the Talmud is not discussing physical distance here. The Talmud is discussing coming spiritually close to G-d. G-d is not a million miles away or even a trillion. He is everywhere, even right here, if we work on knowing Him and coming close to Him. "And you shall know this day and take it to your heart that the L-rd is G-d in heaven above and on the earth below; there is no other" (Devarim 4:39).

The angels too, which are part of the "measurements" given by the Talmud, are not physical. The Rambam writes (Yesodei Hatorah 2:6), "When the Sages talk about one angel being below another, they do not mean above physically, as one man sits higher than another, but rather as people say about two sages that one is bigger than the other, or above the other, in wisdom."

Just as one does not measure an earthquake in inches, but rather on the Richter scale, so too one cannot measure the size of the angels or G-d in distance. All the distances mentioned by the Talmud refer to spiritual journey one must undertake to reach a knowledge of the angels and G-d.

Of course, we cannot really know G-d. G-d is infinite and unfathomable to humans and even to angels. The prophet Ezekiel (1:14) described the angels as follows: "And the angels ran to and fro, like the appearance of a flash." The Sefer Chareidim explains that humans are finite and physical in nature, and their imaginations work spatially. Whenever we learn of the existence of something, we automatically imagine its size. But G-d is infinite and cannot be quantified. The angels are able to comprehend a little of G-d, more than humans. But as soon as they reach that comprehension, they leap backward, fearing that their intellect, like that of humans, will want to impose a limit on G-d.

It takes 500 years to reach some knowledge of G-d. We know that Abraham first realized that G-d existed when he was in his third year of life. Add Abraham's 173 remaining years to Isaac's 180 and Jacob's 147, and you get 500. The Midrash Rabba (Bamidbar 18:21) compares this 500-year period to the 500 years separating heaven from earth, thus indicating that it is not the physical distance that is 500 years; it is the spiritual journey. The Patriarch brought the knowledge of G-d into the world and thus connected heaven and earth.

Furthermore, it took the world 500 years to reach the revelation at Mount Sinai, starting with the birth of Abraham. Abraham was 100 years old at Isaac's birth, and from Isaac's birth to the Revelation at Sinai was 400 years, a total of 500. This means that the process of spreading knowledge of G-d throughout the world, which Avraham began and culminated with the revelation at Mount Sinai, took 500 years.

We find the number 500 years again in the Midrash Rabba (Bereishis 15:6), where it says that the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden had a span of 500 years' journey. This means that the path to eternal life - knowledge of G-d - is five hundred years long. The same can be said of Chagigah 12a, where it says that the earth is 500 years' journey from one end to the other, and that Adam was as tall as the sky - the same 500 years as the length of the earth. All these numbers do not refer to physical measurements, but to levels of knowledge of G-d. Adam was created already on such a high level of closeness to G-d that He perceived what it took the world after him 500 years to reach.

At the giving of the Torah, the knowledge of G-d was spread from one end of the world to the other. As our Sages say, the giving of the Torah was a such a public event that everyone in the world heard the sounds. They came and asked their prophet, Bilam, what the noise had been. Perhaps G-d was bringing destruction upon the world? Bilam replied that G-d was giving His precious treasure, His Torah, to His people (Zevachim 116a).

This also explains the Gemara in Bava Metzia 85b, which says that Elijah the prophet used to wake up Abraham, Isaac and Jacob separately so that they could pray each day. Rabbi Yehuda Hanasi asked why Elijah could not wake them up all at the same time. Elijah replied that if they all prayed together, they would bring the redemption right away, and it was not yet time. The meaning of this is that, as we have said, the ages of the three Patriarchs together added up to 500, symbolizing that together they were capable of reaching a knowledge of G-d that the world is not ready for now. It will only be ready in the days of the messiah, when "the earth will be full of the knowledge of G-d as the waters cover the sea."

When a Jew begins his prayers, he addresses G-d as "the G-d of Abraham, the G-d of Isaac and the G-d of Jacob". He is saying, "I approach You not on my own, but based on the tradition I have received from my forefathers - based on the closeness achieved by them."

But Nebuchadnezzar wanted to reach G-d on his own. He did not want to convert to Judaism and share in the knowledge of G-d that had already been accumulated by the Jewish people over hundreds of years. He said, "I will go up on the highest of clouds." I will go up like the Jewish people, which is compared to the clouds, as it says, "Who are these who fly like the clouds" (Isaiah 60:8). He said, "I will be similar to the most high." I will achieve knowledge of G-d and thus be like the Jewish people, who are called "the most high of all nations" (Deuteronomy 26:19).

G-d therefore told him: You are starting from scratch! You are a wicked man, the son of a wicked man. You have nothing to build on. So how much can one man accomplish in one lifetime? It takes 500 years even to begin to come close to Me.

Here is another Talmudic statement that discusses astronomical distance. The Talmud (Eiruvin 21a) says that the Torah (Rashi explains this means the orally transmitted laws of the Torah) is 3200 times larger than the universe. This is based on the prophecy of Zachariah, who was shown a scroll 20 cubits long and 10 cubits wide, folded in half. We understand that these cubits are not ordinary cubits, measured on a human forearm, but rather G-d's cubits. Unfolded, the scroll would be 20 by 20, and since it was written on both sides, it really has an area of 40 by 20, 800 square cubits. The universe, according to Isaiah 40:12, was created by G-d with His span (the maximum distance between the pinky and the thumb, which equals half a cubit). Therefore, 1 square span is a quarter of a square cubit, and there are 3200 square spans in 800 square cubits.

Obviously, we are not talking about physical distance here, because in what way can the Torah be given a physical measurement? That would depend on what size letters it was written in. In any case, the Torah is an area of study, not a physical object. Rather, the Talmud must be referring to spiritual size of heaven.

Another passage says that the Torah was created 974 generations before the world was created (Shabbos 88a). According to Bereishis Rabbah 8:2, the Torah was around for 2000 years before creation, during which time G-d played with it. Now, G-d is the Creator of time, and is not bounded by time; how then could it be that it took Him 2000 years to play with the Torah, or prepare it? Obviously these Midrashic statements were written for us humans, to show us that the Torah is greater, older and more important than the world, so that we should give our attention to the Torah.

Another passage tells us that G-d created the world with 10 utterances, when He could have created it with one utterance (Avos 5:1). Clearly, these utterances of the non-physical G-d cannot be physical and the difference betwen Him using one or ten of them is beyond our understanding. The whole purpose of using ten is for us, to warn us against destroying our with sins.

This entry was posted on August 3, 2011 at 2:57 PM and has received 167 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.