Rabbi Yishmael ben Elisha was
sitting in his house, deeply engrossed in Torah study. On the table was an oil
lamp. He thought to himself, ‘The Sages taught that a person should not study
alone by lamp light on Shabbat. Perhaps
the flame will get dim, and he will tip the lamp, bringing more oil onto the
wick, so that the flame will be brighter.
He would thereby transgress the prohibition of burning a fire on
Shabbat. But that doesn’t apply to a
knowledgeable rabbi like me. I would never
forget that it’s Shabbat!’
And so he continued studying until
deep into the night. Growing deeply involved in his studies, he squinted to see
the page better. Without even realizing it, he moved his hand to tilt the lamp!
Suddenly he stopped himself in mid-air. ‘What am I doing?’ he exclaimed. ‘I
almost tilted the lamp and violated the Shabbat! How great are the teaching of
the Sages! They knew that anyone could forget, as I did.’
When Shabbat was over, he took a piece
of paper and wrote: I, Yishmael ben Elisha, read by lamp light and tilted the
lamp on Shabbat. When the Holy Temple is rebuilt – may it be very soon, Amen –
I hereby promise to bring a sin offering to the Temple as an atonement.
דְּאָמַר רַבִּי
פַּרְנָךְ אָמַר רַבִּי יוֹחָנָן: הָאוֹחֵז סֵפֶר תּוֹרָה עָרוֹם, נִקְבָּר
עָרוֹם. עָרוֹם סָלְקָא דַּעְתָּךְ? אֶלָּא אָמַר רַבִּי זֵירָא: עָרוֹם בְּלֹא
מִצְוֹת. בְּלֹא מִצְוֹת סָלְקָא דַּעְתָּךְ? אֶלָּא אֵימָא: עָרוֹם בְּלֹא
אוֹתָהּ מִצְוָה
Rabbi Parnakh quoted Rabbi Yocḥanan:
One who holds a Torah with naked hands will be buried naked. The Gemara asks: Does
it enter your mind to say that he will actually be buried naked (without
shrouds)? Rather, Rabbi Zeira said: Naked of mitzvot. And the Gemara wonders
further: Does it enter your mind to say that he should be buried naked of all
mitzvot? Rather, say he is buried naked of that mitzvah.
In the first Mishnah of Ethics
of the Fathers, our Sages teach us, “You shall make a fence around the
Torah.” This means that the Sages are
tasked with enacting injunctions to protect the laws of the Torah from
infraction. In one instance, the Sages
enacted the laws of muktzeh to safeguard the laws of Shabbat. For example, it is forbidden to write on
Shabbat. In order to ensure that one
would never transgress the prohibition of writing, the Sages decreed that, as a
general rule, one may not even move a pen. If you don’t pick it up, there’s no way
you will come to write with it.
The Maharam Schick (Shelach)
teaches that this is the meaning of our Gemara.
Some people feel that they know better than the Sages. ‘I know that the Sages warned against reading
by lamp-light on Shabbos, for fear of tilting the oil. But I would never make that mistake.’ And so they begin to discount all the rabbinic
laws, until it’s just them and the Torah law, with nothing in between. That’s the meaning of holding the Torah
naked.
It’s only a matter of time,
explains the Maharam Schick, before one begins to question the Torah
itself. And the individual begins to
dismiss the Divine decrees, because he thinks he knows better. ‘The reason the Torah commanded circumcision
was in order to stop the spread of disease.
Nowadays there are more effective ways to combat such concerns. Circumcision is no longer necessary.’ ‘When the Torah mandated certain ways of
life, it didn’t really understand human nature and biology. Today, with modern science, we are much more
knowledgeable in the way the world works and we must adapt the Torah
accordingly.’ Ultimately, says the
Maharam Schick, such an attitude leads to a person become stripped bare of one
Divine commandment after another, God forbid.
Sometimes, rabbinic edicts can feel
antiquated and lacking contemporary sensibility and understanding. It’s tempting to be dismissive of the wisdom
of our Sages. It takes humility to
accept the Torah mandate that we adhere just as strictly to the rabbinic
injunctions as we adhere to the laws explicitly laid down by the Torah
itself. But that indeed is one of the
Torah’s laws – that we must abide by the decrees of the Sages, regardless of
our personal feelings concerning their efficacy.
You wouldn’t question the advice of
your dentist when she gives instructions about protection and maintenance of
healthy teeth and gums. ‘What makes her
think she knows how long I should spend brushing my teeth?’ You wouldn’t question the advice of medical
professionals when they tell us the best way to stay safe and keep our loved
ones safe from the terrifying virus engulfing the world right now. They are the experts. We must heed their instructions.
The Rabbis are the experts in the maintenance
and continuity of Jewish tradition. When
we suggest that we know better, we endanger our spiritual lives and those of
our children. Maintaining that faith isn’t
always easy, particularly when we’re faced constantly with ideas and
perspectives that run contrary to Torah values.
But committing to our faith in “Hashem and Moshe His servant” – the Torah
and the Sages – as our ancestors did when God took them out of Egypt, will
ensure the Torah and Judaism are kept pristine and faithful to the Divine will
for generations to come.
Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch teaches
that there is a tangible benefit to accepting the laws of the Torah and the
rabbinic edicts, even when one does not understand their basis. Doing so prepares a person psychologically
for the crises that inevitably come to pass throughout one’s life. If you accept that you cannot fathom God’s
will and are prepared to obey Him nonetheless, you will be able to maintain
your faith even when incomprehensible calamity strikes. Tragically, we find ourselves currently in
the midst of such a calamity for all humankind.
We pray that the Almighty show us all mercy very soon.
When we view Torah as a book of
stories or history, and our Sages as wise leaders of their time, it makes sense
to dismiss the Divine law and rabbinic enactments as out-of-date and no longer
binding. The Torah is not a storybook,
it’s a Divine guidebook for life. May
you always maintain the humility to bow to Hashem’s infinite wisdom and thereby
become an eternal link in the chain of Torah for generations to come.
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