Abraham observed mitzvot, right?
Why are the rabbis so committed to this idea that our patriarchs (and matriarchs) fulfilled all of the mitzvot?
I've heard it said that in Judaism: our heroes are flawed.
At the same time, we use them as guides. We look at them and ask, how can I be like them? Or at least, how can I be like them in this way? We utilize their behaviors as frameworks for halakhic decisions, sometimes.
On Berachot 26b, in establishing the three services per day, each service gets assigned a daily offering. Shacharit is the morning offering and Mincha is the afternoon offering. Maariv is established through the fact that the offerings had yet been consumed by evening and were offered throughout the night.
And then, something else happens.
It was taught in a baraita in accordance with the opinion of Rabbi Yosei, son of Rabbi Ḥanina: Abraham instituted the morning prayer, as it is stated when Abraham came to look out over Sodom the day after he had prayed on its behalf: “And Abraham rose early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the Lord” (Genesis 19:27), and from the context as well as the language utilized in the verse, the verb standing means nothing other than prayer...
Isaac instituted the afternoon prayer, as it is stated: “And Isaac went out to converse [lasuaḥ] in the field toward evening” (Genesis 24:63), and conversation means nothing other than prayer, as it is stated: “A prayer of the afflicted when he is faint and pours out his complaint [siḥo] before the Lord” (Psalms 102:1)...
Jacob instituted the evening prayer, as it is stated: “And he encountered [vayifga] the place and he slept there for the sun had set” (Genesis 28:11)...
We use each of the patriarchs, in this case, as a source for deriving a mitzvah, in this case, the institution for three daily prayers.
But it isn't just there, this principle applies elsewhere as well, including from this week's Torah portion, Chayei Sarah, as explored by Yoma 28b.
This, like much of Talmud, is a bit meander-y, so bear with me.
Rav Safra said: The time for the afternoon prayer of Abraham begins from when the walls begin to blacken from shade.
Here, Rabbeinu Hananel notes Abraham is used here as a catch-all term for all of the patriarchs. I find this to be unconvincing, but not the focus for today. The statement here means, in context: we're defining Mincha's start time as when the sun has moved from the shadowless noontime into the afternoon.
But then, we get the big question:
Rav Yosef said: And will we arise and derive a halakha from Abraham? Didn’t Abraham live before the Torah was given to the Jewish people, and therefore halakhot cannot be derived from his conduct?
And this is the part we almost always say, but rarely out loud.
Rav Yosef asks, reasonably: Should we really be learning halakhah from Abraham?
I mean, last week, he probably served meat and milk together)
Rava responds and explains, the previous generation of rabbis, the Tannaim did it and therefore we (the Amoraim) can too and provides a proof text.
There's disagreement then about if Rav Yosef really meant it and what was his difficulty really. When does Mincha really start? (I know you forgot, but that was the original context.) But ultimately, the Gemara, the voice of the document itself rejects all of that for three possibilities:
First, the walls of the temple weren't perfectly vertical. Second, Abraham is just a super expert on astronomy.
Third, and the wildest: Abraham was an Elder who studied in Yeshiva and he got good at figuring out when noon was.
Or, alternatively Abraham was different because he was an Elder and sat and studied Torah in a yeshiva, where the Divine Presence rests. There he developed the expertise to determine the precise hour. As Rabbi Ḥama, son of Rabbi Ḥanina, said: From the days of our ancestors, yeshiva never left them. Our ancestors were leaders of their generations, who taught Torah to students who came to them.
And this is the part, when we think about our "heroes" that blows my mind.
Abraham, we can say, fairly conclusively, did not likely study in a Yeshiva. But the Talmud doesn't stop there.
When they were in Egypt there was a yeshiva with them, as it is stated: “Go and gather the Elders of Israel” (Exodus 3:16)... And similarly, when they were in the desert, there was a yeshiva with them, as it is stated: “Gather for me seventy men from the Elders of Israel” (Numbers 11:16).
Abraham our Patriarch was himself an Elder and would sit in yeshiva, as it is stated: “And Abraham was old, advanced in years” (Genesis 24:1)…Similarly, Isaac our Patriarch was an Elder and sat in yeshiva, as it is stated: “And it came to pass when Isaac was old and his eyes were dim” (Genesis 27:1). Similarly, Jacob our Patriarch was an Elder and sat in yeshiva, as it is stated: “And Israel’s eyes were heavy with age” (Genesis 48:10).
Eliezer, servant of Abraham, was an Elder and sat in yeshiva, as it is stated: “And Abraham said to his servant, the elder of his household, who ruled over all he had” (Genesis 24:2). Rabbi Elazar said: The verse means that he had mastery over the Torah of his master, having gained proficiency in all of the Torah of Abraham.
The Talmud lists the Israelites in Egypt and in the desert, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Abraham's servant, Eliezer as all having studied in yeshiva.
Using their source texts and approach, which we're not going to go through here, we could probably add to this list a great deal more people, including non-males in the Torah too.
But, the question isn't, why is the Talmud saying something that is so clearly anachronistic and wrong?
I mean, the Talmud goes on to say that Abraham utilized the rabbinic legal loophole of the Eruv Tavshilin:
Rav said, and some say Rav Ashi said: Abraham our Patriarch fulfilled the entire Torah, even the mitzva of the joining of cooked foods, a rabbinic ordinance instituted later, as it is stated: My Torahs. Since the term is in the plural, it indicates that Abraham kept two Torahs; one, the Written Torah, and one, the Oral Torah. In the course of fulfilling the Oral Torah, he fulfilled all the details and parameters included therein.
It seems a bit silly, to be honest. This leads us to the most important question:
Why are the rabbis so committed to this idea that they studied in yeshiva and fulfilled all of the mitzvot? Why do we need or want them to be shomer mitzvot when it didn't exist yet?
We want them to be just like us.
Even though we might be separated by thousands of years, we desperately want to imagine them as just like us.
I want Abraham and Sarah to be arguing about who took out the garbage and Rebecca to be correcting Isaac and her meet cute story when they talk with friends. I want to imagine Moses, Miriam, and Aaron fighting about who is sitting in the front seat of the car.
We want them to be as human as we are. Flawed, stressed, and beautifully human.
We want to be just like them.
At the same time, we claim them as our ancestors and look to them as examples. We want their experience and wisdom to guide us like parents gently encouraging their children.
For example, Rebecca and Abraham are known for their hospitality, maybe we should strive for that too.
By identifying our ancestors with specific qualities, we encourage those qualities in ourselves. They become models for us, even in their complexity.
It helps us understand the power of legacy.
We are not the beginning of the story nor are we the end.
Pirkei Avot begins with the story of the Torah's transmission from God to Moses to the rabbis. We see ourselves as a part of that journey too. We tell stories of generations past so we can give lessons to the future.
It is powerful to be able to say, the first Jews did this and so do we.