Our Torah portion this week, Behar-Behukotai, begins in a pretty innocuous way.
וַיְדַבֵּ֤ר ה' אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֔ה בְּהַ֥ר סִינַ֖י לֵאמֹֽר׃
The LORD spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai:
God speaks to Moses on Mount Sinai. We know, this happens a lot. The portion continues to talk about the Shmitah year (when we allow the land to lie fallow), among other things.
But Rashi uses this as an opportunity to talk about the nature of Torah when he comments on this verse:
At Mount Sinai. Why is the matter of shmitah (Sabbatical year) found at Mount Sinai? Weren't all of the commandments spoken from Sinai? How is this the case with shmitah?
It is spoken of in generalities and specifics and its details from Sinai. Even so all of them (the commandments) are spoken of in their generalities and details from Sinai, thus it is taught in Torat Kohamin (Leviticus).
And it appears to me that that is its explanation: since we do not find the Sabbatical year for the soil that was taught on the plains of Moab in the book of Deuteronomy. That is to teach us that all of its details and its specifics were spoken at Sinai.
And Scripture comes and teaches here on every speech that was attributed to Moses, that from Sinai was it given, all of their generalities and their details, and that they were repeated again on the plains of Moab.
Rashi notes that even though different laws are presented in different locations, all of them are to be considered Torah given from Sinai. He gives the example of the Shmitah year appearing here in Leviticus but not in Deuteronomy when Moses retells the story and the laws.
More fundamentally, Rashi makes it clear that not only should we understand that the entire Torah was given at Sinai, but that it was transmitted through Moses.
This will be important to us later.
A quick note on biblical literalism:
The story the Tradition tells about itself is that it was given in its entirety at Sinai to Moses, who transmitted it. This story has value and meaning. When I read the texts of our Tradition, I keep in mind and respect this view.
Personally, I don’t think that is a literal understanding of how things came to be. I’m comfortable with that. This does not negate the importance of this other view. It has merit and validity all on its own.
I’m not encouraging you to think one thing or the other, but for me, I like to hold both truths simultaneously. When I read the texts, I allow part of my heart and mind to accept the idea that it was transmitted through Moses at Sinai. The other part knows there is another story too.
Ok, back to our regularly scheduled program.
God ties crowns on the letters, and not just to make them pretty.
In Menachot, there is a story that you might have read before (or not), about God tying crowns on the letters.
Rav Yehuda says that Rav says: When Moses ascended on High, he found the Holy One, Blessed be God, sitting and tying crowns on the letters of the Torah. Moses said before God: Master of the Universe, who is preventing You from giving the Torah without these additions?
Moses encounters God tying the crowns on the letters and asks, “Who is preventing you” from giving the Torah without them?
This is not the question we might ask. We might ask, “Why are you doing this?” “What is the significance of the crowns?” “Why are they called crowns?”
But to ask about who is preventing God from giving Torah without them is strange. Who could prevent God from giving the Torah? Remember this, because I think I have an answer, but we’re not there yet.
God said to him: There is a man who is destined to be born after several generations, and Akiva ben Yosef is his name; he is destined to derive from each and every thorn of these crowns mounds upon mounds of halakhot. It is for his sake that the crowns must be added to the letters of the Torah.
God answers a different question with, there will be a guy named Akiva, in the future, who will utilize these crowns. He will use them to derive halakhot, ways of doing Judaism.
Here begins our Torah-Time-Traveling story, because this is what happens next.
Moses said before God: Master of the Universe, show him to me. God said to him: Return behind you. Moses went and sat at the end of the eighth row in Rabbi Akiva’s study hall and did not understand what they were saying. Moses’ strength waned, as he thought his Torah knowledge was deficient.
Moses turns around and finds himself at the back of Rabbi Akiva’s classroom. However, something isn’t right.
Moses, the transmitter of Torah, doesn’t understand what is happening. He is confused by what he hears.
Now, there are a number of different ways to imagine his confusion. He doesn’t understand:
the language
the arguments
the context
the questions
or, honestly, a lot of things that we could imagine if we’d traveled thousands of years into the future.
Nevertheless, he feels poorly. His “strength waned” from the experience.
Rabbi Steinsaltz offers that the reasoning is that he felt deficient, which aligns with his character trait of humility. (Rabbi Steinsaltz’ commentary is the not-bold text quoted.) However, we could read it that he expected to know it all already and is upset that he doesn’t already know this, a manifestation of ego instead. There are other potential reasons too.
When Rabbi Akiva arrived at the discussion of one matter, his students said to him: My teacher, from where do you derive this? Rabbi Akiva said to them: It is a halakha transmitted to Moses from Sinai. When Moses heard this, his mind was put at ease, as this too was part of the Torah that he was to receive.
When asked about the source of his teaching, Rabbi Akiva offers that this was transmitted to Moses on Sinai. Moses feels better with this result.
This leaves us with two problems:
Moses doesn’t know it. How could he transmit it?
Why does Moses feel better?
Rabbi Steinsaltz again saves Moses. He suggests that Moses understands that this is Torah he will receive in the future, but it hasn’t happened yet.
This aligns with what Rashi said earlier on, that everything, regardless of when we’ve heard it, happens at Sinai through Moses. It could be that when this story is happening, Moses hasn’t encountered Rabbi Akiva’s teaching yet.
Another possibility is that Moses recognizes his importance in the story, and despite the fact that he still doesn’t understand the teaching, he feels more secure in his role with the Jewish people.
The next part of the story amplifies both options:
Moses returned and came before the Holy One, Blessed be God, and said before God: Master of the Universe, You have a man as great as this and yet You still choose to give the Torah through me. Why? God said to him: Be silent; this intention arose before Me.
Moses finds himself back where he started and asks: why did you give the Torah to me and not to Rabbi Akiva?
God’s answer: Shut up.
Moses, either through humility or ego, wants to know why God has given the Torah to him and does not receive a satisfying answer. God teaches us that we cannot understand why things happen, but that God’s intention, translated from מחשבה, machshava, more literally a thought, is what it is.
This challenges us to think about the nature of reality, that we don’t understand why things are the way they are. Or perhaps living through them is the only way to truly know.
Though, honestly, it is an unsatisfying response, let’s say that.
But the story doesn’t end there.
Moses said before God: Master of the Universe, You have shown me Rabbi Akiva’s Torah, now show me his reward. God said to him: Return to where you were. Moses went back and saw that they were weighing Rabbi Akiva’s flesh in a butcher shop [bemakkulin], as Rabbi Akiva was tortured to death by the Romans. Moses said before God: Master of the Universe, this is Torah and this is its reward? God said to him: Be silent; this intention arose before Me.
Moses wants to know about Rabbi Akiva’s reward for being this extraordinary teacher of Torah, based on the rabbinic thinking that doing mitzvot have a reward. What is it?
The Romans kill Rabbi Akiva, and Moses sees firsthand the result. It is not pretty. When asked why, God responds again: “Shut up, you don’t understand.”
And we are left with more questions than when we started this story.
However, I think part of that is because this story is part of a pair.
Yes, you read that right.
In my research, I could only find one other story with the same setup as this one. I’d heard the one above a million times, but never this second one.
This one appears in Masechet Shabbat:
And Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said: When Moses ascended on High, he found the Holy One, Blessed be God, tying crowns to letters. On the tops of certain letters there are ornamental crownlets.
Moses said nothing, and God said to him: Moses, is there no greeting in your city? Do people not greet each other in your city? He said before God: Does a servant greet his master? That would be disrespectful.
God said to him: At least you should have assisted Me and wished Me success in My work. Immediately he said to God: “And now, may the power of the Lord be great as you have spoken” (Numbers 14:17).
The story begins the same, Moses encounters God tying crowns.
However, in this version, Moses says nothing. God, sarcastically, I think, asks him, “Are people rude where you come from?” prompting Moses to speak.
Just as a side note: Moses is essentially from Egypt, and they are now in the desert. To me, this makes this question very anachronistic and silly in the best way possible.
Moses responds that speaking before God acknowledges him would be disrespectful. God responds by suggesting that Moses could help God in the crown-tying endeavor. Moses does this by offering a verse that speaks to God’s power and greatness.
This story, by itself, is a funny vignette that describes the relationship between God and Moses.
However, these two stories are in conversation and should be read together, not separately.
One core question we might ask is, in what order should we read these stories? Let’s call the first story = Time Travel and the second story = Good Luck.
We have three options:
Time Travel is at the same time as Good Luck
Time Travel and then Good Luck
Good Luck and then Time Travel
If we read them as contemporaneous:
We might overlay Moses and Rabbi Akiva together, seeing them in a chain of transmission, one of the core lessons of the Time Travel story.
Rabbi Akiva understands that he is standing on the shoulders of Moses. He is the servant to Moses’s master if you will. While there is certainly a place for each of us to have our own voice, to bring something new to the text, we still base our thinking on those who taught us, on some level.
But, it is through God’s power overall, Moses’s power of transmission, and Rabbi Akiva’s interpretations (and so on) that we have the Tradition today.
If we read them as Time Travel and then Good Luck:
This helps us understand Moses’ silence. He might be nervous about approaching God, knowing that immense suffering will happen in the future.
This teaches us about being careful, fearing and being in awe of God. This reminds us of God’s power over us. The first teaching of suffering, followed by Moses’ silence, reinforces this point.
Before God, fundamentally, we should be silent, knowing our tiny place in the grand scheme of things.
If we read them as Good Luck and then Time Travel:
This provides logic to the question Moses asks.
First, Moses doesn’t say anything until prompted and then asks his question. This makes sense to the question, “Who is preventing you” from giving the Torah without the crowns?
God was seeking support from Moses, a co-creator of Judaism, and God’s answer is about a co-creator of Rabbinic Judaism. “I could do this on my own, but I don’t want to. I have placed this person in the future to create with me.”
No one is preventing God, God wants to do the work together.
These two stories, read together (in any order), invite us to think about the question of Torah itself. We are handed a Tradition, encouraged to think about what it contains, and attach our thinking to what came before.
The oral tradition is a framework for thinking about legacy and continuity. It keeps us looking forward and backward simultaneously.
Earlier this week, I went to the National Museum of the American Indian and was struck by this quote that also speaks to this theme:
When you act and speak you must think of all your relatives – known and unknown. You must also remember the plants, the animals, the living things, and the ancient ones – those that have gone before you.
–Hiyvtke (Jean Chaudhuri, Muscogee), 2001
Though Rashi tells us that Torah was given at Sinai, we learn from this that the nature of Torah is that it is always being given, at every moment. In addition, we must consider how it might appear in the future.
Earlier this week, we crossed the 500 subscriber threshold. Wow!!
I want to take this opportunity to thank all of you who have clicked, read, shared, or subscribed to this newsletter. Knowing that we are exploring the Tradition together makes such a difference.
It has been a wonderful journey so far, and we are just getting started. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Loved this one. Gave me an interesting new perspective. Thanks! Shabbat Shalom.