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One of Judaism's highest values, besides life itself, is Shalom. Without peace, both inside us and about us, we cannot even enjoy the gift of life that G!D has granted us.
Yet as flawed humans, we will continue to find ourselves in situations that detract from our serenity. At those times, it is imperative to draw upon the strength and wisdom that G!D provides us not to make matters worse, and to remember the teachings of our sages, and learn from their errors.
The Talmud tells the story of two friends who let an argument get in the way of their friendship. It is sad tale. It is from Tractate Bavli Bava Metzia 84 A.
Rabbi Yochanan who was becoming a respected Talmudic scholar and would eventually help redact the Yesushalmi Talmud was swimming in the Jordan River near his home in the Galilee. The Talmud relates many times how handsome Yochanan was.
Another fellow jumps into the Jordan. Yochanan recognizes him as Shimon ben Lakish, a gladiator and a bandit, as well as a Jew. Yochanan says to this muscular man : "Your strength was meant for Torah!"
"And your beauty was meant for women!" replied the robber.
"Do Teshuva, return to the Torah of your youth and you can marry my sister, who is even more beautiful than I !" countered Rabbi Yochanan.
The bandit, Shimon, agreed, and for 70 years these two men, now brother-in-laws, become Talmud study partners. The great Yochanan called Shimon his "right hand."
They argued about every Mishna but they were true friends.
Until the fateful day arrived. The question being discussed was : When can a sword, SAYIF , knife, SAKIN , a long knife, PAGYON , spear , ROMACH , a hand sickle, MAGAL YAD, sickle for harvesting ,MAGAL KATZIR , become ritually unclean,(tamay)?
All the rabbis agreed that these items can become ritually unclean when the smith is finished making them.
The question then was asked: " when is the manufacturing process complete?"
The younger rabbis turned to the elder rabbis Yochanan and Shimon for the answers.
Sure enough, an argument ensued. Rabbi Yochanan said, "They can become ritually unclean from the time they are shaped by fire in the furnace." MISHE'YETZARFEM B'CHIVSHAN
Rabbi Shimon said, "They can become ritually unclean only after they have been polished with water." MISHE'YETZACHTZECHEN B'MAYIM
For those of us blessed to have studied and continue to study Talmud, we note an error in both rabbis' opinions. The Mishnah on vessels and utensils (Kaylim) states when the manufacturing process is considered completed for each kind of knife or bladed object. Yochanan and Shimon's opinions disagree with the Mishna.
"Well, a bandit surely knows banditry!" LISTA'AH B'LISTEYUSEI YADA exclaims Rabbi Yochanan, in response to Rabbi Shimon's answer. He brings up Rabbi Shimon's past for which he has certainly has done teshuvah (amends).
"What good have you done for me?" queries Rabbi Shimon. "Before, they my fellow robbers - called me, Rebbi, and here in the Yeshiva - they call me, Rebbi." (When Shimon was a bandit, he was the head of a tribe of bandits).
"The good I have done for you," replied Rabbi Yochanan, "is that I have brought you under the wings of the Shechinah."
Rabbi Yochanan became so upset that he could not think straight
Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish became deathly sick from this argument. CHALASH REISH LAKISH
While Shimon lay dying, his wife ran to her brother. She begged Yochanan to pray for his friend Shimon. Rabbi Yochanan refused.
"Do it for his children so they will not become orphans."
Rabbi Yochanan answered by quoting the prophet, Jeremiah (49:11), "She has left orphans, I will support them." AZVAH YESOMECHA, ANI ACHAYEH.
Yochanan's sister, Shimon's wife, yelled "Do it so I will not become a widow!"
Again her brother replied with a quote, the remainder of the verse from Jeremiah, "Your widows will trust in me." V'ALMENOSECHA ALAI TIVTACHU.
Raish Lakish died. NACH NAFSHEI D'REBBI SHIMON BEN LAKISH .
Rabbi Yochanan was very remorseful.HAVAH KA MITZTA'ER REBBI YOCHANAN BASREI TUVA. He had difficulty studying. Rabbi Elazar, the brightest student was sent to study with him. Every time Rabbi Yochanan would say something, Rabbi Elazar would quote a bit of Mishna material to support it. He was the ultimate ''yes man."
Yochanan, enormously frustrated, said to Rabbi Elazar, "Are you like Shimon? Shimon would give me 24 questions and I'd give 24 answers. This is how Talmud grows. All you do is support my opinion.'' Rabbi Yochanan turned away and began to cry. "Where is Shimon ben Lakish? Where is Shimon ben Lakish?" He asked over and over again, screaming, HAVAH KA TZAVACH, until he became totally confused and lost his mind. AD D'SHAF DA'ATEI MINEI.
The Rabbis prayed that God have mercy and compassion for their colleague, Rabbi Yochanan. As a result, he, too, died.
What is the Talmud trying to teach us? The story of a fight, literally to the death, is absurd. But when we look at our own lives, haven't we have arguments with people, even family members, over similar stupid things?
These two rabbis are not arguing over knives. They are arguing over Teshuvah, repentance, forgiveness.
You see, a knife cannot not become ritually impure. Only something that is considered ritually pure (Taharah) can become impure.
The question therefore is when does someone who returns to G!D, what we call a Ba'al Teshuvah, finish the process of amends making? When does a Ba'al Teshuvah become "taharah" so that this person can do something so profane to make themselves back to the way they were before they changed from their misguided ways?
The Teshuvah process is completed, according to Yochanan, when the past life has been burnt away making a new person.
The process is completed, according to Shimon, (the Ba'al Teshuvah) when the person has been cleaned by water. Water is one of the Talmudic symbols for Torah. Even if the Ba'al Teshuvah still has elements of his past days, if he has adopted the yoke of Torah, and Mitzvoth, his Teshuvah is complete.
Yochanan bringing up Shimon's old knowledge of knives after all of these years is cruel. He is saying to Shimon that with all of his Torah and Talmud study,with all of his being a good husband to his sister, and with all of his mitzvoth, he is still a bandit.
Yochanan believes there is no life but a life ''of Torah''. He taught in Mishna Pirkie Avot (5:22), "Turn the Torah over again and again, for everything is in it." Anything outside the world of Torah is unclean and impure. Yochanan lives in a world of white and black. Torah or not Torah. Pure or impure.
Rabbi Shimon lived a life "with Torah." Being a Jew, in modern terms, does not mean giving up the arts, or sports, or having non-Jewish friends (as long as they respect our religion and are not trying to covert us). We can live in a world of black and white, but that is mostly in shades of gray, using Torah and prayer to help us do what is right and just in G!D's eyes. Shimon's knowing about knives after 70 years of Talmud study, no more made him a bandit, then a Rabbi telling a mildly ribald joke to a group of adults makes him a pervert.
Yochanan's lament of "Oh, Shimon ben Lakish! Oh, Shimon ben Lakish! Where are you now?!" is too little, too late. It is too late to say, "I am sorry." It is too late to say," I was wrong." It is too late for Yochanan to do teshuvah, to make amends, to Shimon as he is dead.
Seventy years of Talmud study, along with being an author of the Yesushalmi Talmud, and an angry moment is for what Yochanan is remembered. Anger is an issue that the Sages discuss quite thoroughly. The Talmud [Bavli Tractate Nedarim 22 A,B] offers a number of varied teachings about anger: The Shechinah is of no importance to those who get angry; one who gets angry forgets that which he has learned; all types of Gehinnom (Hell) rule over a person who gets angry. Elsewhere in the Talmud [Bavli Tractate Pesachim 66B], Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish taught that if a chacham (wise person) gets angry, his wisdom will leave him. Little did he know that he was forecasting his own death from the harsh words of his friend and brother-in-law, Rabbi Yochanan.
We can quote all of the Torah, Talmud, Midrash, Bible, we want. We can teach it to our children, or visit folks in hospitals and old age homes, and read Bible stories to them. We can even do an appointed time bound mitzvoth, like cooking and serving food to the needy, on a specific day and time. We can write checks to charity (tzadakah) or to our synagogues. But if we truly do not live a life ''with Torah", and are just living a life "of Torah," or ''using Torah'', we are only fooling ourselves.
Let us not make the errors of Yochanan and Shimon. Let us heal wounds with friends and family. Let us be like the Talmudim (disciples) of Aaron, loving peace, (ahavath shalom), pursuing peace (rodef shalom) and bring people closer to Torah ,G!D, and to one another.
Shalom v'brachoth:
Rabbi Arthur Segal
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