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RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL:TALMUD YERUSHALMI:WEATHER, TZADAKAH AND GOD:TAANIT 3:3
Shalom:
There is no doubt to those reading this in the present (June 2008) that the world is experiencing some very devastating climate changes bringing about major flooding, earthquakes, and God only knows what more.
Certainly modern man does not relate his actions of sinning to changes in the weather. But if we realize that one of our first commands in Genesis to humankind in general was to be a steward of the earth, our foolishness and our ''fuelishness'', may indeed not be causing the rains, but are certainly causing the destruction, because of our stupidity of not building needed levees, or causing global warming with our carbon fuel emissions.
The sages in the Talmud Yerushalmi in Tractate Taanit 3:3 have an interesting view on climate, the Divine, and man's responsibility for such.
The Talmud states: R. Johanan said: Three keys the Holy One blessed be He has retained in His own hands and not entrusted to the hand of any messenger, namely, the Key of Rain, the Key of Childbirth, and the Key of the Revival of the Dead. The Key of Rain, for It is written," The Lord will open unto thee His good treasure, the heaven to give the rain of thy land in its season." (Deut. 28:12)
The sages in Judea believed that there was a dome over the earth. They believed that a river existed above that dome. God controlled the doors in the dome. And as Rabbi Johanan stated above, only God allowed rain to fall.
The sages believe that God closed the gates on account of four different sins of man.
''On account of four sorts of sins are rains withheld: Because of the sins of idolatry, fornication, murder and because of people who pledge charity in public but don't hand over the money.".
As we usually see in the both Talmuds, the sages quote from the Tanach to back up their opinions.
"How do we know that it is because of the people who pledge charity in public but do not hand over the money? 'Like clouds and wind without rain is a man who boasts of a gift he does not give.(Proverbs 25:14) (Talmud Yerushalmi Tractate Taanit 3:3).
The sins of murder, idolatry and adultery (I use this word rather than fornication which the Talmud uses because the definition of such is "consensual sexual intercourse between two persons not married to each other" which in both Hebraic and Judaic law, if they were single and of age, would make them married), are an affront to and a denial of God. They are capital crimes.
The Talmud teaches us in Sanhedrin that we all have one set of human parents and one Heavenly Parent, and are created in God's image, yet the 'press' makes us all different. A murderer kills an ''entire world'' in a split second, yet God took 6 of HIS days to create the world. (Tractate Sanhedrin 37a)
Idolatry is a direct denial of God. And adultery destroys a holy matrimony (we can discuss property and lineage rights and sociology concerns another time).
When one pledges charity, publicly, one is boasting, as the Talmud tells us its best to give anonymously without the knowing who the donor is. Indeed the story is told of a sage, Mar Ukva, and his wife, who jumped into a burning oven, rather than be seen by a poor person for whom they just dropped off charity. (Talmud Tractate Ketuvot 67b)
There is a Torah law regarding the Temple and the Priests that one can not to sell a field already promised as pledge to the Lord (Lev. 27:28) . There are also Torah laws against making vows and not keeping them. (Deut. 23:24, Lev. 19:12, Num. 30:3, Deut. 23:22).
The sages make it clear that whatever we have isn't ours at all but it just a loan from God anyway and it to be shared. They teach that the best way to safeguard one's belongings is to share it via charity.The story is told of another rich Jew, Nakdimon ben Gurion, whose daughter was found picking seeds out of dung and told a famous sage that her dad lost his wealth and could not pay her dowry, sending her into a life of poverty, because he did not give enough charity. (Talmud Tractate Ketuvot 66b-67a). While he did give charity, he only did so for his own honor, and not anonymously.
So when one makes a public pledge, and then withholds, one is denying God as well. And doing so publicly. One is saying "I am afraid to share, because I do not trust nor have faith in God, that He will provide for me," as Ps. 145:16 teaches. (You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing. )
He is also breaking the third part of the V'ahavtah...You shall love God with all of your hearts l'vevachah (1), with all of your soul (nafshecha) (2) and with all of your 'very' (meodecha)( 3) which the sages says means among other things, money.
The Talmud makes it clear that everything we have is a gift from God and that it is meant to be shared. When we do not give charity, we are closing our hands and making a fist to the poor and to God. We are saying we 'made' the money. We deny God's role and we deny God's continually caring for us as our loving Provider.
He is a public apikoret. And that is a capital offense along with the first three.
Since the Talmud also teaches that all Jews are responsible for one another, kol Yisrael arevim zeh ba-zeh, ( Talmud Tractate Shavuot 39a) sins of individuals, as we see during our Yom Kippur and Selichot services' penitential prayers, are communal sins. God just doesn't ruin the crops of this sinner, but can withhold the rain from the community, if not the entire land of Israel.
So it is interesting to note how the Rabbis of the Yesushalmi Talmud lumped withholding charity with three capital crimes, and actually made it into a capital crime itself. Remember however, the Talmud made it very difficult to carry out a capital punishment saying that any court that executes a person once in 7 years (one rabbi said once in 70 years ) is a bloody court.
Just as our Prophets who admonished sinners, always left us on a high note, teaching us that God will never forsake us, and that the gates of repentance are always upon to us, the Rabbis of the Talmud do similar. They continue in Talmud Yerushalmi Taanit 4:2 and also recorded in Midrash Bereshit Rabbah 13:15 with some uplift thoughts about rain.
Our sages concentrate here not on the sins that can bring about a drought, but the blessings we receive from God from rain, especially in the arid Eretz Israel.
"Rabbi Judah bar Yehezkiel said: So my father Yehezkiel used to bless over the falling rain: May Your great name be elevated, sanctified, blessed and raised up for each and every single drop which you bring down for us and
which you keep separate from one another.
Rabbi Jose bar Ya'akov went to visit Rabbi Yudan Migdalia. A light rain began to fall. He heard Rabbi Yudan say, "A thousand times over we must give thanks to Your name, Our Ruler, for each and every drop that you bring down
upon us for you grant goodness to the unworthy."
When we remember the covenant that God made with all of mankind via Noah that in a sense promised that rain would be an ally to man and not a harbinger of flood and destruction, and that this was sealed with a rainbow, that comes after it rains, we can see why God's promise of a rainbow, must include therefore, 'rain in its seasons,' for humanity.
The deeper lesson of the Rabbis of Talmud Yerushalmi to be learned however is how we are to have belief, faith, trust, awe, love, and experience God, and to do His will, and life will go smoother for us.
Shalom,
Rabbi Arthur Segal
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