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RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL:JEWISH RENEWAL:JEWISH SPIRITUAL RENEWAL:JERUSALEM'S FALL:
RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL:JERUSALEM'S FALL:TALMUD GITTIN:JEWISH SPIRITUAL RENEWAL VIEW
Shalom:
Werner, a Talmid, (student) in our Jewish Spiritual Renewal class responded to an essay I had on this web site,RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL:TALMUD YERUSHALMI:JERUSALEM IN RUINS:GITTEN 5:6:SIKARIKON .
Werner's post has much merit. It echoes the Maharal' s analysis of this event. (Rabbi Judah Loew, Prague, b 1525) .
The Rabbi Hanina (ca. 300 BCE) in Talmud teaches me ''that I have learned much from my teachers,... but from my students I have learned the most.''
Shalom:
Rabbi Arthur Segal
Hilton Head Island, SC
Bluffton, SC
Hebrew College, MA, USA
via Shamash Org on-line class service
JEWISH RENEWAL:
JEWISH SPIRITUAL RENEWAL
Greetings Rabbi Segal:
I have found your posts most interesting.
I would like to throw my two shekels into the mix.
There is a bit more of a spiritual message found in the passage of Bavli Gittin that we have been giving the Bavli sages credit. I think they are quite as spiritual as those in Yerushalmi.
They tell us that :"Because of a chicken and a hen, Tur Malka was destroyed." (Gittin 57a) and it is explained that at Jewish wedding feasts it was the custom to give these animals for a fertility rite. When Romans came by and took these animals for theirs, the Jews rioted. Then as Rav Asi says: "Three hundred thousand armed soldiers came to Tur Malka and went around killing for three days and three nights. Meanwhile, a festive party was held on the other side of the city, and each side knew nothing of what transpired on the other." They go on to state that Tur Malka population was so large that there was no sense of community among Jews.
The sages in Bavli Gittin say that:'' because of the door of a wagon, Betar was destroyed.'' (Gittin 55b) . The rabbis explain: In Betar they would plant a cedar to commemorate the birth of a boy, and a pine upon the birth of a girl. The tree planted at birth would later be used for the construction of the youngster's wedding canopy. Once, the emperor's daughter cut down several cedars in order to fix her broken carriage, arousing the violent reaction of the inhabitants of Betar. A war thus ensued, and the city was destroyed.
The chicken, which symbolized the large population of Tur Malka, brought about its destruction. Likewise, the cedar, the strongest of trees, caused the downfall of Betar. We are being taught that at a time of destruction, the source of strength becomes the source of failure, if God and spirituality are not connected to the source.
Now we have heard about the party snub and the fall of Jerusalem. But the Talmud tells us the Fall is the fault of ''"Because of Kamtza and Bar Kamtza, Jerusalem was destroyed." Kamtza was not even involved!
A closer analysis of the Gemara will help clarify this anomaly. The Gemara states that Kamtza's friend "made a party." This wasn't a wedding or some other festivity of religious significance; it was a party for an enclosed, self-contained clique, characteristic of a splintered society. This group, to which Kamtza belonged and from which Bar Kamtza was publicly rejected, resembles an "egrof KAMUTZ" - a closed fist, which safely protects everyone within, but which is impossible to penetrate or to gain entry into. Indeed, this was the sin of Kamtza - his very membership in such an exclusive clique!!
The sages make it VERY clear that it was the failure of Rabbinic leadership,( "The modesty of Rabbi Zecharya ben Avkulis destroyed our house, burnt our Temple, and exiled us from our land."), in letting the host humiliate Bar Kamtza and standing idly by as one of, [my now], fellow students wrote, and foolishly not allowing the Emperor's calf to be sacrificed (due to a minor defect that Bar Kamtza placed on it), forgetting that peace with one's neighbors is more important than ritual and rules. But the biggest sin of the rabbis was belonging to the 'host's' clique and going to such a party!
When Rabbinic leadership avoids the man-to-man laws that the Talmud says all of Torah boils down to (chesed-kindness), allows cliques and lack of chesed in his/her temples, and even becomes actively involved in exclusions from parties, shuls, or even classrooms (as the story of young Hillel in the Talmud warns us about not doing), we are setting ourselves up for the seeds of our future destruction.
Todah Rabah,
Werner W____, MD, retired
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JEWISH RENEWAL:
JEWISH SPIRITUAL RENEWAL
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