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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 (Tractate 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 Pirket 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 Yerushalmi 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.
"Rabbi Yochanan spent three and a half years without going to the House of Meeting because of his anguish over Reish Lakish's death. Finally, Rabbi Elazar saw in his dream: Tomorrow Sinai (Rabbi Yochanan's nickname) will come down and teach you something new.
Rabbi Yochanan went in and said before the students of the sages: How may we verify that the Temple service is to be carried out by the firstborn instead of by priests? We know it from this verse: 'For all the first born
among the people of Israel are mine, both of man and of beast. On the day that I slew all the firstborn in the land of Egypt I consecrated them for myself. (Numbers 8:17). And it is written :'For I will pass through the land
of Egypt that night, and I will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast. And on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. (Exodus 12:12. The Israelite firstborn were sanctified were sanctified at that time. (Talmud Yerushalmi Tractate Megillah 1:11-13)
Note that Rabbi Eliezer was considered the greatest scholar of his time. He also did not lack in courage smuggling Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai out of Jerusalem, which allowed the creation of the Academy of Yavneh, which many thought, saved Judaism. A footnote to the Talmud notes that Rabbi Eliezer also was not known to take contrary positions before the singular confrontation detailed below (over an oven) that resulted in his far-reaching expulsion from the Jewish community.
Rabbi Eliezer noted the times surrounding his trial, and in line with the environment which caused the loss of the Temples, the devastating loss of Jewish life and soon the Bar-Kokhba Rebellion, Rabbi Eliezer felt that the Rabbis were going too far in their fence building around Torah and were actually disregarding some laws, while creating others.
Rabbi Eliezer described the environment in Talmud Bavli Tractate Sotah 9.15:
"The young shall shame the elders
and the elders will stand up before the inferiors
'The sons dishonor the father,
the daughter rise against her mother
the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
a man's enemies will be men of his own house' (Micah 7:6).
This generation's face is like a dog's face:
The son is not ashamed before the father,
And on whom can we rely?
On God!
On that fateful morning, Rabbi Eliezer and his disciple Rabbi Akiva were seen walking together to the Academy of Yavneh. The time was a few years before the Bar Kochba rebellion (approximately 132 - 134 CE). Oblivious to all about them, they were locked in an intense debate. "Master", said Rabbi Akiva, "the issue has been clearly defined. You believe, as does the owner of the oven, that since the oven of Akhnai is made of pieces that have been joined together, it is considered to be built of broken fragments. The law is that broken utensils cannot contract ritual impurity. Therefore the oven is ritually pure. Unfortunately, the other sages do not agree with your interpretation. They point out that the original oven had become contaminated. The owner cut it into tiles and reassembled the tiles with sand between them. He then plastered the reassembled oven over with cement so that it again could be used as a stove. They believe that since the intent of the owner was to make it into a whole vessel, its ritual impurity persists."
"Akiva, you have stated the problem well, but what is the answer? My colleagues have not understood the underlying concepts and have misinterpreted the law. It is my job to correct their erroneous way of thinking."
"Master, the debate between you and all the other sages has persisted so long without resolution that it has generated considerable anger and frustration. A number of us fear that this partisan zealotry will split the Academy and result in harm to yourself, the Academy and possibly the whole Jewish community. It is not unusual for the sages to hold differing views, and then the matter is decided in favor of the opinion of the majority. Why not follow that principle?"
The older man slowly shook his head back and forth, "No, the truth must be sought, and when found, followed. It is my duty to convince the others of the error of their thinking." When they reached the Academy, Rabbi Eliezer went directly in to take his appointed place, while his disciple turned to join several colleagues standing near the entrance.
Rabbi Tarfon had been expressing his concern over the increasing intensity of the debate concerning the oven of Akhnai. "Rabbi Eliezer is increasingly obdurate and stiff-necked in holding to his opinion in the face of opposition by nearly all of the Sages. I fear that our Nasi (Head of the Sanhedrin), Rabban Gamliel, will not easily accept such strong opposition to his leadership. Yehoshua, you felt the sting of Rabban Gamliel's displeasure on more than one occasion. What do you think?"
"It was more than a sting that I felt. I was the only one to disagree with Rabban Gamliel on the matter of whether evening prayer was optional or mandatory. In the end I changed my opinion and agreed with him. Nevertheless, he proceeded to publicly humiliate me by forcing me to stand throughout the remainder of the session. What will he do to a man like Rabbi Eliezer who has continued to express such forceful opposition to the majority? Although I strongly disagree with Rabbi Eliezer's arguments in the matter of the oven, I feel sorry for him. You have been speaking with him, Akiva, do you think he will change his mind and accept the opinion of the majority?"
"I did try to influence him to do so, but I was not successful. His teacher, Rabban Yochanan, described his astounding memory as `a cemented cistern which loses not a drop (of stored knowledge).' It also stores emotional memories. Under stress cement will not bend or yield to accommodate outside forces. I do not know what he will say this morning, but I too fear for him."
"I have more to say." When the members of the Sanhedrin had gathered that morning, Rabban Gamliel the Nasi rose and started to speak. "We have now heard the arguments concerning the ritual purity or impurity of the oven of Akhnai, and now it is time..."
"One moment sir, I have not yet completed my arguments." It was Rabbi Eliezer. Rabban Gamliel turned and imperiously looked from one side of the Assembly to the other, and then looked directly at Eliezer, "Is it absolutely necessary for you to further prolong this discussion?"
"So be it. Proceed."
Rabbi Eliezer stood alone before the Assembly. He spoke slowly but in a loud clear voice. "I know that you have not accepted the logic of my arguments. I now ask if the halacha is in accordance with me, let this carob tree prove it!" The carob tree immediately uprooted itself and moved one hundred cubits, and some say 400 cubits, from its original place. Voices from the Sages of the Assembly were heard crying out, "Proof cannot be brought from a carob tree."
Rabbi Eliezer then said, "If the halacha is in accordance with me, let the stream of water prove it." The stream of water immediately flowed backward, against the direction in which it usually flowed. The Sages responded, "Proof cannot be brought from a stream of water either."
Rabbi Eliezer then said, "If the halacha is in accordance with me, let the walls of the House of Study prove it." The walls of the House of Study then leaned and were about to fall. Rabbi Yehoshua, who was one of Rabbi Eliezer's chief opponents, rebuked them, saying," If Talmudic scholars are engaged in a halachic dispute, what right have you to interfere?" The walls did not fall down, out of respect for Rabbi Yehoshua, nor did they straighten, out of respect for Rabbi Eliezer. Indeed, they remain leaning to this day.
Rabbi Eliezer then said to the Sages, "If the halacha is in accordance with me, let it be proved directly from Heaven." Whereupon a Heavenly Voice cried out, "Why do you dispute with Rabbi Eliezer, seeing that in all matters the halacha agrees with him!" Rabbi Yehoshua immediately rose and, quoting from Deuteronomy, said, "The Torah is not in heaven!" Rabbi Jeremiah explained, "The Torah has already been given at Mount Sinai; we pay no attention to a Heavenly Voice, because You have written in the Torah at Mount Sinai, `After the majority must one incline'."
A long period of silence followed. Rabbi Eliezer, with head erect, looked over the entire assembly of Sages as though to acknowledge that he had heard their decision. Then he turned and left the Assembly.
The Sages then brought in all the objects that had been placed within the Oven of Akhnai and that Rabbi Eliezer had declared clean. The Assembly pronounced them unclean and burned them.
Rabbi Eliezer, lost in thought, slowly and quietly opened the door to his home, walked into the dining room and sat down at the table without saying a word to his wife who was in the kitchen. He placed his elbow on the table and sighed as he rested his head on his hand. His wife, Imma Shalom, entered the room and sat down on the other side of the table. After a few minutes of silence, she asked him in a soft voice, "How did things go this morning?" "Not good," he replied wearily, and then he briefly summarized the events of the morning for her.
Imma Shalom remained silent for a short while carefully considering what she had heard. She then said, "The sages directly disagreed with the Heavenly Voice. I wonder what God must think."
Rabbi Eliezer raised his head and looked at her. "We now know what God does think. On my way home, I passed Rabbi Nathan. He stopped me and told me he had met Elijah, the Prophet. He had asked him, "What did the Holy One do when the Sages challenged the Heavenly Voice?" Elijah replied, "The Holy One laughed with joy, saying, `My sons have defeated Me, My sons have defeated Me." "It seems," Rabbi Eliezer continued, "that even though we misinterpret a ruling and are corrected by a Heavenly Voice, we can challenge that correction on the basis of another Divine ruling. Furthermore, the Holy One will celebrate that challenge!"
Imma Shalom reached across the table and placed her hand on her husband's. "Perhaps," she said, "there is a lesson in all of this for you." Eliezer looked into her eyes and asked," What do you mean?" "You were so sure that your interpretation of the rules concerning ritual purity of the oven, was the correct one that you were willing to challenge the entire Sanhedrin. That includes the Nasi, Gamliel. He is my brother. I know him well. He is as proud and as sure of his judgements as you are of yours. The Holy One has pointed out, that each of you, in your own way is correct. That seems to be an impossibility.
You are correct, however, in terms of the Holy One's rulings concerning ritual impurity. Gamliel and the Sages, however, are correct in that this is a matter here on earth. Hence it is not in the hands of Heaven but in ours. Since there rarely is unanimity of opinion among the Sages, the rule of the majority must apply here on earth." Still looking intently at his wife, Eliezer asked, "I understand what you have said, but what is it that you want me to do?" "Gamliel and the Sages are upset by your challenge of the majority and your direct appeal to Heaven. For the sake of peace in the Sanhedrin and the continuation of the important work of all of you, you should go before the Sanhedrin and recant. Say that you now agree with their decision". Rabbi Eliezer pulled his hand from under hers, partially turned from her and looked out the window. "It is not as simple as you say. If the majority of Sages are in error, is it not my responsibility to do all I can to show them the error of their thinking?
The oven of Akhnai may be only one small point, but the principles underlying decision making cover all questions. I cannot ignore basic errors. Our Torah clearly states, `You shall not follow a multitude to do evil.' I cannot simply say, `My people right or wrong.' When they are wrong, I must have the courage to try to correct them. He continued to stare solemnly out the window while she continued to look sadly at him.
That afternoon Rabban Gamliel stood before the Sanhedrin. Earlier he had met with the leading Sages and they had agreed on a course of action to meet this challenge to their authority. Now it was his responsibility to present that recommendation to all. "Rabotai," he said, "this morning Rabbi Eliezer refused to go along with the wishes of the majority of the Sages. He had the audacity to challenge the authority of this Sanhedrin and appeal to Heaven. After you called out in response to the Heavenly Voice that the Torah is not in Heaven and that the Torah we have received instructs us to incline after the majority, the Voice was silent. And yet, Rabbi Eliezer persisted in insisting on his interpretation of the Law and left the Assembly. In so doing he has separated himself from our community. According to Jewish law, insisting on minority views overruled by the majority is a cause for imposing a ban or excommunication on the individual. Therefore I and the other leaders of the Assembly have concluded that a ban should be imposed on Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus. Such a ruling by this Assembly would mean that Rabbi Eliezer no longer could come to this House of Assembly and participate in our deliberations, and members of this Sanhedrin could not visit and study with him. This ruling is now placed before the Sanhedrin for a vote." No voices were raised either in assent to or dissent from this decision .Rabban Gamliel looked sternly at Rabbi Yehoshua who had disagreed frequently with him in the past. Rabbi Yehoshua responded quietly, "I agree with the decision of our leaders." Then Rabbi Gamliel looked at Rabbi Akiva, a disciple of Rabbi Eliezer. But Rabbi Akiva said nothing. A vote was taken and the decision of the leadership was approved unanimously. Rabban Gamliel then asked, "Who will go and tell him?" Only then did Rabbi Akiva speak. "I will go and tell him, lest an unsuitable person go and tell him and thus destroy the whole world (commit a great wrong by informing him tactlessly)."
Rabbi Akiva put on black clothes (a sign of mourning) and went to his teacher's home. He sat four cubits away from Rabbi Eliezer (it is prohibited to stand or sit within four cubits of a person who has been excommunicated). "Akiva," asked Rabbi Eliezer, "why the different garb today?" "Master," Akiva said," it seems to me that your companions are parting from you." Upon hearing this Rabbi Eliezer tore his clothes, took off his shoes, slipped off his seat and sat on the ground, tears streaming from his eyes.
The general failure of crops which came the following year was explained by many as God's answer to Rabbi Eliezer's indignant outcry against the injustice that was done him. According to aggadah (Jewish legend), the world was smitten: one third of the olive, wheat and barley crops were ruined, and dough in women's hands fermented and spoiled. The Sages taught that a great wrath befell the world that day, because anything that Rabbi Eliezer looked at was incinerated!
Even Rabban Gamliel felt the great wrath. He was traveling on a ship when a huge wave arose, threatening to drown him. Realizing that it might be on account of Rabbi Eliezer, he cried out, "Master of the universe! It is known and revealed to You that I have not acted for my honor, nor for the honor of my father's house, but for Your honor - that dissension might not multiply in Israel!" At that, the sea's rage subsided.
Imma Shalom, sister of Rabban Gamliel and wife of Rabbi Eliezer, also knew (from her grandfather's house) the tradition that all gates may be locked except the gates for wounded feelings. From the time the ban was imposed on her husband, she did not permit him to prostrate himself upon his face in prayer. She feared that he might pour out his sense of injury and that God would punish her brother. One day, however, a poor man came and stood at the door, so she took out some bread for him. On her return she found her husband prostrated upon his face. "Get up!" she cried out to him. "You have just slain my brother!" Even as she was speaking, a horn's blast coming from the house of Rabban Gamliel announced that he had died!
Rabbi Eliezer fell seriously ill. Rabbi Akiva and his companions came to visit him in the hope that they could persuade him to recant. He sat in a canopied four-poster bed, and they sat a distance of four cubits from him. "Why have you come?" he asked. "We have come to study Torah," they replied. With a note of anger in his voice, he asked, "And why did you not come before now?" "We had no time," they replied.
Thinking this might be because they were intensively involved in plotting the Bar Kochba uprising, and yet still bitter, he said, "I wonder if such as you will die a natural death." Then Rabbi Akiva asked, "And what kind of a death will be mine?" Looking directly at him, Rabbi Eliezer slowly and solemnly responded, "Yours will be more cruel than theirs." Akiva's face flushed, his eyes closed, and he hung his head as he could no longer look into his Master's eyes. [When Rabbi Akiva was arrested by the Romans he was executed by being flayed alive with iron combs]. Then Rabbi Eliezer placed his arms over his heart and cried, "Alas for you, arms of mine, that are like two Torah scrolls about to be rolled up and put away. Much Torah have I learned and much have I taught, but how much more have I to learn and to teach." Then his disciples asked him about the laws of cleanness and uncleanness. Concerning that which was unclean, he kept saying, "Unclean." Concerning that which was clean, he kept saying, "Clean," until his soul departed as he uttered the word "Clean." At that Rabbi Yehoshua, seizing the opportunity to exonerate the Master, stood up and exclaimed, "The ban is lifted, the ban is lifted!"
