RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL: JEWISH SPIRITUAL RENEWAL; DEREK ERETZ: SEVEN COVENANTS
Jewish Spiritual Renewal: Derek Eretz Zuta + Rabbah:
Shabbat 03/19/11
(aka Derech Eretz )
Shalom my dear Chaverim, Talmidim, v' Rabbanim, friends, students and fellow rabbis:
An oneg, joy-filled, Shabbat, Sabbath, this weekend, as well as a Happy Purim starting at sundown on Saturday March 19, 2011.
We continue with our exploration into the Talmudic Tractates of Derek Eretz Zuta and Rabbah. (aka Derech Eretz Zuta, aka Derech Eretz Rabbah. As was mentioned, zuta is Aramaic for 'small', and rabbah is 'large'). Remember that Derek Eretz is not about Jewish ritual. It is about how we are to treat one another and what traits of character, middot, we are to try to develop. The lessons are universal and ecumenical.
From there you will find links to preceding classes in this series.
So, together we continue:
TALMUD BAVLI
TRACTATE DEREK
ERETZ ZUTA
(aka Derech Eretz)
CHAPTER I.
Talmud Bavli Tractate Derek Eretz Zuta Verse 1:6
OK. As I wrote in our last classes, before I show you the next verse from Talmud Bavli Tractate Derek Eretz Zuta Chapter One, which is verse 6 and the last verse of this chapter, let me advise you that it is a long one, and on first read can be a confusing one for those not intimately familiar with Jewish History, or the entire TaNaK, as well as Midrash.
I will guide you through it and it will open up some exciting doors for you, hopefully not an "Exit Door.'' ;-) . As we have done in other long verses in this class, we will parse it sentence by sentence, or in some cases, by phrases or even words. This is the last verse in Chapter One.
''Love the Law, and respect it; love all creatures, and respect them.'' Subject your will to the will of others, as was done by Leah for Rachel and by David for Saul. But ignore your will, and even the will of others, for the will of Heaven, as we find by Jacob that he did not kiss Joseph (because he was engaged in prayer). Love doubtfulness (i.e., everything shall be doubtful to you until you convince yourself of it), and hate the expression: "And what of it?" (i.e., even of the most unimportant things you should not express yourself thus). Keep aloof from everything that may bring to sin, and from the abominable, and from what is equal to it, that you should not be suspected by others of transgression. Do not slander your neighbor, because he who does so has no remedy. Keep aloof from grumbling, for by grumbling you may come to growl at others, and it will be added to your transgressions. With seven patriarchs covenants were made, and they are: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, Pinchas, and David.. Seven patriarchs are resting in glory, and worm and maggot do not affect their earthly remains, and they are: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, Amram their father, and, according to others, also David, as it is written [ibid. xvi. 9]: "Therefore is rejoiced my heart,and my spirit is glad; also my flesh shall rest in safety." Nine entered the Garden of Eden when they were still alive, and they are: Enoch (Chanoch) the son of Jared, Elijah Messiah, Eliezer the bondsman of Abraham, Hirom the king of Zor, Ebed-melech the Cushi [Jer. xxxviii. 7], and Jabetz the son of R. Jehudah the Prince, Bothiah the daughter of Pharaoh and Serech the daughter of Ascher, and, according to others, also R. Jehoshua b. Levi.''
Let us work first with the sixth sentence today. ''With seven patriarchs covenants were made, and they are: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, Pinchas, and David.''
What is a covenant? A covenant is a solemn agreement to engage in or refrain from a specified action. It is commonly found in religious contexts, where it refers to sacred agreements between God and human beings. In the TaNaK there are actually more covenants than listed above. God and Humanity via Noah after the flood has one. Adam and Eve, and all of humanity, after the 'fall' had a covenant with God as well. Cain, after his murder of Abel, has one with God also. But as we know, Adam, Eve, Cain, and Noah were not Hebrews and the above 7 men were.
So let us look at each covenant.
Abraham's is about a deed to land...a lot of land. Gen 15:18 -21: ''It was on that occasion that the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying: "To your descendants I give this land, from the River of Egypt to the Great River (the Euphrates), the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites."
If we recall our ancient and present geography, Abraham has just been granted, to all of his descendants, Hebrew and Islamic alike, land from the Nile in Egypt, to the Euphrates in Iraq. The Hittite's land is what we call Turkey ,Lebanon, and Syria today.
But note how in Gen. 17:8, the land is cut to just Canaan. "I will give to you and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God." We can see however during King Solomon's time, the land described in Chapter 15 of Genesis, came close to being under the control of Hebrews. ''He [Solomon] ruled over all the kings from the Euphrates to the land of the Philistines, and to the border of Egypt. [2 Chron. 9:26].
We can understand while this covenant was especially important to the Rabbis, living under the Roman thumb, with their Temple and Jerusalem destroyed.
Next we have Isaac's covenant. It is not given directly to Isaac, as he wasn't even born yet. It was given to Isaac via his father Abraham: ''But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this time next year." (Gen. 17:21). What is important here, according to the rabbis, is that the covenant will flow thru Isaac. Look please at the verse before: ''As for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly. He shall father twelve princes, and I will make him into a great nation.'' And then, let us look at the verse before this (Ibid. 17:19): God said, "No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him.'' Ishmael is effectively cut out of the Hebrew covenant, long before Sarah decides to banish him and his mother Hagar. But Ishmael and his descendant are still in the Abrahamic covenant as well being protected by the same God.
Next is Jacob's covenant. And instead of it being from Genesis which is where Jacob's life is told, it is from Leviticus 26:42: ''I will remember my covenant with Jacob and my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.''
Chapter 26 lays out the contract between the Hebraic God and the Hebrews. Verse 42 is near the end of the chapter. Basically the chapter says if the Hebrews follow God's will, it will go good for them. But if they don't, they are going to be miserable.
This is just one verse of the horrid things in this contractual covenant: Lev. 26: 31-33:'' I will turn your cities into ruins and lay waste your sanctuaries, and I will take no delight in the pleasing aroma of your offerings. I will lay waste the land, so that your enemies who live there will be appalled. I will scatter you among the nations and will draw out my sword and pursue you. Your land will be laid waste, and your cities will lie in ruins.''
Now the rabbis skip this and go right to the good part of the contract in our verse today. Judaism, unlike Hebraism, does not believe in a punishing God, on this earthly plain. They do believe in a judging God in Olam Ha Ba, the world to come, but even the most wicked, spends no more than a year in Gehenah, having his soul re- educated, and eventually goes to heaven as well. The Talmud Sanhedrin states that all Israel, i.e. all Jews, have a share in the world to come. Judaism does believe that our actions in this life time, can cause us misery. But it is us doing it to ourselves, not a Hebraic judging God.
Next we have Moses' covenant. It is from Exodus 34:27-28: ''Then the Lord said to Moses, "Write down these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel." Moses was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant—the Ten Commandments. '' As we see in Ex. 31:16, it is an everlasting covenant: ''Let the children of Israel keep the Sabbath, and celebrate it in their generations. It is an everlasting covenant .''
Following is Aaron's covenant: From Numbers 18:19: ''Whatever is set aside from the holy offerings the Israelites present to the Lord I give to you and your sons and daughters as your regular share. It is an everlasting covenant of salt before the Lord for both you and your offspring." Salt means salary. (The word salary comes from the Roman word for salt). So we have Aaron and sons as the Hebrews Priests.
Next is Pinchas: He is a hero in the Torah for killing a Hebrew and a foreign woman for having sex. But the Rabbis in the Talmud are not pleased with his zealot vigilantly justice. And as we have discussed, the rabbis have no respect for the priests from the Maccabean times, of 165 BCE, to the fall of the Temple, in 70 CE. But because of Pinchas' actions, he is rewarded by the Hebraic God. From Numbers 25: 12-13 : ''Therefore tell him I am making my covenant of peace with him. He and his descendants will have a covenant of a lasting priesthood, because he was zealous for the honor of his God and made atonement for the Israelites."
Pinchas was the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the high priest. So he was one of many grandsons of Aaron. So this act of killing Zimri the Hebrew, while he was having sex with Cozbi the Midianite, spearing them so they were stuck together in coitus, (what I labeled ''Pinchas Interruptus ''), earned him and his descendents to be the High Priests, while the other grandchildren's children were assistant priests.
Lastly we come to David, the second King of the Hebrews, the first to unite the 12 tribes into one nation. Psalm 89: 3-4 :'' You said, "I have made a covenant with my chosen one,I have sworn to David my servant, 'I will establish your line forever and make your throne firm through all generations.'" Hence David's kingship is established and thru Solomon his son. And Solomon's sons argued and split the nation into two. We also see many of the rabbis claiming Davidic origins, and we know of course of Messiah of the Jews being from the line of David.
The last section of Derek Eretz Zuta 6:1 for today's class is : ''Seven patriarchs are resting in glory, and worm and maggot do not affect their earthly remains, and they are: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, Amram their father, and, according to others, also David, as it is written [ibid. xvi. 9]: "Therefore is rejoiced my heart,and my spirit is glad; also my flesh shall rest in safety."
I find this a bit troubling as the Talmud Bavli Tractate Pirkei Avot 3: 1 tells us that all of us will become food for maggots and worms. But if we take the partial verse as hyperbole, the Rabbis are teaching that these seven men, were the closest Hebrews would become to being saints, tzaddoks, extremely righteous people. Hence their bodies did not deteriorate.
Now the troubling part continues, because Judaism, unlike Hebraism, believes in corporal resurrection during the Messianic age, and further Judaism's Olam Ha Ba, is one of souls, not of bodies. So why does it matter if one's body doesn't become food for worms and maggots? In fact Judaism goes out of its way to make sure when one is buried, they are not embalmed, and turn to 'dust' quickly.
It is my opinion, that this section of verse 6:1 is very old, perhaps when Hebraism was still functioning before 70 CE.
We all know about 6 of these men from basic bible stories in Hebrew school. But why is Amram the father of Moses and Aaron and Miriam listed? If we have this father, why not have Jesse the father of David, or Terach the father of Abraham, as well?
The Midrash Exodus Rabbah 1:17 argues that when the Pharaoh instructed midwives to throw male children into the Nile, Amram divorced Yochebed, who was three months pregnant with Moses at the time, arguing that there was no justification for the Israelite men to father children if they were just to be killed. However, the text goes on to state that Miriam, his daughter, chided him for his lack of care for his wife's feelings, persuading him to recant and marry Yochebed again.
According to the Talmud, Amram promulgated the laws of marriage and divorce amongst the Jews in Egypt. The Talmud also argues that Amram had extreme longevity, which he used to ensure that doctrines were preserved through several generations.
Despite the legend of his divorce and remarriage, Amram was also held to have been entirely sinless throughout his life, and was rewarded for this by his corpse remaining without any signs of decay. [Talmud Bavli Tractate Bava Batra 71a].
As for the other six men, there are Midrashim that speak of these bodies not decaying, using this verse as their proof text : "I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction ..." (Hosea 13:14). We also see hints of this in the Christian Bible.
So what is the lesson here and what does this have do with Derek Eretz, how we are to behave towards one another? On one hand we know that none of these men, even Amram who the Midrash says was sinless, was truly sinless. They all did things in their lives that were not in the best of relations with others. Granted that the Talmud gives apologetic Divine reasons for their behavior, but they were humans, imperfect.
Abraham kicked out Hagar and Ishmael. Isaac was 'tam', simple, and ineffectual at raising his sons. Jacob was a con artist. Moses had a temper and beat a rock for water as well as beat an Egyptian to death. Aaron helped make the Golden Calf. Pinchas murdered without giving Zimri the benefit of a trail. David had such bloody hands that God would not let him build the Temple. And Amram left his wife while she was 3 months pregnant.
But all of them also did much good. They were ''good enough'' to have covenants made with them and to have theophanies. And in the end, when we are dead and buried, we hope that the good that we did out weighs and is remembered, over that bad that we did.
Next week, Baruch ha Shem, we will continue with more of verse 6:1 of Derek Eretz Zuta.
What are your ideas about leading a life where your good deeds far out weigh your bad deeds? How has learning own your defects of character helped you in making teshuvah, amends, to those you have harmed ? How has understanding the spiritual and ethical teachings of Judaism helped you live a happier life?
Next class, Baruch ha Shem, we will continue with Derek Eretz Zuta, completing 6th verse of Chapter One as well as Chapter One. Thank you for joining me.
Shalom:
If visiting SC's Low Country, contact us for a Shabbat meal, in our home by the sea, our beth yam.
Maker of Shalom (Oseh Shalom) help make us deserving of Shalom beyond all human comprehension!
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