Dear Friends:
It’s here! My gift from JCOGS to celebrate my ordination, something I’ve wanted for a long, long time, has arrived—a smacking new 72-volume set of “the Schottenstein Talmud.” The Schottenstein Talmud is a great study tool—with a facsimile of the original Aramaic page on one side and a parallel line-by-line translation and explanation on the other. (Adult education class anyone?) I had purchased this edition for the JCOGS library several years ago from the Rabbi’s Discretionary Fund. Now we both have one! Many thanks, especially, to Patti Rubin for organizing this gift, as well as to Lisa Carrick and Ron Feinstein for their support.
Mei’eimatai qorin et Shema b’aravit? “From when does one recite Shema in the evening?” The first line of the Talmud surprises us with its prosaic delivery and commonplace, seemingly trifling concern. We would expect the grand, opening chords of a magnum opus, such as Maimonides’s stately, philosophical pronouncement: “The foundation of foundations and the pillar of wisdom is to know that there is a Primary Reality who brought into existence all that exists,” (Mishneh Torah 1:1) or the Torah’s magnificent declamation: “In the beginning God created heaven and earth.” (Genesis 1;1) Instead, the Talmud starts in medias res, presupposing a context in which the entire community is already actively living a rich religious life, which includes the recitation of the Shema twice daily.
And the subject matter? The Shema is appropriate enough, since it is the fundamental declaration of Judaism, but why start with the detail: “from when does one recite Shema in the evening?” The text’s oblique answer is even more surprising: “From the time when the Kohanim enter to eat of their Trumah.” Who are the Kohanim? The Temple priests of old. What is the Trumah? The sanctified food reserved for the priests, who could partake of it only when they were ritually pure. What does this have to do with the anything? Because, even if they had immersed in a ritual bath, the priests still had to wait until three stars appeared in the sky before they were declared ritually pure. If so, why didn’t the Talmud answer its own question about the proper time for the evening recital of the Shema much more straightforwardly: “When three stars appear in the sky?” The text must be inviting us to draw conclusions from its literary allusion to the priests and their actions.
See how quickly we are off to the races! The answer to one question, leads to another, which leads to another, and before we know it, we are performing the ancient endeavor known as talmud Torah, sacred study. The Talmud does not spoon-feed its information to us, like a manual, a textbook, an encyclopedia, or a code of law. Rather, it forces us to derive our own wisdom from its pages through active engagement. What profound wisdom does the Talmud impart already in its first two lines? Just this: when we live a Jewish life we spread holiness into the world, just as the priests of old spread holiness; we are nourished by prayer, just as the priests were nourished by Trumah; finally, we should purify ourselves emotionally and spiritually in the evening from the stresses of the day, just as the priests purified themselves in the ritual bath. These three points strike me as I study the passage today; who knows what I might glean tomorrow? And you might come up with something entirely different.
Rabbi Brian
rabbi.brian.besser@gmail.com
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