As I mentioned earlier, I am accompanying my reading of the weekly paresha with the readings of mishna and nakh established by the Ben Ish Ḥai, the Seder HaMishmara. Until now, the tractates of mishna have had very clear connections with the paresha. However, this week was maseḥet Me'ila, the laws regarding personal benefit from things dedicated to sacred purposes. I was confounded, until I saw a midrash in the Yalkut Shim'oni on the first phrase of the last pasuk of the paresha. "To love the LORD thy God, to hearken to His voice, and to cleave unto Him; for that is thy life, and the length of thy days;". According to the midrash, this phrase refers to the study and fulfillment of Torah, and is ordered to teach that love of God must come first, and so that Torah must be learnt lishmah, for its own sake. It is not fitting to study so that you may be honored as a scholar, or so that you can gain monetarily. Perhaps this midrash is what the Ben Ish Ḥai had in mind, that Torah learning is in some sense subject to the laws of Me'ila.
But I digress. This midrashic identification of this verse with fulfillment of the Torah also resolves another question I had had, this one from long before. The previous verse reads, "I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before thee life and death, the blessing and the curse; therefore choose life, that thou mayest live, thou and thy seed;". Lovely, inspirational. Yet, as a teenage mored shamayim, I had a rather cynical take on that verse. How did I read it? I saw God playing the role of mafioso. Choose life, ie choose obedience lest I kill you. However, there are a number of textual problems that I missed at age fifteen. For instance, the Abarbanel notes that there are two Hebrew words generally used with regard to free will, ratzon and beḥira, with the former denoting will toward some freely chosen end and the latter denoting freely chosen means toward a given end. The word used here for choice is baḥarta, a form of the latter, and the sentence structure supports the idea that "life" is chosen as a means toward... life. Somewhat confusing. Also, in the choice presented, life and death precede blessing and curse. Looking at the blessings and curses from last week, one might be excused for thinking that blessing would enable continued life, and curse would quickly lead to death. Similarly in the choice several verses earlier between life and the good, and death and the bad. What is meant by life? The Malbim comments that life here means fulfillment of the Torah, and death means nullification of the Torah, perhaps basing himself on the midrash above. We also see this idea brought out in Psalm 34, verses 13-15, also connected by the mefarshim to these verses of life and death in our paresha: "Who is the man that desireth life, and loveth days, that he may see good therein? Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile. Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it." Many places in Tanakh, we find summaries of the Torah through general principles; these verses constitute one such place.
What does it really mean to be alive? In the Talmud in Brakhot, the sages teach that the wicked are called dead even during their lifetime. Titus is said to have been rebuked for taking pride in his triumph, for he did nothing but defeat a people already defeated and burn a Temple already burnt. When we do not fulfill our purpose in life, we take ourselves out of the world.
What does it really mean to be alive? In the Talmud in Brakhot, the sages teach that the wicked are called dead even during their lifetime. Titus is said to have been rebuked for taking pride in his triumph, for he did nothing but defeat a people already defeated and burn a Temple already burnt. When we do not fulfill our purpose in life, we take ourselves out of the world.
On that note, it grows late, so I will simply note in brief and without further transition that this paresha contains one of the classic sources for the idea of teshuva in the Ḥumash, in particular parek 30 of Devarim, containing the few verses I have focused on as well as some other lovely specimens. Repent, repent, yom hadin draws nigh!
Shabat Shalom uMevorakh!
LeShana tova umetuka tikatevu veteiḥatemu!
Is it fair to say your reading of this parshah can be summarized as "virtue is its own reward (and sin its own punishment)"? I tend to agree, but I guess the challenge is how to know whether both these contentions are true. Should we sin in order to experience the " deadness " that accompanies sin, so that we are henceforth motivated to be better? What if we are virtuous and depressed? Should we accept depression as a judgment on our inherent sinfulness, even if we don't know what we've done wrong? Does this parshah contradict the teachings of the book of Job, which seems to suggest that virtue is not always rewarded?
ReplyDeleteIf I understand your question correctly, I think you are begging the question, "what is signified by the tobh and ra', and by the brakha and kellala, that follow from ḥayim and maveth?". Certainly, the book of Job, as well as our observation of the world, require some departure from the literal reading of the brakhoth and kellaloth lately laid out in such detail. I don't know exactly how I would read them instead, but I trust in God's justice.
DeleteI do not think that biblical morality is utilitarian, whether utility from the material rewards of virtue or a Stoic view that virtue can disconnect utility from circumstances. I do think that people will generally be happier when they live with purpose and treat each other well, but that may not hold in all cases. If someone were to live on life support with some artificial stimulation of pleasure centres in the brain, we would not say that he was truly living, however happy he might be. Similarly, I think that a person living virtuously brings their existence out from the lost potential of the walking "dead" and into the actualization of true life, however depressed he may be. Is this an abrogation of the covenant, that he has chosen ḥayim and not received tobh and brakha in return? Cannot say that without resolving the doubt about those terms, but I think that even without reward, ḥayim is preferable to maveth.