Torah Study Blog

It is a Jewish-cultural norm that that when you do something nice for someone, it’s called a “mitzvah.” But, technically, a “mitzvah” is a commandment; not just something you do because you are a nice person. According to the Talmud, there are 613 commandments in the Bible.

One of the commandments from this week’s Torah portion states, “If, along the road, you chance upon a bird’s nest, in any tree or on the ground, with fledglings or eggs and the mother sitting over the fledglings or on the eggs, do not take the mother together with her young. Let the mother go, and take only the young, in order that you may fare well and have a long life” (Deuteronomy 22:6-7).

Another commandment (not from this week) states that you should, “Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may long endure, and that you may fare well, in the land that the Lord your God is assigning to you” (Deuteronomy 5:16).

These two examples are explicit in what the payoff is if we follow the commandments: we will “fare well” and live long. That promise should be enough to keep us all on the straight and narrow!

And, if you understand the Torah as the Divine word, you would understand it to be truthful and factual. Therefore, people who follow the commandments should always fare well and live long. But people can see what is happening around them. They can see that there are seemingly very good people to whom very bad things happen. How can that be? What might that mean? You certainly cannot say that the Torah is “a bunch of lies!”

The ancient rabbis addressed this issue in the Talmud, by using an example of one of their own: Elisha ben Abuyah (referred to as Elisha for the rest of this summary). Elisha was a historical figure, born sometime before 70 C.E. As part of the first generation of people known as “Rabbis,” Elisha rose to a position of being a respected religious authority in Jerusalem.

However, something happened which, according to the Talmud, caused Elisha to fall off the path of righteousness and become a heretic. The people in the community would have seen this prominent rabbi disregarding the commandments, which would have sent a shockwave through the rabbinic system. We can find, recorded in the Talmud, a public relations press to explain away this change in Elisha.

According to the Palestinian (Jerusalem) Talmud, “some say that when his mother was pregnant with him she would pass by houses of idol worship and smell that stuff. The aroma seeped into his body like the venom of a snake.” Our scholar-in-residence, Professor David Sperling, pointed out that there was a tradition in rabbinic circles that foreign worship actually has a foul odor.

There is another story that Elisa witnessed a father ask his son to climb a tree and collect the eggs out of a bird’s nest. The boy climbed the tree, shooed the mother away and collected the eggs. This way he fulfilled both mitzvot of honoring his father, and not taking both the mother and eggs together. Shockingly, Elisha watched as the boy fell and died when trying to descend. According to the story, this was enough for Elisha to question the words in the Torah and fall off the path of righteousness.

One rabbi confronted this seeming contradiction by responding that the Torah is referencing the well-being of the boy in the world to come, not in this world. This may or may not provide comfort, but at least it is one possible answer.

Another possible answer proffered was that the boy must have been thinking about sinning while he was descending from the tree. However, this answer was rebuffed by other rabbis because they taught that God does not punish people for their thoughts; only for their deeds. (This Jewish concept is diametrically opposed to the Christian concept that you can “sin in your heart,” as both Jesus and Jimmy Carter expressed.)

There were early, important teachings in the Talmud from Elisha. The rabbis wanted to keep those teachings but could not keep honoring Elisha by referencing him by name. To diminish Elisha, almost all Talmudic references only refer to him as “The Other Guy,” or “The Backwards Guy.”

Even back then, as it is today, it is standard to refer to people who want something different from you as “other.”

The ancient rabbis worked to bind the community together. One way to do that was to create a type of mitzvah system which rewarded people who behaved in the proscribed manner – like earning mitzvah-points. And, people might have believed they were rewarded with extra points for doing things that they did not really want to do – like paying to support the houses of worship.

In religion in America today, the association people have to their house of worship is completely voluntary. Whether we acknowledge it or not, we expect to get something in return for our connection to religion. Perhaps it is no longer the mitzvah payoff that all will “fare well” with you, but individuals still want a benefit.

In an effort to stem the spread of disease and keep everyone safe, Temple Israel of Northern Westchester has made the difficult decision to hold religious school classes virtually. We understand that this is not what all of our members want (although some do). This pandemic will pass, and we look forward to the day when we can welcome everyone back to in-person classes. And, when that day comes, we hope we are still here for you.

Our sacred community of Temple Israel is here to support you in keeping your connection to the Reform Jewish experience. We are here in times of joy: b’nai mitzvot, weddings, births of children, etc. We are here in times of sorrow: death, unemployment, pandemics, etc. In order for this home of Reform Judaism to continue to support you in all of life’s events, we hope you will continue to support us with your membership.

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misquotes or misunderstandings in what Rabbi Jaech taught us are the responsibility of Tara Keiter