Techeilis 3 – How Much is Too Much?

In our past post we noted that some of the teachings of Chazal can be very confusing because it may not shtim with other words of Chazal. The situations that we discussed were conflicts in textual accounts (girsaot), conflicting opinions among members of Chazal (chilukei deos), and conflicting unrelated passages (contradictions). In this post, I want to discuss the things that really count. 

Numbers.

One of the most confusing aspects of Chazal is the tendency to exaggerate numbers and sizes. In some cases, the exaggerations are more than obvious and confirmed by the meforshim. In other cases, it may not be quite so obvious.

We will start with the gemara in Chullin 90b that tells us straight out that Chazal tend to exaggerate. It even says that there are exaggerations in the Torah and Neviim. The gemara there brings a few examples of Chazal and one each from the Torah and Neviim. From the tone of the gemara, it seems that these examples are the sole instances of this phenomenon. As I wrote in the earlier posts, it is amazing to what extent Chazal take their statements literally.

At least, in divrei Chazal, there are other examples of exaggerations. Let’s look at the Rashbam in Pesachim 119a. The gemara is trying to impress us with how wealthy Korach was. It states that Korach had 300 mules laden with the keys to his treasure house[s]. Rashbam states that the number “300” is not exact. He seems to mean that Korach had a large number of laden mules but not necessarily 300. And he adds “this applies to every place that it says 300 in Shas”. In other words, “300” is a universal code word for “a large amount”. This fits in perfectly with the previously mentioned gemara in Chullin because the cases they bring likewise are displaying the inexact number “300”.

A few questions occur to me: (1) Why is 300 chosen as this universal exaggerated number? (2) Does this mean that we cannot say this for any other number in Shas?

The gemara then goes on to tell us that these keys were made of leather and not metal to imply that these mules each carried a tremendous amount of keys (mules are pretty strong and can carry lots and lots of leather keys). The Rashbam stresses: And even so it was the amount of 300 mule loads. (Note – Rashi says the same thing in Sanhedrin 110a.)

Questions: (3) Didn’t Rashbam just say that the number 300 was not exact (implying that it is on the high side)? (4) Have you ever seen a leather key? (I haven’t) How do they work? Were the locks on the treasure houses full of valuable gems and gold and silver also made of leather?

Well, both Rashi in Sanhedrin and Rashbam in Pesachim give a second pirush that these were really metal keys and they were not for the storehouses but for the individual treasure sacks which were made of leather. This would greatly reduce the amount of keys and the amount of treasure that each key could access and make this Chazal a bit more realistic. This also makes sense if Korach actually had only one treasure house which is indicated by the girsah in all texts “beis genazav” and not “batei genazav”. Still, this is only presented as an alternative pirush. Besides, it really does not make much sense. What good is a lock and key on a leather treasure sack? Any thief could just take a knife and slice open the sack!

All told, this is an awful lot of treasure. And it’s only 1/3 of the treasure that Yosef stored in Egypt!

More questions: (5) Where exactly was this (or these) treasure house[s]? were they in Egypt? How did Korach plan on retrieving it despite his 300 large mule caravan of keys? (6) After the makkas dever and makkas barad that killed all the Egyptian animals, where did Korach get 300 white mules? Did he already have them before the makkos so they didn’t die? When exactly (and how) did he discover this vast treasure? I suppose since the Leviim were not slaves, they had plenty of spare time to go treasure hunting.

Well, perhaps he got the mules from Libya. After all, the gemara in Bechoros 5b tells us that every single person from the Israelites had 90 Libyan donkeys laden with the gold and silver of Egypt.

Let’s look at this. Does this mean 90 donkeys for every single man, woman, and child or only for every one of the 600,000 baalei-batim that went out? Please, let’s take the second option.

600,000 people with 90 donkeys each? 54,000,000 donkeys? Just in Egypt alone? After the makkos that killed all the animals? Are you kidding me? (My answer is – Yes.) Where in the desert did they keep 54,000,000 donkeys in a camp that was 12 KM by 12 KM (size of present day Jerusalem) that already had 3-5 million people in single level dwellings? (Note- This figure does not include the eirev rav.)

Per Google, today’s world population of people is 7.6 billion and the total world population of donkeys is about 44 million and you mean to tell me that when the world was 3300 years younger and barely populated there were 54 million donkeys in Egypt alone?

The Ben Yehoyada asks these exact questions (well, the main ones) and gives some very weak suggestions. One is that we are talking about donkey loads and not real donkeys. This answer will totally nullify the whole purpose of this Chazal which is to explain why donkeys were singled out for pidyon peter chamor. Another suggestion is that only the dignitaries of the nation had this caravan of donkeys. This would contradict the language of Chazal that each and every Israelite had them and raises the question – why only them?

Oh, and by the way, all this donkey treasure is on top of the three treasure troves that were stored by Yosef. What heavenly purpose is there to all this exorbitant wealth? Does anybody really need a 747 with solid gold toilet seats? Will this wealth help us fix the sin of Adam HaRishon?? And, if I had some, would it spoil some vast eternal plan?

Bottom line is that there is an awful lot of exaggeration and allegory in the words of Chazal. We are told this in numerous places. At the top of the list are the tall tales at sea in the fifth perek of Bava Basra. There are the allegorical riddles in the debates of Ravi Yehoshua and the wise men of Athens in Bechoros. And, of course, the sukka test in the beginning of Avoda Zara. In all these places, the masters of Aggada – Gr”A, Maharsha, Maharal, Rashbam, Ben Yehoyada and others – tell us straight out not to take these pieces at face value and decipher for us the hidden messages.

We have smaller pieces of this same kind of Aggadata scattered all over Shas. In fact, in the earlier part of this sugya in Pesachim (on 118b) the gemara tells us that there were 365 markets in the great city of Rome (could possibly mean all of Italy) and each one has 365 buildings (we are up to 133,225 buildings) and each building has 365 “steps” (maybe “stories”? anyway, we are at 48,627,125 steps) and each “step” contains enough food to feed the entire world.

I foresee a lot of wasted food.

In any case, Maharsha gives an enlightening explanation that the “city of Rome” is a codeword for a human who has 365 sinews (giddin). Each of those has 365 compartments each with 365 sub-compartments (cells?). Perhaps the idea of each one with "food for the entire world" is a cryptic reference to DNA such that the DNA in each cell can recreate the entire organism. If so, it is very cryptic.

Other cryptic gemaras are the stories of Dovid HaMelech in the last perek of Sanhedrin – his encounter with Yishbi of Nov (95a) and that he wanted to worship avoda zara as he ran from Avshalom (107a, see Maharsha); Iyov’s discussions with HKBH in the first perek of Bava Basra; and everything the gemara tells us about Og King of Bashan (Niddah 22b and Brachos 54b; these two accounts contradict each other; see Maharsha both places).

The problem with all this is that once we know for certain that pieces of Chazal are allegorical and cannot begin to be taken literally, what about other pieces of Chazal which are not as farfetched? For example, when the gemara tells us that 40 days before a baby is formed a heavenly voice announces his future spouse, is this one that we can take literally or not? We all do, but should we? Are all our marriages really pre-destined?

I wrote an elaborate post about this right HERE.

The well-known gemara in Shabbos 92a is waffling on whether all of the Leviim were 10 amos tall. Even if not, it seems to maintain that Moshe himself was 10 amos tall. Some say also Aharon. Well, how tall were Tziporrah and Elisheva? 9.5 amos?

The gemara sticks with the 10 amos in the Og story in Brachos 54b. If that story were to be taken literally, Og at 30 amos at the ankle would be around 540 amos tall (720-1080 feet). Now Rashi tells us in Breishis (14:13) that the reason Og tipped off Avrohom Avinu about Lot’s capture was in the hopes that Avrohom would die and he could marry Sarah.

How tall was Sarah?

Hey, I am personally not in the market for a woman (so says my wife) but, if I was, and I (at 5’ 10”) had Og’s standards, I would probably be interested in a 5’ 7” replica of a Barbie doll. But, trust me, the exact same girl at the real size of a Barbie doll, all of 10 inches, would not get a first date, I don’t care how stunning she is. The parts wouldn’t fit together. It just wouldn’t work. I can't even begin to imagine how she could cook me a decent supper and bring it to the table she can't reach or change the sheets on my massive 9 amos iron bed down in Amman.

Both the Ibn Ezra (Dvarim 3:11) and Rambam in Moreh Nevuchim say that Og was about twice as tall as an average person (six amos). I think even this would cause marital issues but it’s way more down to earth. Maharsha in Brachos says he was at the high end of the scale of reasonable human size. Personally, I don’t believe Moshe and Aharon were 10 amos tall, either. Why should they be taller than Og?

Did Zimri ben Saleu really enter Kozbi 424 times while Pinchas just stood and watched (Sanhedrin 82b)? Why did Pinchas take action precisely after round number 424? Why not another 50 or 100 rounds (how about 613)? And was Zimri really more than 250 years old at the time (see Maharsha about Shaul ben HaCannani)? What was he on?

Were the grains in the days of Shimon ben Shetach really as big as kidneys and olives and were the lentils like gold coins (Taanis 23a)? Did Choni HaMeagel really sleep for 70 years (Ibid.)? Incidentally, Wikipedia tells me that a carob tree sees fruit within eight years and it has peak production as of 20-25 years. Also know that the Yerushalmi has quite a different version of this story. Did Rabi Chanina ben Dosa really get a golden table leg?

So we have so far seen that 300 is not the only number that is an exaggeration. We also have 365 [markets], 90 [donkeys], 10 [amos], 70 [years], 424 [won’t say]. What else?

How about the number 400?  

The number 400 is all over Shas as a high amount of money such as the wager to make Hillel angry, the value of the glass broken by Rav Ashi at his son’s wedding, the value of the dress that Rav Ada ripped from the lady in red. Also, Rav Preida taught his student the lesson 400 times. Likewise, there are numerous appearances of this number in Tanach. We start with the 400 shekels that Avraham paid for the Mearat HaMachpelah. Then there are 400 men with Eisav and likewise 400 men with Dovid HaMelech. Eliyahu was challenged by 400 false prophets. And, back to the gemara, the 400  shuls in Beitar with 400 rebbes each with 400 students. The 400 boys and girls who jumped into the sea so as not to be violated. 

The general consensus is that all of the references in of 400 in Chazal are inexact, just like the ones for “300”. It’s because 400 is the biggest number that can be represented by a single Hebrew letter, since the last letter of aleph beis, the tav, is the one with the highest numerical value. Thus, early texts simply put a tav to represent a large number. I have seen other more mystical reasons, but the bottom line is that the number is usually not precise. As for those in the scriptures, with the likely exception of the 400 shekels for the Mearat HaMachpelah, it can well be that those numbers are approximations, as well.

So we would not really expect the number 400 to be taken literally in most cases.

But, alas, Rashi, or the Tanchuma that he is inaccurately quoting in Bamidbar 13:25 take it very seriously. The pasuk tells us that the spies returned after 40 days. Rashi is astounded:

But the size of Eretz Yisrael is 400 parsah by 400 parsah and an average person can only walk 10 parsah in a day? It’s a 40 day journey just from East to West, and they investigated the length and breadth?! We must say that since HKBH knew he would punish the Israelites a year for every day in E”Y, so he “shortened” their journey (to limit the punishment).

What is a parsah? It is defined as 4 mille. A mille is 2000 amos or roughly a kilometer. So a parsah is four Km. This makes a lot of sense because the average person today can do about 4 Km in an hour and during a twelve hour day, if he spends 10 of those hours on the move he will cover 40 Km or 10 parsahs. One thing we see is that the meraglim were anatomically and physically average people.

Okay now. So Eretz Yisrael is, according to Rashi, is 400 parsah square which is 1600 Km by 1600 Km. How big is Eretz Yisrael really?

Well, the distance between Eilat and Maalot today is 465 Km (11.5 day walk). And the distance between Rafah and Ein Bokek is 107 Km (2.5 day walk). Did they really need “kitzur derech”?

Clearly, the Eretz Yisroel that is outlined in Bamidbar 34 which is the part checked out by the meraglim is nowhere close to 400 parsah on 400 parsah. It just isn’t. So, why does Rashi think that E”Y is 1600 Km by 1600 Km?

He seems to be referring to several places in Shas (Megillah 3a and Bava Kamma 82b) where it is written that Eretz Yisroel shook 400 parsah by 400 parsah. Firstly, as I have been saying, it is very clear that virtually every time it says the number 400 in Shas, it is an exaggeration or at least an imprecise number, just like 300. So this should not be taken literally. But even without this. The Shas does not really say that Eretz Yisroel is 400 parsah by 400 parsah. It says that when these two calamities happened, the land of Eretz Yisroel quaked for a distance of 400 parsah by 400 parsah.

Earthquakes do not recognize borders. We can easily say that while the quake was centered in Eretz Yisroel, it affected the surrounding lands so that it could be felt as far as 400 square parsah. It does not need to mean that every inch of it or even the majority of it was Eretz Yisrael proper. We certainly cannot conclude from here that Eretz Yisrael is that big, and, in truth, it isn’t.

But this doesn’t stop Rashi. I don’t really blame Rashi because he is really [mis]quoting the Midrash Tanchuma (Shelach Lecha 8). Only two interesting tidbits. (1) The Tanchuma does not explicitly say E”Y is 400 parsah square. He says that “the journey from South to North itself was a 40 day journey”. This seems to indicate the same thing but he only mentions one direction. And I wonder what does Tanchuma himself base this on? (2) Strangely, Tanchuma says their journey “from South to North” was one of 40 days and Rashi says “from East to West…” If Tanchuma is Rashi's source, why does he change the orientation?

All I can say about Rashi, and I love him dearly, is that this isn’t the first time he does this.

While we are talking about numbers that don’t work, we have plenty of issues about the population of Jews before, during, and after the Exodus from Egypt.

The Torah tells us that the population leaving Egypt was about 600,000 adult males. It expressly says it is not including children and we assume not women either. As such, based on conservative estimates of normal family sizes, the total population would have to be at least 3,000,000 and even 5,000,000 is more realistic. As I said earlier, this does not include the eirev rav.

One logistical issue is that, since the families all lived in single level tents, it is very hard to fit all those people at ground level in a 12 km by 12 km area. Don’t forget the eirev rav and all those donkeys and other livestock.

I suppose we can shrug this off. But here come Chazal and tell us that this number was only 20% of the amount of Jews who lived in Egypt before makkas choshech. So this means that there were between 15 to 25 million Jews in Egypt a few months earlier. Oh, and only seven thousand Leviim between 30 and 50 of which only about 10 of them came from Kehas.

Now, I understand the Chazal about everyone having sextuplets, but since only about 130 of the 210 years were years of servitude it is still a stretch to come out with 15-25 million from 70 souls in such a short time (maybe the sextuplets were coming from day one.) Also, even though this plague happened when the Egyptians weren’t looking, it is hard to imagine that 12-20 million Jews are going to vanish in a week and the Egyptians don’t notice. Unless they figured they left early.

But let’s accept all of this and look at a gemara in Sanhedrin 111a:

Tanya, Rabbi Simai expounds: It states “and I will take you to me for a nation” and it states “and I will bring you to the land”. We learn a comparison between leaving Egypt to entering Eretz Yisrael. Just as only 2 out of 600,000 who left Egypt entered E”Y, so too only 2 out of every 600,000 in Egypt left Egypt.

You get this? Not one out of five, but two out of 600,000 (one out of 300,000)! Rashi confirms that all the rest died in the three days of darkness so that the Egyptians won’t notice the downfall of the Israelites.

Can you imagine this number?

Maharsha is silent, but the Ben Yehoyada tries to tone it down by suggesting, unlike Rashi, that it means those born and died over the course of the 210 year exile, not in 3 days. Even so, it’s just too much.

But here is the topper. The gemara in Sanhedrin doesn’t end there. There is a short trailer:

Says Rava:... and likewise in the days of Moshiach.

Rashi – That there will not remain from every 600,000 except 2.

According to Rashi, if we assume 18 million Halachic Jews currently in the world (I tend to doubt it), there will be a mere 30 spots for the grand winners. I signed up already. According to the earlier Ben Yehoyada, there is hope for a few more. Personally, as much as I love Rashi, I love the Ben Yehoyada more.

But we do know this. At the Exodus from Egypt, there were approximately 600,000 heads of household from the age of twenty on up. We know that after forty relatively peaceful years, there were…drumroll… approximately 600,000 heads of household from the age of twenty on up. Note that the original count in 1 Iyar 2449 was done after the maaseh eigel and first war with Amalek. There wasn’t another war for 38 years after Aharon died.

Now, for all the 600,000 heads of household between 20 and 60, there were probably an average of 1-3 sons per family below age twenty already in place. Add to this the gemara in Shabbos 89a-b. This gemara tells us that the Sinai desert had five names. One of which was Midbar Paran. Why Midbar Paran?

שפרו ורבו עליה ישראל That the Israelites multiplied in number there.

Rashi tells us that every one impregnated his wife with a male child upon the order of Shuvu lachem – go back to your tents. He adds that he has no idea how this is indicated from anywhere in the Torah.

If this is so, then precisely nine months after Matan Torah – about 7 Adar 2449 – another 600,000 boys hit the scene. Evidently, there weren’t enough mohelim to take care of them so they let it go and blamed it on the eastern wind. After all this, there were just about forty years of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness in the desert. Anyone born in the first twenty years would be twenty at the time of entry to E"Y. Based on these Chazals and normal population growth without sextuplets, there would definitely be at least three times the 600K figure after the first twenty years that would be twenty by the end of the forty years. How can this initial figure remain unchanged? 

Perhaps we can knock out the lion’s share of those boys already born at the Exodus based on the Midrash that says that even boys less than 20 years old, if they agreed with the meraglim, they also died. So maybe most of them agreed with the meraglim. But this won’t account for those who were born after the meraglim (and the 600K newbies).    

I am not the only one to ask this, but nobody can come up with a suitable answer except to say plagues and more plagues.

This did indeed bring up a big issue with the number of judges that were in office and how many Jews they killed after the debacle of the Bnos Moav. I wrote about it in this post in 2008. (The solution is in this post.)

The final anomaly for this post has to do with the people that Ezra brought up from Bavel. In Sefer Ezra it states that Ezra took up a group of 42,360 folks. We would assume a normal population distribution; something like 40% between 20 and 60 and another 40% between 0 and 20 and 20% from 60 on up with the bulk below 80 and a few old codgers over 80. This is basically the distribution estimated in the population that left Egypt and it is pretty standard.

Now the gemara in Temura 15b needs to justify some Chattas offerings that were brought as soon as the second Bais HaMikdash was operable. Apparently, these offerings were meant to atone for the idolatry that was done by the tzibur in the times of the first Bais HaMikdash. These offering can only be brought if the tzibur, meaning the majority of the current population, requires it; which means they were alive 70 years earlier and committed the idolatry and are still here today. Not only still here today, but they must be the majority.

To prove that the majority of the population was alive 70 years earlier, the gemara expounds from the pasuk that says that when they opened the second Bais HaMikdash, some people were rejoicing but others were crying because they remembered how beautiful was the first Bais HaMikdash and this new Bais HaMikdash could not compare. Obviously, this crying was done by the old-timers. But the pasuk says that the sound of the crying overwhelmed the sound of the rejoicing. The gemara understands that more people were crying than rejoicing. Ergo, the majority of the population that came up with Ezra were those who required an atonement for their sins 70 years earlier.

But, in order to be sinful 70 years earlier so as to require atonement, one had to be at least 13 years old at the time. Hence, these folks who made the majority were not a day younger than 83 years old. And this was the majority!

And what kind of majority was it?

It doesn’t seem like a scant 50.5% vs. 49.5 % majority because this majority was strong enough to drown out the rejoicers (who were all younger and more vibrant, by the way). The minimum I could imagine is like 55% vs. 45%. Let’s go with this and apply it to the original number of 42,360 souls. We will arrive at about 23,300 people above 83 and 19,060 total population of all the olim from 0 to 83.

You mean to tell me that in the year of the churban bayis rishon there were not less than 23,300 able bodied people from 13 to, let’s say, 25 who were pious Jews and who survived and remained “frum” all 70 years and this group could not produce in 70 years from their children and children’s children and at least one more generation, more than 19,060 Jews willing to make Aliya?

Was the stock market in Bavel doing that well that nobody wanted to come?

Under normal circumstances, this kind of distribution is overwhelmingly lopsided. It just doesn’t shtim.

The only thing that I can think of to answer is that these old codger survivors were mostly men. Very few women survived the churban because they were even younger and more vulnerable and invading armies have a habit of culling out all the eligible women for special treatment. As such, there were very, very few eligible Bais Yaakov maidels for these fellows and they either went without wives or married non-Jewish ones. As such, for quite a while, reproduction was at a low and, even after 70 years, the old timers actually outnumbered all of 70 years worth of [re]production. Perhaps this is why, right after this incident with the crying and rejoicing, Ezra had to tell so many of them to lose the non-Jewish wives.

So, all told, perhaps there is a good explanation. Nevertheless, I am greatly perturbed that, to date, I haven’t seen anybody who even makes note of the problem.

The purpose of all of this is to point out that, all through Shas and other Talmudic bodies, “shtimming” with Chazal can be an immense challenge. You have seen that wherever possible, I have made an attempt to present a “teirutz”. HaRav Reisman, Shlita, stated that we cannot build Halacha on teirutzim.

It would be nice if this were so. Like it or not, all of our mesora depends on teirutzim.

More to come…

Hidden Thoughts of Teshuva

As Yom Kippur approaches, I thought to share some very inspiring insights from Niflaos MiTorasecha from Rav Mordechai Aronovsky. This is the sefer that reveals words hidden in Tanach in either roshei teivos or sofei teivos sequences and explains their significance.

צום – Fast

The word צום does not appear in a roshei teivos sequence anywhere in the Torah. It does appear about ten times as a sofei teivos sequence. Four of those are a phrase that is repeated four times throughout the Torah (although none of these are in the Yom Kippur service in Acharei Mos):

ורחצ בשרו במים

Rabbi Aronovsky writes that this indicates that the Fast of Yom Kippur requires the Kohen Gadol to immerse four times. He comments that although the Mishna says he must be tovel five times, the first one of these is the standard tevila he must do on any day that he wants to do avoda and is not unique to Yom Kippur.

Another three occurrences coincide with this phrase that appears three times:

על הארצ תשפכנו כמים

He says that this is a remez that on the fast day of Yom Kippur one must pour out his heart like water like the pasuk says in Eicha: שפכי כמים לבך נוכח פני ה'

The eighth occurrence can be found in this pasuk:

ויהושע בן נון וכלב בן יפונה מן התרים את הארצ קרעו בגדיהם

He says this is an indication of the procedure to tear one’s garments as a part of the teshuva process together with his fast. He goes on to support this with this pasuk in Melachim 1 (21, 27):

ויהי כשמוע אחאב את הדברים האלה, ויקרע בגדיו וישם שק על בשרו ויצום.

We all know that the megillah also mentions wearing sackcloth as part of a fast for teshuva although it does not mention tearing one’s clothes.

He notes two other occurrences. Although he doesn’t comment on them as having a connection to Yom Kippur, they are both very inspiring and show that these occurrences are not random.

One of them is the pasuk in Parshat Noach that we find quoted in our machzorim as the first pasuk in Seder Zichronos on the musaf for Rosh Hashannah (Breishis 8:1):

ויזכור א-לקים את נח...ויעבר א-לקים רוח על הארצ וישכו המים.

Perhaps Noach also prayed and fasted while he was on the teivah and this hastened the end of his ordeal.

The last one does not have much to do with teshuva but it has a different fascinating “coincidence”. This deals with the prohibition to eat non-kosher fish and shrimp and lobsters. Here is the pasuk (Vayikra 11:11):

ושקצ תהיו לכם, מבשרם לא תאכלו ואת נבלתם תשקצו.

Here you have the word צום in code while you have the term לא תאכלו in the open text. Rav Aronovsky says that there is always some hidden meaning when an encoded word (צום) is identical or strongly relates to the open text (לא תאכלו) in the same pasuk although he makes no suggestions here.  

טבל – Immersed

We mentioned earlier that the צום of Yom Kippur comes together with the mitzvah to immerse, did we not? Well, let’s look at word טבל. The letter “tes” (ט) is a very rare letter and the word טבל occurs as a roshei teivos sequence only two places in all of Tanach. One is found in Eicha 1:9:

טומאתה בשוליה לא זכרה אחריתה.

Its tumah is in its lowest point. They do not remember (consider) the end result.

Rav Aronovsky explains that the hidden message here is that the teshuvah and tevilah (purification) of the generation of the churban is not accepted because the tumah remains in their depths – they have not cast away the “sheretz” that is defiling them.

The other occurrence (more optimistic) is here (Tehillim 51:12):

לב טהור ברא לי א-לקים

When one does indeed cast away the sheretz and immerses himself, he becomes like a new briah.

חיים – Life

Hard to believe that there is not a single roshei teivos sequence of חיים in all of Tanach! There are three sofei teivos occurrences two of which are in the Torah.

One is in reference to the mizbeach hanechoshes in Shmos 27:6:

ועשית בדים למזבח בדי עצי שיטים וצפית אותם נחושת.

We know that there is a Mishna in Midos 3:4 which says that the mizbeach haolah which will eventully be made from stones cannot be fashioned with any kind of an iron blade. This is because “iron shortens the life of a person and the mizbeach is meant to extend the life of a person”.

The second occurrence is more connected to Yom Kippur. Vayikra 16:5:

ומאת בני ישראל יקח שני שעירי עזים לחטאת ואיל אחד לעולה.

The basic message is self-explanatory. The avoda of Yom Kippur and the sacrifice of the two goats is a preservative of life for the chosen people. But if we extend the code sequence we see something else:

 ומאת בני ישראל יקח שני שעירי עזים לחטאת ואיל אחד לעולה.

It says: לחיים תלד

Says Rav Aronovsky that the avoda of Yom Kippur is meant to bestow many benefits. These are spelled out in the special Yehi Ratzon prayer that the Kohen Gadol says as he exits the Kodesh HaKedashim as is printed in all of our machzorim. Among them is this:

שנה שלא תפיל אשה את פרי בטנה.         A year in which no woman should miscarry…

So one of the benefits that we hope to achieve with our avoda is protection from miscarriage. This benefit seems to be encoded in our pasuk in the words לחיים תלד.

סדום – Sodom

There is one roshei teivos sequence of the word סדום in all of Tanach. There is no sofei teivos sequence whatsoever. The sole sequence is also found in the avoda of Yom Kippur in this pasuk (Vayikra 16:12):

ולקח מלא המחתה גחלי אש... ומלא חפניו קטרת סמים דקה והביא םבית לפרכת.

Rav Aronovsky has a lengthy explanation on this one but, to summarize briefly, he says the following. There are five types of damage that occur due to the wrath of HKBH which is generally called חרון אף – the wrath of His “nose”. These are: עשן, אש, חמה, אף, משחית. Each of the five kingdoms of Sodom corresponded to one of these damages. Thus it says in Parshat Nitzavim:

כמהפכת סדום ועמורה אשר הפך ה' באפו ובחמתו

Certainly, when we anger HKBH, we also instigate the damages that come from this “wrath of the nose”. Hence HKBH instructs us to bring the ketores ­– a rayach nichoah, a pacifying scent – into the Kodesh Kedashim on Yom Kippur to assuage the anger of HKBH.

לב עצוב – A Despondent Heart

My final entry for this essay is the word עצוב. This also only occurs one time in Tanach in aroshei teivos sequence and not at all in a sofei teivos. This also appears in the avoda of Yom Kippur in this pasuk (Vayikra 16:17):

וכל אדם לא יהיה באהל מועד בבאו לכפר בקדש עד צאתו וכפר בעדו ובעד ביתו ובעד כל קהל ישראל.

Throughout his magnificent work, Rav Aronovsky looks at the pasuk as if the encoded sequence is the open text of the pasuk. In this case, the pasuk would then read:

וכל אדם לא יהיה באהל מועד בל"ב עצו"ב.

No man may be in the vicinity of the Tent of Gathering (the Mishkan) with a despondent heart. In short, nobody is permitted to be despondent on Yom Kippur!

These are the encoded messages that we find in the Torah. Hat tip to Rav Mordechai Aronovsky and his sefer, Niflaos MiTorasecha. I only want to add another code that is not divinely referenced in the Torah, but fascinating just the same.

My youngest brother is a paramedic for the local Hatzala of a sizable “out of town” community. He always talks about the importance of C.P.R. and why it is essential for everyone to be skilled in it. A few days ago, he posted the following on his Facebook page:

A new perspective on the importance of KNOWING CPR:

If you have ever had a patient in cardiac arrest, then you know the only chance of survival is Quality CPR. As we approach the New Year we must remember to awaken our souls and bring LIFE back into our LIVES (now more than ever in these troubled times).

On Yom Kippur, we 'bang' on the left side of our chest (over our heart). We use our closed fist (approx size of our heart). We go at a steady beat against our heart.

Heart/Lev= Lamed Beis= 30:2 - As if we are doing CPR on ourselves c"v.

Make those 'compressions' QUALITY ones; to secure LIFE for yourself, not just to get pulses back.

But there is more. Before a person goes into cardiac arrest, there is a time when they are sick; and if not treated, can get worse to very sick c"v. If they get treatment early enough, they won't need to be resuscitated.

That time is now - Elul and Rosh Hashanah.
We are at the moments before we would need CPR on ourselves. We have the tools to secure LIFE for ourselves, families, and loved ones.

Please utilize the time NOW. Secure the 'treatment' (Tefillah) and grab the 'cure', before it's c"v too late.

C = CHARITY – צדקה
P = PRAYER – תפילה
R = REPENTANCE– תשובה  

A gut gerbencht year filled with Nachas and Simcha for:

C = Children (family) – בני
P = Parnassa (work) – מזוני
R = Refuah (health) – חיי

Written by a Hatzalah Paramedic, just a shliach of Hashem trying to help others.

May we all have a gmar chasima tova, arichas yamim and בני חיי ומזוני!

Even HaEzer and Dr. Kenegdo (or - - Beating Around the Burning Bush)

My series about anomalies in Chazal and the Murex Trunculus debate will need to go on the back burner until after the Yomim Tovim. I have one more test to take on the Toen Rabbani cycle which, due to some scheduling glitches, was rescheduled to two days after Rosh HaShannah. This test is on the second half of Even HaEzer and involves very elaborate issues of Halachic Family law. At present, along with the regular pressures of Ellul and Yom Tov itself, this requires all of my attention.

So lately, I haven’t been able to concentrate on analyzing Agadata – which means looking everything up. I only have time to review the parts of Even HaEzer that are necessary for the test and to read up on the Piskei Din that are released by the Rabbanut courts.

I think Even HaEzer is the neglected child of the Shulchan Aruch family. Nobody really studies it except the dayanim and toanim that need to know it. Of course, every Rosh Yeshiva needs to know how to be mesader Kiddushin, but this involves doing it right. They don’t need to know much about heteirei nissuin or safek kiddushin and, if they do, they call a dayan.

Even HaEzer deals with the most sensitive issues of our lives – not the least of which is hetter agunot. Real agunot. After this are issues of yichus – mamzeirus, geirus, pesulei kahal and pasulei kahuna. In short, who can be married to whom and who cannot. It also covers shalom bayis – marital obligations between spouses and under what circumstances can a marriage be dissolved. Also, marital property rights and what can widows and daughters demand from the estate of a deceased husband/father. And don’t forget child custody.

It doesn’t matter how we feel about any specific Halachos. If we are Orthodox Jews, then by definition, we are bound to these Halachos. These Halachos determine how “kosher” we and our relationships are. Our community and Judaism in general, can only survive if we adhere to them loyally. 

Because Jewish family law is so important and has such dire far-reaching consequences, the founding fathers of this great medinah did one very wise thing. They entrusted all of the Even HaEzer related issues into the hands of the Rabbanut. The most important spiritual parts – marriage procedure, divorce procedure, and all questions of status (eishes ish, Jewish status, pasulei kahal, and pasulei kahuna) are exclusively under their control. Property and child custody can be litigated either in Beis Din or secular court.  

Let me tell you that to be a dayan in Rabbanut family court is no piece of cake nor is it any picnic. Firstly, the scope of just Even HaEzer with its mere 178 simanim (less than half of Choshen Mishpat and a third of Orach Chaim) is vast. It is not something that one can learn in “his spare time”. Secondly, they must deal with the most dysfunctional and base segments of the population. Husbands and wives who don’t get along and who lie and cheat on each other and create all kinds of problems of pasulei kahuna and pasulei kahal and quasi-agunos. They include abusers and accusers who ruin each other’s social and financial lives and then demand monetary compensation after they did everything in their power to render their significant other friendless and penniless. 

Moreover, these problems are prevalent among those who are only marginally religious or totally irreligious and the free thinkers who believe that the Jewish world is better off in an environment of secular civil liberties and unbridled freedoms.

And, when their lives crash, the dayanim are expected to clean up this mess.

After reading countless psakei din, my view is that we are blessed with a solid corps of exceedingly learned and dedicated dayanim who carry a tremendous burden on their shoulders and they are doing a hero’s job of it. I don’t envy a single dayan (except for his scholarship). As the cliché goes: it’s a thankless job, but somebody has to do it.

And the only way they can do it efficiently, is if they have full legal backing of the State.

As such, the family courts of the Israeli Rabbanut are an intrinsic part of the legal system and its procedures and rulings have full legal status. It is subject to State law enforcement, perjury, and contempt of court just like any ruling from the secular court. And it needs to be this way.

This is one thing about our medinah that we must appreciate and support. It is vital to preserving the Jewish character of the people let alone that of the State. It protects our identity and kosher status and also serves to make marriage in our circles more stable and durable. It benefits all of us. 

One important statute meant to ensure that Jewish marriages in Eretz Yisrael are properly regulated by the Rabbanut, is the Marriages Registration Ordinance which is the law of the land. This ordinance gives exclusive authority to the various religious bodies­ – the Rabbanut in the case of us Jews – to regulate marriages and to determine who is authorized to perform them in order to help them protect us from charlatans. There are two basic parts:

1.   To officiate a marriage in EY, one needs to be approved by the Rabbanut. This is not too difficult for any genuine Orthodox clergyman. Some people are certified on a permanent basis and others only temporary. Any Rosh Yeshiva can get a temporary or one-time permit for a specific wedding, such as for a Talmid.

2.   Every such marriage must be registered in the Rabbanut. This helps ensure that one who gets married is Halachically fit to be married and is not currently registered as being married to somebody else. Not fool-proof, but it helps.

In order to put teeth into the second part, the law calls for a fine and even incarceration for up to two years for one who performs a marriage and does not register it. 

Remember that this is the law of the land and this is for our protection.  

We have to appreciate the fact that the medinah is reasonable at the very least in the Even HaEzer department. Halevay they should be as concerned about geirus. Unfortunately, even though yichus is in Even HaEzer, geirus is in Yoreh Deah. The state has not yet subjugated itself to Yoreh Deah.

And so it is, Jewish family law is probably the only area where the Chareidi world is on the same page as our secular government. The ironic thing is that this is probably the only area where the liberal non-Chareidi “dati” world is not. Those who believe in civil liberties and freedoms for all. Thus, my stomach twisted into knots when I was shown a recent blog (Aug. 23, 2018) in Times of Israel written by Dr. Susan Weiss titled: When the judges answer to a Higher Authority

If you don’t know who Dr. Susan Weiss is, here is the blurb on the blog post:

    ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Susan Weiss is the founder and director of the Center for Women's Justice (CWJ), an NGO leading the battle to advance the civil and religious liberties of Israeli women when compromised by state institutions.

Yes, I know. A few posts back I was criticizing JCW (Jewish Community Watch) and here I am criticizing the founder of CWJ. I don’t know what it is about these three letters, but I don’t get along with them. Incidentally, I am not too fond of the World Jewish Congress (WJC), either.

More about Dr. Weiss. As the blurb says, she is a fighter for civil liberties, which means living any way one wants, and for religious liberties, which means liberties from religious constraints. 

But, guess what? Even though she does not cover her hair, she is mitzvah observant. I personally spent a Shabbos in her house over three decades ago. Also, for all her work helping women get divorced, she herself has only been married once and still is. She has never been divorced (her husband wouldn’t dare!). Kol Hakavod! I suppose the “label” of left wing Modern Orthodox would fit. But Orthodox she is.

Back to her blog, the subtitle reads: Muscling in on areas where you have no jurisdiction violates civil liberties and makes a mockery of religious authority

This tips us off that she is quite concerned about civil liberties (if you didn’t read the blurb). She claims they have been violated due to encroachment from those with “no jurisdiction”. I find this claim questionable. She adds that it “makes a mockery of religious authority”. This part cannot be denied because she spends the rest of the blog mocking it.

Here is how it opens (emphasis mine - YH):

Last month, right before Tisha B’Av, police summoned Rabbi Dov Haiyun to their offices. In police hands was a decision of the Haifa State Rabbinic Court ordering them to open up a criminal investigation against Rabbi Haiyun — the head of Moriah Congregation, of the Conservative movement. Among other complaints, the court claimed that Haiyun had violated the Marriage Registration Ordinance, when he failed to register a marriage at which he had officiated. According to reports, police “put him in a prisoner transportation vehicle complete with iron bars on the windows, and took him away.”

If you are curious about what were the “other complaints”, it is for officiating at a wedding for an invalid woman. It could have been a suspected eishes ish, non-Jew, or mamzeret – the type of marriage that produces more non-Jews or mamzeirim. Of course, it may have been merely that she was pregnant with or nursing a child from another man which is only Rabbinic and temporary. But it is still forbidden.

Both of these activities (performing the marriage and neglecting to register it), if indeed they were done, are against the law. In other words: criminal. Jailbait.

With this, Dr. Weiss is insisting that the State Rabbinic Court is overstepping its jurisdiction and is very bothered that they choose to answer to a Higher Authority. (I wonder if she eats Hebrew National). 

She then goes on to list a few other incidents where she personally, in one case, and some unknown woman litigant, in another case, were held in contempt by a Beis Din and threatened with punitive measures. In her view, the State Rabbinic courts are overstepping their jurisdiction and evidently, she needed to write this blog post to lament this tragic state of affairs (and to mock the religious authority). 

Incidentally, from what she writes, there is no indication whatsoever that Dr. Weiss knows anything at all about the third incident beyond the one-sided report that she heard from the mouth of the offended woman. (Déjà vu all over again!) No indication at all that she researched the incident and can verify it.

At this stage, Dr. Weiss makes a very bizarre distinction. She writes:

Admittedly, the above situations are not identical. While rabbinic judges theoretically had the authority to hold me and the woman in contempt (we each had been present in their courts), they had no jurisdiction whatsoever over Rabbi Haiyun, who had not appeared before them.

Dr. Mrs. Weiss claims to be lawyer and a PhD (I am neither). A prerequisite of these credentials would be that one should know how to read. She claims that Rabbi Haiyun did not appear before the court. The document seems to say otherwise. (See it HERE) Although it is not 100% clear, the document says that Rabbi Haiyun “admitted [his involvement] as appears in the court protocol” at a court session that took place on July 16, 2018. This seems to indicate that he did indeed appear before the court. If he did not personally appear, he must have at least submitted a tatzhir (affidavit) which is a signed statement subject to perjury or other judicial scrutiny. All told, this is definitely an active case in the Haifa Rabbinical Court. It’s case number 1181464/1 if you are interested.

So the distinction that she admitted to may not be much of a distinction. But, sadly, she missed the more obvious distinction – or, at least, won’t admit to it. And, if she can’t see this distinction, it calls into question her credentials as a lawyer. It is this:

She and her woman friend were censured by the court for contempt. This requires an appearance in court. Rabbi Haiyun, however is not being called out for contempt. He is being called out for alleged criminal activity. And who is allowed to complain to the police about alleged criminal activity? 

Anybody. 

Any citizen has a right to complain to the police about a violation of the law. This is everyone’s jurisdiction. And who should we expect to be the watchdog for this law if not the official body that is charged with seeing that it is upheld?

She continues:

Yet the above situations have this in common: abuse of judicial power. In all of the above, rabbinic judges acted more like police than like judges. Judges adjudicate. Legislators legislate. Police use “legitimate” force to detain and imprison. This is called “separation of powers.” It’s the way democratic states check power to power, ensuring that government officials do not abuse the liberties of citizens who extended those powers to them in the first place.

"acted more like police than like judges." How so?

The Rabbinic court filed a complaint to the police as any citizen, and certainly any judicial body, may. Dr. Weiss may be disturbed at the bossy choice of words בית דין מורה which means Beis Din is instructing (or ordering) the police to investigate. I mean, why couldn't they ask nicely? Yes, it is firm language, but this is the style of a Rabbinic court which, as we noted, has the same authority as the secular court in this department. 

So they requested or “ordered” an investigation. Cool. The police did what they did. The court did not order the police to put anyone in prison or even into “a prisoner transportation vehicle complete with iron bars on the windows”. Just to investigate. We democracy lovers call this “separation of powers”. (Where have I seen this term mentioned recently???)

Incidentally, when she wrote in her lead paragraph “…and took him away” she makes it sound like they took him to some underground torture facility like Guantanamo Bay and he hasn’t been heard from since. I presume they took him no further than to the local police station. I also presume he did not spend the night locked up. 

From all this, it looks to me that Dr. Weiss is overstepping her jurisdiction. 

As the article continues, Dr. Mrs. Weiss gets totally carried away and loses sight of her opening paragraph (perhaps this was her goal). She writes:

Thus, state rabbinic judges, in violation of our personal liberty, have ordered the detention of rabbis and have punished uppity litigants by putting them in jail. In violation of our freedom of contract, they can force attorneys to step down from their cases

A few comments:

“in violation of our personal liberty” – Dr. Weiss is somewhat delusional. Clearly, Dr. Weiss sings HaTikva and takes the line about להיות עם חפשי  – to be a free nation – way too literally. Every person has their perception of “personal liberty” and she certainly has hers, but the only ones that count are those that are enshrined in the law. When it comes to marriage law, the state has deferred to the Rabbanut which does not exactly support every leftist’s idea of personal liberties. The personal liberties which she would like to be protected under law, unfortunately are not. They only exist in her PhD head. So if they are not protected, then they are not being violated.

“have ordered the detention…” – Not so! Dr. Mrs. Weiss is blatantly and knowingly stating a falsehood. I have read the order. You can read it, too (right HERE). What it says is what Dr. Mrs. Weiss herself said in her lead paragraph, the Haifa Rabbinic court ordered the police “to open up a criminal investigation against Rabbi Haiyun”. They did not order him to be detained. Of course, in many police investigations the person being investigated is detained for questioning for a few hours. That’s how they investigate. But they are free to investigate without detaining. The order was for investigation, not for detention.

I think it is well beneath the dignity of somebody like Dr. Mrs. Susan Weiss to twist the truth like a standard yellow journalist. Well, perhaps not. Perhaps she is just reaffirming her credentials as a lawyer.

“…of rabbis…” – This is another distortion of the truth for propaganda purposes. The implication of her generalism “detention of rabbis” is used as if to bemoan a sacrilege of persecuting holy pious “men of the cloth” who should have some kind of divine diplomatic immunity. From where I sit, and even in the eyes of secular Israelis, the term “Conservative Rabbi” is an [oxy]moron. 

Dr. Weiss is probably definitely old enough to know the 1960s joke about My Son, the Captain (see joke HERE). The punchline of the joke is:

Listen, sonny. I don’t have to tell you, by Mama you’re a captain, by me you’re a captain, and by you you’re a captain. But by a captain you’re no captain.

This certainly applies to “Rabbi” Haiyun: By Rabbi Haiyun he is a Rabbi, by Dr. Weiss he is a Rabbi, by the police he’s a Rabbi, by his followers he is a Rabbi, even by me he can be a Rabbi… BUT by a Rabbi, he is no Rabbi. By the dayanim of the Rabbinic Court in Haifa (who aren’t really natives of Haifa but are from Yerushalayim and Bnei Brak and they know their stuff), this guy is no Rabbi.

After a few more paragraphs where Dr. Weiss digresses towards other “sins” of the Rabbinical courts, she gets down to what is really eating at her. She closes:

All this, and there are many more examples, because, as mentioned, Israeli state religious functionaries answer to a Higher Authority. In a theocracy, you may vote, but God legislates, judges, and executes.

At the end of the day (and the beginning of the next), Dr. Mrs. Susan Weiss PhD is shooting the messenger. If she has a problem with the Higher Authority, why doesn't she take it up directly with the Higher Authority? Why go beating around the [burning] bush? It doesn't seem like she has a whole lot of respect for the Higher Authority.


She is clearly an advocate for uninhibited civil liberties. Even HaEzer does not promote such civil liberties. The Beis Din upholds Even HaEzer. This is their job. They do it, and do it well. Regardless of whether or not “civil liberties” were violated, in the view of the Beis Din, the law was certainly violated. Both the law and Even HaEzer may not be a friend to “civil liberties” but they are on the books – not the “civil liberties”. 


Liberal minded people who don’t value these laws think that reporting violations like this to the police is nitpicking. But in the world of legalistics, there is no such thing as undermining any law. And for a veteran lawyer such as Dr. Weiss PhD to do just that is highly unprofessional. 

We all know there are two types of lawyers: one whose goal is to help people stay within the law and one whose goal is to enable people to circumvent the law. It is shameful to see a lawyer make a mockery of the law. It is blasphemous to see a shomer Shabbos Jew make a mockery of the Higher Authority.

On Rosh HaShannah we all daven that HKBH should be our King. He should rule over us and the entire world and we should live by His rules. We pray for this because it is what is best for us and the world. In short, we pray that the world should become a theocracy.

So, I wonder if Dr. Mrs. Susan Weiss PhD goes to shul on Rosh Hashannah and if her machzor says what mine does. And, if so, does she really say it? And if she does, what is she thinking?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is it for 5778. Kesiva v’Chesiva Tova to all my friends, relatives, and readers!

תכלה שנה וקללותיה, תחל שנה וברכותיה!