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Treatise Three · The Third Maqala
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Section One. The rabbi said: The devout man among us is not one who withdraws from the world, for then the world would be empty of him and he of it, and he would come to loathe [his life], which is among God's blessings upon him — and God holds it over him as a gift — as it is said: I will fill the number of your days, and you shall have length of days.
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Rather, he loves the world and long life, because the world earns him the world to come, and every increase of his piety raises him a degree in the world to come.
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Indeed, were he to attain the rank of Enoch, of whom it is said 'and Enoch walked with God,' or the rank of Elijah — allowing him to withdraw into the companionship of the angels — then he would feel no loneliness in solitude and seclusion, for that would be his intimacy. And he would feel estranged in a crowd, missing the contemplation of the kingdom of heaven which sustains him beyond eating and drinking.
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For such as these, complete withdrawal is fitting — indeed, they long for death, since they have reached the ultimate station beyond which there is no higher degree to be hoped for.
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As for the philosophically-minded scholars, they love withdrawal so that their thoughts may be clarified and they may draw true conclusions from their syllogisms, until they attain certainty regarding whatever doubts remain for them. Together with this, they also desire to meet students, summoning them to inquiry and contemplation — like one consumed with amassing wealth who dislikes any occupation except trading with those who bring him profit.
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This is the rank of Socrates and those like him. Such individuals are rare, and today there is no hope of attaining their station.
Indeed, in the time of the Divine Presence in the Holy Land, within the people prepared for prophecy, there were those who practiced asceticism and dwelt in the wilderness, gathered together with like-minded companions — not entirely alone, but cooperating with one another in the study of the sciences
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of the Torah and its practices that draw one near to that degree — through holiness and purity — and these were the disciples of the prophets.
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But in this age, this place, and this generation — where 'prophecy is not widespread' (ואין חזון נפרץ), and where acquired knowledge is scant and that innate knowledge is absent — whoever places his soul in the path of withdrawal through asceticism has placed his soul into spiritual and bodily torment and sickness.
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He sees upon himself the degradation of ailments and imagines that this is a prostration of humility and submission — and he ends up imprisoned, weary of life on account of his imprisonment, and weary of people, not because he has found intimacy in solitude.
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And how could it be otherwise? He has not been joined to a divine light in which he might find intimacy, as the prophets were, nor has he attained sciences sufficient to occupy and delight him for the rest of his life, as the philosophers do.
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Suppose he is pious and good, devoted to communing with his Lord in seclusion, standing, prostrating, and supplicating — how much can he retain of supplications and petitions? These invented devotions only bring pleasure for a few days when they first appear; the more they are repeated on the tongue, the less the soul responds to them, feeling no yearning or supplication.
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So he spends days and nights while his soul demands of him, with the natural drives it was endowed with, those things pertaining to seeing, hearing, speaking, activity, eating, drinking, marriage, profit in trade, providing for his household, supporting the poor, and aiding the Torah with his wealth.
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When he sees disorder, does he not remain troubled, regretful of that to which he has bound his soul — so that his regret increases his distance from the divine command he sought to draw near?
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Section Two. The Khazar said: Describe for me then the deeds of your pious men. Section Three. The rabbi said: The pious man is one who governs his city-state justly, apportioning to its inhabitants their sustenance and all their needs, dealing equitably among them such that he neither deprives any of them nor gives to one
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more than his due. Then he finds them, in the hour of his need, obedient and swift to respond to his summons — he commands them and they comply, he forbids them and they desist.
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Section Four. The Khazar said: I asked you about a pious man, not a ruler. Section Five. The rabbi said: The pious man is one who is an obeyed master over his senses and his psychic and bodily faculties, governing them with civic discipline, as it is said: 'One who rules his spirit is better than one who conquers a city.'
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He is fit for true leadership, for were he to rule a city he would deal justly in it as he deals justly with his body and soul. He subdues the appetitive faculties and prevents them from excess, after giving them their due share and providing what fills their needs — measured food, measured drink, and bathing and its accessories in moderation as well.
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He likewise subdues the irascible faculties that seek to manifest dominance, after giving them their share in the kind of dominance that is beneficial — namely, the disputation of intellectual matters and opinions, and the reproof of evil-doers. And he assigns the senses their portion in what will benefit him.
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He directs the hands, feet, and tongue toward what is necessary and toward the most beneficial choice. Similarly he directs hearing and sight — and the common sense that follows them. Then come imagination, fantasy, thought, and memory; and then the volitional faculty that governs all of these, itself serving the choices of the intellect.
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He allows none of these organs and faculties to fall into excess in what pertains to it alone, thereby diminishing the rest. And when he has satisfied the need of each one of them and given the natural faculties
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what suffices them of rest and sleep — and the animal faculties what nourishes them of waking and movement in worldly activities — then he summons his company, like the obeyed commander who summons his compliant army to what helps him attain connection with the rank above him.
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I mean the divine rank that is above the rational rank. So he arranges and orders his company, imitating the arrangement of our teacher Moses, peace be upon him, with his company around Mount Sinai.
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He instructs the volitional faculty to be receptive and obedient to whatever command issues from him, so that it complies with it immediately and directs the faculties and organs according to what he commands, without opposition.
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He instructs it not to heed the demons of fantasy and imagination, neither accepting nor affirming what they present, until it first consults the intellect; and if the intellect deems what they present permissible, it accepts it, otherwise it disobeys them.
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The volitional faculty accepts this from the intellect and resolves to follow it; it then clears the instruments of thought and empties them of all preceding worldly thoughts, and commands the imagination to bring forward the most beautiful images it contains.
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With the aid of memory, so as to imitate thereby the divine reality sought — such as the standing at Mount Sinai, the standing of Abraham and Isaac at Mount Moriah, the Tabernacle of Moses peace be upon him, the order of worship, and the descent of the Glory upon the Temple.
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And many other things like these. He commands the memory to record these and not forget them; he restrains fantasy and its demons from confusing and casting doubt on truth; and he restrains the irascible and appetitive faculties from swaying and distorting the volitional faculty and occupying it with their anger and desire.
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And after this preparation, the volitional faculty rouses all the organs under its governance — with energy, zeal, and gladness. It stands at the time of standing without sluggishness, prostrates when commanded to prostrate, and sits when it is time to sit. The eyes are fixed in the gaze of a servant toward his master; the hands are held still from their idle movements and do not clasp one another; the feet stand level; and all the limbs stand like one dumbstruck with awe in obedience
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to its governor — unconcerned whether they suffer pain or weakness. The tongue corresponds exactly to thought, neither exceeding it nor reciting the prayer by mere habit and force, like a starling or a parrot.
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Rather, with each word there is deliberation and reflection upon it, so that his time of prayer becomes the very heart of his day and its fruit, while all other times become like roads leading toward it.
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He yearns for it, for therein he resembles the spiritual beings and distances himself from the animal. So the fruit of his day and night is those three prayer times, and the fruit of the week is the Sabbath day.
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For it is dedicated to connection with the divine command, and its worship is with joy, not with solemn awe — as will become clear.
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This arrangement for the soul is like the arrangement of nourishment for the body — he prays for his soul and feeds his body, and the blessing of prayer remains with him until the next prayer time, just as the strength of the meal remains until supper.
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The soul is constantly becoming turbid as the time of prayer recedes, by reason of the worldly occupations that befall it — especially when necessity calls for the company of children, women, and evil persons, so that he hears words and songs that cloud the clarity of his soul and to which the soul is drawn beyond his power to restrain.
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At the time of prayer he purifies his soul of what has passed and prepares it for the next period. Then no week passes on this schedule without the soul and body having become tarnished, and turbid residues having accumulated over the course of the week, which cannot be purified and cleansed except through a full day of uninterrupted worship joined with bodily rest.
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The soul too recalls what it missed while the body was occupied, and on that day it is as if being treated and cured of a prior illness, and is being prepared with what will ward off illness in the future — resembling what Job used to do each week for his children, as he said: 'Perhaps my sons have sinned.' Then
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he renews the monthly treatment, which is the time of atonement for all that they have generated — that is, the offspring of the months, the happenings of the days — as it is said: 'for you do not know what the day may bring forth.' Then he renews the Three Pilgrimage Festivals.
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Then comes the great fast-day, on which he is absolved from past sin and recovers all that he missed during the days of the weeks and months. The soul is purged of its vain fantasies, irascible impulses, and appetitive desires, and repents of its having aided them — whether in thought or in deed.
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And if repentance from thought is not possible — on account of the involuntary thoughts that overpower it due to what it has previously stored of poetry and stories heard since childhood — then it absolves itself from the deed, offers excuse for the thoughts, and commits itself never to pronounce them with the tongue, let alone act upon them, as it is said: 'I resolved that my mouth shall not transgress.'
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His fasting on that day is a fast by which he approaches resemblance to the angels, for he spends it in awe, submission, standing, bowing, praise, and exaltation. All his bodily faculties fast from natural matters and are occupied with the Torah — as if he possesses no animal nature.
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Likewise a fast is excellent when the faster also fasts his sight, hearing, and tongue — engaging them in nothing other than what draws near to God Most High — and likewise the inner faculties of imagination and thought and the like; and he joins to this good deeds.
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Section Six. The Khazar said: The deeds are known. Section Seven. The rabbi said: The civic deeds and rational laws are the ones that are known. But the divine ones — those added above them so as to be realized within the community of the living God who governs it — are not known until they come from Him explained and detailed.
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Indeed, even as for those civic and rational laws — although their essences are known, their precise measure is not known. For we know that mutual aid and partnership
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are obligatory, that disciplining the soul through fasting and submission is obligatory, that cowardice is base, that indulgence with women is base, that relations with certain close kin are base, that honoring one's parents is obligatory, and the like. But the precise definition and measure of all this, in a way that is fitting for all people — that belongs to God Most High alone.
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As for the divine deeds, there is no scope for our intellects in them; yet they are not rejected by the intellect — rather, the intellect defers to them, just as a sick man defers to the physician in his medicines and treatments.
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Do you not see circumcision — how far removed it is from rational deliberation, and how it has no place in civic policy? Yet Abraham performed it, despite how difficult the matter was according to nature, he being a hundred years old in himself and regarding his son.
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And it became a sign of the covenant, so that through it and through his descendants the divine command might be connected, as He said: 'And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your seed after you throughout their generations as an everlasting covenant, to be a God to you, etc.'
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Section Eight. The Khazar said: Truly you have observed this Torah as is fitting, performing it with the utmost care in the celebration and preparation for it, with the praise rendered over it, and the mention of its origin and rationale in the blessing.
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And others who sought to imitate you obtained only the pain without the pleasure experienced by one who imagines the reason for the sake of which he endures this pain.
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Section Nine. The rabbi said: And so it is with all their other imitations — no nation has been able to imitate us in anything. As for those who adopted a day of rest in place of the Sabbath — were they able to replicate it? No more than images of idols can replicate images of living human beings.
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Section Ten. The Khazar said: I have reflected on your situation and I see that God has a mystery in your preservation — that He has made the Sabbaths and festivals among the most powerful causes for the preservation of the remnant and luster of your life. For the nations would have apportioned you among themselves and taken you as servants for your shrewdness and intelligence, and would have made you
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soldiers as well — were it not for these intervals that you observe. You observe them because they come from God and for powerful reasons such as: in remembrance of the act of creation, in remembrance of the Exodus from Egypt, in remembrance of the giving of the Torah.
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All of these are divine matters, obligatory for you to observe. Were it not for them, none of you would put on a clean garment, nor would you have any assembly for recalling your Torah — so crushed would your spirits be by the unrelenting humiliation upon you.
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And were it not for them, you would not have enjoyed a single day throughout your entire lives. Through them you have gained one sixth of your life in bodily and spiritual rest that no kings are able to achieve.
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For the souls of kings are not at ease on their days of rest — if the least necessity calls them on that day to exertion and movement, they stir and labor, so their souls are never in complete tranquility.
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And were it not for them, your earnings would go to others, since they are exposed to plunder. What you spend on these occasions is profit for you in this world and the next, since the expenditure for them is for the sake of God Himself.
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Section Eleven. The rabbi said: The pious man among us observes these divine laws — namely, circumcision, the Sabbaths, and the festivals and their prescribed obligations from God — and guards against the forbidden sexual unions and the prohibited mixtures of plant, cloth, and animal, and the sabbatical year and the Jubilee.
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And he guards against idolatry and whatever is related to it — seeking hidden knowledge through other than prophecy, the Urim and Thummim, or dreams; he heeds no diviner, astrologer, drawer of lots, practitioner of omens, or augur.
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And guarding against the zav and niddah impurities; guarding against unclean animals in eating and touching; and against leprosy; and guarding concerning blood and fat, for these are the portion of the fire-offering of the Lord. And observing what is obligatory upon him for every transgression — whether inadvertent or deliberate — by way of sacrifice, besides what is required of him for redemption of the firstborn, first-fruits, and firstling animals; and for every birth in his household a sacrifice; and whoever is purified from zav or leprosy brings a sacrifice and a meal-offering; besides what is required of him in first tithe, second tithe, and the poor tithe; the appearance offering three times a year; and Passover with its requirements, which is a sacrifice of the Lord obligatory for every native of Israel; and Sukkot, the lulav, and the shofar; and whatever is needed of sacred and purified vessels and utensils for these offerings and sacrifices; and whatever he needs of purification and sanctification; and observing peah and orlah
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and the sanctified fruit of new plantings (orlah) — and in general he observes of the divine commandments whatever enables him to say truthfully: 'I have not transgressed any of your commandments and I have not forgotten.' — besides vows, freewill offerings, peace-offerings, and Nazirite vows he takes upon himself. These and their like are the divine laws, and the completion of most of them is through the priestly service.
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As for the civic laws, they are such as: you shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor, honor father and mother, love your neighbor, love the stranger, and you shall not lie or deal falsely.
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And avoiding usury and interest; and seeking just scales, just weights, a just ephah and a just hin; and leaving gleanings, the forgotten sheaf, and the corner of the field — and the like.
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As for the psychic laws — 'I am the Lord your God,' 'you shall have no other gods,' 'you shall not take the name' — together with the additional truth confirmed by this Torah: that God Most High is a witness who sees into the innermost thoughts of His servants, to say nothing of their deeds and words; and that He rewards good and punishes evil therein; and that 'the eyes of the Lord range over all the earth.'
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So the pious man neither acts nor speaks nor thinks without believing that in his presence there are eyes that see him and watch him, rewarding him and punishing him, and counting against him every crooked thing in his speech and deed.
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So he walks and sits like one who is fearful and abashed, ashamed of his actions at times — just as at other times he rejoices and exults and feels ennobled within himself when he does a good deed, as though bestowing a gift upon his Lord when he endures hardship in His service.
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And in sum, he believes in and adheres to what was said: 'Contemplate three things and you will not come to transgression: know what is above you — a seeing eye, a hearing ear, and all your deeds are written in a book.'
And he reflects upon what David said — the most valid of arguments: 'He who planted the ear, does He not hear? He who formed the eye,
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does He not see?' And all that he said in 'Lord, You have searched me and known me.' And he reflects that all his organs are placed in wisdom, deliberation, order, and exact measure, and he sees them obedient to His will — yet he himself does not know which of them ought to move.
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For example, when he wishes to stand, he finds the assembly of organs like obedient aides who have already raised his body — yet he does not know those organs. Likewise when he wishes to sit, to walk, and to assume other positions.
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To this he alluded when he said: 'You know my sitting down and my rising up; You discern my path and my lying down; and You are acquainted with all my ways.'
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Even more complex, subtle, and intricate are the organs of speech. You see a child imitating everything he hears, yet he does not know by which organ, which muscle, or which nerve he must produce that sound. Likewise the instruments of the chest for the melodies of song — he imitates them and masters them, yet does not know by what means their Creator prepares them and directs them for him.
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And the matter is so, or close to it, for the act of creation cannot be imagined as analogous to the act of manufacture. The craftsman makes a millstone, for example, and then departs from it — and the millstone performs only what has been made into it. But the Creator creates the organs and gives them their powers, and sustains them moment by moment.
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Were one to imagine the removal of His care and governance for even a single instant, the entire world would be destroyed. Therefore, since the pious man envisions all of this in his every movement, how could he not — in his every movement — have assigned a portion therein to the Creator who first created them and sustains them with constant assistance in their perfection?
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He has the Shekhinah constantly with him, and the angels accompany him in potential, strengthening him in good; and in the places prepared for the Shekhinah, their accompaniment is in actuality — he sees it visibly, below the degree of prophecy — just as the most righteous of sages in the Second Temple period would see a form and hear a heavenly voice; this is the degree of the saints, and above it is the degree of the prophets.
Therefore let the pious man, from reverence for the divine command present with him, commit himself to what a servant must commit to before the Lord who created him
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and who has bestowed blessings upon him, while He watches him to reward or punish him. Therefore the pious man should not consider it trivial to say, before entering the privy: 'Honored ones, be honored' — as courtesy toward the Shekhinah — and then, upon exiting, to offer the blessing 'Who fashioned man in wisdom.'
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How exalted is this blessing in its meaning, and how precise is its language for one who meditates on it with the eye of truth! For it opens with 'wisdom' and closes with 'healer of all flesh' and 'who works wondrously' — pointing to the wondrous nature of what He created in the living body: the expelling and retaining faculties. And it encompasses all living beings with the words 'all flesh.'
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He binds his intention to the divine command with bonds — some of which are explicitly mandated and some traditional — thus he places the tefillin upon the site of thought and memory on the head, and fastens from them a strap that reaches to his hand so he may see it throughout the hours; and the hand-tefillin is placed at the source of the faculties, namely the heart.
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And he wears the tzitzit so that his senses should not be occupied with the world, as it is said: 'and you shall not stray after your heart and after your eyes.' What is written in the tefillin is: the declaration of Unity, the promise and the warning, and the remembrance of the Exodus from Egypt — for it is the argument admitting of no refutation that the divine command has connection with creation and care for them and knowledge of their deeds.
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Then he proceeds through all his sensory experiences, in each giving God His portion. It has been transmitted that the minimum number by which a person fulfills his obligation in praises is one hundred blessings — no fewer is the well-known minimum.
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Then over the course of the days he rises to perfect his blessings through fragrances, foods, sounds, and sights — pronouncing a blessing over each. And every additional blessing is a supererogatory act drawing near to God.
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As David said in: 'I will declare Your righteousness all day long; Your praise — for I do not know its measure' — meaning: Your praise I cannot confine to a number; rather I commit myself to it for all my life and will never cease it. And love and awe will inevitably
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arise in the soul in conjunction with these accompanying practices, and are precisely measured by legal measure — lest joy be excessive on Sabbaths and festivals to the point of descending into frivolity, lust, idleness, and the neglect of prayers at their required times.
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And lest awe become excessive to the point of despairing of pardon and forgiveness, leaving him dejected throughout his life, and transgressing the commanded joy in his sustenance, as it is said: 'and you shall rejoice in all the good' — so that his gratitude for God's blessings diminishes.
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For gratitude follows from joy — and so it becomes as it is said: 'Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy, etc., you shall serve your enemies.'
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And lest he be excessive in zeal over 'you shall surely rebuke' and so on, and in the disputation of intellectual matters — so that it leads him to anger and resentment and keeps his soul from clarity at the times of prayer.
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And let him implant deeply in his soul the acceptance of divine justice — to a degree that serves as a shield and armor against the afflictions and calamities that move through the world — if he truly implants in his soul the justice of the Creator of living beings, their Sustainer and wise Governor, whose wisdom in detail the intellects cannot grasp but whose justice as a whole they can apprehend.
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Through what one sees of the perfection of creation in living beings, and what it encompasses of wonders and marvels pointing to the intention of a Wise One and the will of an Omniscient and Omnipotent Being — Who provided for every creature, large and small alike, all it required of inner and outer senses and organs.
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And He fashioned the instruments fitting and suited to the spirits — so the hare and the deer were given the tools of flight and the character of cowardice, and the lions were given the character of boldness and the tools of clawing and rending. When one meditates on the creation of organs, their functions, and their proportionality to spirits, one sees in all of this such justice and wise order that no doubt or suspicion of the Creator's justice remains in his soul.
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And when the demon of fantasy arises to suggest to him injustice — since hares are prey for lions and flies for spiders — the intellect repels it and rebukes it, saying: How can I attribute injustice to a Wise One whose justice and self-sufficiency from
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injustice have been established for me. Were the hunting of hares by lions and the catching of flies by spiders a matter of chance alone, I could argue by the claim of chance — but I see that the Wise and just Governor is the very one who fashioned the lion's hunting instruments from his boldness, strength, fangs, and claws.
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And He inspired the spider with cunning, gave it the craft of weaving without learning, so that it weaves webs, and furnished it with the tools suited to this craft, and prepared the fly as its sustenance and food — just as He prepared for many sea creatures their sustenance from other sea creatures.
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Should I say of all this that it is anything other than wisdom — wisdom I cannot fully grasp — and submit to the One of whom it is said 'His work is perfect'? Whoever deeply implants this in his soul becomes like what is told of Nachum of Gamzu: every time a calamity befell him, he would say 'this too is for the good.'
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Such a person lives ever a pleasant life, and sorrows feel light to him — indeed he may even rejoice at them when he discerns thereby some sin of his that is being purged through them.
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Like one whose sentence has been carried out, who rejoices at the lightening of his guilt's burden thereby; and he rejoices at the remembrance and reward that will be given him; and he rejoices at what others gain through him by way of guidance toward patience and submission to God Most High; and he rejoices at the praise and distinction that comes to him through all this.
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This is his conduct in personal afflictions. And likewise he acts regarding communal afflictions — when the whispers of fantasy trouble his mind about the long exile, the dispersal of the nation, and the smallness and degradation that has come upon it. He consoles himself first through acceptance of divine justice, as I said; then through the expiation of sins; then through the remembrance and reward awaited in the world to come and the connection to the divine command in this world.
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And if his inner demon despairs him by saying 'can these bones live?' — how great is what has obliterated our traces and shattered our remnants — as it is said: 'behold they say: our bones are dried up' — then he reflects on how the Exodus from Egypt came about, and all that is said in 'how many are the good deeds of the Omnipresent toward us.'
So it would not be difficult for him to imagine how we shall be restored — even were there not left of us
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but a single one — as it is said: 'worm of Jacob.' For what may remain of a man when he has become a worm in his grave?
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Section Twelve. The Khazar said: One such as this lives in exile a pleasant life and reaps the fruit of his faith in this world and the next. But one who bears exile with resentment has nearly ruined both his present and his future.
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Section Thirteen. The rabbi said: And what intensifies his pleasure, makes it possible, and increases one joy upon another is the commitment to blessings upon every worldly benefit he encounters and upon every benefit that comes to him.
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Section Fourteen. The Khazar said: How can that be, when blessings are an additional burden?
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Section Fifteen. The rabbi said: Is not the perfect human being more deserving to be described as savoring what he eats and drinks than a child or an animal? Just as the animal is more deserving of pleasure than a plant — even though the plant is in constant nourishment.
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Section Sixteen. The Khazar said: Yes, because of the superiority of sense and awareness in pleasure. For if all he desires were brought to a drunkard while he is in the state of drunkenness — eating, drinking, hearing songs, gathering with those he loves, embracing his beloved — then all of this were described to him when he sobers up, he would lament it and count it all as loss, not gain, because those pleasures did not come to him in a state of attainment and complete awareness.
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Section Seventeen. The rabbi said: So preparation for pleasure, awareness of it, and imagining its absence before it arrives — all of these redouble the pleasure in it. This is among the benefits of blessings for one who commits to them with intention and attentiveness, for they give form to the kind of pleasure in the soul and to gratitude for it toward the One who granted it.
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And since you were exposed to death, you are grateful for your life and see it as gain — and sickness and death, when they come, are made lighter for you; for when you
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you reckon with yourself and realize that you are gaining with your Lord, for by your very nature you deserve non-existence from every blessing — since you are dust — yet He bestowed upon you life and pleasure, and you give thanks. And when He takes it away, you accept patiently and say: 'The Lord has given and the Lord has taken, etc.' Thus you remain content all the days of your life.
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And one who does not commit to this path — do not imagine his pleasure to be a human pleasure; it is rather an animal pleasure, and one he cannot even attain, as we said regarding the drunkard.
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Likewise the distinguished person realizes in his soul the meaning of every blessing and envisions its purpose and what pertains to it. In the blessing of 'He who forms the luminaries' he envisions the order of the upper world, the greatness of those celestial bodies, and the immensity of their benefit — and that in the eyes of their Creator they are like the lowest of insects, even though they appear great to us by reason of the great benefit we derive from them.
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The proof that they are as I said in the eyes of their Creator: His wisdom and governance in creating the ant and the bee are not less than His wisdom and governance in creating the sun and its sphere — indeed, the trace of divine care and wisdom is more subtle and more wondrous in the ant and the bee.
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He meditates on this lest the luminaries become great in his eyes and the demon mislead him through some of the opinions of those who attribute potency to the spiritual spheres — imagining that they can harm and benefit of themselves, which is not the case; they act rather through their qualities, like wind and fire.
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And likewise in the blessing of 'Ahavat Olam' ('Eternal Love') he envisions the connection of the divine command with the community prepared to receive it — like the connection of light with a polished mirror — and that the Torah comes from Him as a first expression of His will to manifest His kingship on earth as it is manifest in the heavens.
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Wisdom did not require that He create angels on earth, but rather human beings from semen and blood, in whom natures contend and characters pull in opposing directions — by the law of the opposition of approach and withdrawal — as is explained in Sefer Yetzirah. When among them an individual or a community becomes clear, the divine light descends upon them and speaks to them through subtle wonders beyond the order of the natural world; and this from Him is called love and joy.
And the divine command did not find a receptive and obedient subject, constant in the order
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of which He commanded it, after the luminaries and the spheres — except for the choicest of men, who were individuals from the time of Adam until Jacob, and then became a community. The divine command descended upon them in love, 'to be a God to them.'
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And He arranged them in the wilderness according to the order of the sphere: four banners corresponding to the four quarters of the sphere, the twelve tribes corresponding to the twelve signs of the zodiac, the camp of the Levites in the midst of the camps — as described in the Sefer Yetzirah — with the holy sanctuary aligned at the center. 'And God bears all of them.'
. . .
All of this points to love. He utters praises over it, and follows that with acceptance of the Torah through the Shema. Then through what is contained in the 'Emet ve-Yatziv' section — the powerful affirmation of the commitment to the Torah.
[ ] .
It is as if, once all of the foregoing has become clear to him, acquired and distinguished, he makes a binding commitment upon himself and bears solemn testimony that he has accepted it — as the forefathers accepted it before him — and that the children likewise will accept it unto the end of time, as he says: 'upon our forefathers and upon us and upon our children and upon our generations a good word and an established statute that shall not pass away.'
. .
Then he enumerates those doctrines by which the Jewish faith is completed: affirmation of His Lordship Most High, His eternity, and His care for our forefathers; and that the Torah comes from Him; and the proof for all of this — which is the concluding seal — namely, the Exodus from Egypt, in the words: 'True, that You, O Lord, are our God.'
'True from eternity is Your name, and You aided our forefathers, and in truth You redeemed us from Egypt.' Whoever joins together these pillars with pure intention is truly an Israelite, and it is fitting for him to aspire to connection with the divine command that is connected to the children of Israel and not to other nations — and he is worthy to stand
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[] .
before the Shekhinah, and that his prayer be answered. Therefore he is required to adjoin redemption immediately to prayer, with the utmost eagerness and alacrity — as was described earlier — and he then stands for prayer with the conditions mentioned before.
.
With the blessings that encompass all Israel, for petition and prayer regarding personal matters is among the supererogatory acts that are not obligatory — though there is a place for them within the 'Shome'a Tefillah' blessing for whoever wishes.
.
In the first blessing, called 'Avot,' he envisions the merit of the forefathers and the steadfastness of God's covenant with them for all eternity — unchanging — in the words: 'and brings a redeemer to their children's children.'
.
In the second blessing, called 'Gevurot,' he envisions that God has in this world a perpetual wisdom — not as the naturalists suppose, that it runs according to the natures they have observed. He envisions that He 'revives the dead whenever He wills' — however far this is from the calculations of the naturalists.
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After affirming in Avot and Gevurot that God Most High is connected to this physical world, he now sanctifies and hallows and exalts Him above any attribution of corporeal attributes — in Kedushat HaShem: 'You are holy.'
.
In this blessing he envisions all that the philosophers have said of transcendence and holiness — but now after the explicit affirmation of His lordship and kingship in Avot and Gevurot. For through those it is established for us that we have a King and Legislator; without them, we would have wavered between the words of the philosophers and the eternalists.
. .
It was therefore required to precede Kedushat HaShem with Avot and Gevurot. After this magnification he begins to petition his needs, joining himself with all Israel. No other form is permitted except in voluntary prayers, for the answered prayer is only for the community, or within a community, or for a single individual who stands in the place of a community — and the latter is absent in our times.
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. []. .
Section Eighteen. The Khazar said: Why so? Is not solitude for a person superior and purer for his soul and freer for his thought?
. []. . [ ] .
Section Nineteen. The rabbi said: Rather, superiority belongs to the community for several reasons. The first is that the community does not pray for anything that would bring harm to individuals. But an individual may pray for something that harms other individuals — and among those individuals there may be one who prays for something harmful to him.
. .
Among the conditions of the answered prayer is that it be for what benefits the world and harms it in no way. Another condition: it is rare for the prayer of an individual to be complete without inadvertence and inattentiveness.
.
For this reason it was prescribed for us that the individual pray the community prayer — and indeed that his prayer be performed, as much as possible, in a congregation of no fewer than ten — so that what falls short in one through inadvertence or inattentiveness is completed by another.
[ ] .
Thus from all of them together a perfect communal prayer is assembled with pure intention, and divine blessing descends upon all of them — and each individual among them receives his portion of it.
. [] .
For the divine command is like rain — it fills a region when that region as a whole deserves it; and perhaps some individuals within it who do not deserve it are included within it, prospering through the intercession of the majority. And inversely, rain is withheld from a region when the region as a whole does not deserve it — and perhaps individuals are included within it who would have deserved it, but they are deprived on account of the deprivation of the majority.
. .
These are His worldly ordinances, May He be exalted; but with Him are the reckoning and reward for those individuals in the world to come. And since rational deliberation could not determine the precise measure, God made it obligatory through tithes, gifts, and sacrifices.
[] [] . .
The one who prays for himself is like one who wishes to repair only his own house and refuses to join the townspeople in their collective work on their walls — he spends much and remains at risk. But the one who enters the communal path spends little and remains in security.
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[] . .
by which his community — of which he is a part — thrives; and if he thinks it will accumulate for him alone, he has wronged everyone and has wronged himself most. For the individual within his community is like a single organ within the whole of the body.
[] .
Were the arm to withhold its blood when it was needed for some vital function, the entire body would perish and the arm would perish with its perishing. Rather, the individual must endure hardship — and even death — for the sake of the welfare of the whole.
. . .
The most critical thing the individual must attend to is the communal portion — giving it and not neglecting it. Since rational deliberation could not determine its precise measure, God made it obligatory through tithes, gifts, sacrifices, and the like — this is the communal portion from wealth. As for deeds: the Sabbaths, festivals, sabbatical years, Jubilees, and what falls under their category.
. .
And as for speech: prayers, blessings, and praises. And of character traits: love, awe, and joy. And the first of the petitions to be given priority is the petition for the intellect and divine inspiration — for through these a person attains nearness to his Lord.
.
Therefore 'You graciously grant man knowledge' comes first, paired with what follows it — namely 'He who desires repentance' — so that this wisdom, knowledge, and understanding be in the path of Torah and worship, as it is said: 'Restore us, our Father, to Your Torah.'
. .
And since man inevitably stumbles, prayer for forgiveness of error in knowledge and deed is required, in the blessing 'the gracious One who abundantly forgives.' To this prayer is joined the fruit of forgiveness and its sign — which is relief from our present affliction — hence the opening with 'behold our suffering and champion our cause,' closing with 'Redeemer of Israel.'
Then he prays for the health of bodies and souls, pairing with this petition the presence
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. .
of its sustaining forces — to preserve his vitality — in the blessing 'Birkat HaShanim.' Then he prays for the ingathering of the dispersed, in 'the gatherer of the dispersed of His people, the house of Israel,' paired with the manifestation of justice and the ordering of affairs in the words: 'reign over us, You alone.'
.
Then he prays for the elimination of wickedness and the severing of heresy in the blessing 'Birkat HaMinim,' paired with the blessing upon the pure righteous in the words: 'upon the righteous.'
. .
Then he prays for the restoration of Jerusalem, envisioning it as the dwelling-place of the divine command. Paired with this is prayer for the Messiah son of David and relief from worldly needs.
. .
Then prayer for the acceptance of prayer in 'Shome'a Tefillah,' paired with prayer for the visible presence of the Shekhinah to the eye — as it was to the prophets, the saints, and those who came out of Egypt — thus the prayer: 'and may our eyes behold it,' closing with 'He who restores His Shekhinah to Zion.'
.
He imagines the Shekhinah embodied before him and bows toward it, as Israel used to bow upon seeing the Shekhinah; and he prostrates the prostration of Modim in the blessing of thanksgiving, which contains both the affirmation of God's Most High's beneficence and gratitude for it together.
.
And he joins to it the 'Oseh Shalom' which is the seal, so that the farewell and parting from the presence of the Shekhinah may be in peace.
. []. .
Section Twenty. The Khazar said: I have no room for objection, for I see that all the purposes are precisely ordered and wisely arranged. As for what I had previously criticized — namely the scarcity of mention of the afterlife in your prayers — you have argued me out of that position.
by showing that whoever prays for connection with the divine light in his lifetime — praying even
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that he may see it with his own eyes, and prays for the degree of prophecy — and there is nothing that brings a person closer to God than that — it is inevitable that he has prayed for more than the afterlife; and if he attains that, then the afterlife is already his.
.
For one whose soul is connected to the divine command while still occupied with the afflictions of the body and the burdens of the nation — how much more fitting and proper that it should be connected with it when it is alone and has shed these impure instruments.
. []. .
Section Twenty-One. The rabbi said: I will elaborate on this with a parable. A man came before a king who welcomed him with great favor and gave him permission to enter his presence whenever he wished. This man would even show the way to the king to the point of the king troubling himself to come down to lodge at his house and to be present as his guest.
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The king comes to him, sends his most intimate ministers to him, and does for him what he does for no other. And when this man errs or makes a mistake and the king withdraws from him — he only prays and entreats a return to the normal relationship: that he come down to him and that his ministers not cut off their visits.
.
As for all the townspeople — what they pray for and desire is that when they travel, the king should send along with them someone who will protect them from bandits, serpents, and road hazards. They trust that the king will assist them in this and that he cares for them on their journeys, even if he pays no particular attention to them when they are at home.
.
And some of them would boast over others that the king cares for them more than for others — inferring this from the fact that they revere the king more than the others do.
. . .
But this distinguished man rarely mentioned the journey and did not pray for anyone to escort him. When the time for his journey arrived, the townspeople said to him: 'You are going to perish on this treacherous road since you have no one to escort you.' He said to them: 'And who will escort you?' They said: 'The king, whom we have been praying and entreating for an escort since our arrival in this city — and we have never seen you pray for anything like this.' He said to them: 'O foolish people — who prays for something in a time of security? Is it not more fitting
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that one hope in him in a time of caution? If he has already answered him in a time of ease — is it not all the more certain that he will answer him in a time of necessity?
.
And if you claim that His care for you is because of your reverence toward Him — is there among you one who has committed to Him as I have committed, revered Him as I have revered, borne hardship for the sake of His commandments as I have borne, guarded against impurity when mentioning Him as I have guarded, and committed to the honor of His name and His writing as I have committed?
.
And everything I did was according to His command and teaching, while you revere Him by analogy and guesswork — and nothing of that will be lost for you. So how would He single me out on my journey just because I do not declare it as openly as you do? For I trusted in His justice.
.
This parable is only for someone who is unreasonable and does not accept the words of the sages. For our prayers are filled with mention of the world to come, and the words of the sages transmitted from the prophets are replete with detailed descriptions of Eden and Gehenna, as I have explained to you.
.
I have described for you the deeds of the pious man in our own time — imagine then how he would be in that blessed era, in that divine place, and among that people whose very essence is Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and whose choicest ones
.
were endowed with modesty, men and women alike — finding nothing repugnant in their language — so that the pious man moving among them would find his soul unsullied by obscene words heard from them.
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Nor would any impurity of zav, niddah, creeping things, the dead, leprosy, or the like attach to his garments and body — for their commitment to holiness and purity was total. Above all, one who dwelt in the city of the Shekhinah would encounter only groups ascending in holiness: priests, Levites, Nazirites, associates, prophets, sages, judges, and officers. Or
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he would see among the common people a joyful multitude with songs of joy and thanksgiving during the three pilgrimage festivals each year, hearing nothing but the song of the Lord and seeing nothing but the work of the Lord.
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Above all, if he were a priest or a Levite, living from the bread of the Lord and devoted to the house of the Lord from his childhood — like Samuel — and thus freed from the pursuit of livelihood, committed to the service of the Lord all his life — what then do you suppose his deeds would be, and the clarity of his soul, and the excellence of his work?
. []. .
Section Twenty-Two. The Khazar said: This is the ultimate degree — beyond it there is nothing but the degree of the angels. One who commits in this way has every right to aspire to prophecy, especially in the presence of the Shekhinah. This is the kind of worship that takes the place of asceticism and withdrawal.
.
And I would like now some clarification from you about the Karaites, for I see them more diligent in worship than the Rabbanites, and I hear their arguments seemingly more weighty and more consistent with the literal text of the Torah.
. []. .
Section Twenty-Three. The rabbi said: Have we not already stated that exercising independent judgment, rational interpretation, and speculation regarding the Torah does not lead to divine approval? For otherwise, the Dualists, the Eternalists, the adherents of the spiritual spheres, the mountain recluses, and those who burn their children in fire are all diligent in drawing near to God.
And we have already stated that one can draw near to God only through God's own commands — for He Most High knows their precise measure, their proper arrangement, their times, their places, and what follows from
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, , . . .
these obligations — the fulfillment of which brings about divine approval and connection with the divine command — as was the case in the making of the Tabernacle, of which it says regarding each craft: 'and Bezalel made the ark, and he made the cover, and he made the curtains' — and of each one: 'as the Lord commanded Moses' — meaning without addition or diminution.
.
And none of those works correspond to our rational faculties and analogical reasoning. And it closes with: 'And Moses saw all the work, and behold they had done it as the Lord had commanded, so they had done it, and Moses blessed them.'
. . .
And the descent of the Shekhinah accompanied the completion of the Tabernacle, when the two pillars of the Torah were fulfilled. The first: that the Torah be from God. The second: that it be performed with pure intention by the community.
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The Tabernacle was God's command, and its construction was performed by all the community, as it says: 'from every person whose heart moves him, take My offering' — with the utmost eagerness and willingness — so the complete fruit was obligated, which is the Shekhinah, as He said: 'and I will dwell among them.'
.
I have used for you the analogy of the creation of plant and animal, and I said that the form by which one plant is individuated from another and one animal from another is not from the natural elements — rather it is a trace from God Most High, which scholars call 'nature.'
. .
Nature prepares for the reception of that trace according to its proportions of heat, cold, moisture, and dryness — so this becomes a date palm, this a vine, this a mare, this a lion. And those proportions we cannot determine.
If we were able to determine them, we would be able to produce blood and milk, for example, and semen from the moistures whose mixture we could determine — until we would be able
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to create animals animated by spirit — or we would be able to produce something that serves in place of bread from things that are not naturally nourishing, by calculating their heat, cold, moisture, and dryness — especially if we knew the celestial proportions and their specific influences as the astrologers claim, governing everything that is to be manifested in this world.
. .
And we have seen the humiliation of all who attempted any of these methods — among the alchemists and the practitioners of spiritual arts. And do not counter me with what people are capable of in the generation of creatures, such as producing bees from the flesh of cattle or gnats from wine.
.
For that is not due to their determining and knowing — it is rather from empirical observations they found, just as they found that coitus produces a child. And the human's role therein is no more than placing seed in prepared ground ready to receive it and for it to germinate therein.
. .
And the determination of the proportions that the human form deserves belongs only to its Creator. Likewise the determination of the living community deserving the descent of the divine command among it belongs to God alone.
. .
Therefore one must hear this measure and proportion from Him and not apply rational objections to His word — as it is said: 'There is no wisdom and no understanding and no counsel against the Lord.' So what do you think the means is of resembling our forefathers, so that we follow them and not apply our own reasoning to the Torah?
. [].
Section Twenty-Four. The Khazar said: There is no way to that except through the transmission of their accounts and the establishing of chains
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of their traces — that there be found one trustworthy in this, community after community, such that consensus is impossible for those like them, among those who have borne the Torah with its branches and commentaries from the time of Moses — verified in their hearts or in their scrolls.
. []. . . []. .
Section Twenty-Five. The rabbi said: How then do you view a variant found in one scroll, or two, or three? Section Twenty-Six. The Khazar said: One looks to the majority of scrolls, for the majority cannot lie, and the minority is set aside.
. . []. , .
And likewise with transmitters — when they disagree, one follows the opinion of the majority. Section Twenty-Seven. The rabbi said: What then do you say about a letter found in scrolls that contradicts regular grammar — such as 'tzadu tzaadinu' (they hunted me down) — should it be read 'tzaru' (my enemies)? And 'asher lo nasa lashav nafshi' — should it be read 'nafsho'?
. . []. .
And many other instances like these, beyond count or enumeration. Section Twenty-Eight. The Khazar said: If you apply analogy to this and the like, you will have altered all the scriptures — first in letters, then in words, then in verses, then in vocalization, then in cantillation marks, and the meanings will change.
. . []. .
How many a verse could a person reverse entirely in meaning by changing just one of these secondary features — let alone all of them? Section Twenty-Nine. The rabbi said: How then do you suppose Moses deposited his writing with the children of Israel?
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. []. . .
Section Thirty. The Khazar said: It was certainly a plain text devoid of vowel points and cantillation marks, as we see in the Torah scrolls today — for no consensus among the general public concerning them is possible, just as no consensus is possible concerning the unleavened bread on Passover.
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And other laws that are in remembrance of the Exodus from Egypt — laws that implant in the souls of Israel the reality of the Exodus through those continuously practiced observances that no consensus can be reached to change in any year — so that there is no one who disputes them.
. []. .
Section Thirty-One. The rabbi said: It was certainly preserved in the hearts with the patah, qamatz, tsere, imala, sheva, and cantillation marks — in the hearts of the priests for their need in worship and to teach the children of Israel.
[ ] .
And in the hearts of the kings, as required for them: 'and it shall be with him and he shall read in it all the days of his life.' And in the hearts of the judges for their need in rulings. And in the hearts of the Sanhedrin for their need, regarding what is said: 'and you shall observe and do, for it is your wisdom and understanding.'
. .
And in the hearts of the pious to receive reward. And in the hearts of the vocalizers, in their quest to make it explicit — they placed the seven crowns and the cantillation marks as signs of those oral forms they had received by transmission from Moses, peace be upon him.
. .
What then do you suppose of those who fixed the reading of scripture first by verse divisions, then by vowelization, then by cantillation marks, then by the Masorah — including the determination of plene and defective spelling, counting even the letters, and determining that vav-dalet-gimel-het-tav-nun (וּ דּ גּ חּ תּ נּ) divides the Torah — and fixing every irregular qamatz, patah, tsere, and segol outside the regular pattern? Do you think their work was idle and useless, or diligence in an obligation?
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. []. .
Section Thirty-Two. The Khazar said: It was diligence in an obligation — along with caution over the Torah so that no alteration might creep in. This is evident, given the outstanding knowledge at play: from the system of vowelization and cantillation marks there emerges an order that could only come from a divinely-confirmed knowledge bearing no resemblance to our own sciences in any way.
.
And it could not gain acceptance from the public except from an established body or an established individual; and a public cannot accept something from an individual who is not a prophet or divinely confirmed — because a scholar who is not divinely confirmed will be challenged by someone approaching him in knowledge who will claim to do the same as he does.
. []. .
Section Thirty-Three. The rabbi said: Therefore traditional reception is obligatory upon us, upon the Karaites, and upon everyone who acknowledges that this Torah existing today — read in this manner — is the Torah of Moses peace be upon him.
. []. . . . []. .
Section Thirty-Four. The Khazar said: So the Karaites say. But once the Torah is obtained in its entirety, they are independent of tradition. Section Thirty-Five. The rabbi said: Glory be to God! This simple text of Moses, peace be upon him, required so many groups for its pronunciation and reading — the vocalizers, the cantillators, the verse-dividers, and the Masoretes. How much more must its meanings require!
.
For meaning is far more expansive than language. For example, when He said to them: 'This month shall be for you the beginning of months' — was there not
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[ ] .
any doubt among the people whether He meant the months of the Copts — who were the Egyptians among whom they lived — or the months of the Syrians, who were Abraham's people in Ur of the Chaldeans — who are the Chaldeans — or solar months or lunar months, or lunar years adjusted to correspond with solar years, as comes in the science of calendar intercalation?
. [].
I would like the Karaites to persuade me with an answer to this and to similar questions. So I turn to their doctrine, for I am fond of independent reasoning and they should convince me.
.
When I ask them how an animal is permitted to eat — what is the meaning of slaughter? Perhaps it means strangulation or killing in whatever manner comes about? And why is the slaughter of non-Jews forbidden? And what distinguishes slaughtering from flaying and the rest of the process?
. .
And I would like them to explain to me the forbidden fat — which is adjacent to the permitted in the diaphragm, the cleaned parts, and so on in the process of meat preparation — and give me the boundary between permitted and forbidden such that I will not disagree with my fellow about it. And likewise the fat-tail forbidden among them — does it have a boundary?
. .
Perhaps one person removes the tip of the tail alone while another removes the entire rump. And I would like them to explain to me which birds are permitted and which forbidden — aside from the well-known ones, meaning the dove and the pigeon — and from where does one know that chicken, goose, crane, and partridge are not among the impure?
And I would like them to give me the boundaries of 'let no man go out of his place' — whether it means his house or his estate,
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. . [].
Treatise Three · Section 35. The Rabbi said:
—
Have you heard, O Khazar King — I would like them to draw for me the boundary of the labor forbidden on the Sabbath: what prevents use of pen and inkwell to correct a Torah scroll, yet permits lifting a heavy book and a table and all sorts of food and entertaining guests and taking on all the trouble that a host takes for his guests' comfort, while they rest and he labors?
. .
And more than this — the service of his women and menservants, yet Scripture says 'that your manservant and maidservant may rest as well as you.' And how is it forbidden to ride the horse of a non-Jew on the Sabbath, and how is trade forbidden?
.
And I would like them to adjudicate between two litigants from the sections of 'These are the ordinances' and 'When you go out to war' — and these are among the most explicit passages of the Torah, let alone the obscure ones — since the real reliance has always been on the Oral Torah.
. .
And I would like to see his rulings and judgments on all inheritance matters from the section of the daughters of Zelophehad — and even the manner of circumcision, fringes, and the sukkah. And let him explain to me from where it is obligated that one pray.
.
And from where does he believe that there is an appointed time and a threat, a reward and a punishment after death? And how do they rule on conflicting commandments — such as circumcision in conflict with the Sabbath, or Passover in conflict with the Sabbath: which supersedes which? And other such matters that would take long even to list in outline, let alone in detail.
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. [].
Section 36. The Khazar said:
. — .
of any Karaite composition on any of the matters you mentioned that is reliable, accepted, authoritative, and free of disagreement among them — whether concerning the Masoretic tradition, or vowelization, or cantillation, or prohibitions and permissions, or legal rulings — I have neither seen nor heard of any such thing. But I do see them exerting themselves in independent reasoning.
. []. .
Section 37. The Rabbi said: That is what I told you about rationalizing and playing the philosopher. Those who rationalize in service of 'the work of the heavens' exert themselves more than those who do 'the work of the Lord' as commanded.
. .
For the Rabbanites have found rest in their received tradition, and their souls are at peace — like someone at ease in the city who need not gird himself to fight every disputer. But the Karaites are like one walking in the wilderness who does not know what he will encounter, so he must be armed, prepared for battle, trained in war, and hardened in it.
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So do not be impressed by the Karaites' diligence, nor be wearied by the apparent laziness of those who follow received tradition — meaning the Rabbanites. For the Karaites seek a fortress to shelter in, while the Rabbanites sleep and rest undisturbed in their quarters in an ancient and fortified city.
. []. . . .
Section 38. The Khazar said: All that you have said is compelling. For the Torah itself insists that there be one Torah and one judgment. But according to their independent reasonings, the laws multiply according to each person's reasoning.
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Indeed, not even one individual can maintain a single law, for every day a new opinion presents itself to him, his knowledge grows, and whoever opposes him brings a counter-argument — so he must shift with every shift in opinion. And if we find them agreeing, let us know that they are following some individual or group that came before them — in which case we must challenge them about their agreement.
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the word of God lends itself to many interpretations. But if they say 'this is what Anan or Benjamin or Saul or others held,' then the argument for received authority applies more forcefully to one who is earlier and more deserving of that authority — namely the Sages,
. .
for the Sages are a community while those others were individuals; the Sages' reasoning is grounded in tradition from the prophets, while those others have only bare independent reasoning; the Sages are in agreement while those others disagree; and the Sages' rulings issue from 'the place that the Lord shall choose.'
. .
And even if the Sages' wisdom derived from their independent reasoning alone, it would still be obligatory to accept it. But the Karaites are not in that position. And I wish I knew what their answer would be regarding the matter of 'this month'—
. . .
— seeing that their practice follows the Rabbanites in intercalating Adar with Adar. Yet then they reproach the Rabbanites at the sighting of the Tishri new moon, saying: 'How did you fast the Day of Atonement on the ninth of Tishri?' Should they not rather be embarrassed, since they do not even know whether the month in question is Elul or Tishri when they intercalate?
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And when they do not intercalate, is it Tishri or Marcheshvan? Should they not say: 'We are the drowning man who mocks another for getting wet!' — we do not know whether the month is Tishri, Marcheshvan, or Elul. So how can we reproach those whose footsteps we follow and from whom we would learn: do you fast on the ninth or the tenth of the month?
. []. , .
Section 39. The Rabbi said: Our law is bound to 'the tradition from Sinai through Moses,' or to 'the place that the Lord shall choose, for from Zion shall go forth Torah, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem' — in the presence of judges, officers, priests, and the Sanhedrin, and we are commanded to obey
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to the judge appointed in every generation, as Scripture says: 'And you shall go to the judge who shall be in those days, and you shall inquire, and they shall declare to you the matter of the judgment, and you shall do according to the word that they tell you from that place that the Lord shall choose, and you shall observe to do according to all that they instruct you.'
. .
Then: 'And the man who acts presumptuously and does not listen to the priest, etc., that man shall die, and you shall put away evil from your midst.' Defying the priest and the judge is ranked among the most severe crimes, as indicated by the phrase 'and you shall put away evil from your midst.'
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Scripture then adds: 'And all the people shall hear and fear, and they shall no longer act presumptuously.' As long as the order of worship remains — with the Sanhedrin and all the other groups that sustain the order — through them the divine word is connected necessarily, either by prophecy or by support and inspiration, as was the case in the Second Temple period.
. .
It is inconceivable that such people would collude or reach a compromise. And it was by this authority that the laws of the Megillah, of Purim, and of Hanukkah became binding. And it is permissible for us to say 'and He commanded us concerning the reading of the Megillah,' 'and to kindle the Hanukkah lamp,' 'and to complete the Hallel,' 'and to read,' 'and concerning the washing of hands,' 'and the commandment of the eruv,' and so forth.
. .
And if these were rabbinic ordinances that arose after the Exile, they could not be called obligatory commandments, nor would a blessing over them be binding upon us — they would be called merely an enactment or a custom. For the greater part of our laws is grounded in tradition going back to Moses — 'a tradition from Sinai through Moses.'
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And so it must be with a people who were sustained in their livelihood for forty years — in food, clothing, and dwelling — a people of such great number, with Moses present among them and the divine Presence never departing from them.
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He commanded them with the outlines of the laws — is it not inconceivable that they would not ask about their particulars from time to time, and pass on their interpretation and elaboration? As we see: 'And I made known to them God's statutes and His teachings.'
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And He said to them at the end: 'For this is your wisdom and understanding in the eyes of the peoples, who shall hear all these statutes and say: Only a wise and understanding people is this great nation.'
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Whoever wishes to disprove this verse, let him look at the Karaites; and whoever wishes to confirm it, let him look at the sciences of the Mishnah and Talmud — themselves but a small portion of the vast learning in the natural sciences, theology, mathematics, and astronomy — and he will see that it is fitting for them to take pride over all nations in their sciences.
. .
And some of our laws come from 'the place that the Lord shall choose,' under the conditions mentioned. Prophecy accompanied the Second Temple for about forty years, and Jeremiah, peace be upon him, praised in his prophetic words the people of the Second Temple for their goodness, their learning, and their justice — if we do not follow their received authority, whose shall we follow?
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And we see what became law after Moses — such as that of Solomon, who consecrated the middle of the court and offered burnt offerings outside the altar, and observed the festival for seven days and seven days.
And what David and Samuel established of the arrangement of the singers in the Temple became a continuing law; and what Solomon did with the Tabernacle, and what he abbreviated from what had been done
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that Moses had done in the wilderness; and what Ezra wrote for his community at the Second Temple — the third of a shekel; and what they established in place of the Ark, namely a stone pavement, hanging the curtain before it, since they knew that the Ark was buried there.
. []. .
Section 40. The Khazar said: How is all this consistent with 'you shall not add to it nor diminish from it'?
. []. .
Section 41. The Rabbi said: This was said to the general public, lest they rationalize and play the philosopher and set up laws for themselves based on their own reasoning — as the Karaites do.
And it urges acceptance from prophets after Moses, peace be upon him, and from the priests and judges — as Scripture says regarding a prophet: 'I will raise up for them a prophet, etc., and he shall speak to them all that I command him'; and it says of the priests and judges that their wisdom is to be obeyed,
So the meaning of 'you shall not add to the matter that I command you and shall not diminish from it' is: what I commanded you through Moses, and what I command you through a prophet from among your brethren — under the established conditions for prophecy —
or what the priests and judges have agreed upon from 'the place that the Lord shall choose,' for they are confirmed
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[]
by the divine Presence, and it is inconceivable that they should compromise on anything contrary to the law, given their great numbers, nor is it conceivable that they would err, given their vast inherited, innate, and acquired knowledge — for those who transmitted from the Sanhedrin are required to possess all the sciences,
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especially since after prophecy had barely departed from them, what could take its place — the divine voice (bat qol) and so forth — was present.
Let us grant the Karaites what they claim against us regarding the plain meaning of 'from the morrow of the Sabbath until the morrow of the Sabbath' — that it means from Sunday. Then we say: one of the judges, priests, or approved kings, together with the opinion of the Sanhedrin and all the Sages, ruled that the intent of that count is merely to produce fifty days
between the first fruits of the barley harvest and the first fruits of the wheat harvest, maintaining seven complete weeks. So he gave us as a guide: if we begin 'when you first put the sickle to the standing grain' from Sunday, then we count until Sunday;
[] .
so we infer that if we begin on Monday we count until Monday. 'When you first put the sickle' is left to our judgment — whenever we determine the appropriate starting point, we begin counting from it. So the arrangement was set as the second day of Passover, and there is no contradiction to the Torah in that.
. . .
And it became binding as law, since it came from 'the place that the Lord shall choose' under the conditions mentioned. And perhaps it was by divine inspiration — the matter is possible. And we are free from the trouble the troublemakers make.
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. []. .
Section 42. The Khazar said: You have, O rabbi, with these universal principles that I cannot deny, silenced in me the specific objections from the Karaite arguments that I thought would leave you speechless.
. []. .
Section 43. The Rabbi said: When the universal principles are established, pay no heed to the specifics, for illusion often creeps into them and they are without limit, since they proliferate endlessly, and two disputants can never finish exhausting their intricacies.
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This is like one who has established as certain the justice of the Creator and that His wisdom is all-encompassing — such a person pays no attention to the apparent injustice visible in this world. As Scripture says: 'If you see oppression of the poor and robbery of justice and righteousness in the land, do not be amazed at the matter.'
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And like one who has established by proof the soul's persistence after the body's demise, and that it is not corporeal but rather a substance separate from the body like the angels — such a person pays no attention to what imagination conjures up: the absence of the soul's activities during sleep, or during illness that overwhelms the mind, or its apparent dependence on the body's constitution, and other such bewildering thoughts.
. []. .
Section 44. The Khazar said: Even so, I am not persuaded until I have satisfied myself with a debate over the specifics with you — even if doing so opens me to criticism after I have acknowledged the universal principles you have presented.
. []. .
Section 45. The Rabbi said: Say what you wish.
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. []. .
Section 46. The Khazar said: Is not the lex talionis explicit in the Torah, in the verse 'an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth; as he has inflicted a blemish on a person, so shall it be inflicted upon him'?
. [].
Section 47. The Rabbi said: Did Scripture not say immediately after that: 'one who strikes the life of an animal shall make restitution for it, life for life' — is this not monetary compensation? And did anyone say 'he who killed your horse — I will kill his horse'? No, it said 'take the value of his horse' since there is no benefit to you in killing his horse,
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And likewise one who cut off your hand — take his hand's monetary value, for there is no benefit to you in cutting off his hand. Especially since these rulings contain what reason contradicts: 'wound for wound, bruise for bruise' —
. . .
How can we measure that precisely, when perhaps one of the two dies from his wound while the other does not die from an equivalent wound? And how can we produce an equivalent? And how can we blind the one eye of a one-eyed man who injured someone who had two eyes — leaving one entirely blind and the other with one eye — while the Torah says 'as he inflicted a blemish on a person so shall it be inflicted upon him'?
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And what need do I have to debate you over these specifics, after I have already established the necessity of received authority, given the integrity, eminence, knowledge, and diligence of those whose authority was received?
. []. . . [].
Section 48. The Khazar said: Even so, I am impressed by their caution concerning impurities. Section 49. The Rabbi said: Impurity and holiness are two correlative concepts; one cannot be found
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without the other; where there is no holiness, there is no impurity. For the meaning of impurity is simply a state that forbids one from drawing near to any of the matters of holiness that are assigned to God — such as the priests and their food and their garments, the heave-offerings, the sacrifices, the Temple, and much else besides.
. . .
And likewise, the meaning of holiness is a state that forbids one from contact with many well-known things. Most of this pertains to the presence of the Shekhinah — and we have lost it.
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What we have of the prohibition of contact with a menstruant or a woman after childbirth is not on account of impurity, but is a pure divine ordinance. And likewise what we have of distancing from their company and the awe of approaching them — these are merely warnings and protective fences, lest there be any opening to contact with them.
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As for the obligations of impurity — they have fallen away from us, because we are in an impure land with impure air, quite apart from all that we move among: graves, reptiles, lepers, those with discharges, the dead, and so on.
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And likewise the prohibition upon us of carrion is not on account of its impurity, but is a pure ordinance regarding the prohibition of carrion. The element of impurity is additional.
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Were it not for their saying 'Ezra enacted immersion for those who have had a seminal emission,' that would not be legally binding — only the requirement of cleanliness and washing. If their obligation of this is for the purpose of cleanliness there is no harm in that, without making it legally binding; otherwise they have become philosophers through ignorance, innovating in the law and causing sectarianism — meaning the proliferation of sects, which is the root of the religion's corruption and its departure from one Torah
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and one judgment. For everything we permit by way of leniency, even if it appears crude, is trivial compared to what their independent reasoning causes by way of sectarianism, to the point that a single household of ten people might hold ten different legal positions.
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For if the laws are not strictly bounded so they cannot be exceeded, one cannot be confident that what does not belong will not be introduced into them, or that some of what belongs to them will not be excluded — because one proceeds by one's own reasoning and taste.
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So it would be easy for the Karaite to permit idolatrous pleasure involving gold and silver, incense and wine — whereas in truth death is preferable to any of that. Yet he would find it difficult to benefit from pig-fat as medicine, when in truth that is among the minor transgressions that carry only lashes.
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And likewise, it would be easier for a Nazirite to eat raisins and grapes than to become intoxicated from honey-wine or apple-wine.
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In truth the opposite is the case, for the prohibition is only for what comes from the vine alone, and the intent is not to forbid intoxication as one might think — rather the secret is in God's knowledge, shared with His prophets and His friends. And it is not possible to ignore what both the transmitters and the reasoners have said, for the word shekhar is well-known and understood.
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And it has been transmitted that 'wine and strong drink' spoken of concerning the priests requires all types of intoxicating drink, while 'wine and strong drink' spoken of concerning the Nazirite refers only to the juice of the grape. Thus the laws have well-established boundaries in the domain of knowledge, even if they appear unsophisticated in practice.
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And the scrupulous person avoids them without declaring them forbidden — such as the meat of an animal that drags its hindquarters, which is technically permitted but about which we are not certain the animal has actually died. And one might argue that it is terefah-like and therefore permitted.
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And terefah from an apparently healthy animal is forbidden, because it has a lethal condition — inevitably, it cannot survive it nor recover from it, and so it is forbidden.
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To taste and reason, these rulings seem to come in the wrong order — so do not follow your taste and your reasoning in the branches of the laws, for they will lead you into doubts that call toward sectarianism.
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And you will never agree with your fellow on any of them, for each person has his own taste and his own reasoning. One must rather look to the foundational sources: the transmitted tradition, the written text, and the reasonings employed according to the transmitted norm, for bringing the branches back to the roots.
Whatever these sources lead you to — believe it, even if your imagination and presumption rebel against it. Just as imagination and presumption rebel against the non-existence of void, while rational proof has negated the void; and just as presumption rebels against the possibility of dividing a body infinitely, while rational proof requires that;
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and just as imagination rebels against the spherical shape of the earth and its being a fraction of one hundred and sixty parts of the sun's diameter. And all that the proofs of astronomy contain of what imagination rebels against — so too all that the Sages permitted was not based on taste or on first impressions, but on the results of inherited and transmitted knowledge; and likewise all that they forbade.
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Whoever is incapable of their learning and judges their words by taste will find fault with them, just as the common folk find fault with the statements of natural scientists and astronomers. And when they fully exhausted the boundaries of jurisprudence and defined the permitted and forbidden strictly by jurisprudence, they would present to you what appears crude within those very same boundaries —
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such as the permissibility of meat that drags its hindquarters, the acquisition of wealth through juridical stratagems, the use of a book on the Sabbath through the stratagem of the eruv, the permissibility of certain women through stratagems by which marriage becomes valid, and the release of oaths and vows through certain kinds of loopholes that pure juridical thinking permits, apart from religious scruple.
Both are needed together, for if you isolate juridical thinking
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jurisprudence alone, various stratagems become permissible within its boundaries without being able to limit them. And if you abandon the jurisprudential boundaries that are the fence of the law and resort only to religious reasoning, it becomes a cause of sectarianism and universal ruin.
. []. .
Section 50. The Khazar said: In that case, I concede the Rabbanite's superiority over the Karaite in outward and inward matters, both together, on account of his combining these two approaches. And added to that is the peace of soul that comes with his law,
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since it is transmitted through a reliable chain whose learning is from God, may He be exalted. For the Karaite, no matter how far his independent reasoning reaches, his soul will not be at peace, since he knows his reasoning is mere analogy and philosophy, so he cannot be confident that what he does is what pleases God, and he knows there are many among the nations who reason more than he does.
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But I still have a question for you about the eruv — it is a leniency within the Sabbath law. How can something that God forbade be permitted through such a facile and unseemly stratagem?
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Section 51. The Rabbi said: God forbid that eminent persons, let alone scholars, should agree upon something that exposes any nakedness in the law of God — indeed it is they who emphasize the principle and say 'make a fence for the Torah.'
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Among the fences they erected was their prohibition of carrying from a private domain to a public domain and vice versa — something the Torah itself had not forbidden in those terms.
Then they introduced into that fence the way of leniency, for their independent ruling does not have the standing of law, and it was to be
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an accommodation for people in their activities, and that accommodation could only be reached with permission. And the permission is making the eruv, to be a marker distinguishing between what is broadly permitted, what is fenced, and what is forbidden.
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Section 52. The Khazar said: This has persuaded me, but I did not find the technique of the eruv strong enough to actually combine two domains.
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. [].
Section 53. The Rabbi said: Then if the whole of the law does not seem strong to you, does it seem stronger to you that property, sovereignty, family, and servants are permitted or released through the act of acquisition, or through a will, or through divorcing a woman and making her forbidden to a priest after she was previously permitted — all with the words 'write, sign, and give a bill of divorce'?
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And her becoming permitted after being forbidden with the words 'be betrothed to me.' And all that is in Leviticus that depends entirely on some act or some utterance — and the leprous garment and house that depend on the priest's pronouncement of 'impure' or 'pure.'
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And the entire Tabernacle — its holiness was dependent on Moses erecting the Tabernacle and the anointing with the oil of anointing. And likewise the priests — their holiness was dependent on the installation offerings and the elevation offering.
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And the Levites by purification and the elevation offering. And the purification of the impure by the water of lustration, which is the ash of the red heifer, with hyssop and crimson thread, and the purging of the house with two live birds.
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And that procedure and the atonement of sins on the Day of Atonement. And the purification of the sanctuary from impurities by the Azazel goat together with the acts associated with it. And the blessing of the Israelites through Aaron's raising of his hands and speaking the words 'May the Lord bless.'
And with each act of these acts the divine command was activated, for the works of the law
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are like natural compounds, all proportioned by God — their proportion is not within human capacity. Just as you see natural compounds proportioned, balanced, and harmoniously blended from the four natures, and by the slightest thing they are completed and perfected, and the form they deserve — animal or plant — comes to inhabit them,
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and each compound receives the form it is suited for, while the slightest thing ruins it. Do you not see that an egg is ruined by the least irregularity — by excessive heat or cold or movement — so it can no longer receive the form of a chick? While the hen's warming it for three weeks completes it and the form comes to it in perfection.
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Who then is capable of proportioning the acts such that the divine command will inhabit them, unless it be God alone? In this very matter the alchemists and the spiritualists went astray.
As for the alchemists: they claimed they could proportion natural fire by their weights so it would do what they wished and transform substances for them, just as the innate heat in a living being transforms food into blood, flesh, bone, and all the other organs.
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They aspired to produce such fire, but their error became evident: experiments showed results only by coincidence, not from their proportioning — just as a human being comes to be when seed is placed in the womb.
As for the spiritualists: when they heard — from the time of Adam until the Israelites — of what used to come about through the sacrifices in the form of manifest divine effects, they thought the source lay in cleverness and investigation, and that the prophets were simply learned and philosophically skilled men who managed those wonders by their reasoning. So they aspired to produce sacrifices themselves at fixed times and astronomical observations, according to what their reasoning led them — together with
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and you have attained it. Do not be troubled if you then die after reaching that connection, for your death is only the perishing of your body. As for the soul that has attained that rank, it does not descend from it nor recede from that level.
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It is thus clear that there is no nearness to God except through God's commands; and there is no way to know God's commands except through prophecy — not by analogy, not by philosophical reasoning; and there is no connection between us and those commands except through reliable transmission.
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And those who transmitted those laws to us were not individuals but a multitude — learned, eminent, and directly connected to the prophets. Were they no more than the priests, the Levites, and the seventy elders who were the bearers of the Torah, they never ceased in an unbroken chain from Moses.
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Section 54. The Khazar said: I see only that the people of the Second Temple era forgot the Torah — they did not know the law of the sukkah until they found it written. And likewise the law of 'No Ammonite or Moabite shall enter' — it is said of them 'and they found it written in the Torah.' This is evidence for the Torah's having been lost.
. []. . — . []. . — . [].
Section 55. The Rabbi said: Are we today more learned and knowledgeable than they, given that we claim to have preserved the Torah? Section 56. The Khazar said: That is what I say. Section 57. The Rabbi said: If we were charged with offering a sacrifice, would we know how to slaughter it, in which direction, the receiving of its blood, its flaying and cutting, how many limbs go up and how they are brought up, how the blood is sprinkled, its meal-offering, its libation, the service performed over it, and what holiness and purity
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. . []. .
are required, and their anointing, garments, and postures, and how the sacred offerings are eaten and their times and places — and much else besides? Section 58. The Khazar said: We would not know all of this without an authority or a prophet.
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Section 59. The Rabbi said: Do you not see how the people of the Second Temple built the altar for years until God helped in the building of the Temple, and then in the building of the wall? Do you think they were offering sacrifices haphazardly, however it came about?
. []. .
Section 60. The Khazar said: It is not possible that 'a burnt offering, a fire-offering, a pleasing aroma' — being a non-rational law — should be complete in all its parts except with God's permission and command. Especially since they knew the laws of the Day of Atonement and what is more elaborate than the sukkah — all of which require precise knowledge and a present authority.
. []. [].
Section 61. The Rabbi said: Would the person who knows these precise details of the Torah be ignorant of the practice of the sukkah and the law 'no Ammonite or Moabite shall enter'?
. []. []. . []. [] .
Section 62. The Khazar said: Then what am I to say about 'and they found it written in the Torah'? Section 63. The Rabbi said: The true understanding is that the biblical chronicler was not concerned with hidden matters, only with what was publicly known and declared. He did not record anything with Joshua of the knowledge transmitted from God and from Moses, peace be upon him — he only recorded the day the Jordan stood still, the day the sun stood still, and the day of circumcision, because of their fame among the general public.
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which all the public carried. As for the specific reports that the elite used to transmit — all of them have been lost to us, except for a little: the eloquent discourses of prophecy that people took pleasure in memorizing on account of the sublimity of their meaning and the eloquence of their language.
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So likewise, nothing was recorded of the deeds of Ezra and Nehemiah, peace be upon them, except what was publicly known — for the day of making the sukkot was a famous day because of the people being stirred and going up to the mountains for olive branches, myrtle branches, and palm fronds.
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So 'and they found it written' is a literary allusion to the hearing of the common people and the masses, and their being stirred to make sukkot. As for the elite — the fine points of the law, let alone its major matters, were not hidden from them. The chronicler's intent was to celebrate the greatness of that day,
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just as he intended in recording the day of divorcing the Ammonite and Moabite women — for that was a day of tremendous impact, when people divorced the mothers of their children, a difficult and trying matter. No people obeys its master in such a manner except this chosen community. It is for this fame that 'and they found it written' was said.
[] . . []. .
That is: when the one reading it aloud to the public reached 'no Ammonite or Moabite shall enter,' the people were moved, and it was the cause of a tremendous and awe-inspiring happening on that day. Section 64. The Khazar said: I would like you to give me a taste of how the transmission took place, in a way that demonstrates its reliability.
. []. .
Section 65. The Rabbi said: Prophecy accompanied the Second Temple people for about forty years, through the elders sustained by the power of the Shekhinah that was in the First Temple. For acquired prophecy had departed with the departure of the Shekhinah, so that it could only be expected in extraordinary cases and from a tremendous spiritual power — like Abraham, Moses, peace be upon him, the awaited Messiah, Elijah, and their like,
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who are themselves the locus of the Shekhinah, and in whose presence those nearby acquire the rank of prophecy. So there remained to the people upon their return to the Temple: Haggai, Zechariah, Ezra, and others. And after the forty years came the main body of Sages called the Men of the Great Assembly,
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whose number cannot be counted on account of their multitude — these are those who ascended with Zerubbabel. They traced their transmission to the prophets, as it is said 'and the prophets transmitted it to the Men of the Great Assembly.' After them came the age of Simon the Just, the High Priest, and those students and companions who followed him.
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After him came the famous Antigonus of Sokho, and from his students — Zadok and Baitos, who became the origins of the heretics; after whom the Sadducees and Boethusians were named.
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After him came Joseph son of Yo'ezer, the most pious of the priesthood, and Joseph son of Yohanan and their companions. Of the former it was said: 'From the time of the death of Joseph son of Yo'ezer, the grape clusters ceased, as it is said: there is no grape cluster to eat' — for no sin was found upon him from his youth until his death, may his memory be a blessing.
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After him came Joshua son of Perahia, whose saying is famous. And Jesus the Nazarene was one of his students. Nittai of Arbela was his contemporary. After him came Judah son of Tabbai and Simeon son of Shetah and their companions. In their time the origin of the Karaite doctrine arose,
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on account of what befell the Sages with Jannai. He was a priest, but his mother was suspected of being a halala, and one of the Sages from among the public reproached him, saying: 'Jannai the king, the royal crown suffices you — leave the priestly crown to the descendants of Aaron.' His associates then brought him before the Sages to insult them, scatter them, and kill them.
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He said to his associates: 'If I destroy the Sages, who will teach us the Torah?' They said to him: 'The Written Torah is here — whoever wishes to learn may come and learn. Do not worry about the Oral Torah.' He accepted their view and exiled the Sages,
including Simeon son of Shetah, who was his brother-in-law. The rabbinate was disrupted for a short period, and they attempted to legislate by reasoning but failed, until Simeon son of Shetah and his other students returned from Alexandria and the transmitted tradition was restored to its original state.
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The Karaites, meanwhile, established a root among a people who oppose the Oral Torah and prepare arguments against it, as you see them doing today. As for the Sadducees and Boethusians — they are the heretics invoked in the prayer. As for the followers of Jesus — they are those who underwent forced conversion, who entered baptism and were immersed in the Jordan.
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As for the Karaites — they reason independently in the fundamental matters and philosophize in the branches, and perhaps the corruption extends even to the fundamental matters, but from ignorance on their part, not by intent. After Simeon son of Shetah and his fellows came Shemaiah and Avtalyon, and from their students — Hillel and Shammai.
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Of Hillel's stature there is much famous testimony about his learning and his forbearance — he was of the lineage of David and lived one hundred and twenty years. He had thousands of students, and of his most select it was said: 'Hillel the Elder had eighty students: thirty of them were worthy for the Shekhinah to rest upon them, thirty were worthy to intercalate the year, and twenty were intermediate. The greatest among them was Jonathan son of Uzziel; the least among them was Yohanan son of Zakkai,'
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'who left not unstudied Scripture, Mishnah, Talmud, laws, and aggadot, and all the interpretive principles of the Sages and all the principles of the scribes, and every single matter of Torah.'
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the destruction of the Second Temple. Among his students was Rabbi Eliezer son of Hyrcanus, who authored the famous Chapters of Rabbi Eliezer dealing with cosmogony, the measurements of the celestial spheres and the earth, and all manner of wondrous matters in the science of astronomy.
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And among his students was Rabbi Ishmael son of Elisha the High Priest — he is the Rabbi Ishmael of the Hekhalot, physiognomy, and the Work of the Chariot, for he knew its secrets to such a degree that he merited a rank close to prophecy. He is the one who said: 'Once I entered to burn the incense and I beheld Akathriel Yah the Lord of Hosts,' and the rest of the account.
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And also among his students was the famous Rabbi Joshua, about whom the famous accounts with Rabban Gamliel are recorded. And Rabbi Yosi, and Rabbi Eleazar son of Arakh, about whom it was said: 'Were all the sages of Israel in one pan of the scale and Eleazar son of Arakh in the other, he would outweigh them all.'
And in these periods — apart from these famous ones, apart from the main body of the Sages, apart from the priests and Levites whose Torah was their craft — the seventy Sanhedrin persisted with their knowledge, and by their authority the official was appointed and the removed was removed.
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As in the statement: 'Rabbi Simeon son of Yohai said: This is what I received by tradition from seventy elders on the day they seated Rabbi Eleazar son of Azariah in the academy.' And the seventy had hundreds following them; the hundreds had thousands following them, since it is not possible for seventy fully qualified men to emerge except from hundreds beneath them — and so on down in stages.
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After them came Rabbi Akiva, Rabbi Tarfon, Rabbi Yosi the Galilean, and their companions — all of them after the destruction. And Rabbi Akiva reached a level close to prophecy, such that he moved in the world of spiritual beings, as is said of him: 'Four entered the Pardes. One gazed and died; one gazed and was stricken; one gazed and cut the shoots; and one entered in peace and departed in peace — and that one was Rabbi Akiva.'
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He who died was one whose constitution could not bear the vision of that world — it simply dissolved. The second went mad, overtaken by the divine obsession, and was of no benefit to others. The third corrupted the practical matters when he glimpsed
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upon the rational matters, saying that these acts are merely tools and instruments that lead to this spiritual rank, and since I have already reached it I need not trouble myself with the works of the law. So he corrupted and corrupted others, went astray and led others astray.
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And it was Rabbi Akiva who moved in both worlds without any harm befalling him. It was said of him: 'He was worthy for the Shekhinah to rest upon him as it did on Moses, except that the time was not worthy of this.'
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He is among those executed by the authorities. When they were killing him he asked his students whether it was the time to recite the Shema so as to recite it. They said to him: 'Our teacher, even now?' He said to them: 'All my days I was pained by this verse: with all your heart and with all your soul — even if He takes your soul. Now that the moment has come to me, shall I not fulfill it?' And he prolonged the word 'one' until his soul departed.
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Section 66. The Khazar said: Such a person lives a sweet life and dies a sweet death, and then lives the eternal life in uninterrupted bliss.
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Section 67. The Rabbi said: Then after them, in a single generation, came Rabbi Meir, Rabbi Judah, Rabbi Yosi, Simeon son of Azzai, and Rabbi Hanina son of Teradion and their companions. After them came Rabbi — who is our holy master, Rabbi Judah the Patriarch. With him were Rabbi Natan, Rabbi Joshua son of Korha, and many others — these are the last of the Mishnah transmitters called Tannaim.
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The Mishnah was codified in the year 530 of the era of documents — which is the year 150 after the destruction of the Second Temple, and 530 years after the cessation of prophecy — and all that we have mentioned was encompassed in it. These are a few notes from the many accounts and deeds of the Sages.
They devoted to the Mishnah the same care they devoted to the Torah — organizing and arranging it, the number of orders, chapters, and laws, and stringing together the traditions in a manner that suggests it could not have been agreed upon by mere human arrangement.
And it encompasses much of the eloquence of the Hebrew language that was not derived from the language of Scripture. As for the conciseness of its style, the elegance of its arrangement, the excellence of its composition, and the way it encompasses every aspect
of meaning with decisiveness and conclusion, without doubt or uncertainty — anyone who contemplates it with eyes of truth will see that human capacity falls short of producing its like except with divine assistance. And none opposes it except one who is ignorant of it and has not engaged with reading and perusing it,
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and has only heard from the Sages' legacy the popular homiletical accounts, and judges them as lacking and deficient — like one who judges another as deficient upon meeting him briefly without knowledge and long companionship.
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Among the examples of their chains of transmission back to prophecy is their statement: 'Rabbi Nahum the scribe said: I have received it from Rabbi Measha, who received it from his father, who received it from the Pairs, who received it from the prophets — a tradition from Sinai through Moses.'
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Section 68. The Khazar said: Even so, I see in the specifics of their accounts things that undermine what you describe of their universal qualities — such as their drawing of Torah verses to meanings that reason finds far-fetched, and that one's soul attests were not the intent of that verse, whether in legal or homiletical contexts. And likewise the aggadot and stories of theirs that the mind finds implausible.
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Section 69. The Rabbi said: Have you seen the precision and rigor they exercise in explicating the Mishnah and the Baraita, and the meticulous exactness they achieve in it — not permitting any leniency even in a word, let alone in meaning?
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Section 70. The Khazar said: I have seen something that surpasses all disputation — indeed it is the kind of proof that admits no rebuttal. Section 71. The Rabbi said: Then would it be possible to accuse of ignorance one who is so meticulous the understanding of a verse that we have? Section 72. The Khazar said: That is impossible. Rather the matter is one of two: either we do not know their methods of interpreting the Torah, or those who interpret the law are not the same as those who interpret the Torah.
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And this second possibility is impossible, for rarely do we see their interpretation of a verse that does not accord with reason and the plain sense of the text — just as we never see their interpretation of a law except in perfect accord with reason.
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Section 73. The Rabbi said: But we say: one of two things. Either they possess secrets hidden from us regarding methods of Torah interpretation — secrets transmitted as tradition in the application of the thirteen principles. Or their drawing of verses is by way of their chains of tradition — which they call asmakhta — making them a mnemonic for their transmitted content.
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Just as they made 'And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the garden you may freely eat' a mnemonic for the seven commandments given to the sons of Noah: 'commanded' — these are civil laws; 'Lord' — this is the blessing of the Name; 'God' — this is idolatry; 'the man' — this is bloodshed; 'saying' — this is sexual immorality; 'of every tree of the garden' — this is robbery; 'you may freely eat' — this is limb from a living creature.
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How remote is the distance between these intentions and that verse! But for the Sages, these seven commandments were transmitted tradition, and they attached them to this verse as a mnemonic, to make them easier to memorize.
Perhaps both approaches apply to their interpretation of verses, or there are other approaches that have disappeared. And their received authority is more obligatory since their learning, judgment, diligence, and great community — which cannot be suspected of collusion — have been established. So we do not doubt their words; we doubt our own understanding — just as we do with the Torah,
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and all it contains of statements that our souls cannot accept — yet we have no doubt of any of it, and we attribute the deficiency to ourselves. As for the aggadot: some of them use the technique of rhetorical preamble and premise for a purpose they wish to reinforce and establish.
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Such as their saying: 'When the Master of the World went down to Egypt' — to reinforce the belief that the Exodus from Egypt was a direct divine intention, not a coincidence, nor mediated by human forces, the spirituality of stars, angels, demons, or anything that might occur to a thinking mind, but solely by His command, may He be exalted.
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They framed it in the manner of their expression: 'as it were' (kivyakhol). They mean: assuming such-and-such were so, then such-and-such would follow. And note that this particular phrasing is not in the Talmud and is found only in some prayer books. But whenever you find something like it, this is the intended direction.
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Just as Micaiah said to Ahab: 'I saw the Lord seated upon His throne, etc. And the Lord said: Who shall entice Ahab? etc. And there came forth a spirit, etc.' and the rest of the account. In truth it amounted to no more than his saying: 'Behold the Lord has placed a lying spirit in the mouths of all these your prophets'—
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and the rest is a rhetorical preamble and premise, certain and confirming, for this statement that it is true. Among them are also descriptions of spiritual visions they beheld — it is not surprising that those eminent men should see imagined forms among them, given the greatness of their spiritual isolation and the purity of their minds. And among them are forms that have a reality from
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outside, as the prophets saw them. And similarly the divine voice (bat qol) that accompanied them in the Second Temple period, which is a degree below vision and direct speech. So the saying of Rabbi Ishmael — 'I heard a divine voice cooing like a dove'—should not be considered implausible.
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and the like — especially since what is manifest from the experience of Moses and Elijah, peace be upon them, makes this quite possible. And when reliable report brings such a thing, one must accept it. And the statement 'Woe to me that I destroyed My house' is to be interpreted in the same way as 'And the Lord repented and was grieved to His heart.'
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And among them are parables struck for the secrets of sciences, whose disclosure is withheld since they are of no benefit to the masses, but are open to investigation and scrutiny for individuals — such an individual may attain them once in an era or across many eras.
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And among them are what appear impossible on the surface, but whose intent becomes clear with minimal reflection — such as their saying: 'Seven things were created before the world: the Garden of Eden, the Torah, the righteous, Israel, the Throne of Glory, Jerusalem, and the Messiah son of David' — analogous to the philosophers' dictum: 'First in thought, last in action.'
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For since the intent of Wisdom in creating the world is the Torah — which is the body of wisdom — and its bearers are the righteous, and the Throne of Glory dwells among them, and the righteous in truth can only come from the elect who are Israel, and nothing suits them but the most particular of places which is Jerusalem, and nothing orders them but the most noble of persons which is the Messiah son of David, and their possessions and journey lead to the Garden of Eden — all of these had to be established in potential before the world.
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The premise is conditional upon it and built upon it since the six days of creation. I am not denying it to you, O king of the Khazars, that there are matters in the Talmud which I am not able to persuade you about, nor to include them within the above category.
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These are what the Talmud includes as the independent reasoning of the scholars — since their view was that 'even the casual conversation of sages requires study.'
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They would not be satisfied simply to say what they heard from their teachers alongside their own reasoning — they would transmit everything they heard from their teachers and would strive to cite their precise words. And sometimes they [did] not understand the meaning, yet they said: 'This is what we have received and heard.'
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And perhaps the teacher had purposes in this that were hidden from his students, so the matter came down to us and we treated it lightly because we did not know his purpose.
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But all of this concerns matters that neither permit nor prohibit — so we need not be troubled by it, and it does not impair the overall composition alongside the considerations we have mentioned.
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Section [74]. The Khazar said: My soul is now at rest and my faith is established through the received tradition. I now want you to give me a taste of your sciences — but first, enlarge my understanding a little more on the divine names, and expand upon this for me somewhat, with the help of God.