I was troubled in a previous post when the Talmud argued that tragedy was punishment for sin. To be fair, the Talmud also said that suffering might be evidence of God’s great love for us. Neither explanation was particularly satisfying to me. Apparently, the Rabbis also were not completely convinced with their discussion, because they turn back to the discussion of why do some righteous people suffer and why do some evil people prosper. The Talmud references its previous discussion and notes dissatisfaction with the previous conclusion.
Today, we also learn about how to deal with someone who is angry. There is an acknowledgment that while someone is in the heat of an angry moment, perhaps we should just give them space and reason with them later. I know as a parent I frequently made the mistake of trying to rationalize with very frustrated kids. The Talmud would have suggested I just give them space for their frustration, let it pass, and then come back to them. That is sage advice.
Before we turn to the themes, however, the Gemara returns to the notion of God praying. How do we know God prays? Does God pray to God? What’s the point of that?
The first question is the easiest. We learn God prays from Isiah 56:7, but the proof really demonstrates Talmudic reasoning. The Talmud and Scripture are written in ancient Hebrew, without vowels, punctuation or paragraphs. In English, the word without vowels “bt” could be “bat”, “bet”, “bit” or “but”. The same thing happens in Hebrew. Similarly, interpreting a passage with different punctuation and different sentence beginnings and endings can shade meaning. A lot of the Talmud considers different possible readings showing how the multiple readings inform our understanding of the text. In this case, the Talmud considers alternate possible readings of Isiah 56:7 to conclude that God prays.
But what does God pray? After all, we pray to God to request something or to praise God. God does not need to direct requests to herself. God does not need to sing her own praises. Instead, God prays that her mercy overcomes her judgment and anger and she does not give us what we deserve. This anthropomorphism is not very comforting to me. I know it is not meant to be taken literally, but it suggests God barely able to control her anger, straining to hold back destruction which we deserve.
An interesting story was related about Rabbi Yishmael Ben Elisha, who was the Kohen Ha’Gadol, the High Priest in the time of the Temple. Once a year on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement and the holiest day of the year to Jews, the Kohen Ha’Gadol is allowed to come into the central vestibule of the Temple, the Holy of Holies. Rabbi Yishmael in performing this duty encountered God. God asked Rabbi Yishmael for a blessing and Rabbi Yishmael prayed that God’s mercy overcame her anger. God approved of this blessing. From this the Rabbis conclude that the blessing given by anyone, no matter how unimportant, should be accepted with grace by us.
The notion of God’s anger terrifies the Rabbis. They then discuss God’s anger. Fortunately, God’s anger lasts only 1/58,888th of an hour (about 1/16th of a second). Even in our hyper-warp era, that is not a long time. We know the length of God’s anger because of the story of Balaam in Numbers 24. I need to do a whole separate blog entry on Balaam when I have time. In Numbers, Balaam appears to be a very holy prophet (albeit, not Jewish). He communicates with God. He follows God’s instructions, even when it means disobeying his King. Nevertheless, in Rabbinic literature, Balaam is considered one of the most wicked enemies of the Jewish people. This context deserves its own explanation. Balaam, according to the Talmud, was effective at pronouncing curses, because, Balaam could discern the exact 1/58,888th of an hour when God was angry. If Balaam cursed during this moment, the curse was effective.
For those of us who are not Balaam, we know that the exact moment of God’s anger occurs in the first three hours of the day when the red comb of a rooster pales and it stands on one foot. Interestingly, there is no proof text for this phenomenon. I am not sure where the Rabbis derived it. There is the story of a Rabbi who tried to take advantage of the indicator. Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi was plagued by a heretic who shouted bible verses to disapprove Rabbi-sanctioned orthodoxy. Rabbi Yehoshua tied a rooster at the foot of his bed and watched it intently so he could curse this heretic at the exact right moment. However, Rabbi Yehoshua dozed off at the moment of anger. The Rabbis note that this story proves that the observant should not curse even the evil. After all, Psalms 145:9 states, “The Lord is good to all, and His mercy is upon all His works.”
Why does God get angry in the morning? In the morning, all the pagan kings awake, put on their crowns and pray to the sun. This makes God angry.
The discussion of God’s anger sparks a review of punishment and repentance. The Rabbis discuss that self-discipline is far more effective than punishment in creating good behavior. The Rabbis cite Hoshea2:8-9, “Assuredly, I will hedge up her roads with thorns and raise walls against her, and she shall not find her paths. Pursue her lovers as she will, she will not overtake them; And seek them as she may, she shall never find them. Then she will say, ‘I will go and return to my first husband, for then I fared better than now.” Of course, as a parent, we all intuit this. We just don’t know how to raise that self-discipline.
The Talmud now returns to the theme of how come some people suffer when they don’t deserve it and some people flourish when they don’t deserve it. The first answer is that righteous people who suffer are the children of wicked people and wicked people who prosper are the children of righteous people. However, the Talmud immediately rejects this explanation. The Talmud then posits that the righteous who suffer are not completely righteous. This explanation still does not explain innocents who are not guilty who suffer. Ultimately, the Rabbis resort to Exodus 33:19, which the Rabbis interpret to mean God will show favor and mercy to whomever God chooses and it is not for us to understand. This question is picked up repeatedly throughout the prophets and Rabbinic sources. The Schottenstein translation contains a long footnote of sources to investigate around this question. [Footnote 50 on Daf 7a).
The Talmud notes that Abraham was the first to recognize God’s dominion over the world, but Leah was the first to offer thanks to God. I am intrigued by this discussion. The merit of our forefathers is frequently recognized by the Rabbis. The merit of our foremothers is not so frequently discussed. In the traditional Jewish prayers, we ask for favor in the name of our forefathers. Reform Jews append the names of our foremothers. I have often wondered why traditional Jews do not do the same.
Leah demonstrated thanks to God by naming her fourth son, Reuben, whose Hebrew root indicates thanks. The Talmud then discusses how a name reflects a person’s future accomplishments and the Talmud discusses the name of biblical figures to prove this point. Indicating how the name foreshadowed that person’s accomplishments.
The Rabbis then turn to the war King David had with his son Absalom. The story of King David in the two books of Samuel is fascinating. A really great modern retelling of this story and the emotional conflict was Joseph Heller’s God Knows. The book explores the emotional state of David as he lays on his deathbed and remembers his incredibly eventful life.
Finally, there is a discussion of whether the righteous should contend with the wicked. Two resolutions are proposed. First, only contend with the wicked about heavenly matters, not earthly matters. Second, only contend with the wicked if you are completely righteous (similar to the Christian concept of “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone”). The Daf then concludes with a statement that it is more important to serve your teacher than to study with your teacher. Thus showing that the author always justifies their own self-interest!