On TB Yoma 2a, Rabbi Yokhanan teaches that the source of the seven days of separation before entering the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur is based upon the seven days of separation leading up to the inauguration of the Tabernacle in the wilderness. Reish Lakish on TB Yoma 3b disagrees and says that the separation is based upon Moses going up to Mount Sinai in order to receive the Torah.
“Rabbi Yoḥanan said to Reish
Lakish: Rather, from where do you, Master, derive the halakha
of sequestering before Yom Kippur? Reish Lakish said to him: I derive
it from Sinai, as it is written: “And the glory of the Lord abode upon Mount
Sinai and the cloud covered him [vaykhasehu] six days, and He called to
Moses on the seventh day from the midst of the cloud” (Exodus 24:16). The masculine
suffix hu in vaykhasehu can be interpreted either as him,
referring to Moses, or as it, referring to the mountain. Now, since it
states: “And He called to Moses on the seventh day,” what is derived from
the previous explicit mention of six days? These six days are mentioned
as a paradigm, from which a general principle is derived that anyone
who enters the camp of the Divine Presence, the site of the revelation at
Mount Sinai, or the place where the Divine Presence rests, the Holy of Holies, requires
prior sequestering for six days of sanctification.” (Sefaria.org
translation) The rabbis added an extra day a stringency as to rule out the
possibility of ritual unreadiness (tumah).
Since we’re counting the omer, counting down or up depending how you look at it the days until Shavuot, I want to share with you the ramifications of a disagreement between Rabbi Yosei HaGelili and Rabbi Akiva on today’s daf TB Yoma 4. The disagreement revolves around the relationship of Exodus 19 and Exodus 24. Both chapters describe revelation on Mount Sinai. Rabbi Yosei HaGelili holds that chapter 24 is post revelation of the 10 Commandments. Rabbi Akiva holds that chapter 24 is pre-revelation. Chapter 24 is just looking at the revelation at the same moment, but from a different angle.[1] This disagreement impacts the date we celebrate Shavout.
“With regard to what do Rabbi Yosei HaGelili and Rabbi Akiva disagree? The Gemara explains that their dispute is parallel to the dispute between these other tanna’im, as it was taught in a baraita: On the sixth day of the month of Sivan, the Torah, the Ten Commandments, was given to the Jewish people. Rabbi Yosei says: It was on the seventh day of the month. According to the one who said that it was on the sixth, the Torah was given on the sixth, which is the day of the revelation of the Ten Commandments, and on the seventh day of the month Moses ascended the mountain, as it is written: “And He called to Moses on the seventh day” (Exodus 24:16). According to the one who said that the Torah was given on the seventh of the month, it was given on the seventh and Moses ascended on the seventh, as it is written: “And he called to Moses on the seventh day.”
“And Rabbi Akiva holds in
accordance with
the opinion of Rabbi Yosei, who said that on the seventh
of the month the Torah was given to the Jewish people. That is why
Moses was summoned on the seventh of the month immediately after the revelation
of the Ten Commandments. The Gemara asks: Granted, according to the
opinion of Rabbi Akiva
that the Torah was given on the seventh of Sivan and Moses then proceeded to
climb the mountain and remain there for forty days, that explains the
calculation that you find: On the seventeenth of Tammuz the tablets were
shattered, according to the standard tradition. How so? Calculate twenty-four
days until the end of Sivan and sixteen days of Tammuz; they total
the forty days that he was on the mountain. On the seventeenth of Tammuz he
descended from the mountain and came and shattered the tablets.”
(Sefaria.org translation)
We have a tradition that one of the calamities of the 17th day of Tammuz was the breaking of the two tablets.[2] Consequently, Rabbi Akiva’s is in sync with tradition dating of the breaking of the two tablets. The Gemara says that Rabbi Yosei HaGelili’s position is also in sync with the traditional dating of the breaking of the tablets. It’s just a matter of accounting.
“However, according to Rabbi Yosei
HaGelili, who said: There were six days of sequestering
after the Torah was given and an additional forty days that Moses
was on the mountain, the tablets were not shattered until the twenty-third
of Tammuz, contrary to the standard tradition. Rabbi Yosei
HaGelili could have said to you: The forty days that
Moses was on the mountain include the six days of sequestering.”
(Sefaria.org translation)
[1]
Benjamin D Sommer’s book Revelation and
Authority: Sinai in Jewish Scripture and Tradition shows that the
documentary hypothesis sources of E, P, and D describe completely different ways
God revealed the Torah to Israel and their impact on Jewish theology. It is one
of the most important and best books I have ever read.
[2] The calamities are: These are: (1) Moses broke the tablets of stone and (2) an idol known as “the Golden Calf” was erected in 1313 BCE; (3) the daily sacrificial offerings were discontinued in 423 BCE; (4) Jerusalem's walls were breached in 69 BCE; and (5) the Roman military leader Apostomus burned a Torah scroll possibly around 50 CE
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