The article I spent all of 17th of Tammuz writing didn't come together, so I churned out this one in 3.5 hours. It's a bit more meandering and associative than usual, but I hope it's interesting!
Jul 23, 2023·edited Jul 23, 2023Liked by Rabbi Matt Schneeweiss
I too was blown away by that baraisa's portrayal of Shimon (or Nechemiah) ha'amsuni's intellectual honesty and integrity. That baraisa ends with R Akiva resuscitating the thesis by saying that the את of את השם אלוקך תירא is coming to include talmidei chachomim. Now I dont know if the following is more homiletical in nature or not however I was thinking that R Akiva too was flabbergasted by Shimon/Nechemiahs courage and honesty, and, coming to the conclusion that this Godlike behavior is attributable to the fact that he is a talmid chacham, revived his abandoned thesis by including the Shimon/Nechemiah paradigm in the requirement of someone we should stand in awe of, akin to the awe we're to feel towards HaShem Himself, with the delicious irony that precisely what caused him to walk away from his important (lifelong?) Torah exegesis of all prior אתים, that being the integrity acquired via that selfsame Torah study, is what enabled his work to continue . .
Inspiring words indeed. I might add that even becoming a Yisroel as in part of the jewish nation is also dependent upon commiting to live a certain way and believe certain ideas. Rambam writes (letter to Ovadiah the ger)
"In the same way as he (Avraham) converted his contemporaries through his words and teaching, he converts future generations through the testament he left to his children and household after him.".
Shabbat shalom and all the best (and dont forget to have the gabbai call you for the first 3 aliyos 😁)
I have some questions on this torah temima. (Super interesting; I never came across it before. Also I didn't read it in Hebrew so maybe I don't fully get it.)
1. Everyone knew Pinchas is a biological Levi, and Levi in general was hot tempered since Shekhem. And zealous in a positive way during the egel. Why would people think that Pinchas would be doing this from temper and not from principle just because he is not a kohen? He is still a Levi.
2. What is the idea of kohanim being considered short tempered due to social status of being a kohen? Is there a cultural idea that people who are of elevated status or who work in the mikdash incline towards losing their temper? Why would that be? That seems like a terrible thing and anti what the ideal reputation of kohanim would have. And if Pinchas did indeed have a short temper like his biological brethren, and he did indeed behave zealously due to the genetics of Levi, then why is it a bad thing if people think it is due to his genetics? it IS due to his genetics. Or isn't it?
Did he do this out of thought and clarity (presumably yes) but also due to the zealous nature of Levite genetics?
These are both good questions. I think it would have been MORE reasonable to assume that people would have stereotyped Pinchas as a "hot-blooded Levi" rather than a Kohen, not only for the reason you mentioned, but because Kohanim were relatively "new" and there were only a few of them in existence, and I doubt that the reputation of Kohanim being kapdanim came about until much, much later. (From the Gemara in Bava Basra, it seems like the takanah was made with regards to a specific group of Kohanim in a specific locale; from there, the reputation spread to other Kohanim.)
I don't have answers to your questions. I took the Torah Temimah in a didactic sense (a la "world of midrash," to use Rabbi Zimmer's term), not as a statement about what actually happened. I realize this might not be the Torah Temimah's intent, but that's how I took it.
I too was blown away by that baraisa's portrayal of Shimon (or Nechemiah) ha'amsuni's intellectual honesty and integrity. That baraisa ends with R Akiva resuscitating the thesis by saying that the את of את השם אלוקך תירא is coming to include talmidei chachomim. Now I dont know if the following is more homiletical in nature or not however I was thinking that R Akiva too was flabbergasted by Shimon/Nechemiahs courage and honesty, and, coming to the conclusion that this Godlike behavior is attributable to the fact that he is a talmid chacham, revived his abandoned thesis by including the Shimon/Nechemiah paradigm in the requirement of someone we should stand in awe of, akin to the awe we're to feel towards HaShem Himself, with the delicious irony that precisely what caused him to walk away from his important (lifelong?) Torah exegesis of all prior אתים, that being the integrity acquired via that selfsame Torah study, is what enabled his work to continue . .
Inspiring words indeed. I might add that even becoming a Yisroel as in part of the jewish nation is also dependent upon commiting to live a certain way and believe certain ideas. Rambam writes (letter to Ovadiah the ger)
"In the same way as he (Avraham) converted his contemporaries through his words and teaching, he converts future generations through the testament he left to his children and household after him.".
Shabbat shalom and all the best (and dont forget to have the gabbai call you for the first 3 aliyos 😁)
I actually wanted to add that sentiment at the end, but I didn't have space! (And LOL at your parenthetical comment!) Shabbat shalom to you as well!
I have some questions on this torah temima. (Super interesting; I never came across it before. Also I didn't read it in Hebrew so maybe I don't fully get it.)
1. Everyone knew Pinchas is a biological Levi, and Levi in general was hot tempered since Shekhem. And zealous in a positive way during the egel. Why would people think that Pinchas would be doing this from temper and not from principle just because he is not a kohen? He is still a Levi.
2. What is the idea of kohanim being considered short tempered due to social status of being a kohen? Is there a cultural idea that people who are of elevated status or who work in the mikdash incline towards losing their temper? Why would that be? That seems like a terrible thing and anti what the ideal reputation of kohanim would have. And if Pinchas did indeed have a short temper like his biological brethren, and he did indeed behave zealously due to the genetics of Levi, then why is it a bad thing if people think it is due to his genetics? it IS due to his genetics. Or isn't it?
Did he do this out of thought and clarity (presumably yes) but also due to the zealous nature of Levite genetics?
These are both good questions. I think it would have been MORE reasonable to assume that people would have stereotyped Pinchas as a "hot-blooded Levi" rather than a Kohen, not only for the reason you mentioned, but because Kohanim were relatively "new" and there were only a few of them in existence, and I doubt that the reputation of Kohanim being kapdanim came about until much, much later. (From the Gemara in Bava Basra, it seems like the takanah was made with regards to a specific group of Kohanim in a specific locale; from there, the reputation spread to other Kohanim.)
I don't have answers to your questions. I took the Torah Temimah in a didactic sense (a la "world of midrash," to use Rabbi Zimmer's term), not as a statement about what actually happened. I realize this might not be the Torah Temimah's intent, but that's how I took it.