The Documentary History of Judaism and Its Recent Interpreters by Neusner Jacob;

Author:Neusner, Jacob;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: UPA
Published: 2010-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

BAVLI MENAHOT 3:7 II.5/29B

5. A. Said R. Judah said Rab, “At the time that Moses went up on high, he found the Holy One in session, affixing crowns to the letters [of the words of the Torah]. He said to him, ‘Lord of the Universe, who is stopping you [from regarding the document as perfect without these additional crowns on the letters]?’

B. “He said to him, ‘There is a man who is going to arrive at the end of many generations, and Aqiba b. Joseph is his name, who is going to interpret on the basis of each point of the crowns heaps and heaps of laws.’

C. “He said to him, ‘Lord of the Universe, show him to me.’

D. “He said to him, ‘Turn around.’

E. “He went and took a seat at the end of eight rows, but he could not grasp what the people were saying. He felt faint. But when the discourse reached a certain matter, and the disciples said, ‘My lord, how do you know this?’ and he answered, ‘It is a law given to Moses from Sinai,’ he regained his composure.

F. “He went and came before the Holy One. He said before him, ‘Lord of the Universe, How come you have someone like that and yet you give the Torah through me?’

G. “He said to him, ‘Silence! That is how the thought came to me.’

H. “He said to him, ‘Lord of the Universe, you have shown me his Torah, now show me his reward.’

I. “He said to him, ‘Turn around.’

J. “He turned around and saw his flesh being weighed out at the butcher-stalls in the market.

K. “He said to him, ‘Lord of the Universe, “Such is Torah, such is the reward?” ’

L. “He said to him, ‘Silence! That is how the thought came to me.’ ”

The sages had in mind to construct man in God’s image, not God in man’s. (406-407)

We should never be confused about that. Everything reverts to God in this chapter: because He is this way, so man is this way, for man is His image. Man could hardly do otherwise, even in rebellion, for the image is innate, part of our makeup, mind and body and everything, and it is inseparable from us. Rationality and emotion are innate, and though both can be bent to rebellion, they are present because the man is made in the image of his Maker.

Note especially the harking back to all the subjects previously covered in Neusner’s book. Each chapter builds upon another, and the argument of each succeeding chapter would not stand without the preceding chapters’ arguments. Likewise, each succeeding chapter’s import can be found in the earlier ones as well. Underneath all of the theology of the Oral Torah, we now find, lies love. Love is expressed injustice, in unchanging stability, in ensuring a balance in rewards for deeds and maintaining fair economics. Love is expressed best in humility, and where we might expect the greatest reward, we find instead, as in the case of Aqiba above, the greatest humility.

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