בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה' אֱלהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעולָם אֲשֶׁר קִדְּשָׁנוּ בְּמִצְותָיו וְצִוָּנוּ לַעֲסוק בְּדִבְרֵי תורָה:
Blessing for Torah Study
Barukh Atah Adonai Eloheinu Melekh Ha'Olam Asher Kideshanu Bemitzvotav Vetzivanu La'asok Bedivrei Torah
Blessed are you Adonai, our God, Sovereign of Eternity, who has made us uniquely sacred through Your mitzvot (sacred callings) and called upon us to immerse ourselves in the words of Torah.
Parashat Summary (further your study on Reform Judaism )
- Moses sends twelve spies to the Land of Israel to report on the inhabitants and the country. Despite the positive report of Joshua and Caleb, the people are frightened. (13:1–14:10)
- God threatens to wipe out the Children of Israel but relents when Moses intercedes on their behalf. To punish the people, God announces that all those who left Egypt would not enter the Land of Israel except for Joshua and Caleb. (14:11–45)
- Moses instructs the Israelites regarding setting aside challah, the observance of the Sabbath, how to treat strangers, and the laws of tzitzit. (15:1–41)
We Begin with Kushiyot/Challenges/Difficulties in the Text:
- Grammatical inconsistencies (Words repeated, something left out, sentences that seem to not make sense)
- Theological inconsistencies (The Torah tells us something that is morally problematic or a character does something that isn't right)
- Ambiguities (Torah says something that can be interpreted in more than one way)
- Metaphor (The Torah uses a word or a phrase that isn't meant literally, but is figurative)
- Contradictions (The Torah says one thing here, another thing there)
- Superfluous language (The Torah includes information that doesn't seem important)
- Narrative Inconsistencies (The sequence of events is unclear or out of order)
As we read the following texts, ask yourself , what Questions/Kushiyot arise for you?
Why Now? (Context)
Several commentators try their respective hands at offering hypotheses explaining the positioning of the “Mekoshesh Eitzim” (gathering sticks) in the Tora, among them Rabbeinu Bachaya. One of the reasons he offers for the placement of this story in Parshat Shelach is that while the ostensible single reason for God's Decree that the Jews wander in the desert until the members of the generation of the Exodus have died, appears to be their lack of belief that they were capable of conquering Canaan even with Divine Assistance (15:34), in fact, other transgressions were also being committed, such as the violation of Shabbat, represented by the instance of the “Mekoshesh Eitzim”, and the failure to conform with the requirement of “Tzitzit” implied by the inclusion of both this Mitzva as well as the story of Shabbat transgression at the conclusion of Parshat Shelach.1[5]
ולפרשה הזאת סמך אחריה ענין המקושש כי היה בזמן הזה אחר מעשה המרגלים על דרך הפשט. וזה טעם ויהיו בני ישראל במדבר כי בהתאחר שם העם בגזרה הנזכרת היה המאורע הזה ואחר כן (במדבר ט״ו:ל״ח) צוה במצות ציצית שיזכרו בו המצות כולן ולא ישכחו את השבת או זולתה מן המצות
He placed next to this section the subject of the man who gathered sticks [on the Sabbath day] because it happened at this time, after the incident of the spies — this in accordance with the plain meaning of Scripture. And this is the meaning of [the phrase], and while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, for it was because the people tarried there on account of the above-mentioned decree, that this event happened. Afterwards He commanded the precept of Tzitzith (Fringes) in order that they would remember through it all the commandments, and not forget the Sabbath [as did the man who gathered the sticks], or any of the other Commandments.
What was the Sin?
מקושש עצים ביום השבת, “collecting kindling on the Sabbath day.” According to one opinion, the violation consisted of his carrying the kindling a distance greater than four cubits in the public domain. According to another opinion the sin consisted of his having cut the kindling from the tree’s trunk on the Sabbath. A third opinion holds that he was guilty of the sin of bundling these kindling together as in making sheaves. (Talmud tractate Shabbat folio 96.)
וימצאו, “they found;” this teaches that Moses must have appointed men especially appointed to look for lawbreakers on the Sabbath. One or more of these guards found the culprit, and then cautioned him. (Sifrei)
ויקריבו אותו וגו, “and the men who had found him brought him to Moses;” why did this have to be repeated once more? We had already heard what this man had been found doing on the Sabbath? It was repeated to let us know that the men who found him had warned him of the consequences in store for him if he did not desist.
כי לא פרש מה יעשה לו [AND, THEY PLACED HIM IN WARD] BECAUSE IT WAS NOT EXPLAINED WHAT SHOULD BE DONE WITH HIM — i.e. what kind of death penalty he was to die had not yet been explained, but they were fully aware that one who desecrates the Sabbath is punishable by some death penalty (Sifrei Bamidbar 114; Sanhedrin 78b; cf. Rashi on Leviticus 24:12).
Why the Harsh Decree?
the rabbis of the Talmud discussed the legal requirements of capital punishment at great length, establishing significant barriers that made such a sentence extremely difficult to carry out. According to the Mishnah, capital cases had to be decided by a Sanhedrin of 23 judges. If the conviction in a capital case was unanimous but rendered too quickly the accused was acquitted on the assumption that the judges had not adequately considered the possibility of the defendant’s innocence. Perhaps most onerous of all, the offense had to be witnessed by two people who warned the perpetrator immediately prior to committing the act that it was a capital offense. Such stringencies are often understood to account for the famous Mishnah passage that states that if a Sanhedrin executed one person in seven years, it was considered destructive. Rabbi Elazar Ben Azariah objects that the standard is actually once in 70 years, and Rabbis Tarfon and Akiva say that had they served on the court, no one would have ever been executed. (Myjewishlearning.com)
Mishnah Makkot 1: The mitzva to establish a Sanhedrin with the authority to administer capital punishments is in effect both in Eretz Yisrael and outside Eretz Yisrael. A Sanhedrin that executes a transgressor once in seven years is characterized as a destructive tribunal. Since the Sanhedrin would subject the testimony to exacting scrutiny, it was extremely rare for a defendant to be executed. Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya says: This categorization applies to a Sanhedrin that executes a transgressor once in seventy years. Rabbi Tarfon and Rabbi Akiva say: If we had been members of the Sanhedrin, we would have conducted trials in a manner whereby no person would have ever been executed.
Rabbi Louis Jacobs in The Jewish Religion: A Companion, have noted that the power of Jewish courts to impose a death sentence was ended by the Romans sometime in the first century of the Common Era, and as a result the Talmudic discussions of the matter, including their imposition of stringent rules of evidence in capital cases, should be understood as purely theoretical — not as practical guidance for how such cases should actually be adjudicated.
The death penalty has been carried out only twice in Israel’s history. The most famous instance was the case of Adolf Eichmann, the senior SS officer and leading architect of the Holocaust who was executed by hanging in 1962 after a trial that captivated the world. The other case was shortly after Israel’s establishment in 1948, when an army officer, Meir Tobianski, was executed for treason after a court martial in which he had no legal representation. Tobianski was posthumously exonerated and reburied in a military ceremony with full honors. Several other death sentences have been handed down over the years but none carried out.
What do the rabbis do with this text?
(א) משֶׁה קִבֵּל תּוֹרָה מִסִּינַי, וּמְסָרָהּ לִיהוֹשֻׁעַ, וִיהוֹשֻׁעַ לִזְקֵנִים, וּזְקֵנִים לִנְבִיאִים, וּנְבִיאִים מְסָרוּהָ לְאַנְשֵׁי כְנֶסֶת הַגְּדוֹלָה. הֵם אָמְרוּ שְׁלשָׁה דְבָרִים, הֱווּ מְתוּנִים בַּדִּין, וְהַעֲמִידוּ תַלְמִידִים הַרְבֵּה, וַעֲשׂוּ סְיָג לַתּוֹרָה:
(1) Moshe received the Torah from Sinai and transmitted it to Yehoshua, and Yehoshua to the Elders, and the Elders to the Prophets, and the Prophets transmitted it to the Men of the Great Assembly. They said three things: Be deliberate in judgment, raise up many disciples and make a fence for the Torah.
Making a fence around the Torah is another principle of supreme importance in Judaism. There are many laws that are not strictly obligatory upon a person from the Torah, but rather were instituted by the Rabbis to prevent a Jew from transgressing a Torah law. An example is the use of money on Shabbat. The Torah itself does not prohibit using money on Shabbat. However, the Rabbis said one should not do so, lest one write, which is prohibited by the Torah (at least the midrashic understanding of the Torah). (Explanation of Mishnah)
With regard to the matter itself, it was taught in a baraita in accordance with the opinion of the one who said that the thirty-nine labors of Shabbat correspond to the labors performed in the Tabernacle. As it was taught in a baraita: One is only liable for performing a labor to which there was a corresponding labor in the Tabernacle. They sowed in order to grow dyes for the Tabernacle, and therefore you may not sow on Shabbat. They reaped, and therefore you may not reap on Shabbat.
The 39 Categories of Forbidden Labor
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One may not carry out from the private domain to the public domain, and one may not carry in from the public domain to the private domain. But if he did so unwittingly, he is liable to bring a sin-offering. If he did so intentionally, and there were no witnesses to his act, and he was not forewarned, he is liable to receive the punishment of excision (karet). If he was forewarned and there were witnesses to his transgression, he is punished with the court-imposed capital punishment and stoned. (Shabbat 6)
What can we as Reform Jews take from this story?
Put to death … Cut off from his people … Very strong terms indeed. But why? The Sabbath violator was put in the same category as the person who betrays his faith and his people. Jewish law treats one who does not keep the Sabbath as one who abandons Judaism for another religion. The Talmud flatly states, “Breaking the Sabbath is like worshipping idols.”
In many respects, one who willingly and flagrantly does not keep the Sabbath is no longer considered part of the Jewish community...
All this highlights one point: The Sabbath is the most important institution of Judaism. It is the primary ritual, the very touchstone of our faith. (orthodox union - full article here)
"Thinking Shabbat," Rabbi Lawrence Kusher in A Shabbat Reader
We need a way to describe liberal Jews who are serious about Shabbat. Shomer Shabbat, Keeper of Shabbat, based as it is on the language of the actual commandment in Deuteronomy, could be ideal. Unfortunately it has been appropriated and defined, meticulously and oppressively, by someone else. So we return to the text of the Fourth Commandment and realize that it is said twice, once in Deuteronomy and again in Exodus. In Deuteronomy (5:11) we are told "Shamor," keep the Sabbath. But in Exodus (2;7) the verb is different: we are told "Zachor," remember the Sabbath. Perhaps it is for us to create a new standard of Shabbat behavior called "Zachor Shabbat." One who is "Zocher Shabbat" would remember throughout the day's duration that it was Shabbat. (Not so easy as it first sounds.) We say to one another, Do anything you want--as long as you will remember that it is Shabbat, amd that will insure that whatever you do will be lichvod ha-Shabbat, for the honor of the Shabbat.