Culture Wars

(1) The Reubenites and the Gadites owned cattle in very great numbers. Noting that the lands of Jazer and Gilead were a region suitable for cattle, (2) the Gadite and Reubenite [leaders] came to Moses, Eleazar the priest, and the chieftains of the community, and said, (3) “Ataroth, Dibon, Jazer, Nimrah, Heshbon, Elealeh, Sebam, Nebo, and Beon— (4) the land that God has conquered for the community of Israel—is cattle country, and your servants have cattle. (5) It would be a favor to us,” they continued, “if this land were given to your servants as a holding; do not move us across the Jordan.”

(6) Moses replied to the Gadites and the Reubenites, “Are your brothers to go to war while you stay here? (7) Why will you turn the minds of the Israelites from crossing into the land that God has given them? (8) That is what your fathers did when I sent them from Kadesh-barnea to survey the land. (9) After going up to the wadi Eshcol and surveying the land, they turned the minds of the Israelites from invading the land that God had given them. (10) Thereupon God was incensed and swore, (11) ‘None of the men from twenty years up who came out of Egypt shall see the land that I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, for they did not remain loyal to Me— (12) none except Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite and Joshua son of Nun, for they remained loyal to God. (13) God is incensed at Israel, made them wander in the wilderness for forty years, until the whole generation that had provoked God’s displeasure was gone. (14) And now you, a breed of sinful fellows, have replaced your fathers, to add still further to God's wrath against Israel. (15) If you turn away from [God], who then abandons them once more in the wilderness, you will bring calamity upon all this people.”

Everett Fox: Now here, you have arisen in place of your fathers, a brood *brood: Heb. tarbut, related to rav, “many.” of sinning men, to add further to the flaming anger of YHWH against Israel

And now you, a breed of sinful fellows, *fellows I.e., members of the community. Lit. “participants whose involvement defines the depicted situation”; trad. “men.” See the Dictionary under ’ish. have replaced your fathers, to add still further to יהוה’s wrath against Israel.

Tarbut from Piriya v'Ribiya (be fruitful and multiply) because culture is transmitted from generation to generation....

And there was also a culture of sinful people, because at the beginning of forty years in the desert they complained at Tivara and the graves of lust and at the end of the water of strife and the fiery serpents, and also at the beginning they said this is your god Israel and at the end Israel clung to Baal at Peor. Israel did not succeed in improving their deeds in the desert, therefore if they continued to leave them in the desert and sealed it for all this people, because only in the Land of Israel (Joshua 24:11) will Israel serve God all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who lived long after Joshua.

After the war against the Greeks ended in a military and political victory, the cultural struggle returned to the fore. We still needed to defend ourselves against the torrent of Hellenism that had already engulfed all of the surrounding cultures.

(6) We can thus understand why the nation of Israel came into being as slaves in Egypt. All other nations develop naturally, from the ground up, from family to clan to tribe to nation. As they grow, they develop cultures that evolve out of the circumstances of their lives, the climate of their territories, and their conflicts with their neighbors. As part of the emergence of their culture, they develop some type of deistic belief. Since human beings are involved in their invention, such beliefs are idolatrous.

(7) In contrast, Israel became a nation as slaves, devoid of any culture. They could not develop their own culture while enslaved and lacking national self-esteem. At the same time, Egyptian culture was foreign to them and possibly despised by them, as it was associated with their tormentors.

Israel was thus a tabula rasa, free of preconceived notions, and perfectly capable of absorbing the true faith based on divine revelation and accepting the Torah without introducing human considerations into its fundamental principles. The impoverished, unembellished matza alludes to the condition of the Israelites at that time.

Aḥer asked Rabbi Meir another question, again after he had gone astray.

What is the meaning of that which is written: “Gold and glass cannot equal it; neither shall its exchange be vessels of fine gold” (Job 28:17)? If it is referring to the praise and honor of the Torah, it should have compared it only to gold, not to glass. He said to him: This is referring to words of Torah, which are as difficult to acquire as gilded vessels and vessels of fine gold but are as easy to lose as glass vessels. Aḥer said to him: Rabbi Akiva, your teacher, did not say so, but taught as follows: Just as golden vessels and glass vessels have a remedy even when they have broken, as they can be melted down and made into new vessels, so too a Torah scholar, although he has transgressed, has a remedy. Rabbi Meir said to him: If so, you too, return from your ways. He said to him: I have already heard the following declaration behind the dividing curtain, which conceals God from the world: “Return, rebellious children,” (Jeremiah 3:22) apart from Aḥer.

Upon hearing this, Elisha ben Avuya said: Since that man, meaning himself, has been banished from that world, let him go out and enjoy this world. Aḥer went astray.

He went and found a prostitute and solicited her for intercourse. She said to him: And are you not Elisha ben Avuya? Shall a person of your stature perform such an act? He uprooted a radish from a patch of radishes on Shabbat and gave it to her, to demonstrate that he no longer observed the Torah. The prostitute said: He is other than he was. He is not the same Elisha ben Avuya, he is Aḥer, other.

And Rabbi Yoḥanan said other aggadic statements in the name of Rabbi Shimon ben Yoḥai: The existence of wayward children in a person’s home is more troublesome than the war of Gog and Magog, the ultimate war, the climax of the travails of Messianic times.

(4) Rabbi Elazar says: When these animals are domesticated they are not considered forewarned.

But the snake is always considered forewarned. What is the difference between the liability incurred for damage caused by an ox that is considered innocuous and the liability incurred for damage caused by an ox that is forewarned? The only differences are that for damage caused by an innocuous ox, the owner pays half the cost of the damage exclusively from proceeds of the sale of the body of the ox, and for a forewarned ox he pays the full cost of the damage from his higher property.

That is what is written: “Your sons will be in the stead of your fathers” (Psalms 45:17). You find a righteous person begetting a righteous person, a wicked person begetting a wicked person, a righteous person begetting a wicked person, and a wicked person begetting a righteous person. Each of them has [an allusion in] the Bible, has [an allusion in a popular] proverb, and has [an allusion in] common parlance. A righteous person begetting a righteous person has [an allusion in] the Bible and has [an allusion in] a proverb. The Bible, as it is written: “Your sons will be in the stead of your fathers.” It has a proverb: A scion that established a fig tree. A wicked person begetting a wicked person has [an allusion in] the Bible, has [an allusion in] a proverb, and has [an allusion in] common parlance. The Bible, as it is written: “Behold, you have risen in the stead of your fathers, [a brood of sinful men]” (Numbers 32:14). A proverb, [as it is written]: “as the ancient proverb says: From the wicked, wickedness will emerge” (I Samuel 24:14). [In] common parlance, from where? What does the beetle bear? Ticks that are worse than it.

Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah said: Where there is no Torah, there is no right conduct; where there is no right conduct, there is no Torah. Where there is no wisdom, there is no fear of God; where there is no fear of God, there is no wisdom. Where there is no understanding, there is no knowledge; where there is no knowledge, there is no understanding. Where there is no bread, there is no Torah; where there is no Torah, there is no bread.

If there is no Torah, there is no Derch Eretz. There is no person who is well versed in Derech Eretz and the culture and the custom of everything, unless he learns Torah in the totality of the Torah, he finds all wise eyes and rules everything. And how should he behave. And if there is no way of the land, there is no Torah. If a person does not have culture to comport himself in a fitting way, his Torah will not elevate him at all and it won't be sustained. The Torah teaches us culture. Like the laws of the tractate of Derech Eretz.

Author: Simchah of Vitry

Composed: Vitry-sur-Seine, c.1055 – c.1105

Machzor Vitry is an 11th-century prayer book that incorporates legal rulings, composed by Rabbi Simcha of Vitry, a French scholar and disciple of Rashi. The word “machzor” (cycle) signifies that in addition to daily prayers, the book includes Pirkei Avot. The work incorporates many of Rashi’s decisions as well as decisions of other major authorities and is considered a critical source of French liturgy traditions.

Apropos good omens, Rav Mesharshiyya said to his son: ... And it is preferable for you to sit on the rubbish heaps [akilkelei] of Mata Meḥasya, and do not sit in the palaces [appadnei] of Pumbedita.

In Mata Mehasya there were Torah scholars prepared to lead and a beatiful cultural disposition, but in Pumbadita they did not have an enlightened culture at all and therefore he said it would be better to sit on rubbish heaps in Mata Mehasya then palaces in Pumbedita.

(7) Rabbi Shimon said: if one is studying while walking on the road and interrupts his study and says, “how fine is this tree!” [or] “how fine is this newly ploughed field!” scripture accounts it to him as if he was mortally guilty.