Yair got on the bus and found himself a seat. He took out a
newspaper from his briefcase and glanced at the headlines.
Several large notices were emblazoned on the front page,
protesting the abuse of Torah scholars and the desecration of
Torah, while calling for "a public outcry," and as he studied
them, he was unaware that his seat mate was reading them
along with him.
Just as he was about to turn the page, the latter turned to
him and said, "Excuse me, sir, but I couldn't help noticing
your paper protesting some insult to the honor of a great
rabbi and registering outrage against it. I can't understand
such a violent reaction. I am also religious and I believe in
giving rabbis their due respect, but it seems to me that
they've exaggerated in their use of such strong language.
They use such descriptions as apikores, chillul Hashem
and undermining of Torah. These are very acerbic terms which
lend the impression that the world is about to go under. In
my opinion, it is extreme over exaggeration, totally out of
proportion."
Yair folded the paper and turned to his seat mate, "I see
that you are a religious person, a believer, in which case I
needn't convince you that Hashem created the world for the
sake of Torah, that it be studied and its commandments kept.
This is hinted at in the very beginning: Bereishis --
for the sake of reishis, referring to Torah, which is
called `reishis' -- Hashem created the heavens and
earth. We find this concept elsewhere as well, `Were it not
for My covenant . . . I would not have established the
[natural] laws of heaven and earth.' Any undermining of
Torah, which is the purpose of Creation, actually threatens
the stability of the world! This, you must admit, is a
serious thing!"
"I see that you're speaking in grandiose terms as well," the
stranger burst out. "Do you mean to tell me that if someone
does not speak to a rabbi with the proper civility he is
going as far as to shake the very basis of Torah? Leave Torah
aside and the due respect to a rabbi aside -- and don't mix
the two!"
"But you must realize," countered Yair, "that the rabbi fills
a key position for all of us. It is he who interprets the
Torah for us and conveys to us the will of the Creator
regarding practical issues in our lives. To be sure we are
obligated to respect every single person, but a slur to the
honor of a great Torah scholar has much greater significance.
It is, indeed, a sabotage of the very existence of Torah
amongst the Jewish People. The rabbi is the virtual
representative of Torah in our daily lives, and any attack on
him is a blow to the Torah, itself.
"In every civilized country in the world, for example, any
interference with the execution of a law officer's duties is
regarded with extra severity since even a simple policeman
represents law and order."
"You are again leaning towards all-inclusive generalizations.
Do you mean to tell me that without that rabbi we wouldn't
know what the Torah wants and expects from us? Can't we read
Hebrew? Are we illiterate? I don't mean to detract from the
due respect of any rabbi, but you are lending him the status
of sole intermediary between the Torah and us common folk.
But the Torah was given to the entire people, to each and
every Jew, and every individual can read it and know what he
must do in order to live according to its precepts."
"Your words can easily be tested to see if they stand up to
reality. Give me, please, a brief summary of what your
kitchen is like, how it looks and how it operates. The way it
functions is based merely upon one short phrase in the Torah,
repeated three times, `You shall not cook a goat in its
mother's milk.'
"Keeping Shabbos properly requires comprehensive knowledge,
while in the Torah itself, little more is mentioned than the
prohibition of lighting fire and perhaps refraining from
plowing and harvesting. Ask any philolog expert to show you
where all this knowledge is hidden in the double injunction
of zochor veshomor, remembering and guarding the
Shabbos to keep it holy. He will likewise find it difficult
to show you the extensive laws of shechita in the
Torah text, without which meat is considered treif.
The Chofetz Chaim filled an entire volume with the laws of
proper speech, the details of which you will never find by
simply scanning the words referring to this in the Torah."
"You are right on that point," conceded the seat mate. "True,
a simple knowledge of reading is not enough -- but this is
why we have the Oral Tradition. I know that this is vast and
that one must study a great deal in order to know it, but the
written Torah is accessible to one and all, and every person
has the personal obligation to know what the Torah requires
of him."
"`Thou shalt not murder' is certainly an explicit
commandment," noted Yair. "So, as an intelligent man, tell me
what can you derive from this verse regarding abortion, heart
transplants from terminally ill donors, `pulling the plug'
from resuscitators that enable patients to breathe, or not
connecting them to such pulmonary aids? What position must we
take on suicide, capital punishment, high-risk surgery, organ
donation and similar questions? There is hardly a commandment
in the Torah which can be understood fully and observed in
practice by merely reading the text of the Torah.
"We laymen need an intermediary to explain and interpret the
commandment and to guide us in its practical application. I
once heard of a person who bought himself a comprehensive
medical encyclopedia and announced that from hereon in, he
had no need for doctors. All he had to do in case of illness
was to look up the symptoms and treat them accordingly."
"I don't think such a person would live very long," admitted
the man. "It is not for naught that doctors are trained for
years and years before they are permitted to practice
medicine, even though all the knowledge they acquire is
already written in books. They need the practice in real life
to get the training and experience to interpret what they've
read and learned, before they can treat a patient according
to the book knowledge. Our gemora teacher also had a
degree in literature and history, and he really impressed us
with his broad expertise. I think that a person like that is
a true go-between in interpreting the Torah to Jews who wish
to keep it properly."
"The Torah teaches us otherwise," said Yair pointedly. "In
Devorim, it commands us to turn to the accepted,
authoritative chachomim of each generation, who tell
us what the Torah requires of us and whom we must follow. The
mishna in Pirkei Ovos opens with: `Moshe
received the Torah from Sinai and transmitted it to
Yehoshua,' and so on, down the line. This is the Oral
Tradition which has been handed down from generation to
generation.
"To this very day, the Torah is still being personally
transmitted from master to disciple with regard to the spirit
of Torah, its principles and its internal workings. Only one
who has attended his masters and served them, observing them
in their daily practices, is worthy of joining the chain of
tradition, of Torah transmission which began at Sinai, and
becoming another link. A mere knowledge of Hebrew, or the
possession of literary or legal talents cannot endow the
owners with the authority to interpret Torah on its daily
practical level. These are in no way a substitute for
shimush chachomim.
"Nor are they sufficient! The sixth chapter of Pirkei
Ovos enumerates for us forty-eight ways by which Torah is
acquired. Superhuman toil and effort is necessary to acquire
only several of the attributes that comprise that list. On
top of that, if a person lacks even one of the attributes by
which Torah is acquired, his Torah acquisition falls short of
that Torah which originated in Sinai and was wholly
transmitted through the generations.
"This can be compared to a cordless electronic device which
has forty-eight electrical connections. If even one of them
is not soldered in properly, the device will not operate.
"This list provides us with a means of control or testing to
know if any John Doe or Yochonon Dovid can serve as a proper
intermediary between the will of Hashem as expressed in the
Torah and the masses. Lack of shimush chachomim, on-
the- scene practical observation of Torah sages, and implicit
faith in Torah sages, is enough to disqualify him from
guiding other Jews in the ways of the Torah. Add to this
attributes such as asceticism, sobriety of mien, rejoicing in
one's lot, shunning honor and so on, the lack of any which
denies him the ability to acquire Torah in its pure form.
"The number of those answering to these qualifications is
small. Such people have been immersed in Torah from the
cradle onward and are totally engrossed in it from every
aspect. They do not indulge in entertainment, vacations,
laxity or leisure of any kind. Their talents and their
personalities, their essential being is harnessed to Torah
and only Torah. These are the sages of Torah, the Torah
leaders of the generation and the guiders of its path.
"Any blow to their honor undermines the very stature of Torah
amongst Jewry and places a gross, crushing foot upon the
lifeline connecting Hashem and His People. And it does,
indeed, present a grave threat to the stability of the
world.
"No protest can be strong enough!"
