Tuesday, December 4, 2018

Chullin 5a: The slaughter of an apostate to idolatry

On Chullin 4b we encounter a statement by Shmuel, brought forth by Rav Anan:

גופא אמר רב ענן אמר שמואל ישראל משומד לעבודה זרה מותר לאכול משחיטתו שכן מצינו ביהושפט מלך יהודה שנהנה מסעודת אחאב שנאמר ויזבח לו אחאב צאן ובקר לרב ולעם אשר עמו ויסיתהו לעלות אל רמת גלעד
§ The Gemara analyzes the matter itself: Rav Anan says that Shmuel says : With regard to a Jew who is a transgressor with regard to idol worship, it is permitted to eat from what he slaughters, as we found with regard to Jehoshaphat , king of Judea, who partook of the feastprepared by Ahab , king of Israel, who was a transgressor with regard to idol worship, as it is stated: “ A nd Ahab slaughtered sheep and cattle for him in abundance, and for the people that were with him, and incited him to go up with him to Ramoth Gilead ” (II Chronicles 18: 2).

Besides the proof Rav Anan / Shmuel himself brings from the verse, which is sustained, the gemara suggests two other proofs. One is from a statement of Rav Yehuda citing Rav that ravens brought Eliyahu (in hiding) meat from the kitchen of Achav. This would form a strong pair of Rav and Shmuel in accord, but the gemara pushes off the proof. The other is an ambiguous brayta in which the seifa speaks of a mumar who is different than the mumar for all mitzvot as well as one who is a mumar to circumcision. Since this other mumar could either be Rava's mumar (namely, to that same mitzvah of consuming kosher meat) or Shmuel's mumar (to idolatry), this is ambiguous and cannot form a definitive proof to either Rava or Shmuel.

Then, the gemara brings a conclusive refutation to Rav Anan from a brayta. On Chullin 5a:

מיתיבי מכם ולא כולכם להוציא את המשומד מכם בכם חלקתי ולא באומות מן הבהמה להביא בני אדם שדומים לבהמה מכאן אמרו מקבלין קרבנות מפושעי ישראל כדי שיחזרו בהן בתשובה חוץ מן המשומד ומנסך את היין ומחלל שבתות בפרהסיא
The Gemara raises an objection to the opinion of Rav Anan from that which is taught in a baraita with regard to the verse: “ W hen any man of you brings an offering unto the Lord, from the animal” (Leviticus 1:2) . The tanna infers:“ O f you, ” indicating: But not all of you. This serves to exclude the transgressor, from whom an offering is not accepted. The tanna continues: The term“ of you” is also interpreted to mean that I distinguished among you and not among the nations. Therefore, a gentile may bring an offering even if he is an idol worshipper. The expression“ from the animal” serves to include people who are similar to an animal in that they do not recognize God. From here, the Sages stated: One accepts offerings from Jewish transgressors so that they will consequently repent, except for the transgressor, one who pours wine as a libation to idolatry, and one who desecrates Shabbat in public [befarhesya].
הא גופא קשיא אמרת מכם ולא כולכם להוציא את המשומד והדר תני מקבלין קרבנות מפושעי ישראל
This baraita itself is difficult. Initially, you said : “ Of you, ” indicating: But not all of you. This serves to exclude the transgressor, from whom an offering is not accepted. And then the tanna teaches: One accepts offerings from Jewish transgressors.
הא לא קשיא רישא משומד לכל התורה כולה מציעתא משומד לדבר אחד
The Gemara answers: This is not difficult. The first clause states that an offering is not accepted from a transgressor with regard to the entire Torah. The middle clause states that one accepts an offering from a transgressor with regard to one matter.
אימא סיפא חוץ מן המשומד ומנסך את היין ומחלל שבת בפרהסיא האי משומד היכי דמי אי משומד לכל התורה כולה היינו רישא ואי משומד לדבר אחד קשיא מציעתא
The Gemara challenges: Say the last clause: Except for the transgressor, and one who pours wine as a libation to idolatry, and one who desecrates Shabbat in public. With regard to this transgressor in the last clause, what are the circumstances? If the reference is to a transgressor with regard to the entire Torah, that is identical to the first clause: Of you, and not all of you, to exclude the transgressor. And if the reference is to a transgressor with regard to one matter, the middle clause is difficult, as it is stated there that one accepts an offering from a transgressor with regard to one matter.
אלא לאו הכי קאמר חוץ מן המשומד לנסך את היין ולחלל שבתות בפרהסיא אלמא משומד לעבודה זרה הוה משומד לכל התורה כולה ותיובתא דרב ענן תיובתא
Rather, is it not that this is what the mishna is saying in the last clause: Except for the transgressor to pour wine as a libation to idolatry or to desecrate Shabbat in public? Apparently, a transgressor with regard to idol worship is a transgressor with regard to the entire Torah, andthis baraita is a refutation of the opinion of Rav Anan . The Gemara concludes: It is indeed a conclusive refutation.
I find this refutation less than compelling, and wish to offer a fairly strong rejoinder on behalf of Rav Anan. Actually, this is a rejoinder on behalf of the first generation Amora Shmuel, who is no slouch, and quite possibly was aware of the brayta. Amar lecha Shmuel... Here is what Shmuel would say to you... (The girsa has either meshumad or mumar. I am running with mumar throughout.)

Before you go about contrasting the mumar of the reisha with the poshei yisrael of the metziata, why don't you contrast the mumar of the reisha with the benei adam shedomin le-beheima of the reisha? Obviously they are different, and the benei adam shedomin leveheima of the reisha is a mumar ledavar echad, which is then equivalent to the poshei yisrael of the metziata. So that is established.

Then, what is your question regarding the seifa? That the mumar of the seifa is an apparent duplication of the mumar of the reisha?! And since this cannot be, we must reinterpret / reread the seifa of mumar or libator or public Shabbat transgressor to instead be a mumar in terms of libating or public Shabbat transgressing?!

If it is indeed so, that you cannot have reduplication and repetition in the brayta, then you need to go and reinterpret either poshei yisrael of the metziata or the benei adam shedomin leveheima of the reisha!

In fact, you should not reinterpret any of these. The brayta employed a joining phrase, between the reisha and the metziata as follows:

מכאן אמרו  From here, the Sages stated: 

That is, the derivation from pesukim appears in the reisha. And from there, we have (in the metizata and the seifa) the application. Mikem == mumar + the other two categories. Min Habeheima = poshei yisrael who are domin leveheima.

Where the brayta explicitly connects the two, with the end part being the straightforward application of the first part, it is eminently reasonable to see overlap between the reisha and the seifa. Just because the setama degemara wants to kvetch the text of the brayta and darshen it in the way it does does not mean that there is a refutation to the position of Shmuel, which has a Biblical proof, which seems to accord with Rav and which is consistent with a brayta.

Wednesday, May 23, 2018

Zevachim 40: Does Rabbi Shimon darshen 'asher'?

In today's daf (Zevachim 40) we encounter a "derasha chain". That is, a brayta (a Tannaitic source) describes how Rabbi Shimon interprets a verse, and Rabbi Yehuda pointedly says such a derivation is not necessary.

The setama digemara then interjects. What then does Rabbi Yehuda deduce from the superfluous verse?  And how does Rabbi Shimon derive the same? And what does Rabbi Yehuda do with the verse that Rabbi Shimon then uses? And so on and so forth. It ends with an extra dangling word asher, which Rabbi Yehuda uses and Rabbi Shimon does not bother with.

This is a common pattern of "derasha chain" in the setam
a digemara. It is well grounded in the assumption (see e.g. Sanhedrin 34) that each verse, or word, or letter, must be systematically used and deduced. There must be a one-to-one mapping from each source text to each deduced halacha. You cannot have either a superfluous verse or a superfluous halacha.  The common end result of such a derasha chain is that there is a superfluous word, and one of the pair does not bother interpreting it, not deeming it to be a matter of importance. Another common end result is that the pair is said to differ in another law, such that one of the pair utilizes that final dangling derasha for that purpose.

Thus, today's gemara reads as follows. First the brayta:

א"ר ירמיה לא נצרכא אלא לר"ש דתניא למעלה אומר קרן קרנות שתים למטה הוא אומר קרן קרנות ארבע דברי ר"שר' יהודה אומר אינו צריך הרי הוא אומר באהל מועד על כל האמור באהל מועד 

And then the gemara's derasha chain:

ורבי יהודה כן יעשה מאי עביד ליהמיבעי ליה לכדתניא לפי שלא למדנו לפר יוה"כ לסמיכה ושירי הדם מנין ת"ל כן יעשהולפר יוה"כ לא למדנו הא אמרת לפר זה יוה"כאיצטריך סד"א הני מילי עבודה דמעכבא כפרה אבל עבודה דלא מעכבא כפרה אימא לא קמ"לור"ש האי באהל מועד מאי עביד ליה באהל מועד מבעי ליה שאם נפחתה תקרה של היכל לא היה מזה ואידך מאשר ואידך אשר לא דריש
Tosafot point out that this claim, that Rabbi Shimon does not darshen the word asher, is somewhat problematic. They write:

אשר לא דריש - לעיל פירשתי בריש פ"ב (דף יח: ד"ה ואידך:):
"He does not darshen the word asher -- earlier, I explained it at the start of the second perek (daf 18b, d"h ve'idach").

There is another derasha chain of the setama degemara there , and this one involves darshening asher. Looking there, this is what Tosafot have to say:
ואידך אשר לא דריש - משמע הכא דאיכא דמרבה כסות דסומא ולא מרבה בעלת חמש ומקשה ר"ת דבפ' התכלת (מנחות דף מג.) גבי פלוגתא דר' שמעון מרבי התם רבי שמעון כסות סומא מאשר תכסה ובעלת חמש מאשר ולאו פירכא היא דההיא סוגיא כמאן דמרבי הכא בעלת חמש ומיהו קשה אההיא דמנחות ולקמן בפ' בית שמאי (דף מ.) אמרינן דר"ש אשר לא דריש ויש לומר דהכי אמרינן אשר כי האי לא דריש וטובא איכא כי האי גוונא בפ' קמא דבכורות (דף ו:) דדריש ר"ש את הגמל ובפ"ק דמנחות (דף יא:) לא דריש את:

That is, Rabbenu Tam notes that in Menachot 43a, Rabbi Shimon derives one point of law from the phrase אשר תכסה, and another point of law from just the word אשר. Yet in our perek, we see that Rabbi Shimon does not darshen the word asher (albeit one in another pasuk). And their answer is that the meaning is that "asher" such as this Rabbi Shimon does not darshen. And that there are many such instances. For instance, in the first perek of Bechorot (6b), Rabbi Shimon darshens the et of et-hagamal, yet in the first perek of Menachot (11b) he does not darshen the word et.

Here is the obvious place to bring up Shimon HaAmsuni. In Pesachim 22b, after a discussion of whether certain Tannaim do or do not darshen the word et, we read:

כדתניא שמעון העמסוני ואמרי לה נחמיה העמסוני היה דורש כל אתים שבתורה כיון שהגיע (דברים ו, יג) לאת ה' אלהיך תירא פירש אמרו לו תלמידיו רבי כל אתים שדרשת מה תהא עליהן אמר להם כשם שקבלתי שכר על הדרישה כך אני מקבל שכר על הפרישה עד שבא ר"ע ודרש את ה' אלהיך תירא לרבות תלמידי חכמים
As it was taught in a baraitaShimon HaAmmassoni, and some say that itwas Neḥemya HaAmmassoni, would interpret all occurrences of the word etin the Torah, deriving additional halakhot with regard to the particular subject matter. Once he reached the verse: “You shall be in awe of [et] the Lord your God; you shall serve Him; and to Him you shall cleave, and by His name you shall swear” (Deuteronomy 10:20), he withdrew from this method of exposition, as how could one add to God Himself? His students said to him: Rabbi, what will be with all the etim that you interpreted until now? He said to them: Just as I received reward for the interpretation, so I shall receive reward for my withdrawal from using this method of exposition. The word et in this verse was not explained until Rabbi Akiva came and expounded: “You shall be in awe of [et] the Lord your God”: The word etcomes to include Torah scholars, and one is commanded to fear them just as one fears God. In any case, Shimon HaAmmassoni no longer derived additional halakhot from the word et. 

This brayta pictures the system of interpretation of the object marker et to be an all-or-nothing endeavor. Either et is extra and must always be interpreted, or else it may never be interpreted. And the gemara (22b) writes ואידך את לא דריש, seeming to state that certain Tannaim subscribe to this system of derivation and other Tannaim do not. It should then be always or never.

Yet, according to Rabbenu Tam, an individual Tanna may sometimes interpret et and sometimes choose not to interpret it.

I can see a few resolutions to this, and think all of them may have a bit of truth to them.

* Rabbenu Tam's question is better than the answer. It is indeed a contradiction between what is attributed to Rabbi Shimon here and what is attributed to Rabbi Shimon there. This is because none if this is truly Rabbenu Tam. It is, rather, the Savoraim in the setama digemara who are attributing these positions to Rabbi Shimon. We must look for explicit derashot in Tannaitic sources to determine whether Rabbi Shimon really does, or does not, interpret asher or et.

Perhaps the assumption that the system of midrash halacha may not reuse pesukim or words, or may not have unused pesukim or words, is deficient. That is, maybe the system is not so systematic and comprehensive. Maybe, for example, Rabbi Shimon (as an example Tanna) operated only locally, on individual pesukim, and did not get around to finding a law for every word, or did not agree that such was necessary. If so, then we do not have to play the game of the derasha chain.

Even if the one-to-one assumption is correct, we lack the explicit enumeration of such derashot. We have no real knowledge of what the derashot were, and are faced with the task of Reconstruction. Different Savoraim may have worked on different masechtot, and Savora A might have assumed X about Rabbi Shimon, while Savora B might have assumed NOT X about Rabbi Shimon.

* Systematic need not mean mechanical. As Tosafot wrote, one might say that a particular et or asher is superfluous, whilst another is not. The Tannaim has a sensitivity to language. It is not the case that every language usage is superfluous. Consider the word et. It is most often used as the marker that a noun is the object, rather than the subject, of the sentence. So, in Vayikra 1:5:

וְהִקְרִיבוּ בְּנֵי אַהֲרֹן הַכֹּהֲנִים, אֶת-הַדָּם

the word order is VSO, that is, Verb Subject Object. Shall Present / the sons of Aharon the priests / et-the blood. VSO is the usual word order. If the word et had not appeared, the meaning would still be fairly obvious. Not just because of the usual word order, but because the blood cannot very well present the sons of Aharon!

But consider the counterexample to Shimon HaAmsuni, Devarim 10:20:
אֶת־ה אֱלֹהֶ֛יךָ תִּירָ֖א וְאֹת֣וֹ תַעֲבֹ֑ד

the word order is O(S)V, Hashem your God / (You) shall fear. The et is perhaps more grammatically necessarily, to prompt the reader that Hashem here is the direct object.

Depending on grammatical structure as well as local word usage -- how often is asher used in this parasha, in this sefer, in this topic? -- a word might or might not be deemed superfluous. Textual analysis is a science but also an art, and there is room for such sensitivities.