Parashat Tetzave
"Slaughter the ram, and take some of its blood and
put it on the lobe
of Aaron's right ear and on the lobes of his sons' right ears, and on the
thumbs of their right hands, and on the big toes of their right feet….Take some
of the blood that is on the altar and some of the anointing oil and sprinkle
upon Aaron and his vestments, and also upon his sons and his sons' vestments.
Thus shall he and his vestments be holy, as well as his sons and his sons'
vestments." (Exodus 29:20-21)
In
last week's portion we discussed the building of the Holy Temple and its
vessels and we showed that the sages in each and every generation are those who
determine the dimensions.
In
this week's portion we will discuss the work of the Holy Temple, the sacrifices
which at the time of the Temple's building were the primary method of
worshipping G-d. We have quoted the verse which explains the process of
sanctifying Aaron and his sons for the priesthood: "And this is that which
shall you do to them to sanctify them to serve as My priests" (29:1).
But
there is a different spirit in these our days, and so one who reads these verses will be horrified at the act of
sprinkling animal blood on a person's body, for this is one of the lowest and
most barbaric rituals. Not only is the action of sprinkling blood foreign to
faithful Jews, but all the rituals of sacrifices, of slaughtering animals and
burning their corpses on the altar, are among those things we could never
conceive of doing, and even object to in our hearts.
And if
you wonder--"What will happen about our future Holy Temple, how will the
priests perform in their work and the Levites in their rostrums?" This is
exactly that which we are explaining, that in every generation the sages are
those who determine the ways to worship G-d, based on their intellect and
hearts. Go and learn: Ezra and the people of his generation built the Holy
Temple and brought sacrifices to atone for the sin of idolatry. Their sin was
deliberate, and the rule is that one only brings sacrifices for unintentional
sins. The Gemara in Horayot 6a explains: "And were they not deliberate
sinners? It was an emergency ruling for that time only." "Emergency
ruling"--what a lovely phrase to make halacha right when it supercedes the
explicit Scriptures!
Not
only on this issue did they make changes, but even on the count of the
sacrifices. "The returning exiles who arrived from captivity made burnt
offerings to the G-d of Israel of 12 bulls for all of Israel, 96 rams, 77
lambs, and 12 he-goats as a purification offering" (Ezra 8:35). About this
was it written in the Gemara in Horayot 6a, "96 rams and 77 lambs,
according to whom? It was an emergency ruling." See how an emergency
ruling has the power to innovate and change the laws of sacrifices stated explicitly
in the Scriptures.
When
we wrote about the weekly portion Vayetze we cited the Sifrei,
"The pillar which was loved in the fathers’ days is hated in the sons’
days." Generations come and go, halachot come and go, and the way of
worshiping G-d remains the choice of the Jewish society. The public will decide
for itself the way it wishes and will rely upon the agreement of the sages,
which will follow.
For
example: at the time of the Bible we were commanded to remit all debts during
the seventh year: "This shall be the nature of the remission: every
creditor shall remit the due" (Deuteronomy 15:2). This commandment to
remit debts was so stringent that the Torah warns us: "Beware lest you
harbor the wicked thought, 'The seventh year, the year of remission, is
approaching,' so that your eye becomes evil toward your needy kinsman and you
give him nothing. He will cry out to the Lord against you, and you will incur
guilt." But G-d promises us, "for in return the Lord, your G-d, will
bless you" (Deuteronomy 15:9).
But
come see what happened during the Second Temple period, when the faithful no
longer believed in G-d's blessings, stopped loaning to their fellows, and the
poor were so needy that no one loaned to them at all. Thus it was until Hillel
the Elder made the Prozbol reform (a contract which states the
conditions of the loan in such a way that one can demand payment even after the
seventh year), and about this it is said in Tractate Gittin 36a: "This is
one of the reforms by Hillel the Elder, who saw that the nation refrained from
making loans and went against what is written in the Torah, 'Beware lest you
harbor the wicked thought…', so he made the Prozbol reform."
According
to Rabbah, since the sages may confiscate people's money, they can also alter
the Torah commandments having to do with money, since "that which the
courts have declared abandoned is abandoned," see Gittin 36b.
See
how the matter developed: While during the Second Temple period they still had
to actually write out a Prozbol contract, in the time of the Talmud,
even one who did not write out a Przbol contract could demand repayment
of his loan, as brought in Gittin 37b, "Rav Nachman said, 'A person is
believed when he says that he had a Prozbol and it got lost'." Even
if the loaner did not make this claim, there were judges who would coach him to
make this claim, as is told of those people who came to Rav’s court, and he
asked them, "Didn't you have a Prozbol and it got lost?" The
Talmud (Gittin 37b) says this is a way of fulfilling the commandment "Open
your mouth for the mute" (Proverbs 31:8).
In the
era of the Rishonim they no longer wrote Prozbol contracts at all, as
the Rashba writes in his Responsa, part four, section 23: "And even in the
places where they have no custom of writing Prozbol contracts and they
are used to writing only that the loan is 'such that the seventh year would not
remit the debt,' we allow it, since it may have a condition which not
written."
It is
clear that the judges do not remit the debt, even if they clearly know that the
loaner did not make conditions or write a Prozbol contract. This is what
we have been saying, that since the spirit of the times has changed and no one
would be willing to loan to others without getting his money back, the
Scriptural prohibition had been superceded, though it is an explicit warning
the likes of which there are not many.
So you
see that the public--or, in other words, the spirit of the times--determines
the Halacha.
Another
example: the matter of polygamy. The Torah allowed a man to marry many wives, but then, Rabbeynu Gershom came along
and forbade it through the end of the 5th millennium. That time has
passed. But today, throughout the world,
those who fear G-d would not think of marrying two women (even though
the actions of the fathers are a sign for the sons, and the forefathers,
Abraham and Jacob, had many wives), not because of their countries' laws and
not because of Rabbeynu Gershom's ruling, whose time has passed, but because
this is the will of the public, and so the people have accepted upon themselves
to marry one woman only.
Let us
return to the work of the Temple, and we will show you all the changes which
took place since the Second Temple's destruction. "They innovated prayers
in place of the daily sacrifices" (Brachot 26b), and synagogues and study
halls are the replacement for the Holy Temple, as written in the Mishnah Brurah
151, subsection 40: "There is a doubt whether the storeys of the synagogue
are like the storeys of the Temple court, which were not sanctified, or, since
the synagogue and study hall are called 'miniature Temples,' their stories are
like the stories of the Temple hall, which we know definitely had the sanctity
of the Temple hall itself."
And
since the G-d fearing public doesn't really want to slaughter all those
animals, to burn them on the altar and sprinkle their blood, it becomes clear
why we do not build a Temple even though the Sefer Hachinuch on the
portion of Terumah states, "It is a commandment to build a house for
G-d…and this commandment is in force whenever the majority of Israel is on its
land; this is one of those commandments which do not fall on the individual,
but on the public as a whole."
Therefore,
we do not really want it, and that is good, to the extent that the Rambam in
The Laws of Sacrifices, chapter two, halacha 14, wrote, "The measures of
the libations said in the book of Ezekiel and the count of those sacrifices and
the order of worship written there are all supplements and are not to be
practiced forever. The prophet commanded and explained how they would make the
supplemental sacrifices for the dedication of the altar at the time of the
Messiah King, when the Third Temple will be built."
The
words of the Rambam are similar to what Rabbi Yochanan said in Tractate
Menachot 45a, that the words of the prophet Ezekiel do not at all match what is
written in the Pentateuch: "Elijah will explain this matter in the
future." And Rashi explained, "Until Elijah comes and explains this issue,
we do not know how to explain it." On matters like this Chazal had already
wondered, in Sanhedrin 51b, "Is this a law which will only be in force
during the time of the Messiah?"
This
seems to be the explanation for the matter, that when the Messiah comes, i.e.
when wisdom is increased and there is a Sanhedrin, they will be the ones who
will determine the laws and the order of worship and the dimensions of the
Temple. This is exactly what Solomon did for the First Temple, and this exactly
is what Ezra did for the Second Temple, so why should we determine these laws
now, when it is clear they will change in the future?
To
strengthen our words, that the sages in each generation are the only ones who
determine the way we should proceed, we will cite the words of the Rambam. The
Rambam gives the sages a wide field of authority to punish and even to execute,
as he wrote in the Laws of Sanhedrin, chapter 24, halacha four, "A court
may lash one who has not earned lashings and may execute one who has not earned
death, if they are not doing anything against the Torah, but only placing a
fence around the Torah."
Like
Hillel the Elder, who created the Prozbol reform due to the public's
will, are the ways of the generation's sages who rule on the matters of Halacha.
The acts of the public and its customs guide their intellect and hearts to the
Halachic laws they will create.
Words
of True Knowledge.
