Well, and it’s Passover, and finally liturgically time to begin reading Pirke Avot. Or, at least, next week, I think. We’re still in the middle of Passover: Today is three days in the Omer.
Er, the Omer is the period between Passover and Shavuos. Traditionally we count off the forty-nine days by adding a stalk of barley to the ones already placed in the synagogue. I’ve been at a synagogue that does it with a lovely glass vase and stalks of, well, it might have been barley, I suppose. I wouldn’t know barley from wheat for the life of me. Well, anyway, I’ve never done the actual counting, not in the house. Nor have I particularly followed the other traditions of the seven weeks. I did schedule my wedding to be after Shavuos, I think. And there were certainly some years where I neglected to cut my hair during the Spring, but I wore my hair longer then. I’ll be getting a hair cut real soon, you bet, just as soon as I can manage the time.
Anyway, there are seven weeks and six books, so I suspect that this Shabbat during Passover itself we do not read Pirke Avot, but that we read one book during each of the next six weeks. Not a verse a week, a whole book. Whew. I’ll be plodding along the way I always do, at least for the next few weeks.
When we do read the books in shul it is customary to begin each chapter with an introductory verse and end with an…epiloguic verse? A postpended verse? Well, with the following verse:
Rabbi Chananya, the son of Akashya, said, The Holy One, blessed be he, was pleased to make Israel worthy; wherefore he gave them a copious Torah and many commandments; as it is said, It pleased the Lord, for his righteousness’ sake, to magnify the Torah and make it honorable.
I have used the Joseph Hertz translation; the proof text is Isaiah 42:21 Interestingly, in the Talmud, the discussion is not about magnifying the commandments but about reducing them. In a sense. R. Simlayi begins with the famous six hundred and thirteen mitzvoth. Then David is able to reduce them to only eleven.
[[A Psalm of David.]] LORD, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill? He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart. [He that] backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbour, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour. In whose eyes a vile person is contemned; but he honoureth them that fear the LORD. [He that] sweareth to [his own] hurt, and changeth not. [He that] putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent. He that doeth these [things] shall never be moved. Psalms 5:1-5
So we can count them out: Walking uprightly is one, working righteousness is two, speaking the truth in your heart is three, not slandering is four, doing no evil to your neighbors is five, taking no reproaches against your neighbors is six, despising vile people is seven, honouring people who fear the Divine is eight, swearing even when it hurts you and not recanting is nine, avoiding usury is ten, and taking reward against the innocent is eleven. Down from 613 to 11, an impressive reduction. But Simlayi is not done.
He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil; He shall dwell on high: his place of defence [shall be] the munitions of rocks: bread shall be given him; his waters [shall be] sure. Isaiah 33:15-16
Isaiah, then, brings the number down to six. Gentle Readers will be unsurprised, I hope, to learn that Simlayi is still not done.
He hath shewed thee, O man, what [is] good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? Micah 6:8
Micah gets us to three. Do I hear two?
Thus saith the LORD, Keep ye judgment, and do justice: for my salvation [is] near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed. Isaiah 56:1
Keep judgment (mishpat) and do justice (tz’dakah). That’s it. Deutero-Isaiah gets us to two. Or maybe Trito-Isaiah. And two is about as—wait, what? Oh, Simlayi has another blockquote.
For thus saith the LORD unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live. Amos 5:4
Amos has just one: dirshuni, seek ye me, that is the Divine.
What does all this mean? How do we get from making Israel worthy with many commandments and a copious Torah to simply seeking the Divine? And—which seems even harder to me—how to we get back to the copious Torah and the many commandments? Or do we?
From Passover to Shavuos is forty-nine days, which we count day by day. We were slaves of Pharoah in Egypt, and the Lord brought us out, with a strong hand and an outstretched arm, and with signs and wonders. And over a period of seven weeks, we sought the Divine, in a pillar of fire by night and a pillar of cloud by day, and we went around and around and through the Red Sea and we still sought the Divine. And the Divine brought us to Sinai, and we accepted the Torah, copious as it was.
We say at the seder that every generation should view itself as having personally been liberated from Egypt. And we say on Shavuos that every generation should view itself as having been at Sinai. And every generation has to listen to Chananya and to Simlayi. To find worthiness in the copious Torah for the sake of Divine righteousness. To reduce the precepts to their core. To build them up, with a hedge around the Torah. To escape from Egypt, and to go to Sinai. To seek the Divine, and to live.
Tolerabimus quod tolerare debemus,
-Vardibidian.