Skip to main content

Laughing at Foxes - the End (of Massechet Makkot)

The end of Massechet Makkot, the end of larger single Massechet of old, a 14-chapter Sandhedrin which incorporated Makkot. So much focus on punishment, pain,  death and excision, despite the Messianic outburst of Perek Chelek, that Chazal in the final Mishnah feel it necessary to express the other side: mere lashings can remove the punishment of excision for eternity; if Hashem rewards those who merely abide by their natural abhorrence of ingesting blood, how much more will Hashem reward those who stay their natural urges; Hashem wanted to give us manifold opportunities to gain spiritual merit, THAT’S why He gave us so many mitzvot, not in order to make punishment and failure unavoidable, G-d forbid.

And yet.. the Sages walk in the heart of Hashem’s land, His covenanted people broken and scattered, the city of eternity in ruins… do they hear their own encouragements, do they steer clear of anguish and despair?

For a moment, it seems not: they see a fox emerge from the wreckage of the Holy of Holies, and bewail their fate, yet Rabbi Akiva laughs. When pressed for an explanation, he explains as follows:
Yeshayahu prophesizes , regarding the redemption to come, “I will call reliable witnesses, the priest Uriah and Zechariah son of Jeberechiah, to witness for Me” (Yeshayahu 8:2). Rabbi Akiva explains: these two prophets don’t belong together, for Uriah, the priest, living during the time of the First Temple, and prophesied destruction, while Zechariah lived in the time of the Second Temple, and prophesied redemption.

“Until I saw Uriah’s prophesy fulfilled, who foretold foxes running through the ruins of Jerusalem,”, said Rabbi Akiva, “I wasn’t certain of Zechariah’s prophecy, who spoke of a time when, once again, old men and women would repose in the streets of Jerusalem. Now that I’ve seen the former, I’m absolutely certain of the latter”.

But there’s a problem here. In order for their testimony to be accepted, two witnesses (the minimum needed to establish legal veracity) need to see the event together. If one is looking from one window and the second from another and they don’t see one another, then even if their accounts of the event are identical, they cannot be accepted. Now, if there is one issuing the warning to the transgressor, who is stationed between the two, such that he sees each and each of them see him, that can make the testimony of the two witnesses acceptable. But the judges will interrogate them closely, so their account had better match, and further, woe unto them should other witnesses come and claim, “you couldn’t have seen that, you were with us elsewhere at the time”. They are rendered scheming witnesses – Eidim Zomemim, the law whose details occupy the first chapter of Massechet Makkot.
So why did Rabbi Akiva “accept” the testimony of Uriah and Zechariah? Uriah looked through the “window” of the First Temple, while Zechariah looked through the “window” of the Second Temple. Furthermore, could their accounts of events been more different? Uriah saw destruction and punishment, while Zechariah saw joy and redemption! And finally, they couldn’t have “been there” as they were separated by hundreds of years.

Ah, but let’s look again at the verse from Yeshayahu: “I will call… to witness for Me”. Hashem is summoning them, Hashem is the One issuing the warning/promise in the middle, that middle of all time which is now, where the past in its always lingering inadequacy meets the future in its constantly burgeoning possibility. Before Hashem, who encompasses and permeates all being, suffering and redemption merge into the Oneness of full Awareness of Being.


Rabbi Akiva, who knew his end would be bitter, who soon thereafter would have his flesh raked with iron combs, and who, as his soul departed, would rejoice at the opportunity to fulfill the Shema with all his being – Rabbi Akiva laughed, for Hashem Himself had established, through the complimentary testimony of His faithful servant, Uriah, the Illuminator, and Zechariah, the Rememberer (whose names, like the dreams of Joseph’s cupbearer and baker, imply each other), that punishment and reward must fall away into the blissful, blinding light of Hashem’s presence, which even now, especially right now, promises to crack open our carefully manicured shells of measured, everyday consciousness into a dawn we yearn for, are terrified of, and carry within us every moment.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Frontlet Lobotomy

The tefillin worn on the head (henceforth, “ shel rosh ”) differ in a number of respects from the tefillin worn on the arm (henceforth, “ shel yad ”). One of the differences is this: Though both must contain the four passages in the Torah which make mention of the mitzvah of tefillin, the shel yad has all four passages written on a single parchment, in the order they appear in the Torah, rolled up and placed in the single compartment of the shel yad . The shel rosh , however, is constructed such that it has four small compartments side by side. Though these compartments appear to be tightly bound to one another, in fact, they are almost actually completely separate from one another. They only join at a common base, like the fingers of one’s hand. Into each compartment is placed one of the four passages, written on four separate parchments. Here is a list of the passages, in the order they appear in the Torah: 1.        Kadesh Li – Shemot 13:1-10 2.        V’hayah ki Y’vi’a
Post a Comment
Read more

Tense and Swelling Faces

" Mah Tovu Ohaleicha Ya'akov, Mishkenoteicha Yisrael" .  How good are your tents, Ya'akov; your dwellings, Yisrael!  These words, some of the first we utter each morning as we enter the Beit Knesset for Shacharit, are the opening words of the third and climactic blessing that Bil'am utters in place of the curse he was summoned from afar to place upon Israel. Though Bil'am was intent on cursing Yisrael one way or another, and sought some subterfuge through which to slip in a curse, Hashem placed His word in Bil'am's mouth like a bit in the mouth of a donkey, and compelled him to follow His original, unchanged instructions of blessing Israel. See Ramban, who explains that Hashem's consent to Bil'am's journey was predicated upon the latter's understanding that he may well end up blessing Israel in Balak's presence! So Bil'am knew he was going to be compelled to bless, and yet he went anyway, and uttered some of the most lo
Post a Comment
Read more

Here I Am Not

The brief exchange between Avraham and Yitzchak on the way to the Akeidah , less than two verses long, and sandwiched between the two phrases “and the two of them walked together” , is the only conversation between this primal father-and-son pair recorded in the Torah. It is all the more powerful because of its brevity, because of its singleness, and because of what it doesn’t say explicitly yet, by omission, makes overwhelmingly present. When they set off for Har HaMoriah , Avraham takes only what the moment requires – he leaves behind his servants, the donkey and, presumably, any of the provisions they brought on their three-day journey, he takes the wood for the offering (placing it upon Yitzchak), the fire and the knife. That’s all there is – two men, wood, fire and knife. Thus, the set off together. Here is the conversation. Yitzchak says to Avraham, his father, he says, “my father”, and Avraham says, “Here I am son”, and he (Yitzchak) says, “here are the fire and the wood
Post a Comment
Read more