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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.

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