Beit Midrash
- Sections
- Chemdat Yamim
- Parashat Hashavua
- Torah Portion and Tanach
- Bereshit
- Toldot
We will use two Talmudic accounts to understand another national change, almost 2,000 years ago, at the time of Rabbi Yehuda Hanasi and Rabbi Chiya (Hagadol) and his sons. R. Yehuda formed the Mishna, turning the Oral Law into a written law, which ensured the transmission of the Oral Law. This protected the world of scholarship from the effects of mass migration and periods of horrible persecution (e.g., Crusades, Inquisition, Holocaust, …) that could have destroyed the wholeness of the tradition. R. Chiya continued this effort by gathering important Tannaic teachings that did not make it into the Mishna and creating the complementary Tosefta. Reish Lakish was a great admirer of "R. Chiya and his sons," comparing R. Chiya’s contribution to the survival of Torah scholarship at perilous times to that of Ezra and Hillel (Sukka 20a).
Elsewhere (Bava Metzia 85a), we learn again of Reish Lakish, to whom Providence demonstrated he was no equal to R. Chiya. A heavenly voice told him that he was as erudite as R. Chiya but did not disseminate Torah to the degree that R. Chiya did. It goes on to describe a grass-roots approach to educating the masses, not just the intellectual/spiritual elite, that R. Chiya undertook. The gemara goes on to tell how Eliyahu Hanavi attributed incredible reverence in the World of the Souls to R. Chiya and to his sons, even seeing them as equivalent to Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov. In that way, they eclipsed the greatness of R. Chiya’s great colleagues, R. Yehuda Hanasi and Rabbi Chanina.
What was so special about R. Chiya’s approach is that they stressed connecting as many Jews as possible to Torah study on a consistent basis. Even if they would not become great scholars who could continue the greatness of R. Yehuda and R. Chanina, these simpler people would live their lives as complete Jews for whom the Torah is the center of their lives. They would not have to deal with the question of using the Torah as a "tool" – using it to justify neglecting the obligations of supporting their families or defending their nation. That level of connection to Torah is appropriate only for a tiny cadre who can reach the highest level of depth in Torah scholarship if given the opportunity. These great scholars, upon completing their rise to the desired level, go out to teach the Torah they learned and even defend Am Yisrael if the need arises. (In the soon-to-be-published Tzofnat Shmuel we will deal with other elements of the disagreement between R. Yehuda Hanasi and R. Chiya and his sons.)
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Parashat Hashavua: Is “Not Good” the Same as Bad?
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