There is the written law—in Judaism it is the Bible—which is supposed to govern all of life: the rule and the exception, the common and the extraordinary, all times and places. It never does, of course, and to deal with life’s stubborn complexities there arises the oral law, which “explains” the written law. Thus is novelty incorporated into tradition, with a subtle naivete that violates neither the traditional nor the novel. Eventually, the oral law becomes Talmudic and is written down in its turn, lest its wisdom vanish with the generations. And alongside of this, and often intertwined with it, there is tradition, preserved wisdom, although not law.
Talmudic Judaism trained sages who formulated the oral tradition, and their wisdom was in the course of time “published” in the form of cryptic accounts—as though taken down by an overworked stenographer—of the deliberations and arguments on the law in the academies of Babylonia and Palestine, as well as in epigrams, brief remarks, pungent insights, parables, and other fragments of prose and poetry. These can be found in the non-legal parts of the Talmud—the Haggadah (or Aggadah)—and in the midrashim, originating in the first five centuries CE and flowering abundantly in the centuries that followed. In contemplating this wealth of material, one finds oneself witnessing a tradition in the very process of growth.
The following examples of Judaism’s oral tradition are taken from Hammer on the Rock, an anthology selected and edited by Nahum N. Glatzer and translated from the Hebrew by Jacob Sloan, which is to be published this month by Schocken Books. These selections are printed here by permission of the publisher.—ED.
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The Making of Man
And God said: Let us make man (Gen. 1:26).
Rabbi Simon said:
When the Holy One, blessed be he, came to create the first man,
the ministering angels divided into parties and factions,
one saying: Let him not be created,
and another saying: Let him be created.
Mercy saying: Let him be created, for he will be merciful,
and Truth saying: Let him not be created, for he will be all lies.
Righteousness saying: Let him be created, for he will do
righteous deeds,
Peace saying: Let him not be created, for he is all contention.
What did the Holy One, blessed be he, do?
He took Truth and flung him to the earth.
The ministering angels said to the Holy One, blessed be he:
Master of the universe, do you disgrace your own seal?
Raise truth from the earth.
Rav Huna said:
While the ministering angels were still arguing and disputing,
the Holy One, blessed be he, created man.
Then He said to them:
Why do you argue? Man is already made.
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Conception
Rabbi Hanina bar Pappa expounded:
The name of the angel appointed over conception is Night.
He takes the seed and lays it before the Holy One, blessed be he,
and says to him:
Master of the universe, what is this seed to be—
mighty or weak, wise or foolish, rich or poor?
But he does not say “wicked or righteous.”
So according to Rabbi Hanina. For Rabbi Hanina said:
All is in the hands of heaven, except the fear of heaven.
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It Were Better
Our masters have taught:
For two years and a half there was a difference between the school
of Shammai and the school of Hillel.
The one school said:
It were better for a man not to have been created than to have
been created.
And the other school said:
It were better for a man to have been created than not to have
been created.
They voted and concluded:
It were better for a man not to have been created than to have
been created;
now that he has been created, let him search his deeds.
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Singularity
Therefore was man created single, to teach you
that whosoever wrecks any one soul in Israel
the Writ considers to have wrecked a complete world,
and whosoever sustains any one soul in Israel
the Writ considers to have sustained a complete world;
and he was created single to keep peace among the human creatures,
that no man might say to his fellow,
My father was greater than your father.
And to tell you the greatness of the Holy One, blessed be he:
For a man stamps many coins in one mold and they are all alike;
but the King who is king over all kings, the Holy One,
blessed be he, stamped every man in the mold of the first man,
yet not one of them resembles his fellow.
Therefore every one must say:
For me the world was created.
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Beauty that Withers
Rabbi Eliezer was sick. Rabbi Yohanan came to visit him.
He saw Rabbi Eliezer lying in a dark house.
Rabbi Yohanan bared his arm, and the room lit up.
He saw that Rabbi Eliezer was crying. He said to him:
Why are you crying?
Is it for the Torah in which you have not learned enough?
We have learned: Study more, study less, it matters not,
so long as one’s heart is turned to heaven.
If because of the provisions you lack—
not every man merits two tables.
If because of the sons you have not—
see, this is the bone of my tenth son.
Rabbi Eliezer said to him:
I am crying over this beauty of yours, which is to wither in the dust.
He said to him:
You are right to cry over that.
And they wept together.
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Greeting The Messiah
Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai used to say:
If there be a plant in your hand when they say to you:
Behold the Messiah!
—Go and plant the plant, and afterward go out to greet him.
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Sharing
Rabbi Yohanan said:
Every distress that Israel and the nations of the world share
is a distress indeed.
Every distress that is Israel’s alone
is no distress.
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Not Meant For Angels
Rabbi Joshua ben Levi said:
When Moses ascended to heaven, the ministering angels said to the
Holy One, blessed be he: What is a man born of woman doing here?
He said to them: He has come to receive the Torah.
They said to Him: Is it the precious hidden treasure which first
you hid nine hundred and seventy-four generations before the
world was created that you seek to give to flesh and blood?
“What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? And the son of man,
that Thou thinkest of him?
O Lord, our Lord, How glorious is Thy name in all the earth!
Whose majesty is rehearsed above the heavens” (Ps. 8:52).
The Holy One, blessed be he, said to Moses:
Reply to them. . . .
Moses said to Him:
Master of the universe, what is written in this Torah which you are
about to give me?
“I am the Lord thy God who brought thee out of the land of Egypt”
(Exod. 20:2).
Moses said to the angels:
Did you go down to Egypt? Were you enslaved to Pharaoh?
Then what is the Torah to you?
What else is written in it?
“Thou shalt have no other gods” (ibid. v. 3):
Are you surrounded by nations that worship other gods?
What else is written in it?
“Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy” (ibid. v. 8):
Do you do any labor, that you need to rest?
What else is written in it?
“Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain”
(ibid. v. 7):
Is there any commerce, any give and take among you?
What else is written in it?
“Honour thy father and thy mother” (ibid. v. 12):
Do you have fathers and mothers?
What else is written in it?
“Thou shalt not murder. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Thou shalt not steal” (ibid. v. 13):
Is there any jealousy in your midst? Is there any will to evil
in your midst?
At once they conceded to the Holy One, blessed be he.
As it is written:
“O Lord, our Lord, How glorious is Thy name in all the earth!”
(Ps. 8:2).
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The Journey
Rabbi Yohanan wept when he came to this verse;
“Behold, He putteth no trust in His saints” (Job 15:15).
If He putteth no trust in His saints, in whom does he put trust?
One day he was going on a journey and saw a man gathering figs.
He was leaving those that were ripe, and taking those that were green.
Rabbi Yohanan said to the man: Are not those better?
The man said to him:
I need them to take on a journey; these can keep, those cannot keep.
Rabbi Yohanan said:
This is why it is written: “Behold, He putteth no trust in His saints.”
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Witnesses
“And ye are My witnesses, saith the Lord, and I am God”
(Isa. 43:12).
Rabbi Simeon ben Yohai taught:
If ye are “my witnesses,” I am the Lord,
and if ye are not my witnesses,
I am not, as it were, the Lord.
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Sanctification
Rav Pappa said to Abbayi:
How was it that miracles happened to the early masters,
and no miracles happen to us?
Should you say, it is because of their learning;
why in the days of Rav Judah all they studied was the
Order of Damages,
while we study all the six orders.
Yet, while Rav Judah was simply taking off one shoe before prayer,
the rains fell;
while we afflict our souls and cry out, and no one heeds us.
He said to him:
The early masters gave their souls for the sanctification of the
Name of God.
We are not giving our souls for the sanctification of the
Name of God.
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Torah On Earth
On that day Rabbi Eliezer brought all the proofs in the world,
and the masters would not accept them.
He said to them: If the law is according to me, let this locust tree
prove it.
The locust tree moved a hundred cubits. (And some say:
four hundred cubits.)
They said to him: The locust tree cannot prove anything.
Then he said to them: If the law is according to me,
let this stream of water prove it.
The stream of water turned and flowed backwards.
They said to him: The stream cannot prove anything.
Then he said to them: If the law is according to me,
let the walls of the House of Study prove it.
The walls of the House of Study began to topple.
Rabbi Joshua reprimanded them:
If scholars are disputing with one another about the law,
what business is it of yours?
They did not fall down out of respect for Rabbi Joshua, and did not
straighten up out of respect for Rabbi Eliezer, and they are
still inclined.
Then he said to them: If the law is according to me,
let the heaven prove it.
A voice came forth from heaven and said:
Why do you dispute with Rabbi Eliezer?
The law is according to him in every case.
Rabbi Joshua rose to his feet and said:
“It is not in heaven” (Deut. 30:12).
What is the meaning of: “It is not in heaven”?
Rabbi Jeremiah said:
The Torah has already been given once and for all from Mount Sinai;
we do not listen to voices from heaven.
For You have already written in the Torah on Mount Sinai:
“After the majority must one incline” (Exod. 23:2).
Rabbi Nathan came upon Elijah.
He said to him: What was the Holy One, blessed be he,
doing at that moment?
Elijah said to him:
He was smiling and saying: My children have defeated me,
my children have defeated me!
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