Verse:
John 3:16; Jn 3:16; John 3

Keyword:
Salvation, Jesus, Gospel

With Operators:
AND, OR, NOT, “ ”

Online Bible by Logos

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Why is Judaism Obsessed With Details?

by Rabbi Aron Moss

Question:

Why does the Jewish religion seem to obsess over insignificant details? How much matzah do we have to

eat; which spoon did I use for milk and which for meat; what is the right way to tie my shoelaces…. It

seems to me that this misses the bigger picture by focusing on minutiae. Is this nitpicking what Jews call

spirituality? No wonder most Jews are turned off from our weird religion.

(I actually sent you this question a long time ago and didn’t receive a reply. Could it be that you have

finally been asked a question that you can’t answer, or are you simply one of those smug rabbis who

couldn’t care less about other people’s questions and feelings?)

Answer:

I never claimed to have all the answers. There are many questions that are beyond me. But it happens to

be that I did answer your question, and you did get the answer. I sent a reply to your question

immediately. The fact that you didn’t receive it, is itself the answer to your question.

You see, I sent you a reply, but I wrote your email address leaving out the “dot” before the “com.” I

figured that you should still receive the email, because after all, it is only one little dot missing. I mean

come on, it’s not as if I wrote the wrong name or something drastic like that! Would anyone be so nitpicky

as to differentiate between “yahoocom” and “yahoo.com”? Isn’t it a bit ridiculous that you didn’t get my

email just because of a little dot?

No, it’s not ridiculous. Because the dot is not just a dot. It represents something. That dot has meaning

far beyond the pixels on the screen that form it. To me, it may seem insignificant, but that is simply due

to my ignorance of the ways of the web. All I know is that with the dot, the message gets to the right

destination; without it, the message is lost to oblivion.

Jewish practices have infinite depth. Each nuance and detail contains a world of symbolism. And every dot

counts. When they are performed with precision, a spiritual vibration is emailed throughout the universe,

all the way to G-d’s inbox.

If you want to understand the symbolism of the dot, study I.T.

If you want to understand the symbolism of Judaism, study it.

http://ancienthebrewpoetry.typepad.com/ancient_hebrew_poetry/2008/05/the-footprints-of-the-messiah.html

http://ancienthebrewpoetry.typepad.com/ancient_hebrew_poetry/2008/05/a-pre-christi-1.html

Daniel Boyarin (Sparks of the Logos, Brill, 2003, pp. 22-23) gives the following definition for rabbinic hermeneutics: “Hermeneutics is a practice of the recovery of vision.  That is, it is ideally a practice in which the original moments of the unmediated vision of God’s presence can be recovered.”

He then goes on and illustrates this model of hermeneutics with the following delightful story from the midrash on the Song of Songs:

Ben-Azzai was sitting and interpreting [making midrash], and fire was all around him.  They went and told Rabbi Akiva, “Rabbi, Ben-Azzai is sitting and interpreting, and fire is burning all around him.” He went to him and said to him, “I heard that you were interpreting, and the fire burning all around you.” He said, “Indeed.” He said, “Perhaps you were engaged in the inner rooms of the Chariot [theosophical speculation].”  He said, “No, I was sitting and stringing the words of the Torah [to each other], and the Torah to the Prophets and the Prophets to the Writings, and the words were as radiant/joyful as when they were given from Sinai, and they were as sweet as their original giving.  Were they not originally given in fire, as it is written, ‘And the mountain was burning with fire’ (Deut. 4:11)?”

In this text, allusions to the Song of Songs are deployed very skillfully in order to describe the experience of midrashic reading.  The Rabbi was interpreting Torah in accordance with the methods of midrash, and while doing this he and his listeners had a visual experience indicating communion with God.

It is not the forbidden/dangerous theosophical speculation (referred to in this text as “being engaged in the inner-rooms of the Chariot” and based on Song of Songs 1:4 – The King brought me into His chambers) that brought Ben-Azzai into communion with God, but rather the application of another verse from SoS (1:10) – Your cheeks are lovely with jewels, your neck with beads.

Since the word for beads means “that which is strung together into chains,” Ben-Azzai’s “defense” is that he was engaged in “linking words of the Torah to the words of the Holy Writings” as Rabbi Akiva linked the words of Exodus to the Song of Songs.

“In order to recover the erotic [?] visual communion that obtained between God and Israel at Mount Sinai, Ben-Azzai engages not in mystical practice but in a hermeneutic one, the practice of midrash.  The essential moment of midrash is the stringing together of parts of the language of Torah, the Prophets, and the Holy Writings, forming new linguistic strings out of the old, and thereby recovering the originary moment of revelation itself.”  This practice is accompanied by the visual experience also beheld at the giving of the Torah and particularly by the appearance of FIRE!!!”

I really like this interpretation and description of midrashic and rabbinic hermeneutics: a stringing together of passages from all over the Bible that leads to a recovery of the originary moment of revelation accompanied by FIRE!!!

Interestingly enough – this reminds me in a way of both the Puritans and Martyn Lloyd-Jones.  The Puritans certainly knew how to string together ‘verses’ and passages from all over the Bible (of course including the NT), and Lloyd emphasized very much the “logic on fire” concept. 

In my opinion a good hermeneutic can take place only when the student is well immersed in the whole Scripture (both the Church fathers and the Puritans were well versed in the Scriptures) and when the fire of the Holy Spirit kindles/illuminates them. 

I really like this imagery, and I wish that in our studies and in our exegesis classes we would have part of this experience so that people would come out and say: “TTGST students are sitting and interpreting, and fire is burning all around them!”  AMEN! J

Man’s life can be compared to a fox who found a vineyard, fenced in on all sides. There was one little hole to get in, through which the fox wanted to get in, but it was too narrow and he did not succeed. What did he do? He fasted for three days until he became thin and frail, and then entered through the hole. Once inside, the fox ate the grapes and grew fat. When he wanted to leave, however, he was again unable to fit through the hole. So once more he fasted for three days until he was thin and frail and he went out.

Once outside, he turned towards the vineyard and said, “Vineyard, vineyard, how good is your fruit! All that is within you is beautiful and worthy of praise. But of what use are you? Just as one enters you, so one must come out”.

So too with this world!

- Ecclesiastes Rabbah 5:14

“What are you talking about?”, asked the other rabbi skeptically.

Rabbi. Chofetz Chaim described the scene that must be going on in the kitchen right now. “The cook is probably a poor widow and the innkeeper is chastising her for not putting salt in the soup and, thereby, ruining the meal of his illustrious guests. He would be screaming at her and ready to fire her over the incident. Besides, you have also violated six injunctions:

1) You spoke Loshon Hara (Bad Talk).

2) You caused others to hear it.

3) You caused the owner to repeat it.

6) Above all, You caused an argument.”

The other Rabbi smiled and said: “Surely you are exaggerating.” “Let’s go see”, said Rabbi.Chofetz Chaim.

They went together into the kitchen to find the innkeeper berating the poor cook for her stupid mistake. The second Rabbi, realizing his blunder, begged the innkeeper to keep on the cook assuring him that the soup was quite good, and the rest of the meal extraordinary, and promised that he would always stop to eat at this inn on all his journeys.

The Chofetz Chaim answered him with a parable.  A man came into a store to purchase flour.  He wanted to buy it cheaply, but he took a sack and began to pour more flour into it.  He filled it up with much more than he intended.  The store-keeper, naturally added more weight (to the scale) in accordance to the weight of the flower.  In the end, the buyer had to pay much more than he intended.

The Chofetz Chaim said to him, “When you became rich you should have contributed more to charity, and the trouble was that your Evil Inclination also became greater and it did not allow you even to give what you once contributed.

“The advice to counter this condition is to give and to give, and more promptly and in greater amounts.  Just as one who wants to enter a cold mikvah should jump in and not hesitate and think about it too much.”

The general rule is that a donor merits more that a receiver.  So, too, did our Sages say, “The good deed that the poor person does for the donor is greater than that which the donor does for the poor person.”

Jesus also said: It is more blessed to give… (Acts 20:35).

One was traveling along the road. He encountered a wolf and was saved from him. So he kept telling the story of the wolf. Then he encountered a lion and was saved from him. So he forgot the story of the wolf and kept on telling the story of the lion. He then encountered a serpent and was saved from him. So he forgot the story of both of them and kept on telling the story of the serpent. So it is with Israel. Later troubles cause the former ones to be forgotten.

Moral: The parables focus not on the concept of “first”, but rather on the idea of most recent: recent history and greater miracles are more vivid than previous experiences.

Go and get me a fish from the market

The slave went and brought him an ill-smelling fish. He said to the slave: I decree that you eat the fish or receive a hundred lashes, or you pay a hundred maneh.” The slave said: “I will eat it.” He began to eat, but could not finish. He, therefore, said: “I will take the lashes.” After receiving sixty lashes, he could stand no more. He therefore said: “I will pay the hundred maneh.” The result was that he ate the fish, received the lashes, and paid a hundred maneh.

Moral: “So also, it was done to the Egyptians.” They delayed obedience to the divine decree, resulting in them experiencing chastisements of increasing intensity.

King and His Gardens

A king had two gardens. He sold one of his gardens, but when the buyer came wishing to enter the garden, the keeper would not let him. The buyer spoke to the keeper in the name of the king, but the keeper would not yield. He then showed him the king’s ring, and still he refused to yield. So the buyer had to go and bring the king himself with him. As soon as the buyer came along with the king, the keeper started to run away. The buyer called out to him” The whole day I have been telling you the order of the king but you would not accept it; and now why are you running away? The keeper answered him: It is not on account of you that I am fleeing, it is on account of the king.

So also when Moses came and stood by the sea, ordering it in the name of the Holy One, to divide itself, and it would not consent…; the sea would not immediately part

when he raised his staff. As soon as the Holy One, blessed be He, with His might and glory manifested Himself, the sea began to flee.

 Thanks to Raj for this post.

One of the guests couldn’t stand to watch the way the elderly Chofetz Chaim would carry the pillows and the quilt for him.  So, he pleaded that he be allowed to make his own bed.  The Chofetz Chaim did not allow his guest to make up the bed.  He said, “Would you also want to assist me when I am doning my talit (prayer shawl) and when I am putting on the tefillin (phylacteries)?  The mitzvah of ‘welcoming the guest’ belongs to me and not to the guest,” the Chofetz Chaim explained.

It used to be that important people would travel to one greater than themselves to learn a law or custom.  People (literally, the world) would travel to Radin, Poland (Chaim Chofetz lived here), just to learn the mitzvah of “welcoming the guest,” from the Chofetz Chaim.  They would come to learn how to understand the feelings of people in a strange place, how to make a stranger forget his loneliness, and how to make it so that a stranger would feel right at home.

From 100 Stories and Parables of the Chofetz Chaim (2006).