Designs of Faith. Mark McGinnis

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СКАЧАТЬ Jews had known for a thousand years. It seemed to be a total and complete end of the Jewish nation. Ironically, in many ways it was only the beginning of a new and even more religiously powerful phase.

      The Jewish sages of the time, along with some of the remnants of the priest class, set about creating a new system by which the Jewish people could live without the Temple. The end result was a law code called the Mishnah, completed sometime around 200 C.E. The Mishnah was structured around six general areas: holy things, purities, agriculture, appointed times, damage concerns in civil law and government, and women’s issues concerning family, home and personal status (Neusner I, 58). It is a document carefully structured and obsessed with classification. It may be read as philosophy, but in content it doesn’t deal with abstraction or generalizations but with detailed information about immediate and many times common concerns. The Mishnah strives to create a stable, understandable design to live by, where all things and people are classified into a design of consistency and unity. The Mishnah was structured around the utopian unit of the “household,” a family agricultural unit that formed villages. It strove to form a steady-state-economy where everyone maintained in their present status - no one grew richer, no one grew poorer. The economy was not to be based on the market but on a distributive system that maintained stability and the status quo. Private property was taken for granted with a few communal aspects in the society such as wells, bathhouses, and town squares. Money was considered a functioning commodity and not the definition of wealth. The Mishnah set forth guidelines for living within the economic structure as in the following example:

       Mishnah-tractate Baba Mesia 4:10

       A. Just as a claim of fraud applies to buying and selling,

       B. so a claim of fraud applies to spoken words.

       C. One may not say to [a storekeeper], “How much is this object?” knowing that he does not want to buy it. (Neusner II, 139)

      The Mishnah created a new political structure of power designating who could control whom. It set up a system of judgment with courts of sages as the power base. The court of seventy-one was in charge of major civil matters, administering high offices of state and foreign policy. Judicial functions were primarily carried out by a court of three, with capital cases requiring a court of twenty- three.

       Mishnah-tractate Sanhedrin 1:5 A-C

       A. (1) They judge a tribe, a false prophet [Dt 18:20], and a high priest, only on the instructions of a court of seventy-one members.

      B. (2) They call [the army] to wage a war fought by choice only on the instructions of a court of seventy-one.

       C. (3) They make additions to the city [of Jerusalem] and to the courtyards [of the Temple] only on the instructions of a court of seventy- one. (Neusner II, 139)

      The Mishnah defines women’s place in the social structure and economy and always in relation to men who the give form to the economy. Women could never be considered at the head of a household and if a divorce took place it was assumed she would return to her father’s household. Marriages were to take place within the guidelines given for the caste system within society:

       Mishnah-tractate Qiddushim 4:1

       A. Ten castes came up from Babylonia: (1) priests, 2) Levites, (3) Israelites, (4) impaired priests, (5) converts, (6) freed slaves, (7) mamzers, (8) Netins, (9) “silenced ones” [unknown fathers] and (10) foundlings.

       B. Priests, Levites, and Israelites are permitted to marry among one another.

       C. Levites, Israelites, impaired priests, converts, and freed slaves are permitted to marry among one another. (Neusner II, 186)

      The Mishnah was not perceived as merely a newly composed law book for the Jews. It was considered the Oral Torah - laws of the Jewish people that were given at Sinai at the same time as the Written Torah and carried on by sages and priests to the present time, when they were finally being put into written form. The Mishnah created a coherent way of living for the Jewish community, without the Temple. It was written in a utopian format, without outwardly recognizing the destruction of the Temple, but it created a structure that could function in the system of subjugation in which the Israelites now found themselves. The Romans needed a stable social structure over which they could keep control of the Jewish people and the Mishnah was adopted nearly as soon as it was completed.

      But the Mishnah was not an end in itself; it was a beginning point of a much larger and comprehensive body of Jewish writings now called the Talmud. The Talmud was again a reaction to another political crisis in the Jewish world. In 312 Christianity was legalized and by the end of the century adopted as the official religion of the Roman Empire. In 429 the new Christian Roman rulers abolished the Jewish patriarchal system in Israel, ending a system of government that the Jews traced back to David. To prevent the collapse of Judaism, the Jewish sages again produced an intellectual and religious masterwork that served to further unify the Jewish faith.

      Two Talmuds were produced. The first called Talmud of the Land of Israel (sometimes called the Palestinian or Jerusalem Talmud) was written about 400-450 CE. The second, called the Babylonian Talmud, was produced around 600 in Babylonia. Both of these Talmuds comment extensively on each of the components of the Mishnah, far beyond the original material and creating a blend of law, legend, philosophy, logic, pragmatism, history, science, anecdotes, and humor (Steinsaltz 4). Much of the commentary is in the form of debate between sages over various aspects of the Mishnah or related topics:

      Rabbi Chiyah and Rabbi Shimon bar Abba were engaged in study. One said: When we pray we must direct our eyes downward, for it is written: “My eyes and My heart will be there (on earth) for all time (I Kings 9:3).” The other said: our eyes must be directed upward for it is written: “Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven (Lamentations 3:41).” Meanwhile, Rabbi Yishmael ben Rabbi Yosei happened along. He said: What are you discussing? They told him. Then he said: This was the view of Abba: When we pray we must direct our eyes downward and our hearts upward, thus fulfilling both verses. (Gates 3)

      Other segments of the Talmud give us insight into subtler aspects of Jewish life such as the actual place of women in Jewish life:

      Some louts in Rabbi Meir’s neighborhood were giving him a great deal of trouble, and in exasperation he prayed for their deaths. His wife Beruriah said to him: How can you think that such a prayer is permitted? Pray for an end to sin; then, sin having ceased, there will be no more sinners. Pray that they may turn from their ways. Then Rabbi Meir prayed on their behalf. (Gates 238)

      Many of the anecdotes and stories of the Talmud are insights into the wisdom of the sages:

       Rav Beroka of Bei Hozae was often in the market of Bei Lapat. There he would meet Elijah. Once he said to Elijah: Is there anyone in this market who has earned eternal life? Elijah said to him: No. They were standing there when two men came along. Elijah said to him: These men have earned eternal life. Rav Beroka went to them and said: What do you do? They replied: We are jesters, and make the sad laugh. When we see two people quarreling, we strain ourselves to make peace between them. (Gates 244)

      The Talmud also helped to elaborate and refine the concept of the Jewish Messiah after the events of Christianity. It taught that the Messiah would yet come, and when he did, he would reaffirm the Torah and Israel as God’s chosen people. It was the Jews’ job to prepare the way for him by keeping the commandments and following the correct ways of a living - loving God СКАЧАТЬ