WEEKLY DAFootnotes #8
Bava Kama 51-57; Issue #8
Week of 28 Elul 5761 - 5 Tishrei 5762 / September 16-22, 2001
THE MISSING GOOD
Why does the term "good" not appear the first time the Ten Commandments are mentioned, yet it does appear the second time they are recorded?
This question was a major focus of the Sages in our section of the gemara. In Parshat Yitro (Shmot 20:12), the Fifth Commandment presents the reward for honoring parents as long life, while in Parshat Va'etchanan (Devarim 5:16) the reward promised is "your days will be increased and it shall be good for you."
The solution to this mystery of the missing "good" was finally provided by Rabbi Ashi: The tablets upon which the commandments in Parshat Yitro were etched were shattered by Moshe when he saw the people dancing around the golden calf they made as a substitute for him. Since Hashem did not wish to have the "good" intended for His people to come to an end, He left that term out.
In order to understand this enigmatic solution, Maharsha refers us to a gemara in Kiddushin (39b): There it is explained that the meaning of the reward mentioned in Parshat Va'etchanan and etched upon the second tablets is "your days will be increased" - in this world - "and it shall be good for you" in the World to Come which is all good. This is what is meant by the well-known mishnah (Peah 1:1) about honoring parents being one of the things for which a person "eats the fruits in this world and the principle remains for the World to Come."
Now we understand the significance of the "good" element of this reward missing from the first tablets: The reward in this world which is promised there will indeed be interrupted as a result of our sins, just as the first tablets were shattered. But the reward promised in a "world that is all good" will be an eternal, uninterrupted one, just as the tablets which contain that reward were never shattered and remain forever.
THE DANGEROUS TOOTH
What is the connection between the prophecy of punishment for an evil king and the damage caused to a man's field by his neighbor's animal eating its crops?
The answer lies in the gemara's effort to define the nature of the damage described in the Torah (Shmot 22:4) as a man "sending his cattle to destroy another's field." The Hebrew word for destroy - "u'vieir" - is similar to the word "yeva'air" - it will destroy - found in a prophecy in Melachim I 14:10 leading our Sages to the conclusion that this is a damage caused by teeth.
The background for that prophecy is the sinful reign of Yeravam ben Navat who rebelled against Rechavam, the son and successor of King Shlomo, and who established the separatist kingdom of Yisrael. Although he had been initially encouraged by the prophecy of Achiyah Hashiloni, Yeravam strayed from the service of Hashem. Fearful that his subjects would make pilgrimages to Yerushalayim, capital of the rival Kingdom of Yehuda, and there return their royalty to Rechavam, Yeravam established golden calves for them to worship, proclaiming that "these are the gods who took you out of Egypt." He even went as far as establishing his own altar and inventing his own holiday.
As Yeravam continued on this idolatrous path, Hashem struck his son Aviyah with a severe illness. When the boy's mother went to the Prophet Achiyah regarding her son's fate, she was told by the prophet in the Name of Hashem that, because of the evil ways of her husband, his household would be totally destroyed. The word accompanying "yevaeir" is "hagalal," which our Sages translated as teeth, so that the destruction of Yeravam's household was being compared to the total destruction of crops by the teeth of a hungry animal.
As to how the word "hagalal" relates to teeth, there are a number of approaches. Rashi (Bava Kama 3a) relates it to the word "meguleh" meaning "revealed." (Teeth are sometimes concealed and sometimes revealed). Another approach proposed by Rashi is to link it to the word "gelal" - manure - since the animal's teeth begin the process of digestion which eventually produces animal waste. Tosefot quotes Rabbi Chananel who refers us to the term "gelal" in Ezra (6:4) which means marble stone. Since the tooth of an animal is of the same appearance as marble, this is an indication that "hagalal" means teeth, and it is teeth which do the destroying both in the prophecy regarding Yeravam and in the neighbor's field mentioned in Shmot 22:4.
Bava Kama 55b
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