WEEKLY DAFootnotes #15

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The Weekly Daf by Rav Mendel Weinbach

Bava Kama 93-99; Issue #15
Week of 18-24 Cheshvan 5762 / 4-10 November, 2001



HOUSES OF THEIR LIVES

When Moshe’s father-in-law, Yitro, proposed to him his plan for delegation of authority to lower courts, he introduced it with a broad outline of the responsibilities Moshe had as leader and teacher of Israel.

In addition to educating the people in regard to the laws of the Torah, he was told, "You shall reveal to them the ways in which they must walk and the deeds they must do." (Shmot 18:20)

You shall reveal to them," explains Rabbi Yosef in our gemara, means "the house of their lives." Rashi here defines this as meaning the study of Torah. While this definition is understandable in light of the Torah’s own description of Torah study as "your life and the length of your days"(Devarim 30:20), it runs into a problem raised by Rashi himself. A similar gemara is found in Bava Metzia (30b) and there Rashi offers an alternative definition of "the house of their lives." It means to teach them a trade with which to earn a livelihood. This, of course, is in line with what our Sages teach us (Mesechta Avot 2:2) that "Torah study without a livelihood to support it cannot endure," and the "house of their lives" refers to the satisfaction of material needs which make Torah study possible. But it is Rashi’s subsequent reasoning for offering this definition which raises a problem. "House of their lives," he argues, cannot be referring to Torah study because Yitro already spoke of the need to teach Israel Torah in the first part of the above-mentioned passage. How does the definition of Rashi in our gemara, i.e., that this phrase refers to Torah study, deal with this challenge?

Maharsha offers a brilliant solution to this problem. Of course Yitro had already mentioned the need to teach the people the laws of the Torah. But in his counsel to "reveal to them" the way of the Torah, he conveyed the need to establish "the houses of their lives" — the yeshivot and batei midrash in which Jews could successfully become fully aware of the Torah which is their life and the length of their days.

Bava Kama 100



BEYOND THE LETTER OF THE LAW

"The way in which they must walk" which Moshe was counseled by Yitro to reveal to his people includes three things.

"The way," says Rabbi Yosef, refers to acts of kindness, and "in which they must walk" means visiting the sick and burying the dead. Rashi calls our attention to the question raised by the gemara elsewhere (Bava Metzia 30b) that "acts of kindness" already includes sick calls and burials. The answer given there is that even if there is a sacrifice which must be made in performing these particular acts of kindness, one must nevertheless be prepared to perform them. The visitor to the sick sometimes contracts one sixtieth of his illness, and the Jew involved in burying an abandoned corpse may be a Torah sage for whom such activity is below his dignity. They must nevertheless tread "the way in which they must walk," for "the way" is a reference to "the way of Hashem" Who is recorded in the Torah as visiting the sick (Avraham) and burying the dead (Moshe).

The final charge of Yitro was that Moshe reveal to his people "the deeds they must do." Rabbi Yosef explains "deeds" as the administration of justice, and "they must do" as going beyond the letter of the law. Maharsha explains that while "deeds" refers to obedience to the law as ruled by the judges, "they must do" implies something which only the litigants are capable of doing — going beyond the letter of the law in making concessions to one another.

Tosefot here discusses the limitations of going beyond the letter of the law, but Rabbi Yochanan in Bava Metzia stresses the importance of following this standard of righteousness. Jerusalem was destroyed, he declared, only because the litigants in financial disputes insisted on abiding by the letter of the law and failed to go beyond that letter in making concessions. Moshe, who was responsible for the administration of justice for an entire nation, was therefore counseled to reveal to his people not only the need to be law-abiding but to go beyond the laws boundaries in settling disputes so that peace and harmony would be assured.

Bava Kama 100a


General Editor: Rabbi Moshe Newman
Production Design: Binyamin Rosenstock


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