Bava Batra 23-29; Issue #38
1-7 Iyar 5762 / 13-19 April 2002

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ALL EYES ON YERUSHALAYIM

Ask a Jew anywhere in the world which direction to face when he says this “Shmoneh Esrei” prayer and he will automatically respond “in the direction of Eretz Yisrael and Yerushalayim.”  This ruling in Mesechta Berachot (30a) which is the basis of this halacha (Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim 94:1) is, however, not a unanimous position.  In our gemara we find that both Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Yishmael voice dissenting opinions.

Rabbi Akiva’s position appears in an unlikely context.  The Mishna presents a dispute between him and other sages in regard to where one may establish a tannery which is an ecological hazard because of the foul odors emanating from it.  Rabbi Akiva allows for such action as long as the tannery is at least fifty cubits away from the city.  But he rules that no tannery can be established to the west of the city regardless of the distance.  The reason given is that the Shechina (the Divine Presence) is in the west, and that it is an affront to this holiness to put a tannery there.  As proof Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi cites the passage (Nechemia 9:6) which speaks of “the heavenly hosts (the sun and moon which we see in the east) bow to You (in the west — Rashi).”

Rabbi Yishmael’s  position is that there is no particular part of the universe to which we can limit the Shechina, and the proof that he cites from a passage in Zecharia (2:7) led sages of a later period (amoraim), like Rabbi Oshea and Rabbi Sheishes, to concur with his ruling that a person may face any direction in his prayer.

The prevailing position mentioned above about Eretz Yisrael being the direction is based on a prayer of King Solomon at the inauguration of the Beit Hamikdash.  In this prayer expressing all the things that Jews will offer sacrifices and pray for, he asked that should they be exiled for their sins and repent that Hashem should accept when “they pray to You through Your land… the city…and the house which I have built for Your sake.” (Melachim I 8:48).  The beraita concludes that one who is in the east faces west, in the west faces east, in the south faces north, and in the north faces south.  The result is that all Jews direct their hearts to one spot.

Bava Batra 25a

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THE PROPHET’S “GOOD ADVICE”

“Build homes and dwell in them; plant orchards and eat their fruits.” (Yirmiyahu 29:5)

This was the message which the Prophet Yirmiyahu sent to the Jews who had been taken to Babylon along with their king Yehoiochon by Nebuchadenetzer eleven years before the destruction of the Beit Hamikdash.  Our gemara terms this a piece of “good advice.”  The reason it was necessary was because there were false prophets creating the illusion that these exiled Jews would imminently return to their homeland in contrast to Yirmiyahu’s true prophecy that the exile would last for seventy years.

Other pieces of “good advice” given by this prophet were of a more hopeful nature.  While Yerushalayim was under the siege of the Babylonian army Hashem commanded Yirmiyahu to purchase a field from a relative Chamoel as a sign that Jews will return to Eretz Yisrael and purchase property there (ibid. 32:44).  In regard to such transactions the prophet cautioned the purchasers to document their purchases with notes signed by witnesses so that their claim could not later be contested.  In regard to his own symbolic purchase he passed on the good advice that the documented proof of purchase be placed “in a clay vessel to preserve it for many days.” (ibid. 32:14)

It is interesting to note that all of these pieces of “good advice” were communicated by the prophet in the Name of Hashem.  They are termed “good advice,” however, in order to distinguish them from halachic guidelines which the gemara at one stage attempted to draw from one of these passages.

Bava Batra 29a

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