Torah Study Blog

We may remember from the Joseph story that, after Joseph had reunited with his brothers in Egypt, Joseph gave his brothers provisions and money to bring to their father, Jacob. Joseph also asked his brothers to bring Jacob to come live in Egypt, in the land under Joseph’s control. And, “As he sent his brothers off on the way, he told them, ‘Do not be quarrelsome on the way’” (Genesis 46:24)

Rabbi Roberts had us focus on what being “quarrelsome” might mean. Was Joseph concerned that the brothers would raise a ruckus in the communities they traveled through, or be loud enough to attract attention which may bring robbers upon them, or that they would quarrel amongst themselves? Using teachings from the Talmud, Rabbi Roberts led us in a discussion of the angst that quarreling amongst ourselves has caused throughout time.

The Catholic community has one leader, the Pope. The Jewish community does not speak with one voice. There are many kinds of Jews today, some examples are ultra-orthodox Jews, or moderate Jews, or liberal Jews. Some Jews keep kosher, others do not. Some Jews observe the sabbath, others do not.

We would be naïve to believe that in ancient times the practices followed in Jewish communities were the same across all Jewish communities. Just as we are different today, they were different back then. There is even a passage in the Talmud about a Jewish group that cooked its chicken in milk! But the sages of the Talmud do not state that those people should be kicked out of the Jewish religion or told that they are not good enough. They are different, but they are still Jews. The Talmud acknowledges that there are different customs in different communities.

The Babylonian Talmud preserved a story set in the 1st century CE that shows just how destructive “baseless hatred” for someone different from you can be. The story is as follows:

There was a wealthy man who asked his servant to invite a man named Kamtza to his home for a dinner party. The servant erroneously invited a man named Bar Kamtza, whom the wealthy man despised. When the wealthy man saw Bar Kamtza at his party, the wealthy man ordered Bar Kamtza to leave. Not wanting to be embarrassed, Bar Kamtza offered to pay for his food and be allowed to stay, but the wealthy man said “no.” Then Bar Kamtza offered to pay for half the expenses of the party, but the wealthy man still said, “no.” Finally, Bar Kamtza offered to pay for the entire party, but the wealthy man still said, “no.”

Bar Kamtza, fully humiliated, decided to seek his revenge; both against the wealthy man and against the rabbis who were at the party and did not help the humiliated Bar Kamtza. He told Caesar that the Jews were planning to revolt against him. Caesar sent an unblemished animal to the Jews, with the understanding that their acceptance of the animal was a type loyalty test. However, Bar Kamtza made a small nick in the animal – small enough that the animal could still be used for a Roman sacrifice, but not for a Jewish sacrifice.

The rabbinic leaders now had a quandary – would they accept the blemished animal in an effort to keep the peace, or would they reject it and hold fast to their strict requirements? The Rabbis decided they would not go down the slippery slope of easy acceptance and they do not accept the animal. With that, Caesar believed that Bar Kamtza must have been telling the truth and he became incensed and sent the Roman army to destroy Jerusalem, which resulted in the destruction of the 2nd Temple and the Jews being exiled from Jerusalem. By holding fast to strict adherence, the rabbis won the battle but lost the war – in fact, they lost everything.

From studying history, we know that the 2nd Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 CE by the Romans in order to stop a revolt against Rome by the Jewish people. However, Rabbi Professor David Sperling was in attendance today and he mentioned that, when he was in Yeshiva, he was taught that the Kamtza/Bar Kamtza story was the sole reason for the destruction of the 2nd Temple.

Getting back to the Joseph story and his admonition that his brothers not be quarrelsome: The word used for “quarrelsome” in the Bible rhymes, in Hebrew, with a word used for “cut” or “cutting.” The words are not the same, but they have similar sounds. Some ancient rabbis enjoyed the

practice of wordplay and would create teachings regarding similar sounding words. In this particular instance, the rabbis said that the admonishment by Joseph not to be quarrelsome was similar to saying, “don’t cut yourselves,” perhaps not to cut yourselves off from different groups of Jews.

The medieval rabbi Rashi commented that this story is a warning against getting too bogged down in a matter of Jewish law. Don’t be nit-picky about halakha and don’t overlook the big picture. Rabbi Roberts would not want to be part of a group that says it is better to destroy the entire Jewish people than to give a little.

1 Kings 12:24 says, “You shall not set out to make war on your kinsmen the Israelites.” Yes, there are differences among Jews, but we would probably be better served if we celebrated our similarities, and not focused on our differences.

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misquotes or misunderstandings in what Rabbi Roberts taught us are the responsibility of Tara Keiter