Halacha as a Language

(18) If a householder has a wayward and defiant son, who does not heed his father or mother and does not obey them even after they discipline him, (19) his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his town at the public place of his community. (20) They shall say to the elders of his town, “This son of ours is disloyal and defiant; he does not heed us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.” (21) Thereupon his town’s council shall stone him to death. Thus you will sweep out evil from your midst: all Israel will hear and be afraid.

There has never been a stubborn and rebellious son and there will never be one in the future, as it is impossible to fulfill all the requirements that must be met in order to apply this halakha. And why, then, was the passage relating to a stubborn and rebellious son written in the Torah? So that you may expound upon new understandings of the Torah and receive reward for your learning, this being an aspect of the Torah that has only theoretical value.

There has never been an idolatrous city and there will never be one in the future, as it is virtually impossible to fulfill all the requirements that must be met in order to apply this halakha. And why, then, was the passage relating to an idolatrous city written in the Torah? So that you may expound upon new understandings of the Torah and receive reward for your learning.

There has never been a house afflicted with leprosy of the house and there will never be one in the future. And why, then, was the passage relating to leprosy of the house written in the Torah? So that you may expound upon new understandings of the Torah and receive reward for your learning.

For the reward (alt. payment) for performing a commandment is another commandment and the reward (alt. payment) for committing a transgression is a transgression.

§ It was stated that there is a dispute between amora’im concerning the following issue: With regard to one who is safeguarding a lost item that he has not yet returned, what level of responsibility does he bear? Rabba said: He is considered to be like an unpaid bailee, whereas Rav Yosef said: He is considered to be like a paid bailee.

Fortunate is man who heeds [lit hears] Your commandments; and takes Your Torah and Your word to his heart.

A Sanhedrin that executes a transgressor once in seven years is characterized as a destructive tribunal. Since the Sanhedrin would subject the testimony to exacting scrutiny, it was extremely rare for a defendant to be executed. Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya says: This categorization applies to a Sanhedrin that executes a transgressor once in seventy years. Rabbi Tarfon and Rabbi Akiva say: If we had been members of the Sanhedrin, we would have conducted trials in a manner whereby no person would have ever been executed.

And when you now examine all of these commandments that were previously mentioned, you will find among them commandments that are an obligation on the community - not on each and every individual - like the building of the choice [Temple], the establishment of a king and the cutting off of the seed of Amalek. And there are [also] among them, commandments that are obligatory on an individual if he did a certain act or something happens to him - such as a sacrifice for an inadvertent or volitional [sin]. And among these commandments are also laws, like those we explained - such as the [law] of the Hebrew slave, the law of the Hebrew maidservant, the law of the Canaanite slave, the law of the unpaid guardian, the law of the borrower and the others that were previously mentioned - it is possible that an individual will live all of his life and not deal with it, and so not be obligated in this commandment. And also among them are commandments that are only practiced when the Temple is in existence, such as the festival-offering, the sight-offering and the commandment of assembly - and we have already mentioned each one. And among them are also those that are only practiced by someone with property, such as tithes, priestly tithes, gifts to the priesthood and the portions of the poor - meaning, gleanings, forgotten [produce], the corner and ollalot. And sometimes one will not have these possessions, so he will not be obligated in [these commandments]; and a man may live his whole life and he will not become obligated by any of the commandments of this type. But charity is not included in this, since charity is obligatory even on a person that subsists on [charity], as we have explained. And among them are those that are definitely obligatory - at all times, in all places and whatever the circumstance - such as tzitzit, tefillin and the observance of Shabbat. And the commandments that are of this type are called definite commandments, because they are definitely obligatory for every Jewish man that reaches that age - at any time, in any place and whatever the circumstance. And when you examine these 248 positive commandments, you will find that the definite commandments are sixty. And that is with the stipulation that his situation is the situation of most people: That is that he lives in a house in a city, eats the foods associated with the human species - meaning to say, bread and meat - engages in commerce with people, marries a woman and fathers children. ... there are forty-six commandments that women are also obligated, and fourteen that women are not obligated.

(7) Throughout the seven days unleavened bread shall be eaten; no leavened bread shall be found with you, and no leaven shall be found in all your territory. (8) And you shall explain to your child on that day, ‘It is because of what ה׳ did for me when I went free from Egypt.’ (9)“And this shall serve you as a sign on your hand and as a reminder on your forehead —in order that the Teaching of ה׳ may be in your mouth—that with a mighty hand ה׳ freed you from Egypt.(10) You shall keep this institution at its set time from year to year.

Even though the sounding of the shofar on Rosh HaShanah is a decree, it contains an allusion. It is as if [the shofar's call] is saying: Wake up you sleepy ones from your sleep and you who slumber, arise. Inspect your deeds, repent, remember your Creator. Those who forget the truth in the vanities of time and throughout the entire year, devote their energies to vanity and emptiness which will not benefit or save: Look to your souls. Improve your ways and your deeds and let every one of you abandon his evil path and thoughts.

(2) On these opposite appellations, which contrast halakha and aggada, I could add more infinitely, and it is obvious that in each there would be a bit of truth, but is there nothing to learn from this -- the popular position -- that the halakha and the aggada are two enemies, one thing and its reverse? (3) Those who say this are confusing fundamental nature with outside appearance -- to whom are these similar? To the one who decides that the river's ice and water are two distinct materials. The halakha and the aggada are not in fact anything except two halves of the same whole, two faces of the same creature. The connection between the two of them is like that from speech to thought and feeling, or from action and tangible form to speech. The halakha is the crystallization, the final and inevitable result of the aggada; the aggada is the core of the halakha.

(5) Halakhah, however, is no less a work of art than aggadah. Its art is the greatest in the world – the art of life and the paths of life. Its material is the living person with all the impulses of his heart. Its methods are personal, communal, and national education. And its fruits are a continuum of days of proper deeds and lives, the paving of a way of life through the twists and turns of the individual and the group, a proper way for a person in the world, and a refined path in life. The creations of halakha’s hands are not like the creations of the hands of other arts, such as sculpture, drawing, architecture, song, and poetry, which are concentrated and unified in matter, space, and time. Rather, they join together little by little, point by point, from all of the flow of a man’s life and deeds that, in the end, give over one final product, one form, whether complete or damaged. Halakhah is the guiding art and the teaching art of an entire nation. ... [Likewise,] the Cathedral of Cologne, the Cathedral of Milan, and Notre Dame in Paris were perfected in their beauty and became what they became by the efforts of world-class artists for hundreds of years, each one of whom, in his time, gave his life and the best of his creative powers exclusively to this holy work.

(6) The children-of-Israel has its own magnificent creation—a lofty, holy day, “Queen Shabbat”. In the imagination of the nation, it has developed into a living being with a body and the figure of a body, all radiance and beauty. .... Is she not a creature all of aggadah–of legend, of tale? Is she not herself a source of life and sanctity to an entire nation, and a wellspring flowing with divine inspiration for poets and liturgists? And even so, who will say, who will ascertain, by whose hand she was crafted, and who made her into what she is: by the hand of halakhah—law, or by the hand of aggadah–legend?Tractate Shabbat has one hundred fifty-seven double pages, and Tractate Eruvin has one hundred five, and they are almost entirely devoid of aggadah. They mostly comprise examinations and precise legal analyses into the thirty-nine labors and their subcategories and the fixing of domains; with what does one light, with what does an animal go out, how does one communalize a domain—how exhausting to the spirit! How much acuity wasted on every little serif! And when I traverse among those pages and see groups upon groups of sages and scholars at their work, I say: Indeed, artists of life I see before me! Artists of life in the workshop and at the potter’s wheel! Tremendous spiritual work like this, at the same time like an ant and like a giant, work for its own sake and born of love and faith without bounds, is impossible without divine inspiration. Each of those individuals did their part according to their character and their soul’s inclinations, and all of them together were beholden to an exalted will that ruled over them. This is nothing but a single, lofty ideal, a single, elevated image of Shabbat floating before the eyes of these exceptional people, and her spirit is what gathered them here from all the generations and made them into collaborators in her creation and enhancement....And what is the fruit of all this laborious work of halakhah–of law? A day that is all aggadah–all legend.