Join us to discuss A Heavenly Voice from the Babylonian Talmud, Bava Metzia 59b. Find this in The Soul of the Text -- An Anthology of Jewish Literature - Great Books Foundation - page 93.
The material in BOLD below is found in The Soul of the Text. We will look at the larger context.
Oven of
Akhnai – A Heavenly Voice
MISHNA: Just as there is a prohibition against exploitation
[ona’a] in buying and selling, so is there a prohibition regarding verbal
mistreatment.
GEMARA: … Anyone who humiliates another in public,
it is as though he were spilling blood.
… Apropos the topic
of verbal mistreatment, we learned in a
mishna there (Kelim 5:10): If one cut an earthenware
oven widthwise into segments, and placed sand between each and every
segment, Rabbi Eliezer deems it ritually pure. Because of the sand, its
legal status is not that of a complete vessel, and therefore it is not
susceptible to ritual impurity. And the Rabbis deem it ritually
impure, as it is functionally a complete oven.
And this is known
as the oven of akhnai. The
Gemara asks: What is the
relevance of akhnai, a snake, in this context? Rav Yehuda said that Shmuel said: It is characterized
in that manner due to the fact that the
Rabbis surrounded it with their statements like this snake, which
often forms a coil when at rest, and
deemed it impure. The Sages taught:
On that day, when they
discussed this matter, Rabbi Eliezer answered all possible answers in the world to support his opinion, but the Rabbis did not accept his explanations from him.
After failing to
convince the Rabbis logically, Rabbi Eliezer said to them: If the halakha is in
accordance with my opinion, this carob tree will
prove it. The carobtree was uprooted from its place one hundred
cubits, and some say four hundred cubits. The Rabbis said to him: One does not cite halakhic proof from the carob tree. Rabbi
Eliezer then said to them: If the halakha is in accordance with my opinion, the stream will prove it. The
water in the stream turned
backward and began flowing in the opposite direction. They said to him: One does not cite halakhic proof from a stream.
Rabbi Eliezer then said to them: If the halakha is in accordance with my opinion,the walls of the study hall will prove it. The walls of the study hall leaned inward
and began to fall. Rabbi Yehoshua
scolded the walls and said
to them: If Torah scholars are contending with each other in matters of halakha, what is the nature of your involvement in this dispute?
The Gemara relates: The walls did
not fall because of the deference due Rabbi
Yehoshua, but they did not straighten because of the deference due Rabbi Eliezer, and they still remain leaning.
Rabbi Eliezer then said to them: If the halakha is in accordance with my opinion, Heaven will prove it. A Divine Voice emerged from
Heaven and said: Why are you differing with Rabbi Eliezer, as the halakha is in accordance with his
opinion in every place that
he expresses an opinion?
Rabbi Yehoshua stood on his
feet and said: It is written: “It is not in heaven” (Deuteronomy 30:12).
"It is not in heaven, that you
should say, 'Who will go up to heaven for us, and get it for us so that we may
hear it and observe it?' Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say,
'Who will cross to the other side of the sea for us, and get it for us so that
we may hear it and observe it?' No, the word is very near to you; it is in your
mouth and in your heart for you to observe" (Deuteronomy 30:12-14)
The Gemara
asks: What is the
relevance of the phrase “It is not
in heaven” in this context? Rabbi
Yirmeya says: Since the
Torah was already given at Mount Sinai, we do not regard a Divine Voice, as You
already wrote at Mount Sinai, in the Torah:
“After a majority to incline” (Exodus 23:2).
You must not carry false rumors; you
shall not join hands with the guilty to act as a malicious witness: You shall
neither side with the mighty to do wrong—you shall not give perverse
testimony in a dispute so as to pervert it in favor of the mighty—nor shall you
show deference to a poor man in his dispute.
Since the majority of Rabbis disagreed with Rabbi
Eliezer’s opinion, the halakha is not ruled in accordance with
his opinion. The Gemara relates:
Years after, Rabbi Natan encountered Elijah the prophet and said to him: What did the Holy One,
Blessed be He, do at that time, when
Rabbi Yehoshua issued his declaration? Elijah said to him: The Holy One, Blessed be He, smiled and said: My children have triumphed
over Me; My children have triumphed over Me.
The Sages said:
On that day, the
Sages brought all the ritually
pure items deemed pure by the
ruling of Rabbi Eliezer with
regard to the oven and burned them
in fire, and the Sages reached
a consensus in his regard and ostracized him.
And the Sages said: Who will go and inform him of
his ostracism? Rabbi Akiva, his
beloved disciple, said to them: I
will go, lest an unseemly person go and inform him in a callous and
offensive manner, and he would
thereby destroy the entire world.
What did Rabbi Akiva do? He
wore black and wrapped himself in black, as an expression of mourning and
pain, and sat before Rabbi
Eliezer at a distance of four
cubits, which is the distance that one must maintain from an
ostracized individual. Rabbi
Eliezer said to him: Akiva, what is different about today from other days, that you
comport yourself in this manner? Rabbi Akiva said to him: My teacher, it appears to me that your colleagues are distancing themselves from you. He employed euphemism,
as actually they distanced Rabbi Eliezer from them. Rabbi Eliezer too, rent his garments and removed his shoes, as
is the custom of an ostracized person, and he dropped from his seat and sat upon the ground.
The Gemara relates: His eyes shed tears, and as a result the entire world was afflicted: One-third of its olives were afflicted, and one-third of its wheat, and one-third of its barley. And some say that even dough kneaded in a woman’s hands spoiled. The
Sages taught: There was great
anger on that day, as any place that Rabbi Eliezer fixed his gaze was burned.
And even Rabban Gamliel, the Nasi of
the Sanhedrin at Yavne, the head of the Sages who were responsible for the
decision to ostracize Rabbi Eliezer, was coming on a boat at the time, and a large wave swelled over him and
threatenedto drown him. Rabban
Gamliel said: It seems to me that
this is only for the sake of Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus, as God
punishes those who mistreat others.
Rabban Gamliel stood
on his feet and said: Master of the Universe, it is revealed and known before
You that neither was it for my honor that I acted when ostracizing
him, nor was it for the honor of
the house of my father that I acted; rather, it was for Your honor, so that disputes will not proliferate in Israel. In
response, the sea calmed from its
raging.
The Gemara further relates: Imma Shalom, the wife of Rabbi Eliezer, was
the sister of Rabban Gamliel. From that incident forward, she would not allow
Rabbi Eliezer to lower his head and recite the taḥanun prayer,
which includes supplication and entreaties. She feared that were her husband to
bemoan his fate and pray at that moment, her brother would be punished.
A certain day was around the
day of the New Moon, and she inadvertently substituted a full thirty-day
month for a deficient twenty-nine-day
month, i.e., she thought that it was the New Moon, when one does not lower his
head in supplication, but it was not.Some
say that a pauper came
and stood at the door, and she
took bread out to him. The result was that she left her husband
momentarily unsupervised.
When she returned, she found him and saw that he had lowered his head in prayer. She said to him: Arise, you already killed my brother. Meanwhile, the
sound of a shofar emerged
from the house of Rabban Gamliel to announce that the Nasi had died. Rabbi Eliezer said to her: From where did you know that
your brother would die? She said
to him: This is the tradition that I received from the house of the father of my father: All the gates of Heaven
are apt to be locked, except for
the gates of prayer for victims of verbal mistreatment.
