Avodah Zarah, Daf Heh, Part 5

 

תנו רבנן (דברים ה, כו) "מי יתן והיה לבבם זה להם": אמר להן משה לישראל כפויי טובה בני כפויי טובה בשעה שאמר הקדוש ברוך הוא לישראל "מי יתן והיה לבבם זה להם" היה להם לומר תן אתה. כפויי טובה דכתיב (במדבר כא, ה) "ונפשנו קצה בלחם הקלוקל" בני כפויי טובה דכתיב (בראשית ג, יב) "האשה אשר נתתה עמדי היא נתנה לי מן העץ ואוכל". אף משה רבינו לא רמזה להן לישראל אלא לאחר ארבעים שנה שנאמר (דברים כט, ד) "ואולך אתכם במדבר ארבעים שנה" וכתיב (דברים כט, ג) "ולא נתן ה’ לכם לב" וגו’.

אמר רבה ש"מ לא קאי איניש אדעתיה דרביה עד ארבעין שנין.

 

Our Rabbis taught: May they always be of such a mind (Deuteronomy 5:26). Moses said to Israel: You are an ungrateful people, the descendants of ungrateful people. When the Holy Blessed One said to you: May they always be of such a mind, you should have said: You give. ]Instead they were ungrateful] as it is written, We have come to loathe this miserable food (Numbers 21:5). The descendants of ungrateful people, as it is written, The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat (Genesis 3:12). Yet Moses indicated this to the Israelites only after forty years had passed, as it is said, And I have led you forty years in the wilderness . . . but the Lord has not given you a heart to know, and eyes to see and ears to hear, unto this day.

Rabbah said: Learn from this that it takes forty years to learn the mind of one s master.

 

The Israelites in the desert were ungrateful, refusing to recognize the good that God had done for them. They were the descendants of Adam who was ungrateful to God for the woman whom he had been given.

Only at the end of their time in the desert did Moses tell the Israelites that they were ungrateful.

Rabbah learns from the experience of the Israelites that it takes forty years to learn the mind of one s teacher. So students and teachers, give it some time!

 

א"ר יוחנן משום רבי בנאה מאי דכתיב (ישעיהו לב, כ) "אשריכם זורעי על כל מים משלחי רגל השור והחמור" אשריהם ישראל בזמן שעוסקין בתורה ובגמילות חסדים יצרם מסור בידם ואין הם מסורים ביד יצרם שנאמר אשריכם זורעי על כל מים. ואין זריעה אלא צדקה שנאמר (הושע י, יב) "זרעו לכם לצדקה וקצרו לפי חסד" ואין מים אלא תורה שנאמר (ישעיהו נה, א) "הוי כל צמא לכו למים".

 

R. Yohanan said in the name of R. Bana’ah: What is that is written, Blessed are you that plant beside all waters, that send forth the feet of the ox and the donkey (Isaiah 32:20)? Blessed is Israel; for when they occupy themselves with Torah and acts of kindness their inclination is mastered by them, and they are not mastered by their inclination, as it is said, Blessed are you that plant beside all waters. By planting is meant doing deeds of righteousness, as it is said, Plant to yourselves in righteousness, reap according to mercy (Hosea 10:12). And by water is meant Torah, as it is said, Oh you who are thirsty come to the water (Isaiah 55:1).

 

Jews who occupy themselves with Torah and righteous acts can master their inclinations. Torah and a rich life of good deeds is a spiritual practice that leads one to live a life in which our better sides win out over our more base inclinations.

 

משלחי רגל השור והחמור תנא דבי אליהו לעולם ישים אדם עצמו על דברי תורה כשור לעול וכחמור למשאוי:

 

That send forth the feet of the ox and the donkey : The Tanna of the House of Eliyahu taught: When it comes to the study of Torah one should always make himself like an ox with a yoke and a donkey with a load.

 

One should accept the burden of studying Torah just like an ox accepts a yoke and donkey accepts a load. There are many levels to this statement. One way I take it is that human beings were created to study Torah and wisdom. This is what God gave us our intellects for.