Megillah, Daf Kaf Heh, Part 2
Introduction
Today’s section opens with another statement by R. Hanina, and then continues to deal with issues related to the mishnah.
אמר רבי חנינא: הכל בידי שמים. חוץ מיראת שמים, שנאמר +דברים י’+ ועתה ישראל מה ה’ אלהיך שאל מעמך כי אם ליראה.
R. Hanina said: Everything is in the hands of heaven except the fear of heaven as it says, "And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear" (Deuteronomy 10:12).
This famous statement is really about free will. The classic theological question how can God control the world and yet leave human beings with the free will to choose their own paths, and thereby lead moral or immoral lives? R. Hanina basically limits God’s power to everything but human being’s free choice to obey or disobey. "Fear" here means obedience to God’s will.
מכלל דיראה מילתא זוטרתי היא? אין, לגבי משה רבינו מילתא זוטרתי היא, משל לאדם שמבקשין הימנו כלי גדול ויש לו דומה עליו ככלי קטן, קטן ואין לו דומה עליו ככלי גדול.
From here are we to conclude that fear is a small thing?
Yes; for Moses our teacher it was a small thing. This is comparable to a man who was asked for a big vessel and who has it. To him it seems like a small thing, but if he is asked for a small vessel and he does not have it, it seems like a big thing.
To us normal human beings, fear of God is no small thing, for fear of God is something we lack. For Moses, to whom God is speaking, fear of God was easy. This is clearly one of the truest observations of life. That which we possess in abundance we do not appreciate, and that which we lack and strive for seems almost impossible to attain.
אמר רבי זירא: האומר שמע שמע כאומר מודים מודים דמי.
מיתיבי: הקורא את שמע וכופלה הרי זה מגונה. מגונה הוא דהוי, שתוקי לא משתקינן ליה.
לא קשיא: הא דאמר מילתא מילתא ותני לה, הא דאמר פסוקא פסוקא ותני לה.
R. Zera said: One who says, "Hear, Hear" is like one who says, "We give thanks, we give thanks."
They objected: He who recites the Shema and repeats is disgraceful.
He is only disgraceful, but we do not silence him.
There is no difficulty: In the one he repeats each word as he says it, in the other that he repeats a whole sentence.
R. Zera says that one who repeats the Shema is like one who says, "We give thanks, we give thanks" and he should be silenced. He too seems to imply that there are two powers in heaven.
A baraita says that repeating the Shema is only disgraceful, but we do not silence him. This seems to contradict R. Zera. The Talmud resolves that if he repeats every word, word by word, it is only disgraceful. It is just a foolish way of reciting the Shema. But repeating the whole verse twice is potentially heretical, so we silence him.
I have explained this section according to Rashi. Other commentators explain opposite repeating every word seems like heresy, whereas repeating the whole sentence is only disgraceful.
I should also note that at the end of the Yom Kippur service we do repeat Shema Yisrael. Commentators say that since this is a set custom, it clearly is not performed with heretical intent.
אמר ליה רב פפא לרבא: ודלמא מעיקרא לא כיון דעתיה והשתא כיון דעתיה?
אמר ליה: חברותא כלפי שמיא? אי לא מכוין דעתיה מחינא ליה בארזפתא דנפחא עד דמכוין דעתיה.
R. Papa said to him: But maybe [the reason he repeats] is because at first he did not have proper intention, and now he has proper intention?
He said to him: Is he to treat heaven like an ordinary friend?
If he does not have intention, I will hit him with a hammer until he does have intention.
R. Papa brings up another reason why someone might repeat a verse of the Shema. He might not have had proper intention the first time he said it, and the recitation of the Shema must be done with proper intention. So why would we accuse him of heresy if he only was correcting his prior recitation?
Rava responds that a person reciting the Shema should not act like he is simply speaking to a friend. He should not casually recite the Shema, then realize he wasn’t paying attention and go back and say it over again.
Rather, Rava says that if he doesn’t have intention, he will slam him over the head with a hammer until he learns to say it right the first time. Ouch! That would seem to put the fear of the Lord into him!
המכנה בעריות משתקין אותו, תנא רב יוסף: קלון אביו וקלון אמו.
One who uses euphemisms in the portion dealing with forbidden sexual relations, he is silenced.
R. Joseph taught: [If, for example, he says] "The shame of his father, the shame of his mother."
Leviticus 18:7 says, "The nakedness of your father and the nakedness of your mother you shall not uncover." One who uses a euphemism, "the shame" rather than say, "the nakedness" should be silenced. One should not use euphemisms when translating the Torah.
האומר ומזרעך לא תתן להעביר וכו’, תנא דבי רבי ישמעאל: בישראל הבא על הכותית והוליד ממנה בן לעבודה זרה הכתוב מדבר.
If he says, [instead of] And you shall not give any of your seed ".
In the school of R. Ishmael it was stated: The verse speaks of an Israelite who has intercourse with a Gentile woman and gives birth through a son for idolatry.
R. Yishmael interprets the Aramaic in the Mishnah. The Mishnah ruled that one should not interpret Leviticus 18:21 "do not pass your child over to Molech" as if it prohibits one from bearing a child with a Gentile woman. Here R. Yishmael just interprets that Mishnah. Evidently the rabbis were adamant that Jews should not read the verse this way, perhaps because they didn’t believe that it was actually prohibited to have a child with a non-Jew. Rabbis believed in conversion, and while we think of a convert as a Jew, some ancient Jews did not consider conversion possible.