Sukkah, Daf Lamed, Part 3

 

Introduction

Today’s section continues to deal with the concept of "a commandment performed through a transgression."

 

ואמר רבי יוחנן משום רבי שמעון בן יוחי: מאי דכתיב +ישעיהו סא+ כי אני ה’ אהב משפט שונא גזל בעולה. משל למלך בשר ודם שהיה עובר על בית המכס, אמר לעבדיו: תנו מכס למוכסים. אמרו לו: והלא כל המכס כולו שלך הוא! אמר להם: ממני ילמדו כל עוברי דרכים, ולא יבריחו עצמן מן המכס. אף הקדוש ברוך הוא אמר: אני ה’ שונא גזל בעולה, ממני ילמדו בני ויבריחו עצמן מן הגזל.

 

R. Yohanan said in the name of Rabbi Shimon b. Yohai: What is it meant by that which is written, "For I the Lord love justice, I hate robbery with a burnt offering" (Isaiah 61:8). This may be compared to a human King who passed through his custom-house and said to his servants, "Pay the tax to the tax-collectors." They said to him, "But all the taxes belong to you!" He answered them, "From me all travelers will learn not to evade their payments of tax." So too the Holy one, Blessed be He, said, "I the Lord hate robbery in burnt-offerings. Let my children learn from me and keep away from robbery."

 

In Isaiah 61 God says that he hates stolen sacrifices. But why, the darshan seems to ask. If everything in the whole world belongs to God then it doesn’t seem to matter whether this particular animal belongs to me or to someone else. Why shouldn’t God desire it as a sacrifice and why should this matter to God? The answer is that God shuns stolen sacrifices not because it matters to God but because there is a moral lesson to be learned. God is like the King who pays the tax collector. The tax is going to go right back into his pocket anyway. So why pay? The answer is that paying the taxes teaches the traveler to act morally and not to evade taxes, i.e. not to steal.

We should note that the issue of paying the Temple tax (half shekel per year) was contentious in ancient Judaism. Jesus, who was after all a Jew, seems to have been adamantly opposed to this tax. His position is articulated in Matthew 17:24-26:

 

After Jesus and his disciples arrived in Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma tax came to Peter and asked, "Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax?" "Yes, he does," he replied. When Peter came into the house, Jesus was the first to speak. "What do you think, Simon?" he asked. "From whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes–from their own sons or from others?" "From others," Peter answered. "Then the sons are exempt," Jesus said to him. "But so that we may not offend them, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours."

 

Jesus believes that Jews shouldn’t have to pay this particular tax. In contrast, the rabbis were adamant that paying taxes was a good thing, one which brought the Jew close to God. In this sugya in Sukkah the message is that one should not bring a stolen sacrifice, but the broader picture is that bringing things to God, taxes and sacrifices, is not something that alienates us from God. It brings us closer.