Sotah 076

נושא: Sotah

BET MIDRASH VIRTUALI

How [are we to understand] the blessings and the curses? When Israel crossed the Jordan and came to Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal in Samaria, near Shechem, which is by Elonei Moreh (as it is said: "Are they not in cis-Jordan etc" and in another place it says: "And Abram passed through the land until [he reached] the place of Shechem, until Elon Moreh". Just as the latter reference to Elon Moreh [obviously] refers to Shechem so this reference [must also refer to Shechem].) Six tribes ascended to the top of Mount Gerizim, six tribes ascended to the top of Mount Ebal, while the priests, the levites and the ark stood below in the middle: the priests surrounded the ark and the levites surrounded the priests, with all Israel on either side, as it says: "And all Israel, with their elders, officers and judges stood on either side of the ark etc". The priests turned to face Mount Gerizim and started [intoning] the blessings: "Blessed be the man who does not make a molten statue", and both parties responded "Amen". [Then] they turned to face Mount Ebal and started [intoning] the curses: "Cursed be the man who makes a molten statue", and both parties responded "Amen". [And thus] until they complete the blessings and curses. Then they brought the stones and erected the altar and whitewashed it and inscribed on it all the words of the Torah in seventy languages; for it says: "very plainly". Then they dismantled the stones and went for the night to their place.

4:
The bible [Joshua 8:30-35] describes how the command of the Torah was observed by Joshua and the Israelites when they finally entered Eretz-Israel:

Then Joshua built an altar to the God of Israel on Mount Ebal as Moses the servant of God commanded the Israelites, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses: an altar of uncut stones, on which no man had lifted up any iron. And they offered thereon burnt offerings to God, and sacrificed peace-offerings. He wrote there on the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he wrote in the presence of the Israelites. All Israel, with their elders, officers and judges stood on either side of the ark before the priests the Levites, who bore the ark of the covenant of God, with the foreigners together with the native-born; half of them in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal; as Moses the servant of God had commanded at the first, that they should bless the people of Israel. Afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessing and the curse, according to all that is written in the book of the law. There was not a word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua didn't read before all the assembly of Israel, and the women, and the little ones, and the foreigners who were among them.

5:
And now let us inject an archeological note. About 20 years ago an Israeli archeologist named Adam Zertal discovered what apparently are the remains of a very large stone altar that dates to the Israelite age. The altar is situated in such a manner that it answers most conveniently to the descriptions given in the books of both Deuteronomy and Joshua. Zertal was (and is) certain that he had uncovered the remains of the original altar built by Joshua and the Israelites in order to observe the ceremony which is the subject of our present mishnah. His claim has not gone unchallenged but in his book (in Hebrew) "A people is born" (Israel, 2000) he makes out a very convincing case. Most interesting is the fact that this altar is situated in such a way that it seems reasonable that what the Samaritans now call Mount Gerizim was, in fact, originally Mount Ebal!

6:
It is well known that modern scholarship considers the Torah to be a composite work, and over the years we have related to this on several occasions. One consequence of this opinion of modern scholarship is that it is agreed that ancient tradition held that there was, indeed, a series of ten basic propositions that God demanded of Israel. Modern scholars state that although the Ten Commandments, as given in Exodus 20, is one recollection of this ancient tradition there are others embedded in the preserved text. These scholars are of the opinion that the "Blessings and the Curses" which are the subject of our present mishnah are yet another set of 'ten basic propositions', 'ten commandments' as it were (actually, there are twelve, which is also a typological number in the biblical tradition).

7:
The Torah [Deuteronomy 27:14] states that The Levites shall speak up and say to all the men of Israel in a loud voice… Here it seems reasonable to assume that the Levites are addressing the people in Hebrew. By using a system of inference from one verse to another by means of similarity of phrasing (an interpretive phenomenon on which we have already commented several times) the sages conclude that since it is reasonable to assume that the phrase 'to speak up and say' here refers to speaking in Hebrew, so also in other places where this phrase occurs the language of speech must be Hebrew. Thus, when the Israelite brings his first-fruits he must 'speak up and say' what he is required to say in Hebrew; when the childless widow confronts her recalcitrant brother-in-law she must 'speak up and say' what she is required to say in Hebrew – as indicated in the previous mishnayot of this chapter.

I have suddenly been 'inundated' as it were with comments and queries. All of them interesting, some of them asking the same thing with different emphases, and several of them requiring a combined response on my part. I shall devote our next shiur to some of these messages that you have sent me. At this point let me just relate to one recurring theme in many of these messages: that the reason why I have not received queries recently is not because the material is straightforward but because my explanations were sufficiently lucid! With the greatest of gratitude and affection let me say: 'humbug!'

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