Avot300

נושא: Avot

BET MIDRASH VIRTUALI

Ten things were created on Erev Shabbat at twilight. They are: the mouth of the earth, the mouth of the well, the mouth of the she-ass, the rainbow, the manna, the rod, the Shamir, the letters, the writing and the tablets. Some say that also the imps [were created at this time], Moses' grave and Abraham's ram. Some say that a wrench was made with a wrench.

14:
The mouth of the she-ass. This is probably the most famous donkey in all literature! The reference is to the animal upon which Bil'am rode on his way from his home in the east to where Balak, King of Moab, was waiting for him to curse the Israelites. The story is well-known and is told in Numbers 22.

When he arose in the morning, Bil'am saddled his ass and departed with the Moabite dignitaries. But God was incensed at his going; so an angel placed himself in his way as an adversary. He was riding on his she-ass, with his two servants alongside, when the ass caught sight of the angel standing in the way, with his drawn sword in his hand. The ass swerved from the road and went into the fields; and Bil'am beat the ass to turn her back onto the road.

The angel then stationed himself in a lane between the vineyards, with a fence on either side. The ass, seeing the angel, pressed herself against the wall and squeezed Bil'am's foot against the wall; so he beat her again. Once more the angel moved forward and stationed himself on a spot so narrow that there was no room to swerve right or left. When the ass now saw the angel, she lay down under Bil'am; and Bil'am was furious and beat the ass with his stick.

Then God opened the ass's mouth, and she said to Bil'am, "What have I done to you that you have beaten me these three times?" Bil'am said to the ass, "You have made a mockery of me! If I had a sword with me, I'd kill you." The ass said to Bil'am, "Look, I am the ass that you have been riding all along until this day! Have I been in the habit of doing thus to you?" And he answered, "No." [Numbers 22:21-30]

The sages obviously felt great discomfort at such an egregious departure from the usual order of nature that a donkey should have an intelligent conversation with its rider! So the donkey's ability to speak ("the mouth of the she-ass") must have been built into the fabric of creation from the very beginning: a special incident that was pre-programmed to occur at that precise moment for that precise purpose. Else, how can one explain a donkey that talks?

To be continued.

In Avot 297 I wrote: Whether or not the sages accepted the creation story as told in the first chapter of the Torah as historical fact or philosophical midrash is immaterial; for in all their relationship to the 'Account of the Creation' they accept the biblical format…

Meir Stone asks:

Do you have any thoughts on the works of Dr Gerald Schroeder in this area?

Meir gives a brief synopsis of what Schroeder has to say (and I have curtailed it here even further}:

In 1959, a survey was taken of leading American scientists. Among the many questions asked was, "What is your concept of the age of the universe?" … The answer that two-thirds – an overwhelming majority – of the scientists gave was, "Beginning? There was no beginning. Aristotle and Plato taught us 2400 years ago that the universe is eternal. Oh, we know the Bible says 'In the beginning.' That's a nice story, it helps kids go to bed at night. But we sophisticates know better. There was no beginning." That was 1959. In 1965, Penzias and Wilson discovered the echo of the Big Bang in the black of the sky at night, and the world paradigm changed from a universe that was eternal to a universe that had a beginning. Science had made an enormous paradigm change in its understanding of the world…

…So when the Sages excluded these six days from the calendar, and said that the entire text is parable, it wasn't because they were trying to apologize away what they'd seen in the local museum. There was no local museum. No one was out there digging up ancient fossils. The fact is that a close reading of the text makes it clear that there's information hidden and folded into layers below the surface.

In answer to Meir's request for my thoughts on this matter please use the following links:

Sanhedrin 099 (written in 1999) and A Masorti Theology 2 (written in 2002). Also, you can use the search mechanism on the BMV homepage to search for entries such Big Bang or Penzias and so forth.

We studied Tractate Berakhot way back in 1996-1997, and it has taken me a very long time to prepare those old texts for the Internet. At long last I have completed the task; please click here to access the Berakhot Archive. Only one tractate is now left to be revived, the very first, Tractate Kiddushin. I have started work on preparing this tractate already – but don't expect the work to be completed soon!

BMV Home and Search Machine | Avot Archive | Subscribe/Unsubscribe

Shiur Dedication | [What is this?]

Admin @ bmv.org.il is the address for discussion, queries, comments and requests. If your message appears in a shiur it will be attributed to you by name; otherwise please mark your message clearly "not for publication".

The shiurim of the Rabin Mishnah Study Group are usually sent out on Tuesday and Thursday.
The shiurim of the Halakhah Study Group are usually sent out on Monday.
Did you know? The Mishnah shiurim are also available in Hebrew. (Go to Subscribe/Unsubscribe above)

These shiurim are and will remain free of charge.
If you should enjoy one of them please consider making a secure online donation to the Masorti Movement, which sponsors them. Make sure that you indicate that your donation is for the "Virtual Beit Midrash" in the dropdown box for "My Gift Allocation". All donations to the Virtual Bet Midrash are tax deductable.
Please use this link to reach the Masorti Online masorti logo Donation Form.