Berakhot 165

1:
We are approaching the end of our tractate and, in common with many other tractates, an attempt is made to close on a positive and uplifting note. In most cases, this means that mishnah gives way to midrash, and our present tractate is no exception. The fact that one is required to thank God for the negative things that happen to us during our lives as well as for the positive things, is something that we have recently discussed. We noted in that discussion that there was even a special Berakhah to be recited upon such occasions: "Praised be God … the Truthful Judge". (See Berakhot 153.) What is special about our present mishnah is the "proof-text" that it brings for this rule and the exposition that it gives upon it.

2:
A "proof-text" is a phenomenon regularly found in midrashim, usually being introduced with the terminus technicus "as it is said" (if the verse quoted comes from the Torah) and "as it is written" (if the verse quoted comes from the Prophets or the Writings). The purpose of a "proof-text" is to link the rabbinic statement made with a Biblical verse. It is not at all certain that it is seriously being suggested by the sages that the homily that they are offering is implied in the Biblical text quoted. It may well be that the Biblical text is only meant to serve as a kind of "filing cabinet" for the midrash in an age when it was essential that everything be neatly pigeon-holed because everything had to be remembered by heart without resort to writing. (For more details see the Brief Introduction to the Mishnah in our web archives.)

3:
A curiosity of our present mishnah is that the "proof-text" brought does not really fit the statement made. The "proof-text" comes from the first parashah of the Shema. Its surface meaning is that one must love God wholeheartedly – and that certainly fits in with the idea that "a person must praise God for bad things just as for good things" that happen to us. But the midrashic interpretation offered by our mishnah on the verse seems to be based on a different understanding of the wording of the mishnah itself. (This different understanding is completely inconsonant with the understanding that the Gemara has of the mishnah – and the understanding that the Gemara has of the mishnah seems to be its obvious connotation.) The "proof-text" offered would be much more apposite if the Hebrew text of the mishnah were understood as saying that "a person is required to praise God for the bad things that he [the person] does just as he praises Him for the good things that he [the person] does". This does not make very much sense.

4:
The Biblical phrase "with all your heart" is interpreted as referring to the two instincts with which man is endowed: the nobler instinct [yetzer ha-tov], which prompts one to do the right thing, and the baser instinct [yetzer ha-ra] which prompts one to do what one knows is wrong. (Is there any correlation here with the Freudian Ego and Id?) Man is more than ready to hearken to the promptings of his yetzer ha-ra; but it is one's task in life to make a conscious effort to force oneself to behave in conformity with the dictates of yetzer ha-tov. I think we have discussed this concept at length in our recent excursus on the presence of evil in the world.

5:
'All your soul' is interpreted as requiring one to love God and to observe God's commandments even when God is depriving us of our very life. The classic story of the death of Rabbi Akiva here comes immediately to mind. Rabbi Akiva was arrested by the Roman authorities in the year 136 CE for transgressing the law which forbad the teaching of Judaism. Later that year he was found guilty and sentenced to death in the arena. A particularly cruel death was meted out to this great sage who must have been a nonagenarian at the least. As the skin was being peeled from his body he began to recite the Shema. His pupils, astounded, could not refrain from voicing their incredulity that their teacher could pay attention to such a point of law at a moment like this. He responded in the spirit of our present midrash: one must love God and observe God's commandments "even when he is taking away your very life".

6:
Two interpretations are brought for the Hebrew phrase bekhol me'odekha ["with all your might"]. Both are based on like-sounding words. According to the first interpretation one's 'might' is one's property, one's capital. According to the second interpretation the Hebrew word me'odekha is reminiscent of another Hebrew word: middah. This latter term is often used in the sense of fate, particularly when it means the fate meted out to one by God. This last interpretation – "be grateful to God whatever fate is meted out to you" – brings the midrash back into consonance with the mishnah.