The 4th sugia of our Av Mishna חגיגה contains 24 lines of Gemara. The focus of the Germara learning upon the Mishna, making distinctions. Starting with fear of heaven: HaShem lives within the hearts of brit Israel who honor and keep the terms of the oath brit faith within the borders of the oath sworn inheritance lands of the Avot. In g’lut HaShem lives together with the other Gods whom the Goyim worship. The Yamim Tovim mean nothing to neither the Gods whom the Goyim worship, just as Goyim acknowldedge them with only lip service. The Torah faith that HaShem lives within the hearts of his Cohen nation, avoda zara of both Xtianity and Islam never even once make even the slightest effort to comprehend. This telling mussar rebuke, sorches and singes the hearts of all apostate and secular Jewry.
The defining quality of a positive time oriented commandment – these unique mitzvot require k’vanna. This fundamental distinction separates this 3rd branch of the תרי”ג mitzvot from the opposing postive vs. negative commandments. The distinction between male and female, serves to teach the requirement to learn by making a logical inference, in short the language of our Mishna employs a לאו דוקא teaching technique. The obligation to mature ‘fear of heaven’ applies equally to Man and Woman. Obviously a Jew who despises the Torah heritage lacks fear of heaven just as do all none bnai brit persons. Why should this last statement exist in the category of פשטה? The persons who worship other Gods or deny the existence of God all together clearly neither accept the idea that the Spirit of HaShem lives within the hearts of the bnai brit Cohen nation.
Just as the Torah teaches spirituality as opposed to history, so too and how much more so the brit faith stands upon weaving halachic mitzvot together with prophetic mussar. Talmudic scholarship requires depth, quoting the written words from a page of Gemara does not qualify as law. Common Law stands upon precedents. Learning by means of bringing precedents learns the depth of a Gemara. The skill required to compare a given case to unknown similar cases requires logic. The Rambam’s code made concise Hebraic restatements of opinions within the Sha’s. That code failed to learn the Sha’s by bring precedents from outside sources. The Baali Tosafot scholarship by contrast strives to learn by means of bringing a precedent. The bottom line: bringing the potential of fear of heaven unto maturity within ones’ self, rather than converting the Talmud into a ritual and dogmatic code of religious practices and observances.
Faith and Religion exist on separate planes of reality. Living life as a mensch requires honesty, a good eye, courage and countless other intangibles which exist completely independent from religion. A religious person too can live the life of a mensch, but religion has no lock or monopoly upon living life as a mensch.
פרק שלישי ברכות: דתנן – נשים ועבדים וקטנים פטורין מק”ש ומן התפלין וחייבין בתפלה ובמזוזה ובגרכת המזון גמ. דף כ: ק”ש פשיטא! מצות עשה שהזמן גרמא הוא. וכל מצות עשה שהזמן גרמא נשים פטורות. מהו דתימא? הואיל ואית בה מלכות שמים קמ”’ל
Stop tefilla lack מלכות שמים? It does if you say the worlds of the Shemone Esri unaware that it lacks שם ומלכות! What does the language אלהינו ואלהי אבותנו mean? The mitzva of kre’a sh’ma a person accepts the oaths sworn by the Avot upon himself, this defines the k’vanna of the word “ONE”. This subtle learning requires Talmud and our sages did not obligate women to learn Talmud. A daughter has no obligation to learn Talmud, but a parent has an obligation to instruct his children in the basics of faith.
Why formulate the norms of Common Law? The Talmud portrays a Jewish national idea of self. It struggles to forge a bnai brit social construct, which entails both high culture – associated with the elite of society, which includes its most learned members; the Talmudic vision sees a unique philosophy for wealth. Specifically, the mitzva to love your neighbor as yourself, this mitzva has direct ties with wealth. The great Torah commandment: the responsibility of a Man to assist his neighbor to live life as a Mensch through employment as assistance, permitting the neighbor to gather his Manna. To remove the need to make a living as the fundamental stumbling block. Freeing a man’s neighbor to live life before HaShem, to strive toward achieving a righteous moral man good name. The Talmud struggles to define brit norms: acceptable social behavior. The oath brit alliance and faith bound to (the metaphor of the Akada) the preconditional terms of that oath brit alliance. The back drop of this struggle about building a national self – the struggle between the tohor vs tuma Yatzir – the heart of brit Man. In this context the study of the Talmud bears a similar resemblance to East African Eritrean society, and the heritage what Tigrayans refer to as “Customary Law”.
The attempt by Ethiopian Emperor Haile to suppress these “customary laws”, greatly contributed to Eritrean revolutionaries to go underground; wherein they developed the national will of their people to demand Eritrean Independence from Ethiopia. After independence, determined efforts incorporated the customary laws into the basic national laws and policies of the new nation. The attempt by this commentator to promote the Torah as the Written Constitution of our Republic and the Talmud as the model for Common Law Courts takes heart from the accomplishments of the East African Eritrean revolutionary movement. Development of international diplomatic relations with Eritrea could bless both our countries with peace. To develop East Africa Eritrean Massawa Port as the equal to Egypt’s port Said represents a strategic objective toward building the North/East African trade route.
Developing Israeli diplomacy with North African and East African countries requires building cultural ties with the Tigrinya and Tigray/ Mensaï tribes. The latter ethnic group too has a rich oral literature of fairy tales, fables, riddles, poetry and stories of different events. Mensai, also known for their singing and dancing, usually accompanied by a drum and a mesenko, a stringed instrument, something like a guitar. The vast majority of the Tigray people worship the Muslim religion. Most of these Mensaï people converted to Islam during the 1800’s, influenced by Muslim Arab missionaries. Israeli diplomacy should strive to strengthen cultural ties and connections between these two dominant Tribes of Eritrean society. Israeli foreign diplomacy, development of a focused effort to mirror governance of our own domestic internal diplomacy. Building bridges which connects divergent groups within a society applies both at home and abroad. This foreign policy strives to enhance the reputation and good name of the Jewish state.
The Torah concept of love, most essentially entails this “sense” wherein partners share mutual feelings of partnership together. The most basic and classic model which the Torah משל metaphor employs: The Adam/Eve husband/wife relationship. The Torah opens with this משל metaphor to teach the נמשל interpretations which applies this “sense” of partnership to the family of Yaacov which developed into Tribes. Anarchy, confusion, and Civil War has left tremendous scars upon the body politic of post Colonial African societies. In similar fashion the tuma “hatred without cause” has continually brought disaster to the Cohen heirs of Avraham, Yitzak, and Yaacov. Building this “sense” of partnership mutual responsibility to strengthen the dignity of our people requires a dedication of Will to which the משל metaphor of korbanot specifically refers to as avodat HaShem. Proof for this assertion? According to the brit faith, where does the Spirit of the Name HaShem live within this Earth? Answer: within the hearts of the tohor bnai brit Cohen people. Therefore, maturing the “evolution” of a heart of stone to a heart of flesh, a precise understanding of the mussar which all Torah prophets command.
Growing a mature Domestic/Foreign policy – sometimes its easier to grasp and understand the necessity of “fear of heaven” wherein leaders extend this “burden to build a good name” unto foreign peoples and societies. Healing the hatred and distrust which has torn the African peoples apart, at the mockery, contempt, and delight of their former European feudal tuma overlords gives an opportunity outlet within Israeli society to release our passions and intense hatred wherein we despise and detest the Shoah barbarians unto all eternity. Europeans share no portion any longer with the Jewish people. Israeli foreign policy seeks to expunge this gross tuma, this cyclic bloody rag, from among the community of nations of the Middle East and Africa. Upon these “Plate tectonics”, servants of the Torah Constitution endeavors to shape a unique leadership perspective as expressed through – both our national domestic governance and foreign diplomatic outreach.
The burden to build a good name for ever contrasts with the tuma host desecration slanders, the blood libels whereby evil uncouth and uncivilized sub human apes justified the murder of Jews in order to seize wealth and annul loan obligations. Africans and Jews have personally experienced tuma European cruelty and arrogance. Development of trade and commerce should steer clear of the enticements of this tuma cesspool. Building the North African trade route, whose vision includes East Africa, as the primary avenue of Israeli trade and commerce expresses the preferred Israeli policy of making a total permanent boycott, a placement of Shoah Europe into conditions of an eternal ghetto. Encouraging peoples of the Middle East and Africa to let rot the fruits of Europe upon the Tree of tuma which the Torah משל/metaphor refers to as: the forbidden Tree of Good and Evil/Death; to reject the enticements and the lies which that accursed serpent continually hisses.
Jews share no burden of responsibility of rebuilding a good name for the Shoah barbarians of Europe. The lame excuse where later generations exclude themselves goes hand in hand with their christ killer racial epitaph. This commentator favors that Torah leadership rejects all male Europeans as possible convert candidates unto Judaism – placing them on par with the sons of Lot and Balak. Forging none material cultural constructs means shaping within the hearts of the peoples of the Middle East and Africa – shared values and attitudes which hates and utterly detests these Shoah barbarians. In summation the Rock of Torah society stands upon building a focused and directed love/hate bi-polar relationship. Europe, has for ever destroyed any hope that they possess the heart required to remove the curse of their wicked Shoah name. Weigh how the Muslim Ottoman Turks gave haven to persecuted Spanish and Portuguese Jewry, against the crimes committed unto the Armenians. The latter crime guilt occurred when Turkey made alliance with Germany.
Herein concludes the learning on this the 4th sugia of our Av Mishna חגיגה which addresses the plate tectonics of faith.
Conflict Resolution 