The 3rd Order of the Mishna נשים builds upon the mensch cold learned from חגיגה the last subject within the Order of מועד. In contrast to the Order of זרעים, this commentary intends to address all 7 Av Mishnayot contained within this Order. The opening Mishna of each Mesechet introduces, so to speak, the thesis statement. All Mishnayot which follow there after develop this opening thesis statement. Therefore the first Mishna of each and every Mesechet qualifies as an Av Mishna. The Av Mishna establishes the foundation upon which the entire Tractate stands therein upon.
To simplify the Talmud, it basically contains 2 spheres of scholarship: Halachic and Aggadic. These two “strands” within the Talmud compare to the functions of a loom, which has its weft and warp. During the g’lut of the Dark and Middle Ages some obtuse Reshonim scholars attempted to reduce the Talmud to religious halachic codifications which dissected and separated halacha from aggadita. These harsh times, travel became almost impossible. Jewish communities needed to make gross over simplifications of the complex Talmudic masoret. Prior to the 1st Crusades disaster, which witnessed the destruction of Jewish communities across Germany and Jerusalem, Gaonim scholarship embraced a far more liberal Midrashic scholarly approach. The Rambam code, by contrast introduced an international Civil War which witness the total destruction of the Rashi/Baali Tosafot school of Talmudic scholarship, followed by the complete destruction of Spanish Jewry. Jewish communities across Europe descended unto Ghetto imposed prisons, poverty crushed the lives of the vast majority of Jews living in Europe.
Respecting the dignity of others contrasts with tuma Yatzir, the pimp/prostitute wealth generator, serves as only one example of male dominated violence and greed. Throughout history women have experienced a subordinate status. This degraded status often results in infanticide. China serves as a most egregious example. The modern era employs abortion to achieve the identical effect. Person(s) willing to kill a baby for convenience, do they possess fear of heaven? Men wrote the extant formal literature of classical antiquity. Ancient history basically addresses the subject of the ruling classes.
The Order of נשים therefore stands unique. The Torah through its halacha both respects and protects women from male domination. Women qualify as a separate category other than ger toshav or slave. Even though the Jewish owned slave has the mitzvot obligations of women. But unlike slaves women possess a multiplicity of powers, which begins with their struggle with the tuma Yatzir. A slave by contrast all the mitzvot he does, only rabbinic, because he has no freedom. A foreign slave observes the negative commandments, that the slave exist in harmony its household members. Does HaShem dwell within the heart of a slave? HaShem judges the struggle between Yatzir and Yatzir in the hearts of both bnai brit Men and bnot brit Women.
This Av Mishna יבמות–נשים פוטרות צרותיהן וצרות צרותיהן addresses freedom by rejecting guilt. Our Mishna opposes polar extremes – placing women upon a goddess pedestal or its opposite misogyny. The role of women involves more than the caste of baby-carrier and homemaker. The sages preferred that unmarried women socialize only with other women, but their ideal by no means excludes other social possibilities. The acquisition of a woman’s nefesh O’lam Ha’ba has everything to do with the brit faith and fear of heaven, and shares little common ground with male domination. The brit faith of קדושין learns from Avram cutting the ברית בין הבתרים, wherein uncircumcised Avram cut that brit upon the lives of his brit children born unto all future generations. Avraham and Sarah shared a partnership together, they worked together as team players to give the brit inheritance unto their children. The term ברית, does not even once exist within the Koran of Yishmael. This key term shares little common ground with the Xtian translation – covenant. When a man cuts the brit with his wife, known as קדושין, he does this with both witnesses and a minyan.
בראשית ב:ד – אלה תולדות השמים והארץ בהבראם ביום עשות וכו’.
This key term תולדות applies to oaths. Blessings as תולדות of oaths: do the later generations follow after the earlier generations in matters of the brit? The opening Parsha which includes the begets, which Yatzir do the generations pursue? This question weighs and measures the struggle within the heart of brit man in each and every generation. To cut a brit requires swearing a Torah oath, the mitzva of קדושין stands as a תולדה of swearing a Torah brit oath. A similar idea: the mitzva, from the Torah, of tefilla wherein a man stands in front of a Safer Torah, together with a minyan and calls upon the memory of the oaths sworn by Avraham, Yitzak, and Yaacov unto HaShem – ברית from generation to generation. A person who says the Amida tefilla oblivious to the obligation that he stands before a Safer Torah, together with a minyan to swear an brit oath, lacks k’vanna and has not accomplished the mitzva of tefilla.
While the Talmud does not show favor for women taking on the role of public servants, still their dignity as a human being makes them much more than simply receivers of dowries, bearers of heirs, possessors of wombs. Though the Talmud exists as male dominated judicial rulings, this the 3rd Order of the Mishna delves into the dignity of women. Women have interests on par and equal to Men. A chain’s strength, measured by its weakest link. Building shalom among partner allies starts with the dedication to honor and respect the dignity and interests of women. Herein represents the bedrock upon which the Order of נשים stands.
This opening sugia of Gemara begins on :ב and continues till .יג, a very long sugia of Gemara. As a review, the sh’itta taken by this commentary on the Talmud: it rejects the line by line style which Rashi and virtually all Reshon commentaries on the Talmud learn. This commentary assumes that the reader can either read either from the classic Gemara or some achronim made simplifications like the שטיינזלץ or Art Scroll Talmudic texts.
Personally, the Artscroll siddur left me so totally dissatisfied during my first year in Yeshiva – the distaste it left in my mouth, poisoned there after even giving it even the time of day. The Order of sugiot within the שטיינזלץ, appeared totally arbitrary to me. And then I met Rav Aaron Nemuraskii, a blessing upon his memory, who turned my focus upon learning how to read the Torah together with its Aramaic Targumim, combined repetitive learning of the NaCH together with comprehensive studies of the classic Midrashim primary sources. In only a few years, the skills required to learn the Sha’s possessed my spirit, like a man might employ to seduce his lover.
The sh’itta of Rav Nemuraskii, when a person learns the Talmud he consumes the sugiot intact. Something like eating a bowl full of spaghetti. He would hold the Siddur and one hand and a Gemara in the other and ask me: “How does this Gemara teach you how to dau’ven with k’vanna?” Rav Aaron asked simple questions, quite often: he himself had yet to mature a definitive answer to these questions during his life.
His style of revealing to his students questions whose answers he did not know represents a repeated sh’itta wherein he taught. To this day, the memory of the first such question: how could the Talmud say that Yosef did not give סליחה unto his brothers? Years later, after Rav Aaron had passed, it occurred to me that Yosef differed from his father in that the latter gave blessings before he died.
Rav Wolfson, my kollel teacher, employed this exact same sh’itta, while i visited him in his home, he asked me to interpret:
פרק רביעי בבא קמא: שור של ישראל שנגח לשור של כנעני פטור. ושל כנעני שנגח לשור של ישראל – בין תם , בין מועד, משלם נזק שלם.
Years later the distinction the Torah in דברים makes between the נכרי וגר תושב, the Gemarah of Baba Kama and Sanhedrin clarify. Rav Wolfson’s question gave me the t’shuva to Rambam’s p’sok halacha on the 7 mitzvot bnai noach. From that Aggadic sourse, suddenly the error made by that Reshon became obvious to me! The Mishna of Baba Kama addresses the subject of נכרי whereas the aggadita within Sanhedrin teaches on the subject of גר תושב.
My teachers from rabbi Asher Dov Kahn in Tulsa Oklahoma – there he employed this same sh’itta encouraging me to learn a specific sugia of מנחות touching upon the correct placement of mezzuza. There מנחות teaches either a horizontal or vertical placement, but popular custom affixes mezzuza at an angle? What defines the interpretation?
Life, its not just black or white but contains varying shades of color. Mezzuza as a mitzva teaches the mussar of standing others upon the scales of merit. That’s a fine tohor midda which a man needs to dedicate before he enters into his house and family. All my teachers taught Talmud employing this identical sh’itta, teaching how to teach.
The משגיח at D’var Yerushalim, rabbi Waldman, he showed me a Rashi commentary on the Chumash wherein he wrote that אונקלוס made an error? The answer he gave me profoundly shaped how i would learn there after. Rabbi Waldman explained that it took him years to work out a t’shuva interpretation of Rashi. Simply this, no one generation has a lock and key upon logic.
Depth learning compares to a hen sitting upon her eggs. If the chicks do not sprout during ones’ lifetime, then pass the question(s) on to your students. Rabbi, the author of the Mishna, said in Avot that he learned the most from his students. Passing questions down from generation to generation also learns from the famous four questions in the P’sach Haggada. Making chiddushin in learning challenges all generations thereafter to either validate or invalidate them.
To give respect toward the dignity of women, to what does it compare? To a later generation who criticizes and declares that earlier Torah scholarship erred. The Yatzir within our hearts screams – arrogance … later generations have no right to criticize earlier generations! But my Yatzir responds to that Yatzir and says: Bunk.
The measure of success by which all generations stand in judgment: the degree which our Torah learning prevents a Civil War explosion from bursting the hearts of our people; and its logical inference: the inspiration wherein we give heart to our people – to rule these oath sworn lands with tohor righteous justice. What order of priority do we give unto our wealth and property? If we can not build up and give heart to our wives and children, then how much more so shall we likewise fail to respect the dignity of anybody else among the Cohen nation.
Having given this introduction, the learning on this Av Mishna addresses the subject of ערוה.
פרק שביעי סנהדרין: ארבע מיתות נמסרו לבית דין: סקילה, שריפה, הרג, וחנק.
The mitzva of החליצה addresses the subject of public humiliation and disgrace. A brother refuses to raise seed up for his brother, showing public disrespect of family merits as consideration as a Capital Crime.
Rabbi Shimone holds that burning has greater severity than stoning. A daughter who disgraces her Cohen father by sexual misconduct the Torah requires burning. The point of this debate, that public dishonor of family merits consideration of a Capital Crime. The mitzva of יבום\חליצה walks upon this thread.
Why does that Mishna distinguish between four different death penalties? Distinguishing between the severity of one from the other comes to teach that the Mishna even strives to respect and dignity of a Man condemned to death.
פרק שלשה עשר יבמות: בית שמאי, אין בנות ישראל הפקר.
The mitzva of קדושין requires that a divorced woman receive her ‘get’. Respect of dignity, learns not to cook a goat in its mother’s milk. A person who despises the dignity of others among his people, and how much more so family members, lacks fear of heaven.
This mitzva stands upon the edge of tohor and tuma. The order by which a person dedicates a korban – clearly the tohora of this mitzva contrasts with חליצה\יבום. The latter compares to a blind folded soldier whose drill sergeant marches him one step away from the edge of a sheer cliff before ordering HALT.
דף מט פרק שביעי סנהדרין: דתנן מצות חליצה בא הוא ויבמתו לפני בית דין. היו נותנין לו עצה ההוגנת לו שנאמר (דברים כה) וקראי לו זקני עירו ודברו אליו.
Meaning, the Biet Din advises him to take a course of action. This gives both to him and the wife of the deceased brother who died without children a face saving out. The mussar of these commandments teaches the need to respect the dignity of other family members, especially in this matter of ערוה.
והיא אומרת (שם) מאן יבמי וגו’. והוא אומר לא חפצתי לקחתה. ובלשון הקדש היו אומרין. ונגשה יבמתו אליו לעיני הזקנים וחלצה נעלו וירקה בפניו רוק, הנראה לדיינין, וענתה ואמרה ככה יעשה לאיש וגו’. ונקרא שמו בישראל וגו’. תניא נמי הכי בין שהקדים חליצה לרקיקה או רקיקה לחליצה, מה שעשה עשוי.
This Gemara distinguishes the 8 garments wore by the כהן גדול from the 4 garments wore by the rest of the Cohonim. In this latter case of tohora the order of garments can not interchange.
The chiddush of our Mishna, to distance family members or relatives from feelings of humiliation and disgrace. Respecting the dignity of others, essentially defines the mensch code of building the good name, called Moshiach. No man or generation waits for the coming of the Moshiach. The Moshiach waits for the Cohen nation to live the mensch code.
דף ג. אבא שאול היא דאמר מצות חליצה קודמת למצות ייבום.
On Yom Kippor Israel reads from the Torah the laws of ערוה. The Torah calls ערוה by the name: תועבה. Who possesses the necessary fear of heaven to approach this steep cliff while blind folded?
ויקרא יח: ולא תקיא הארץ אתכם בטמאכם אתה כאשר קאה את הגוי אשר לפניכם כי כל אשר יעשה מכל התועבת האלה ונכרתו הנפשות העשת מקרב עמם ושמרתם את משמרתי לבלתי עשות מחקות התועבת אשר נעשו לפניכם ולא תטמאו בהם אני ה’ אלהיכם. עמוס ה:טז,יז:
This opening p’suk begins with the word לכן, midrash teaches that this word communicates the language of an oath.
לכן כה אמר ה’ אלהי צבאות אדני בכל רחבות מספד ובכל חוצות יאמרו הו הו וקראו אכר אל אבל ומספד אל יודעי נהי ובכל כרמים מספד כי אעבר בקרבך אמר ה’. ופרק ראשון ברכות דתנן. מאימתי קורין את שמע בשחרית? משיכיר בין תכלת ללבן. ר’ אליעזר אומר בין תכלת לכרתי
Our mitzva in this case has no such clarity. The Siddur stands upon סמוכים, an essential concept of logic. Basically a specific defines the general contexts. For example, both Av Shalom and Shaul sought to murder David. Hence no specific order does the Torah require in matters of tuma. By contrast the blessings which surround the kre’a sh’ma have their specific order, because to do this mizva releases tohor spirits.
Examine דברים כב:ו – כה:טז this chapter covers divers subjects. This Torah teaches the distinction between tohor and tuma. The latter lacks order whereas the former follows an organized order. Compare ישעיה ב:ה – ו:יג notice the anarchy and chaos which defines the state of the tuma Yatzir.
Herein concludes the learning on the opening sugia of our Av Mishna יבמות.
Conflict Resolution 