Vayelekh | Hakhel in Yavneh... And Beyond, by Rav Yitzchak Etshalom
What is the impact of Hakhel in our day?
The penultimate Mitzva found in the Torah is the command to assemble all of the people at the end of the Shemitta year, to hear a public reading of the Torah (התורה הזאת) - including the men, the women and the children. In a famous story recorded in Tosefta Sota, a homily of R. Elazar b. Azariah's about Hakhel is recorded, and is followed by two more homilies which all seem unrelated. Tying R. E;lazar b. Azariah's revolutionary approach (see BT Berakhot 27b) to education, we tie these three דרשות together into a weave that forms the foundation of this astonishingly new approach to teaching and publicizing Torah - all anchored in this ancient Mitzva.
Source sheet >>
I will admit to having to being torn when it is the week before Rosh Hashanah it is Parshat Nitzavim and Valleh together which likely was originally intended to be one parashabh is big deal about that and about the many things that that show up in this short piece including the end of the breach of Nitzavim, Nitzvah Tachuvah, Gula, Lova Sharmani and that's just Nitzavim and then of course Nitzvah Tibhatsay for Torah and HaZinu but I'd like to take a look at something that's featured in the middle of the Valleh, which by the way the middle of Valleh, that's right near the beginning, right near the end, Valleh, that's the 30th Sukhim all told and that is the Nitzvah of Haqel but I want to go back two weeks ago, two weeks ago in Parshat Kitesay, we talked about the consequences of the Motsi Shemra, the slanderer and I suggested that the seeming impossibility of carrying out the execution that's mentioned if his claims are accurate, posited that entire legal scenario as being akin to Ben-sore-O-Mure and by Tamanu-Gah in Irani-Dakhat, things which were never really intended to be acted upon but carry with them a great lesson. But in the case of the those three, we generally assume that the lessons are more hermeneutic and as what we can infer from the Sukhim, in the case of Motsi Shemra, they were really didactic, they were on point about what the impact of slander is and to see how grievous it is but with all four of them have in common is that they are all punishments for dastardly deeds, public of Orazara, a child acting so terribly rebellious, whatever it is that caused the by Tamanu-Gah, some sort of sin perhaps and of course adultery. So I'd like to propose that the same approach may be viable on a far wider scale and not limited to those things which we would say perhaps are practically inoperable or you might even call them illegally impractical but even the things that are practical but not only in the realm of the punishments and violations but also in the realm of performances in that there are things that we are adured to do that carry with them deeper lessons and the reason that's so significant and by the way if you think about it much of safer value cry carries this burden because the reason so significant is that if you have a Mitzvah which is a positive thing to do and an affirmative thing to do and yet for some reason either you can't participate in it or else it's not operable because of circumstances it may still carry very powerful lessons and Hakel which is sequentially according to most Monamitzvah the second to last Mitzvah presented in the Torah is I think an example of something that we could work with. Hakel itself is a Mitzvah that is to take place in the precincts of the Mitzvah once every seven years we see the formula for it but while he starts prefaced with Hashem and Mosheh directing Yoshua kazakh vermatz which will become the theme of say for Yoshua got a Mosheh's charge to him and Hashem is charged to him and then Mosheh writes ha Torah hazot unclear what that means is that hazzinu is that safe for Dvarim is that parts of safe for Dvarim is in a whole safe for Torah he gives it to the Kornim and then he says and the reason I'm saying that it might be less than the whole safe for Torah is because he then says before Holy Israel of Pasukhi Ralef they were all to pray Adonai lahmakam as you've heard tikwata Torah hazzot nega koi sabos nahem. So a Torah hazzot which is referenced in Pasukhi tat as what him Mosheh wrote is referenced in Yuralef is what is supposed to be read and according to our Mosheh oro what was read in Haqel was selections from Dvarim. The question is what is it that was actually written in this Torah that Mosheh wrote but we'll put that concern aside and see the mitzvah. Tikwata Torah hazzot nega koi sabos nahem read this Torah to all of Amisrael in their ears means they have to hear it haqel etahm gather the people haanashim, vahanashim, vahtath the men the women and taf which here means young people will say, viger haa shabisharachah. Taf very likely means like teenagers we'll see in the Midrashim means something else and gher haa shabisharachah and whether that's gheric cedic or gherit al shab good question. leman yushmu what's the purpose of this gathering so that they'll hear it well leman yul medus so they'll learn it now is that what does that mean you're going to hear it and then as a result you're going to learn it are these two independent actions is one leading to the other unclear but it seems that the rest of this is clearly sequential, vyar uwat adonai lekhem meaning as a result of that they will fira sham, a shamrul hazzot nega kodi raa torah hazzot again that phrase hatorah hazzot they will be careful to guard to do to fulfill this torah. So again a torah hazzot is what Mosheh writes hatorah hazzot is what's going to be read and hatorah hazzot is what's going to be observed that that string uvanehem asher loyadu yushmu uvallam do they're sons which means people who aren't going to be there for let's say the first haqel yushmu uvallam do they will hear and they will learn that's the same two verbs that we had earlier. vyar atadonai lekhem qaulai yushtam maqam yuladam azzotam yuladam azzotam yuladam azzotam yuladam azzotam as long as you live in the land. So the purpose of haqel seems to be multifaceted. Gather all the people all the young male female and even the outsiders or the quasi outsiders in order and read this torah to them so that they hear it they learn it and they then fear hazzam and keep all of the meats vote of this torah and their children who did not know what does it mean did not know they weren't there when it was given and they weren't there when it was first read eventually will hear and learn and fear hazzam. So this is a very powerful image of a gathering of everybody which on a pragmatic level can't happen because what happens if even if there were space for the whole amisrael to come together into one place where somehow we could broadcast the word without benefit of amplifiers even if that could happen you certainly can't imagine every town in israel emptying out at the same point and everybody coming into this place to gather wherever it is because then of course what would happen to those towns so how the pragmatics up but the pragmatic component of it is difficult but we'll leave that aside because again I think that there's a powerful statement underlying the speech of haqel that is implemented and the principle of haqel carries forth even if the pragmatic side of it can't. Now one thing to keep in mind is that is that haqel maybe was the model for public reading of the torah I'll explain what I mean public reading of the torah operates on three planes. It operates on a plane of using it as a vehicle for announcing things that people need to be made aware of. The classic example of that of course is the arbaparshiyot. The arbaparshiyot are predicated on seasonal things that are needed to be happened and the classic example is sculling. The mishna in kilaim says mashmi yi malaqilaim balashkalim on roshkoda shadar and therefore the shabat of roshkoda shadar or beforehand the shabat before roshkoda shadar we publicize sculling. Let people know get this sculling ready. We let people know you've got to become go do the to the mecha tat paradu ma because you got to become tor for the korban paisa. We let people know that the korban paisa. The horse is a different story. So the three of those clearly seem to be about making public announcements. The second thing is that there are public readings that are there in order to highlight the significance of the day and as an example on shavuot we read about matan torah. On roshkosana we read about the akkadah. Things that have to do with the significance of the day. But there's yet a third component which in our practice is the most significant component of the public reading of the torah and that is teaching torah and making sure that you know all of torah. As a result of that we cannot say let's read the torah every few days or every week and we'll just pick something that seems relevant at the time or something that fits that week. Instead at some point in time during by a chaney was introduced the notion of a progressive reading. Progressive reading meaning you start a point A and you read from A1 to A20 and then next time you read you pick up at A21 and continue from there and you at some point you're finished reading the whole thing and you go back and start again. Now that cycle has various nusrat. The nusrat that we're familiar with and it's practiced by all of Amisrael is an annual cycle where we begin and end the torah's reading sequentially not missing anything over the course of one year and we started in our practice we started on Simchak Torah or Srinyan Serat. In Arachisrael the custom was a range of numbers of weeks over which the torah was read between 154 and 175 and that would take somewhere between three and a quarter to three and a half years or so to complete and according to some the or original start for that was the one at public reading of the torah that's mandated by the torah which is Haqel and that's seven years. As the idea was let's complete the torah over the course of seven years. Problem is if we divide the torah into such small portions that we read it every week and completed in seven years the torah portions will be too small so they did it twice every seven years so it's roughly three and a half years or so and we complete it in seven years. So Haqel already has echoes in the original mandate of the progressive weekly reading of the torah that we find in Arachisrael that by the way was practiced all the way into the 12th century and even Benet Arachisrael who had communities outside of Israel like in Fostat in the Ramam's time practiced this reading over the course of three plus years three and a half years so and and therefore by the way they could be reading Parshap Pinnikas in the winter or the story of of of Yosef being sold sometime in the middle of the summer there was no seasonal adjustment like we're familiar with Yosef always coming around Chanukah. All right that's how that was but I think that Haqel has a much more powerful impact in a more subtle way powerful and yet subtle as you will see. There is a well-known Tosefta that that we have in here in Source 6 if you have the chance well we'll hear in that point out but the Toseft is quoted in Masakh al-Hagiga and it's the more well-known version of it and you'll see that there's an expansion there so we'll reference back and forth. So Tosefta reads his follows so they came from Yavna which was where the the Beybei Midrash was and they were on their way to Lord not that far. The K'pilu or K'pilu P'nei Rabbi Yeshua Beybe Ki'in. There's a K'in in the Galil that's not this K'in there's a K'in it's a small town between Yavna and Lord somewhere in the Shribah in that area and they went to see Rabbi Yeshua. Yeshua was at his house in K'in. Amrulah made Yeshua Makhidushayab Beybei Midrashayum. So Yeshua asked them what new thing did you learn in the Beybei Midrash today you're coming from Yavna. Amrulah Tamidah Anu and Mecha Anushotin they said to him we are your students we're here to drink your water being we came to learn from you and now you're asking us to teach you Amrulah and Yavshashulah Yaykidush the Beybei Tamidrash. He says it's impossible for their not for their been to a session been have been a session of the Beybei Midrash without some new teaching in other words it's not just rehashing old material there's got to be something new and then he asks an interesting question which we have to kind of figure out what he means he says Shabbat shalomihaitah whose Shabbat was it now explain what the term means but there's a bit of a problem in the story that you find here on the last page you have the story of the ouster of Rabban Gamliel as the head of the Sun Hadrian because mainly because of his treatment of Rabbi Yeshua and the result of that is the very famous replacement with Rabbi Lesman Azaria very famous because according to the story of Lesman Azaria he was a young man and miraculously overnight his hair went white and so that he had the image of the visage of an older scholar and a senior member of the Beybei team and that's what kind of gave him the gravitas to move into the position and he moved into the position when Rabban Gamliel at the end when all the dust settled where Rabban Gamliel was wooed back to his position the members of the of the Sun Hadrian or the members of the Beybei Drash realized that they can't throw up a Lesman Azaria out because of Malin bakotage feign more reading it can't be demoted and therefore they worked out a partnership schedule where three out of the four weeks where Magamliel would be in charge and one week where he would be in charge but it was not exactly weeks it was shabbat why shabbat and it's critical for understanding what's going on here shabbat was the time that people would gather meaning the Amcha the regular citizens would come to the Beybei Drash and they would hear a Drashat like we have today a Drashat as opposed during the week when the chakamim would be there and they'd be adjudicating and they'd be studying more in-depth halachic material that's critical for understanding this whole piece so now he went the phrase that's used to reference this this shit part-time sharing or partnership is shabbat shomee shabbat shomee meaning was it because of al-Azaria shabbat or or Magamliels shabbat and that's referenced in that story in bakot about the replacement so Hamrullos the student said to him whose shabbat was it shall run but lazar ben azaria hetah you know just one little note is that in saffrut ariti shirel often alifs at the beginning of names are dropped off and therefore el azaria is called lazar etc. Lazar ben azaria hetah was shabbat of al-Azaria. Ammarleh mihan et hahagadah now notice Rabbi Shua asks where was the hahagadah now that means that he's actually referring to shabbat. Now it's not today because he asked them makhidu shayab of etri d'rashayong what new thing was taught today today can't be shabbat because they wouldn't be traveling and so therefore now he asked them shabbat shomee itah and he's asking them this past shabbat what was the drashat meaning Ramagal Azaria was now teaching the public and he was teaching the Amcha meaning not the not the erudite students but everybody that's vital for understanding what's going on Ammarleh mihan et hahagadah and they answered Haqel tana shima al-Azaria gave a drashat about Haqel. Ammarleh mihan darashpa Shua said knew what did you have to say about Haqel I'm Rulo they answered Rabenu kaktarashpa this is what he said ima al-ashima al-lumad remember what the Pasuk says the mani shmuru al-mani al-madu so that they will hear and they will learn now in the shot of the Pasuk here he comes first because first you hear it and then you process it here they're reading not la mani shmuru and therefore you'll medude but rather la mani shmuru or alternatively la mani al-mani al-madu and the way they learn it is ima al-ashima al-lumad now shimba al-ishmoa which relegates women to a second class here no question says the men would be coming to Haqel wink when we say Haqel explain why they're coming to actually be engaged in the challenging learning and the women are coming for the auditory experience of hearing the words phalim lama hain ba'in now this plays on a common midrashik feature in which the darshanim would use words that they know have a different meaning in mikra in tanaq then they have in rabbinic Hebrew and they would darshan them as if they were being used in rabbinic Hebrew and there's lots of examples of this and so even though the word taf in tanaq typically means a young man who's below the age of responsibility typically 20 or so taf in rabbinic language is little babies and so turni it they say okay we understand why adult men come and adult women come it's phalim lama hain ba'in why bring little kids now by the way there's a simple answer to that which is well if all the men and all the women are coming what do you get what are you gonna do with the kids right but we want to say something more elevated which is cadetly tain sakhar limid vihan in order to give a reward for those people who bring them now if you ask you got asked the question there's something circular in the reasoning of this statement which is if little kids coming is only there so that there's a reward for bringing them then where's your starting point it was bringing them as of no inherent value and the only value is that I brought them so I did something nice so I get a reward for doing something good what's the good thing you did you brought them why bring them so you can get reward you understand it's circular so underneath that we have to assume that there's actually inherent value in these little kids coming these little babies coming and and the reward is the reward that those who bring them gain we'll talk about that at the end of this piece now the students evidently saw that Abhishewa was enamored of this drashav and so they continued they said vu'ala kharat darash he had another drashav and this is from parashat kitavot at adonayam martayyam byadonayam ir kayyam so if you look back here you'll see in source 2 right after the last of the mitzvot that Moshep presents which is viduimas wrote Moshe says ayomazadonayam alaykam insabhqala sotah who came ahead of them sotim sotamazam alaykam alaykam alaykam alaykam alaykam alaykam alaykam alaykam alaykam alaykam alaykam alaykam alaykam alaykam alaykam alaykam alaykam alaykam here's the breed at adonayam martayyam nobody knows that that means have you elevated god if you make a declaration of god you've acted on god unclear leo the hallohim but you've done this hematah for him to be your god and you'll follow his ways vadonayam ir kayyam and god has done the same thing back to you leo dolam schoolah in other words you have a symbiotic relationship with god which is you've done something to elevate god to single god out whatever it is and he's done the same with you what's the drasha on that amar leham back in la khatat yamar le makadosh bahu kashaym sha sittem oh ti khativa a khat bahulam a faniya sat klam khativa a khat bahulam a bah no lama bah in other words a karash bahu wa sis ashamam yir kayom just like you have declared god to be singular in this world i will declare you to be singular bahulam habah what is alam habam iin good question evidently they saw he was further enamored so they went further and said vyota ota kharat arash now by the way if you think about it these drash so don't seem to connect at all and seems to be okay i drasha one drasha do drasha today we'll report all of them to you far be it this series of statements in the zephth about one meeting between the students from bijua is a string which which is a is the hutam shulash love me right in our take it's a three-fold cord bound together watch if you are a kharat arash and he quoted a pasuk from the end of cohelat divere hacha minka darunotu kumas mroten itu weem uh the words of the hacha mina are like cattle prads and like nails that are planted it's a weird imagery that goes all over the place so he explained it mador van zam acha mita para love yachayim the olam a cattle prod guides the cow when you hit them it's a plow properly so we can bring life into the world food afdi re'torah anan el-achayim the olam in the same way the words of tarah or the words of hacha min are life into the world shinam are it's kaimi there we know that imador van zemit al-tall but think about a cattle prod is something small you could pick it up and throw it ekhlaf came de re'torah maybe de re'torah are light tama lomar so what's the next image mas me rote mas mare is a nail right ee ein a kassarine voluetareen but a nail is metal it doesn't grow tama lomar into it and therefore the next word is planted so i think it's planted grows mina tiyapare vera vee hafti re'torah parin vera veen just like a sapling grows and bears fruit same thing with the words of tarah right so we now have all these non asympthetic images of tar things that don't hang together non-harmonious images of tarah but which put together give us the picture of what tarah is tarah is something that brings life into the world tarah is something that's fixed and yet grows and and and bears fruit so the end of the pasu mentions balay asupote what's balay asupote el-achayim nithnasim vyotrin asupote asupote this refers to the scholars who sit in groups from him al-tamei tamei al-tahor tahor al-tamei min komov al-tahor min komov and they adjudicate cases now revos on asari is not done shamayomar adam bidato maybe a guy might think ho illa veicha maimi tamei tamei nithil al-matarine now this is revos on asari are talking remember beicha mai beit hillel cease with the destruction so this is immediately afterwards since we have beit hillel mention i disagreeing isponio sev isponimatir we have disagreements within qachamim lamaani lameitor amiata why should i study tarah who's the i the i is the amcha the i is the non-qacham why should i study after all they have different opinions tamud loma therefore what does the tarah say now this is the tarah ela ha'd dvarim that ela dvarim is the assertadi wrote call al-dvarim nith new meiro echad the end of the pasucan coel it is all given by one shepherd ela ha'd baran one god created the tarah parna sachad natanan one leader that's moche i gave it to us ribon klamasim baruchu amarot was said by god now what does that mean a fatah asalee bhachadir echadarim turn your heart into compartmentalized rooms in other words learn how to hear different sides of an argument and different positions vaklis baad dvarib echamayb echamayb echamayb echamayb dvarimatayl al-dvarimatiminu dvarimatimin now at the end of this whole narrative that the students gave to ribishua ribishua says amarlam aindor yatom shirab al-uzr sharui bhacham if riba al-uzr want azari is with us we don't have an orphan generation what the heck is going on and what's an orphan generation where are we here so to clarify and i'm going to go off text here because we have to bring it all together rabalazim and azaria this is happening during the generation immediately following the destruction the leaders of that generation are rabi al-yazim or bhoshua rabbangam leel is the nasiya sunhedrin rabalazim and azaria is the young leader who gets put in rabmigam leel's place during the ouster rabakim is a young youngest student who is not yet a power player that's the picture picture this happening in the year 80 or something now why would anybody think it's a doriatom for very obvious reasons the bhachamik das have been destroyed all we have is yabna a former roman prisoner of war camp that we've turned into an academy that's what we got what is rabalazim and azaria do so if you recall from the story it's on the page one rabangam leel was ousted because of his treatment of rabashua and rabalazim and azaria was put in his place the first thing they did was they got rid of the bouncer if you recall in the story there was a guy at the door who would not let you in unless you passed some sort of an ethics test you had to be really virtuous and rabalazim and azaria said open the doors let everybody in now open the doors let everybody in is beautiful and we know of organizations in our day that have that policy about their shoals and their schools they want to let everybody in but as we all know that comes with a price is that if you let everybody in you have much less control over the standards in the place and you always have to see what's that where you're going to put the lines and what's the trade off rabalazim and azaria understands that because of all of what rabalazim and azaria is done is to allow everyone to come participate in the bait me drash not just the hachamim and so now what does rabalazim and azaria do he gives a dress shot what's his first dress shot about hachael why hachael because we're doing hachael in the oven we're having an aschim by an aschim vataf we're following with the coners bar who said is the way to publicize torus to get everybody there and he says i understand some people come and they're able to learn some people all come and all they can do is hear and some people will come and they'll be brought by their parents and the value is the reward given to their parents what does that mean that means that for a little kid to be sitting in a bait me drash and see people learning and see people teaching and see somebody getting excited about their about their new understanding of a toast vote is an fabulous value even if the kid has no idea what's being said it's an inherent value in that latte saqam of vian is not just some sort of a thing where oh you brought your kids so you get some points because you brought your kid it's the people who bring them or the parents get great reward because they're going to see their child grow into hacham because he had that experience or she had that experience and they're exposed at a young age and that's what he says that's why the torah commands us to bring everybody to hachael of course there's a practical reason he can't leave him at home alone but that's not what i'm trying to teach i'm trying to teach that being there for hachael being there is a tremendous experience that will have an impact on everybody and the impact of a ripple effect both up and down in generations so where does he go in the second drashat he says after all akodes barhu announced to us that we have a symbiotic relationship and just as we are declaring god's oneness in the world god is declaring our singularity whose singularity not the singularity of the hachamim not the singularity of the elite class the singularity of all of amisrael together mikah amaha israel goi akhad baarets goi akhad a single nation all of us together and if all of us together are testifying in our and our testimony to god's oneness in the world because it's amisrael's oneness in the world then that means everybody's invited for this great opportunity of studying torah and so then he goes to the last drashat and the last drashat talks about the nature of torah study because for most people on the outside coming in saying i don't get it most people by the way in their adult life ask the sixth grade question you know what the sixth grade question is when you teach a kid humash and rashi and then finally you introduce him to a rambhan and rashi says that uh... alish mode begins the way it does because it's because according to brothel loves amis ralph and raman says it's a literary consideration or the sixth grader asks who's right and it takes a lot of work to get on the point of saying they're both right and there's a few other answers that are right and there's a there's a whole palette of possible truths that emerge from this six graders don't get it a lot of people attitude towards torah even in their adult years is the same thing and so our velocity is are you through this beautiful drashat of the different ways to look at torah suddenly brings life into the world something gets fixed and it grows something which all of it all the different aspects are all divine and therefore your job your challenge is to be able to compartmentalize and to hear the arguments in favor the arguments against and that of course is how our big midrash will be filled with hanasim hanasim vataf who will yield me do the arurat ashram kolayami and so the lesson of haqel which pyrovelazim and azaria's time is a mood issue it's been put to bed it's not going to happen till we rebuild nonetheless the lesson of haqel the imagery of haqel and the underlying principles of haqel are something that he makes as part of his educational program and part of what turned this little building in yogna into a powerhouse whose voices echo two thousand plus years later uh... in an amazing way and so ashranu that we had such great uh... leaders with great such great foresight as um... as uh... rebelazim and azaria uh... was able to see that we have to make the torah in its purity without diluting it accessible and available to all of amisrael because it's our job to attest to the singularity of amisrael because that reflects on the singularity of ashram shmai sralat mai mohino adonai akhad [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
