Last week we raised some major questions on the Mishnayot in Chapter 2. In particular we explored how the emphasis on tradition, of one sage receiving and transmitting the mesorah from one generation to the next abruptly ends with Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai. It was Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai, who the Gemara teaches chose to reestablish the Sanhedrin in Yavneh that created this sharp change in Jewish history. However, we are still left with question needing answers:
- Why in Mishna 12 does Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai list his students’s praises? What does it mean that Rabbi Eliezer ben Hurkenos was like a cemented pit that never lost a drop? What does it mean that Rabbi Elazar ben Arach was like an increasing river?
- In Mishna 12 there is a conflicting tradition as to which student of Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai was the greatest. How could there be conflicting traditions? Would it not be obvious? After all the Mishna doesn’t just describe these two Rabbis as being greater than the others, but rather greater than all of the others combined
- Mishna 13 highlights Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai asking his students to go out and see what is the proper way in which someone should live. At the conclusion of the Mishna, Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai says that he “prefers the words of Rabbi Elazar ben Arach over your (the other Rabbis) words., for included in his words are your words.” It would seem as if this Mishna provided the necessary proof as to who was the greatest Rabbi in Mishna 12—Rabbi Elazar ben Arach! How and why would there be a different tradition?
To answer these questions we need to dig even deeper into these Rabbis’ history and characters. As we think back to Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai, we find that not only does the location of the Mesorah change, but also the way in which it is transmitted. There are two pieces of Gemara that share an intertwined story of the life of one of Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai’s students—Rabbi Eliezer ben Hurkenos. The Gemara in tractate Bava Metzia (59b) shares the famous story known as ‘Tanur Shel Akhnai’ in which Rabbi Eliezer ben Hurkenos was excommunicated from the rest of the community for failing to adhere to decisions made by the majority of the Rabbis. The story continues in the Gemara in tractate Sanhedrin (68a) where the Gemara tries to identify whether or not Rabbi Akiva learned a specific law from Rabbi Yehoshua or from someone else. To prove its point, the Gemara continues the story from Bava Metzia and describes how the Rabbis (including Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Yehoshua) came to see Rabbi Eliezer ben Hurkenos at his deathbed. Interestingly, the fact that the Rabbis sat a distance of four Amot away from Rabbi Eliezer ben Hurkenos, helps us corroborate the previous story of his excommunication in that the sages did not want to get too close. Now at the end of his life the sages have come to ask him some final questions. In answering the questions, Rabbi Eliezer ben Hurkenos laments the years wasted in solitude unable to teach Torah. The one time he was able to share Torah was to his prized student Rabbi Akiva. While answering the questions of the sages, he passes away, causing Rabbi Yehoshua to remove the ban of excommunication on Rabbi Eliezer ben Hurkenos. The Gemara concludes that we can see that Rabbi Akiva in fact did not learn the law from Rabbi Yehoshua but rather he learned it from Rabbi Eliezer ben Hurkenos.
Just when the Gemara seems to have come to its conclusion, it quickly changes course and dramatically says, “Gamra MiRebbie Eliezer ViLo Savra” ; “Yes, Rabbi Akiva learned the law from Rabbi Eliezer ben Hurkenos, however, he was incapable of understanding it until he met Rabbi Yehoshua. What a tragic story! Not only have years passed by with Rabbi Eliezer ben Hurkenos living in isolation incapable of sharing the incredible depth of his Torah knowledge with others, but the one time in which he believes he has shared his Torah with the next generation, it turns out to not have even happened! How could Rabbi Akiva not grasp and understand the teaching of Rabbi Eliezer ben Hurkenos? What are we to make of this incredibly depressing story?
If you recall, the Mishna in Pirkei Avot describes Rabbi Eliezer ben Hurkenos as being a “Bor Sheino Miabed Tipa” ; “A cemented pit which never loses a drop.” This description provides the necessary information to understand the incompatibility between Rabbi Eliezer ben Hurkenos and Rabbi Akvia. Precisely what made Rabbi Eliezer ben Hurkenos so special is exactly what made it impossible for him to be accessible to Rabbi Akiva. The Midrash in Shir Hashirim Rabbah highlights this difference between these great sages in the metaphors in which they choose to describe Torah. For Rabbi Eliezer ben Hurkenos, Torah was something that could only be acquired through transmission. Until this point in history, Torah was a static body of knowledge transmitted from one generation to the next. As such Rabbi Eliezer ben Hurkenos saw Torah as a giant ocean of knowledge. To transmit Torah to the next generation, one must share its entirety. In that sense, Rabbi Eliezer ben Hurkenos truly embodied his description as a cement pit that never loses a drop. Torah is something that is contained and can be passed forward. On the other hand, Rabbi Akiva uses very different metaphors to describe Torah—smelling an etrog, filling from a stream, and lighting a candle from a candle. For Rabbi Akiva, transmission of Torah means that Torah is not something that is static but rather something that can grow and be shared. It is not limited to one concrete pit but rather increases with each student’s learning.
Dr. Devora Steinmetz in her paper, “The Death of Rabbi Eliezer” summarizes this idea as follows:
“Teaching Torah, then, is not simply about transmitting knowledge; it is about helping the student to understand it. And the student’s ability to understand, I would suggest, is not just a question of how well the teacher explains the teaching or even how well the teacher explains the reasoning—the sevara—behind the teaching. It has to do also with the teacher’s ability to make the teaching accessible to the student within the student’s own experience and understanding, with the teacher’s ability to meet the student where the student is and to allow the student to incorporate the teaching into his own conceptual and experiential framework. This is why, on this conception, Torah grows as it is transmitted—because the student’s Torah is not merely a copy of his teacher’s Torah. It is inevitably new Torah, Torah that now exists in addition to the teacher’s Torah, because the same teaching truly understood by a different person is a different teaching.”
Rabbi Akiva was at the forefront of the philosophies of chiddush, of creativity and innovation. Tragically as we saw in our story, he was unable to understand and process the static Torah of Rabbi Eliezer ben Hurkenos.
Perhaps we can suggest that this can serve as the foundation for the the debate found in our Mishna in Pirkei Avot as to who was the greatest student of the Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai. Following the destruction of the Temple, Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai chooses to move the Jewish establishment and center of Torah to Yavneh. Where else he figured would the encyclopedia and fixed Torah knowledge be safe? For that reason, Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai suggests that Rabbi Eliezer ben Hurkenos, a cement pit of knowledge, outweighs all the other Rabbis. However, something happened in the Jewish community after they moved to Yavneh. Suddenly, the method of transmission was no longer effective. The Temple had been destroyed and a new reality for Jewish tradition was necessary—a reality that involved personalization, creativity, and innovation. For that reason, we find a second opinion in the Mishna that it was Rabbi Elazar ben Arach that was the greatest. It is Rabbi Elazar ben Arach, after all, that the Mishna describes as a “Maayan Hamitgaber” ; “an increasing river.” No longer would tradition only be received from the previous generation, “Kiblu Meihem.” New Torah could now be created. Creativity, and an overflowing increasing river was now necessary to keep Jewish tradition alive.
The uncertainty of the Mishna as to which student was greatest, is indeed representative of the internal struggle of Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai. As a Rabbinic leader of the Jewish people, he now served as a bridge between the way Mesorah and Torah was, and how it now needed to be in the future. For this reason, we find Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai instruct his students in the next Mishna to “Tzeu U’reu” ; “Go out and see” what truly is the best way to live life. After hearing each of his students’ presentations, it is obvious as to why Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai preferred the words of Rabbi Elazar ben Arach to his other students. Rabbi Elazar ben Arach’s methodology towards creativity and innovation was reflective of what would now be needed for the Jewish people.
What emerges from this discussion are really two competing view points and approaches towards Halacha, Jewish law, and the Torah and its transmission. On the one hand we find the more conservative Rabbi Eliezer ben Hurkenos who represents a Judaism that is based solely on its precedents passed down from generation to generation. On the other hand, is the more liberal Rabbi Elazar ben Arach who represents a Judaism that builds, is Mitgaber, on its past, confronting and adapting to modernity. It is this belief and commitment to innovation and creativity of Rabbi Elazar ben Arach that serves as the foundation for our modern Rabbinic Judaism.
This strand of thought focused on a Judaism that adapts and that can create more Torah with each generation certainly speaks to many of us as Modern-Orthodox Jews. We make a commitment both to our sacred past, yet understand that we live in a modern world that needs a dynamic and not a static Halachaik system. However, there are limits even to this approach. In fact, one can even say that such a path is dangerous not only for those that follow it, but for Judaism as a whole. In fact the Gemara in Tractate Shabbat (147b) shares an eye-opening story about Rabbi Elazar ben Arach. So confident in his abilities to understand and innovate in Judaism, the Gemara teaches that Rabbi Elazar ben Arach decided to leave Yavneh and go to the North, to the wine country of Perugitha to establish his own center of learning. However, when he arrived at the place, “his learning vanished.” So significant was this loss of Torah, that when Rabbi Elazar ben Arach came back home to Yavneh, he couldn’t even read from the Torah scroll. The Gemara here is teaching us that the path of innovation and creativity in Judaism can be risky and even dangerous. To traverse such a path, one must not be isolated from the rest of the community, but rather must be a part of the community itself. When you innovate outside of the scope of the broader Rabbinic community, when you try to make changes on your own without the support of others, when you travel alone to the North like Rabbi Elazar ben Arach, you run the risk of losing everything—of losing your Torah like just like Rabbi Elazar ben Arach.
What an important lesson for each of us as modern Jews. Given all the recent discussion about innovation and changes in Traditional Orthodox Judaism, what an important and relevant message. May we each find the courage to continue the tradition of Rabbi Elazar ben Arach and Rabbi Akiva of generating new Torah through creativity and innovation while keeping and maintaining the balance of a close-knit and diverse Jewish community.