The Image of Biblical Figures By Rabbi Shai Finkelstein

we are starting now a new a new series of classes that will take us for a few weeks and the title is really which means how to look at biblical figures and how to look at biblical figures uh we have our heroes obviously in tanak but sometimes um those heroes are making mistakes and uh we need to understand how should we approach their mistakes and also how does it affect how you learn tanak one of the most beautiful things that are taking place in Israel uh which is uh definitely a new thing in in learning tanak is that there is a revolution of tanak learning here in Israel um tanak we learn not through the but we learn tanak through tanak a b we see the tanak comes Al life right here in isra you go to places you can identify them you can understand exactly what's going on but that obviously also create a discussion an interesting discussion between recent Scholars of how to view tanak how to view biblical figures and how to um approach their flaws their deficiences there are mistakes and things like that so I would like to start with something very extreme we'll give it little bit of history but we will see how it basically set the set the bar especially for more let's call it Center to the right Judaism and what do I mean by that RAB arler we know him from lakehood right he's the one who really established lakehood um he was born in 1892 passed away in 1962 he was in Russia and he moved toot he moved to the United States in 1941 okay now in this little article from the AR IES so we have something very interesting it says the following he put it out he put his this article in a in a yish newspaper in 1935 that's in Russia okay so April 16 1935 let's see what he says and then we will try to figure out obviously why he was so upset so he says the following I was recently shown the last few issues of the newspaper hint or hint hint means today and I did a little research on this yish newspaper It Was Written in idish um had a tremendous distribution and it operated from 1908 to 1939 now I'm sure you all remember what oper in Russia in Russia and it was a yish newspaper um I look around I'm sure you all remember life without iPhone I iPad computers and things like that and people read newspapers you know people read newspapers not only the news that they wanted to uh read and not only uh and not only the sport section they read the newspaper from cover to cover and that was what you do okay you read newspapers and you read books when you had time and obviously you read it in the language that you understand which was especially for Jews yish so he was recently shown the last few issues of the newspaper mind how shocked I was to see the terrible blasphemies and the violation of the sanctity of our holy Patriarchs and matriarchs they that they contained the laws of our holy Torah obligate me to react to this unheard of profanation of Truth and violation of the Dignity of the Jewish Nation I I feel compelled to depart for my usual practice and to issue the following public statement okay whoa he read something okay very good question I did a little bit of a research on that he was also known I think his father-in-law was also I forgot his father-in-law's name but he was also a major scholar in Russia and he already had a little shle there uh and a and I think a SHO and theil and the Yesa he was known I don't think as known as he became when he came here but he was known and he definitely if he you know wrote something in the newspaper and the newspaper put it there and he understood that he can affect public opinion I guess he had some kind of a status so what bothered him so much okay so it's something about the sanctity of our forefathers right okay so the holy forefathers who were the most luminous loftiest and purest personalities I can't see anything the holiest creatures represent the found the foundation of Eternal spiritual Vitality the Wellsprings ofed and the full range of positive attributes for the entire world for all of mankind the AOS are in fact held in the highest esteem by Every Nation on Earth the WTH enemies of Jews did not dare temper with their luminous and holy image okay you can already hear that he was upset because I guess someone said something negative or portray the forefathers in a very negative way and he says even the go don't do it how dare you Jews do it now pause we are talking about 1935 Russia do we know well obviously we do little bit of History especially before communism already in the 18th century what do we have what kind of a movement the Enlightenment and the enlightenment basically caused something that for example in the beginning of the 20th century in one of his most famous poems I think I quote it right which means basic the enlightenment caused everyone to depart from the B midash everyone was gone by the wind it's not only the movie but really gone by the wind Gone By the Light and I am the only one who stayed in the bait midash in the dark in like a little cave because the light is where outside and here in the bet midash with the AL no it's the neol right we sit here as the neols now in addition there was anticip and no no not emancipation emancipation which means basically Jews were able to go and to be admitted to colleges and to go to more of the general world and to start hiding their Jewish Identity or to get read quote unquote of their Jewish identity all this Nostalgia okay know what is Nostalgia that everyone was and everyone has a had a beard and everyone was a and a rabbi and a mo and a it's not true sorry to burst your bubble there were many but most of them probably were not now yes there was always a sense of Europe and a sense of the and all of it but in terms of and to be what we called being Orthodox that was not exactly the case also in the 18th century we know the Judaism experienced a revolution in terms of Reform conservative and Orthodox Orthodox by the way just like as a side note was probably the first one to coin this idea and he didn't like it because being an what does it mean Orthodox Orthodox means what the only true way and when you read these writings he understand that there are many ways to understand T but there is one so he had to coin this idea of being Orthodox so we have reform conservative and Orthodox and obviously changes in Judaism that happens especially in the reform and the conservative movements okay in addition in addition we have the development of what we called is what does it mean is some in the Orthodox circles and some were not in the Orthodox circles that basically our doing what we call today in the 21st century biblical criticism what does it mean Biblical criticism you look at tanak and you see issues and you ask yourself what's going on here so some of it was already addressed by the talmood and answers were given but not all the answers are satisfying and some people did not like those answers and they start developing an alternative interpretation to contradictions that you can find in the Tor I'll give you two was Moshe The Humble the most humble person in the Torah or in the world yes isn't that very interesting that he writes it on himself it says in the and Moshe was the most humble person on Earth says Moshe okay so obviously we have a little problem now Hashem said it but who wrote it okay now the last eight PIM in the Torah that describes Moses funeral and the eulogies and the amount of days that They Mourn for mosu now Yeshua hold it be careful you are recorded right we believe that MOS wrote the entire right from so what do we do with the last by the way it's not my question that bat asked question the gives two answers which both of them creates problems one if Yoshua wrote Pim who told me that Yeshua didn't write other Pim B it says BEDA it may be mosha wrote it but BMA what does it mean bemma so he wrote it with tears so you still how can you write even with tears how can you write your about your own funeral now some people do it by the way you know they pretend to be dead to hear what what is being said about them and then they come back to life but the idea is Moshe is not like that obviously so we have we have issues with many things also you have when you compare seim to all the other books you definitely see different in language and also you ask yourself okay why some of them it's what are being repeated all theim are dealing with it so that's the list of the problems that we have okay um and then part of this biblical criticism you have to deal with deficiencies of our forefathers and other biblical figures one of the most famous ones is obviously David and Bacha okay one of the things that obviously interest so many people and so many commentators because it's a difficult thing a difficult phenomena a difficult uh event that took place that it's very hard to explain now I know I know that talmud tries really really to try to solve the issue but if you are convinced wonderful if you are not convinced that's a problem I'll give you another one the says if someone says that David committed a sin he's a he he's mistaken he make he made a mistake now the problem is that the tanak itself says that after came to David and told him what did you do and he gave him this the parable about this little sheep says what kti so now you want to tell me that when David says kti he didn't really mean to sayti I don't understand okay so you got you got the message now the problem is and this is something very very important is that now you have few ways to deal with it you can one way you're just going to totally ignore all the deficiencies you're going to put them on a pedestal you're going to say you don't understand them even when it says K they not doesn't mean really and therefore they are holy don't touch them right problem if they are so holy and they are Saints basically what can I learn from them I am not a saint I'm not that Holy so basically I can't learn anything from them okay The Other Extreme is oh they all like me like me like you no problem they are exactly the same people and therefore they are they have deficiencies I think that's little strange to say that they are like you and me are totally like you and me because with all the respect you know their names are in the tanak not ours and then you have h i we call it the third way to say that they are very holy but they still have deficiencies and we can learn from it and despite the deficiencies they were chosen to be a b and c which makes it difficult because if they committed those sins how come that they are still what still kept positions or became whatever leaders okay now in addition to it there is what I will call hashkafa and what do I mean by hashkafa when you start talking about biblical figures in what we will say Bea that's what this 21st century expression like Piers how do you transmit to especially to Children then toim to be a little bit more na or more completeness or wholesomeness of those people you talk to a child who is six seven years old and you tell him about AB but but I want you to know you know AB was a horrible person when he the way he treated Ishmael oh he made a tremendous Mistake by leaving Israel but he was a great person a seven-year-old cannot comprehend the grade the problem is if you Engrade in him that he was holy holy holy holy when he reached age 16 and he goes online and he sees an article that says that Abraham was ab and C he has no tools to do what to handle the information do you know how many religious Yeshiva Boys and seminar girls or whatever went to University and went to a tanak class in the university and then they were shocked so educationally we also have an issue how do you balance the what on one hand to be analytical and to try to understand and analyze things logically at the same time to understand that you're talking about biblical figures and maybe they have somewhat of a different status or maybe a different look that you need to look at so those are the issues and why did I give you all this uh introduction because 1935 in Russia leave alone bolism communism whatever it was in 1935 the problem is that they are feel threatened by it what is it assimilation we have the enlightenment that already started before we have is and then you have what asala the what hostility of the Russians hostility of the of the Russians and then you have yish newspapers that infiltrating every Jewish Home and they have an essay about AB Sarah RKA criticizing them so it's not only the Jews the non-jews telling me that why that I crucified Jesus and I'm a horrible person now even my heroes that I try in theer to teach my children that why that they were holy and we are a holy nation now the shishan newspaper gets to the house and abam is not that Holy and Sarah is not that Holy so ra Cutler understand that what he needs to basically say a statement in public in order to try to influence and we'll see what he's asking people to do to try to defend Judaism that's what he feels that's why I gave you this introduction okay how deep the shame and how profound the anguish then the that this despicable blasphemy should appear in a yish so-called nationalist National nationalistic Paper worse yet is the shame that this very newspaper which compromises every principle for financial gain did not realize that its violation of the Dignity of the aot AOS should I say would arouse protest from its broadest circle of readers this protest besides the ciling this outrage also serves as a source of encouragement to the religious community did the Publishers really expect people to ignore each def def def defamation of the Creator his Torah and the holy Patriarchs who from the very basis for the continued experience of existence sorry of cloud Israel maybe I should take off my glasses the worst victims of this betrayal are our youth for whom these stories are an Insidious women which women which can poison their entire way of thinking do you see where it's coming from especially in this era of widespread ignorance ignorance yeah the children some of them don't go to a Jewish Day School they basic basically get the newspaper and on Friday they read the newspaper about the para the problem is that the article says that the a the are not exactly great so their only education and their only access for any Jewish information is from that newspaper and that newspaper basically poison their brain the what refering yeah basically what they call biblical criticism and we'll see in a minute they he is not explicitly saying that no but if you want I think I could fight some gillon of the heint um and you can find it I think uh online and to see I mean I can just imagine what they said when so many young people are not even Vaguely Familiar with that the Kash writes about the Holy forefathers and the C and certainly do not know what kazal say about them that will instead learn about the patri from the hind perspective CED from the called from the Kash motives which are permeated with cynical ridle and the spirit of yeska that was the Jewish communist division so you can understand that like every other newspaper one of the most important thing for newspaper is what money circulation and circulation and they get publicity from whever they get the money and they write whatever they want to write so he says every Jew possessing a spark of Faith to whom the honor of Cl isels is De is thus forbidden to allow such heretical writings which the rambam deems worse than ulter to enter his home so not to transgress you shall not bring anything despicable into your home the what what does that mean ah okay yeah okay very good basically you put this newspaper in excommunication you ban it you don't bring it to the house they will learn that we don't buy their newspapers it must be emphasized the Torah law considers whoever reads this newspaper culpable as an accessory to a transgression for this travesty is written and published with the reader in mind every Jew must spare his household from the destru Ive influence of such literature moreover if we continue to tolerate such falsehoods in our homes how can we continue to beseech God to answer our prayers in the Merit of the very same Patriarchs and matriarchs that this CS malign understandably it is impossible to fully convey even one of the merried facets of their subject of this subject in this confines of a letter this inadequate y on our part however does not give us license to remain completely silent either I appeal to the Rabon as well as to the ordinary God-fearing Jews to protest this sacr as strongly as possible who knows but with our previous silence on other matters of outrage caused this present outrage to take place May hasem heal the breaches within the people and rebuild his spiritual ruins okay by the way some so so back then he was already Riva of Kels who writes these words and signs blah blah blah okay yes I remember studying literature and Professor don't theage other words just because people write something or publ something it doesn't mean it's true right okay oops never mind never mind I'll drink it all so don't don't worry don't worry about it it's fine it's fine it's fine don't worry about it thank you so okay so I think you got the point I don't think R and Coto would like to read this hint newspaper and that's before he went to the states in 1941 that was still in Russia okay now basically he's against obviously this newspaper but is also against what any criticism on the aot and the IM that will ruin the image this holy image that we try to what to build okay now before we try to challenge what he said we fully understand the reason the question is does the reason justify what he's trying to do or there is an alternative way to do it what do I mean by that I understand you want to protect the holy pure neot of your youth the question is is that the right way by ghetto ghettoizing them in a way and by not allowing any other opinions to infiltrate the house because maybe there is another way which is a write other articles in the newspaper basically confronting it because here it doesn't say okay you know what I will show you how to analyze aam's deficiency in a different way he just say no there is no deficiency okay there is no criticism and this is obviously a way that we already in the 21st century see how it evolved okay now I understand the problem but the question is is that the only way to deal with it okay now okay so what I would like you to do is let's learn ramban I don't think we can suspect the ramban to be a pluralist liberalist um leftist uh I don't know whatever you want to call anyone who we think or we want to coin someone who is against Shalom um ramban had nothing to do with everything that we said he lived in the third 13th century uh he has no clue who is raron Cotler okay he has no clue who are the Communists okay he is just the Paran of the Torah okay so take a look at one of the one of theim and we'll see something interesting there was a famine in the land went down to to dwell there why because the famine was great in the land of Isel was too heavy he couldn't survive and when he approached and he says to his wife page two uh page two at the at the top of page two exactly so when when the Egyptians will see me will see us they will say Ah that's his wife so let's kill him and they will take you so please say that you are my sister so I will get some gifts and I will also what leave okay AB is making two decisions one to leave Israel and to go to mits because of the famine the second to endanger his wife to ask her to lie and to endanger her right I think that we can all agree that the first decision is more tolerable there is famine in the land hasem told him go to the land of Israel right and I'll give you and I'll give you and I'll give you he comes to Israel and what do we have famine so what do you want from him so he goes down to MIT there is food the second one we not happy how can you put your wife in such danger I go somewhere else there is food I'm not sure that there was famine all over the Middle East besides MIT and even if there was okay maybe you should go to MIT tell Sarah wait here it's not that far come there go buy food bring food to I don't know there are other ways so the first decision the second decision we are like what are you doing take a look at the ran so went down to because of the famine in order to survive and the Egyptians basically took advantage of him to take his wife punish them with tremendous plagues so after that took him out from with tremendous flock and gold and silver and also he commanded to send them out um I will skip a bit the ramban is saying that because the ran coined this expression whatever happened to their forefathers will happen to us so same thing with ab ab went down to MIT he was abused but thenm took him out and gave him gifts and all of that the the Jewish people will have the same fate which means they will go to MIT they will be abused then will take them out wonderful until now go to the same paragraph the fourth line from the end of the paragraph you see V okay bisha you should know that Abu committed a sin Bish not intentionally but Bish and what was the sin that he brought his he brought his Pious wife to confront what a transgression because par could be with her because of what because he was afraid to die a and then what meaning he should have trust AEM and when he goes down to MIT he should say what she is my wife ah but he knows that they will kill her kill him and take her uh don't nod your head I don't like what he has to say okay not because of the just because of the expectation but in a minute also that he left Israel so leaving Israel because of the famine was also a sin why because hem told him go to the land of Israel because ifem wants he will save him from from the famine and because of that because of those sins his descendants were punished to be slaves in mitah okay at the beginning when I made this assciates I thought maybe not to put his name the ramban and just to ask you who do you think wrote it and it will be it will be fascinating probably to hear your answers um very good so Rabon Cotler what would he say about the ramban now raon Cotler knew the ramban believe me he knew the ramban but he still said what he said so first and foremost what I want us to remember is that and we spoke about it so many years I don't know how many years I'm teaching atou probably in maybe 2016 well is that I try always to show you the link the connection the influence the impact of the era the years the place that you live in and what you right there is a correlation not saying that that's the decisive factor or the only Factor but there is definitely influence andler could learn the ran on Shabbat and still write whatever he wrote in the H why because he felt he needs to ignore the ran and definitely not to publicize to everyone that what that because people will misunderstand it and people will basically have will have an image of Abraham as just a regular person instead of what of this holy forefather okay so I understand raron kotler's perspective I I personally not sure that this is the only way to deal with it but now let's talk about the ramban the ramban 13th century well no that's easy Spain and um the ramban Learned Kash and he wrote an interpretation the basis for his interpretation he says in his he looked at Rashi he looked at the iben Ezra and other things but rash and izra were the goto commentators that he would go and analyze them and basically the ramban's point of view is what that Abraham committed a sin by doing what what's the common denominator between the two decisions that Abraham did didn't have enough right have enough Faith or trust in God now I want to ask you a question hasem says to Abraham go to the land of Israel for you a great nation blah blah all those great things he comes to Isel and the first thing he experience is what a famine hasem does not talk to him there is zero communication back then from the minute that hasm told him until he comes back to the land of Israel there's no communication that we know of I mean I know the Torah does not say anything so now you have a man with a woman with his wife you have lot and you have some like little bit of an Entourage and there is famine in the land of Israel what would you like Abraham to do I don't understand to D to hasem and to ask him for food if Hashem wants to save him Hashem should send him what little Mana a package right commun a communication to tell him what to to do but I don't understand what the ramban think that if I face a challenge I shouldn't do anything to overcome the challenge I need to wait for God to save me so obviously we have an issue of expectation how much expectation Divine expectations you have for me not to do anything and to rely on you on you on you goem and the Rani expecting Abraham to do it that's a b he says that but he also when he went down to MIT even though it was a known thing that they will take the wife and kill the husband he should say what yeah she's my she's my wife not my sister no she's my no he should have say she's my wife and not to say she's my sister now by the way why to say she's my sister because the idea in the ancient times was like that if she was beautiful or whatever and they think that they can bring her to the to the king they will pay the brother to give his sister for marriage and then they will bring it to the king to find favor in the eyes of the king oh to get money okay so now the thing is that the ran says that abah made a mistake again he again had to trust God to trust God in what I don't understand if the norm the social Norm was in Egypt was known who is she sister or wife if he says wife what would you think will happen immediately boom and take the wife so yeah but they will not kill him and they will get he will get money no no she will get married with I didn't say that the other that the choice is so great but why to lie and why to endanger her for what well to save his life oh to save his life that's very nice God would save your life so right that was the point so the thing is in is very good that's what we what I didn't understand why abam just didn't leave her there now you could say that abam was afraid to leave her there even for three four days no men to protector there are the Hittites the canites the jebusite whatever the site and basically they are also dangerous maybe not as dangerous as as the Egyptians but to leave a woman like that without any protection maybe he was afraid maybe that's the only thing I'm thinking about the what there's no and there is no food no no but I'm saying just to go for three days and to come back and I think you can make it in three days okay so the issue is might be yeah might be so I'm saying that the that the option to he suggested I don't know your name sorry Ben so Ben suggested that to leave her in Israel might be even more dangerous than bringing her to Egypt the brother yeah but still she will be taken yeah um they immediately I think she would have been taken but I understand that there is little bit more control from the brother okay now so that's what the ramban says now I'll take the ramban and I want to divide it into two one the recognition of a the ramban was not afraid to say there was a sin bisha obviously he didn't want to endanger Sarah but there was a sin the ramban did not think less about Abraham by saying that what that he and by the way all the sensors from the 13th century until today didn't erase it did not it's in everywhere even probably in the most Yesa you will have ramban and in that ramban you will open up per you bet don't tell them but it's there so he was not afraid to say it because he understood there was a sin here A B the interpretation itself the that he found it's not only my opinion we'll see later on that other says the same thing it's questionable it's questionable because it seems to be that the expectation that hem has from Abraham in terms of faith and is as we say in Hebrew it's it's little bit too much it's too lofty and the third thing is and this is the third thing is that in a way is based on what happened to abam right meaning he went to MIT so now you want to tell me that this is the reason for what for going to MIT but I thought that the reason was yourself and the brothers right so you can tell me there's not only one reason I understand there could be multiple reasons yes yes same thing that's what what the ran wants to show famine famine going down going down being abused being abused going out with tremendous amount of wealth doing the same thing so the idea is so the question is really on the ramban is that you try to basically highlight one sin when we know that there are multiple sins okay so that's the ran a different view on what Abraham did or didn't do is init in which is a mid a probably composed fifth or sixth Century n says the following so the idea of is not a ramban's invention it's from this mid because it says here go and what and pave the path for your children everything that it says about Abraham it's the same thing about his children when abrah reference to it says that there was a famine in the land when was in the land of Israel with his family it says already it has been two years of famine in the land of Israel in reference to it says that he went down to to Egypt to dwell there and when it reference to the people of of Israel it says also what they went down to regarding to it says to dwell there okay so they go one by one to show that everything that happened to abah happened to us um yeah I'm I'm skipping this is just this is little bit a little bit too much meaning it's just just a lot um what I want you to look at is basically according to yeah according to the midash is there is any problem with what Abraham did that's my point according to the midash any criticism on aam more more more more that just giving the the effect oh very good there is no criticism on on Abraham exactly the opposite whatever he did was in a way almost pre-ordained because what's the opening statement of the mid Hashem told Abraham what go out and pave the path for your children which means I purposely created famine for you to go down to Egypt for you to be in danger and to endanger your wife so I can put plagues on par I don't care if his name was Paro he was the head of the Dynasty and that was his name and then he's going to experience plagues and then he will what he will send you out with tremendous wealth which means everything that will that you will go through will be the exact thing that what that the Jewish people will go through and that's exactly my plan which means he really did not have any choice to do anything now why did I bring this midash I brought this midash to show two things a that the Ran's invention of it's not his it's but even more so it's the problem that I have from a from a commentary issue is that this mid that coined the idea of does not not find any faults in what Abraham did and the ran despite the fact that he says what he thinks that what that abam this is interesting this is something that I want you to think about until next week because next week we will continue so basically we have a very interesting thing here the the ramban is going in the same path but deviates and basically wants to show you that the ra that Abraham committed a sin now the only not the only one of the things I want you to think about is the question that we all grapple with and we have no answers many people tried y knowing and the ability to choose free will God might know exactly what he wants you to do but at the same time you don't know and you are making choices and your choices can lead to at the end obviously leads to what God planned so it might be that both can be right it might next week