I read an article that talked about a man who reads a page of the Talmud a day. In this article I found two things interesting. The idea that Rabbis were not only scholars but also magicians. And the concept of using Elephant's as walls.
I will first address the ideas of these Rabbis and their hocus pocus. The thought that Rabbi's could be magicians seems very un-Jewish. Also very unrealistic. One statement that caught my eye reads, "Yonatan ben Uzziel, was so powerfully holy that 'when he sat and engaged in Torah study, any bird that flew over him was immediately incinerated.'" When I first read this all I thought about was Satan and how some people say that if you are a sinner or unholy, that when you walk into a church you will catch flames and burn. At many points in history magic was considered to be associated with Satan. So that was my connection although I have no belief that that is what he intended to convey in his article. Now touching on the Jewish connection. In Jewish belief as well as many other religions, it is said that man was created in the image of god, but of course god is perfection and humans are imperfect. God is this supreme, supernatural being so endowing powers such as magic on humans, even the holiest humans - Rabbis, seems very un-jewish to me.
Now lets talk a little about this weird Elephant situation. This is more of a random, silly, fun thing. In the Talmud they cover anything and everything that could possibly happen. In the article it says that while Rabbi Yehuda believes that you can use an Elephant as a wall in your Sukkah, Meir says you cannot. There are several parts that interested me. 1) Not everyone just has an elephant easily accessible to make a sukkah out of, maybe if you live in Africa or Asia, but still... 2) It says that the only way all rabbis will agree is if the elephant cannot walk away, so a tied down elephant counts. I highly doubt that some ropes will keep an elephant in place this long. It is a large mammal. 3) It says that even if the elephant dies halfway through the holiday you may prop up the corpse and continue to use this elephant as a wall. Why would you want to use a dead animal as a wall? Why is that even allowed? Its dead!!! And propping up a dead animal for your own personal gain seems a little selfish. The elephant was once a living being, it should at least have some dignity in its death.
But if you are down with sitting next to a rotting elephant carcass and eating and sleeping there in the shade of its stench, then by all means, please do!
One thing I'd say is that while for most people an elephant is out of reach, for others elephants are probably more available for walls than other materials. Perhaps the reason this issue was ever brought up is because some people didn't have anything else to make walls out of. Also, I think the point of using the dead elephant is just because you can't take down the sukkah halfway through the holiday, so even if the elephant dies, you have to continue using it.
ReplyDeleteWow Shosh, are you getting mystical on us? Pretty heavy talmud statements. About the bird, I think that he was putting out such a high spiritual vibration that a bird would incinerate because he was buzzing at such a high frequency. But any bird would probably feel that and not fly over him. We are told that if someone gets too high on mystical thought that they can pass into the next world (die) because they just forget to come back from the other planes (realms) they enter when in meditation. Famous mystics have died by just "slipping away" this way. So maybe the bird flying over his head is so influenced by his spiritual "highness:. But you know how I am…..About the elephant, wow, guess it just goes to show there were elephants in the Jewish lands and that people really do get involved in preposterous situations. I would not use an elephant for a sukkah. yuck. Maybe put a sukkah on top of an elephant and go for a ride!! hahah!! crazy people. All in the spirit of PURIM!!
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