deceitful men.
The literary accomplishments of the age did not end with the Mishnah and the Talmuds. About the same time as the Talmud, another great body of writings was being composed, the Midrash, which also consisted of commentaries - not upon the Oral Torah, the Mishnah, but upon some of the books of the Tanakh.
There were extensive Midrash writings on the Torah and on other books of the Bible including Proverbs. The following is an example from Proverbs that elaborates on the wisdom displayed by Solomon when being quizzed by the Queen of Sheba:
She gave him yet another test. She brought in boys and girls, all of the same appearance, all of the same height, all clothed the same. Then she said to him, “Distinguish the boys from the girls.” He immediately motioned to his eunuch to fetch some parched grain and nuts, and began passing them out. The boys unashamedly stuffed their tunics full, but the girls, being modest, [only] filled their kerchiefs. He then told the queen, “These are the boys and those are the girls. ” She said, “My son, you are a great sage!” (Visotzky 18-19)
Another example from the Midrash on Proverbs shows how a contrasting commentary illuminates different approaches to the wisdom of Solomon:
Do not answer a dullard in accord with his folly, else you will become like him (Prov. 26:4) What is said thereafter? Answer a dullard in accord with his folly, else he will think himself wise (Prov. 26:5) R. Huna said: Do not answer a dullard -in a place where people know both you and him. Why so? Else you will become like him - so that people would not say “Come see the sage having give and take with that fool.” R. Joshua be Levi said: Answer a dullard in accord with his folly - in a place where people would not know either you or him. Why so? Else he will think himself wise - so that people would not say , “Were it not that this sage is suspect in the matters that the fool is speaking about, would he not remain silent?” and it is said, Like a pebble in a heap of stones, so is paying honor to a dullard (Prov. 26:80). (Visotzky 108)
The Mishnah, the Talmuds, and the Midrash, all created after the fall of the Second Temple, produced a total design for living while under the subjugation of another people. As put by Jacob Neusner:
It emerged as a Judaism in which each of the elements of the Judaism of the Temple and cult would find a counterpart: (1) in place of the Temple, the holy people, in whom holiness endured even outside of the cult… (2) in place of the priesthood, the sage, the holy man qualified by learning… (3) in the place of the sacrifices of the altar, the holy way of life expressed through the carrying out of religious duties (mitzvot, “commandments”), and acts of kindness and grace beyond those commanded (maasim tovim, “good deeds”), and, above all, through studying the Torah. (I, 52-3)
To replace the sacrifice at the Temple the grace after meals created a personal ceremony for each family in their holiness interacting with God without the need of priestly intermediaries. Public prayer, observed three times a day, became a social event at the synagogue. The Sabbath remained a cornerstone of Jewish observance. The festivals mark the passage of time through the seasons and reflect on the history of the Israelites. The feast of the tabernacles, Sukkot, marks the end of agricultural toil and commemorates the wandering in the wilderness. Passover, Pessah, is the spring festival and celebrates the escape of Israel from bondage in Egypt. The Feast of Weeks, Shavuot or Pentecost, comes fifty days after Passover and celebrates the revealing of the Torah at Sinai. The Days of Awe are ten days that begin on Rosh Hashanah, the New Year, and end on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. These festivals and feasts mark the Jewish year and give continuity to the present and meaning to the past.
Jewish communities formed self-sufficient groups within empires and countries. They survived and many times thrived under the centuries of Christian and Islamic domination, although periodically they were persecuted, and in our own century subjected to near genocide. The rabbinic system of Judaism intentionally created the Jewish community as distinct. They wore special clothes, they ate special foods, they lived in special areas, they held specific jobs, and they even spoke special languages in some countries. They were Jews living dispersed within many countries but they were still Israelites. With the development of nation-states in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries this system began to deteriorate. In countries that began to democratize their governments, Jews became citizens. They were no longer just Jews, they were also American, French, English, and so on. They had new allegiances beyond their ethnic, religious communities (Neusner I, 171).
Reform Judaism began in the early part of the nineteenth century as a reaction to these new political circumstances. Jews believing that major reconstruction of the faith was necessary made changes in liturgy, dress, food, and purity to accommodate modern times. They accepted the moral laws of the Torah and the messianic message of a kingdom to come, but no longer saw Jews as a nation but as a religious community. In the mid nineteenth century the Orthodox movement began as a reaction to Reform Judaism. Its followers attempted to maintain more of the original teachings of the Dual Torah: trying to maintain as much of the law as possible while entering into the mainstream society for their livelihood. A third movement arouse, Conservative Judaism, that tried to take a middle path between Reform and Orthodoxy. It embraced keeping as much of the Torah as possible while also accepting many of the Reform Judaism’s positions on integrating into society (Neusner I, 13).
The great body of Jewish scriptures and commentaries are not static. Especially the Talmud and Midrash writings encourage active and ongoing debate and reinterpretation. The heritage of study and debate has produced formidable sages in each period, people who took the vast religious and philosophical heritage of the Israelites and made it live for their own time and for ages after. One of the most famous is Maimonides of the 12th Century. The following are two famous quotes by the master:
Do not imagine that character is determined at birth. We have been given free will. Any person can become as righteous as Moses or as wicked as Jereboam. We ourselves decide whether to make ourselves learned or ignorant, compassionate or cruel, generous or miserly. No one forces us, no one decides for us, no one drags us along one path or the other; we ourselves, by our own volition, choose our own way (Gates 8).
With regard to all human traits, the middle of the road is the right path. For example: Do not be hot-tempered, easily angered. Nor, on the other hand, should you be unfeeling like a corpse. Rather, take the middle of the road: keep an even disposition, reserving your anger for occasions when it is truly warranted. Similarly, do not cultivate a desire for luxuries; keep your eyes fixed on only genuine necessities. In giving to others, do not hold back what you can afford, but do not give so lavishly that you yourself will be impoverished. Avoid both hysterical gaiety and somber dejection, and instead be calmly joyful always showing a cheerful continence. Act similarly with regard to all the dispositions. This is the path followed by the wise (Gates 8).
The first quote is an eloquent statement of self-determinism, and the second could have as easily been made by the Buddha or Confucius. This tradition of wisdom is not a relic of the past. A 20th century example is the great scholar and teacher Abraham Joshua Heschel. Heschel left Poland in 1939 to teach in the United States, thereby avoiding the pogrom. He eventually settled at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York City where he taught until his death in 1972. His writings bring to life the concepts of the Torah in vivid, meaningful imagery for the contemporary mind. He takes Biblical concepts such as grandeur, the sublime, wonder, mystery, and awe and makes them reverberate with his intelligence and faith. The following is a sample:
The sublime may be sensed in things of beauty as well as in acts of goodness and in the search for the truth. The perception of beauty may be the beginnings of the experience of the sublime. The sublime is that which we see and are unable to convey. It is the silent allusion of things to a meaning greater than themselves…. It is that which our words, our forms, our categories can never reach. This is why the sense of the
