Ish Tam Yoshev Ohalim and Our Mishna Project
Adapted from Rabbi Braun’s sermon in 5776
This coming Thursday we are beginning a new learning project in the shul. The plan is to take a seder of Mishna, one of the 6 orders of the Mishna and learn 4 mishnayot a day Monday through Friday taking off for holidays and winter vacation. That pace will leave us with one Mishna left to learn on Sunday of the nine days, allowing us to culminate the learning with a meat meal during the nine days.
I chose the order of Moed, which deals with Shabbat and Yom Tov. Although a flier went out with a phone number for conferencing feedback from you has pushed me to the world of podcasts. Specific info will go out Monday.
To explain the significance of the project I want to turn to one phrase in our parsha used to describe the patriarch Jacob.
בראשית פרק כה
כז) וַֽיִּגְדְּלוּ֙ הַנְּעָרִ֔ים וַיְהִ֣י עֵשָׂ֗ו אִ֛ישׁ יֹדֵ֥עַ צַ֖יִד אִ֣ישׁ שָׂדֶ֑ה וְיַעֲקֹב֙ אִ֣ישׁ תָּ֔ם יֹשֵׁ֖ב אֹהָלִֽים
27. And the boys grew; and Esau was a skilful hunter, a man of the field; and Jacob was a quiet man, living in tents.
וְיַעֲקֹב֙ אִ֣ישׁ תָּ֔ם יֹשֵׁ֖ב אֹהָלִֽים- Which tents did he dwell in?
The Midrash famously proclaims that these tents refer to the study halls of Shem and Ever – the Torah luminaries of that time period.
Yonatan Ben Uziel writes that is was only the study hall of Ever.
Jacob was an aspiring talmid chacham!
Let us leave the anachronistic issue aside. Even on a simple textual level there appears to be a better answer.
Rashbam and Chizkuni suggest that he sat in the shepherd’s tent. Esav is the hunter and Yaakov is the shepherd.
At this point one could simply argue that the pshat, the simple literal reading of the text is that he was a shepherd and that the Midrash is adding a message for us.
Or you could try and read the tent “dweller learner” back into the text.
Rabbeinu Bechaya writes that the contrast in the text is not simply that they had different jobs, but different actions, qualities and character traits. Esav was a hunter who loved food and other materialistic items. They were his passion and goal.
Jacob on the other hand was a spiritual person who enjoyed the peace and serenity of the tent and yearned for spiritual satisfaction and godliness.
He writes that the pshat, the literal reading is that there were in fact the tents of Shem and Ever and that the drash, the less textually correct read is that the tents plural refer to one tent in this world on earth and one tent in heaven.
Rabbi Mecklenberg in his Ketav v’kabbalah offers another support for this approach. He argues against the shepherd’s tent approach for two reasons:
- Who cares that Jacob was a shepherd. Why would the Torah bother to give us this information?
- It is unrelated to the word Tam which has a more spiritual quality.
Neither of those arguments is terribly strong. In fact in the very next verse we are told that
בראשית פרק כה
כח) וַיֶּאֱהַ֥ב יִצְחָ֛ק אֶת־עֵשָׂ֖ו כִּי־צַ֣יִד בְּפִ֑יו וְרִבְקָ֖ה אֹהֶ֥בֶת אֶֽת־יַעֲקֹֽב
28. And Isaac loved Esau, because he ate of his venison; but Rebekah loved Jacob.
We are not told why Rivkah loves Yaakov. Most of the meforshim suggest that this was because he watched her animals or spent time in the tent with her. That apparently is important information.
The most fascinating suggestion is offered by the Sforno, who writes that tent plural refers to the shepherd’s tent and to the tent of mediation and study. In that tent he intellectually sought to find his creator and was sanctified in his honor.
Why not just leave it with the shepherd’s tent? Why try and read it into the text? Why try and add in the Midrash?
They do so to teach us the following critical lesson.
Engaging our creator and specifically through the vehicle of Torah study is written into the DNA of the Jewish people!
That is what we do. And yes we work as well but that does not define us. Learning torah and reaching out to God is what we are really all about!
Our Mishna project I hope will provide us with an opportunity to learn Torah daily in an easily accessible manner and a manageable amount of time.
You will learn many basic Jewish concepts that relate to Shabbat and Yom Tov, hopefully connect to Hashem thru the learning and of course celebrate at the end.
Please make the time and join me!
