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Nehar Deah
Vayishlach
Neshika (kiss) or Neshicha (bite)?
At the center of parashat Vayishlach is the story of the meeting between
Jacob and Esau. After many years apart - due to Esau's hatred of his brother
and his desire to kill him (Bereishit 27:41) - the two brothers meet and
the Torah describes this meeting: "And Esau ran to him and embraced
him and fell on his neck and kissed him and they cried" (ibid 33:4).
If one studies the Torah's wording carefully one will notice an unusual
phenomena: there is a dot above every letter of the word "[and he]
kissed [him]".
We must note that this is not the only verse in the Torah with all or
part of its words marked by dots. This phenomenon is found in nine other
places in the Torah (we will discuss a few of these below), four times
in Neviim (books of the prophets) and once in Ketuvim (books of writings).
Many researchers believe that the source of these dots is the practice
of ancient scribes to mark in this way words or letters that should have
been deleted, but due to the holiness of the Torah scroll they did not
do so. Below we will try to understand from Talmudic and Midrashic literature,
how chazal (acronym for 'our sages of blessed memory') understood these
dots.
It turns out that, in the literature of chazal, there is a list of the
words which are dotted and there we are offered various homiletical explanations
of these dots. Research has lead to the theory that most of these explanations
come from one source - the beit midrash (Torah study house) of R' Yossi
ben Chalafta, who lived in the second century CE. The basis for this theory
is that R' Yossi's name appears next to various explanations of the dotted
words and it seems that they have a common denominator and it is worthwhile
to find this common principle connecting them.
Therefore, how do chazal interpret the dots on the word "[and he]
kissed [him]"? It appears that this dotted word attracted the attention
of many commentators and they deal with it by questioning of the authenticity
of the kiss that Esau gave his brother Jacob, after years apart, in view
of the bitterness of Esau towards Jacob on one hand and Jacob's great
fear of this meeting with his brother on the other hand.
According to some, the kiss was genuine, from the fullness of his heart,
and the dots are to emphasize this, and their task is the same as our
exclamation mark: Note: Esau kissed Jacob! But most of the commentators
interpret it negatively, and see it as a kiss that "was not of truth"
(i.e. not genuine), "he did not kiss with all his heart", "a
kiss of deceit and hatred", etc. There are even those who go as far
as to say that what Esau really wanted to do was to bite Jacob, but did
not succeed and the bite turned into a kiss. According to this understanding,
the dots come to emphasize that "[and he] kissed [him]" was
merely a pretence by Esau and his real intention was "[and he] bit
[him]". (See title of this section for the similarity between the
two words in Hebrew). The dots therefore come to tell the reader not to
take the verse on face value; Esau only pretended to be glad to meet his
brother, but his real intentions where malevolent. According to a few
of the commentators, the bite turned into a kiss when miraculously Esau's
teeth were weakened or alternatively Jacob's neck became hardened.
Seeing the dots as an indication of pretence, deception or external conduct
that hides true intention can also be found in interpretations of other
dotted words in the Torah. We will show two example of this.
- In the story of the three angels who visited Abraham it is written:
"And they said to him, 'Where is Sarah your wife?' and he said,
"Behold, she is in the tent'" (Bereishit 18:9). In the word
"to [him]" has three letters with dots. The commentaries on
this verse claim that the angels knew very well where Sarah was, and
the question, "where is Sarah your wife?" was not a genuine
one. They pretended that they did not know where she was so that Abraham
should not know that all-knowing angels stood before him.
- In the story of the sale of Joseph by his brothers, it is written:
"and the brothers went down to graze their fathers flock in Shechem"
(Bereishit 37:12). One of the words has dots on both of its letters.
The commentaries on this verse claim that Joseph's brothers did not
go to graze the sheep for the good of their father, but rather for their
own pleasure - eating, drinking and rowdiness.
In both cases the dots come to tell us that the narrator or writer says
one thing and means another; the words purposely and intentionally hide
the inner feelings of the Biblical character: the angels, Esau or Joseph's
brothers. We also find similarly with the interpretation of dots in other
places (e.g. "And he perceived not when she lay and when she got
up" [Bereishit 19:33] or "whom Moses and Aaron numbered"
[Bamidbar 3:33]), that the principle of "one thing in the mouth,
another in the heart" can be seen and it seems that this is a common
denominator to all the commentaries.
But it is not yet clear why R' Yossi ben Chalafta and those who continued
in his way chose specifically to interpret the dotted words in this way.
We can suggest two explanations which compliment each other. According
to the first, we need to connect these commentaries to another tradition,
found in the Midrash Avot D'Rabi Natan (version 1, chapter 24; version2,
chapter 27), which deals with the dotted words. According to this tradition,
the person responsible for the dots was Ezra the Scribe, who wanted to
express his doubts about the wording of the Bible. According to this Midrash,
Ezra marked with dots, every word or letter that he was not sure had a
place in the Torah and decided that he would wait till the coming of Elijah
the Prophet, who would be able to answer all questions, in order to ask
him. If Elijah says that the wording is correct, then he would delete
the dots; if Elijah says that the wording needs to be changed, then Ezra
would show him the dots indicating that he doubted their correctness.
Chazal, in line with this tradition, indicate their reservations about
the information conveyed by the verses which have dotted words. According
to another explanation, the Torah itself gives the key to how to interpret
these dotted words. In the book of Devarim it says: "The hidden is
for Hashem our God and the revealed is for us and our children for all
eternity…" (29:28). The sentence states that man sees only that
which is revealed, while God sees even that which is hidden. But, we see
that this verse has ten letters with dots above (in the words "for
us and our children for…"), and from this well dotted verse
we can assume that this idea that man is short-sighted while God sees
all, is the guiding principle for all (or at least most) of the interpretations
of the other dotted words in the Torah. If this is so, then the Torah
itself has provided us with the answer to a problem that it itself put
before its reader: the words with dots on them.
Professor Avigdor Shenan
Hebrew Literature Department
Literature of the Sages - Avot d'Rabi Natan
In the Mishna, in the order of Nezikin (damages) which is the fourth
order, we find a tractate called Masechet Avot (tractate of the fathers).
This tractate contains many maxims of wisdom, morality and proper conduct
and many of them have become basic building blocks of the Hebrew language
and the culture of the Jewish people (e.g. "on three things the world
stands", "if I am not for myself - who will be for me",
"the ledger is open and the hand is writing" and many, many
more). Its name is derived from the fact that it brings sayings from the
"fathers of the world", in other words the great men of the
nation and the founders of the oral tradition, in homiletics and in law.
In contrast to other tractates in Nezikin, the tractate of "Avot"
did not merit a systematic treatment, in terms of explanation or expansion,
in either the Babylonian or the Jerusalem Talmud. We can explain this
fact by looking at the special literary characteristics and nature of
the tractate, which are clearly different from the other tractates of
the Mishna, which focus on Jewish law. Despite this we have a composition,
unlike any other in the literature of the sages, which connects with the
tractate of Avot and this is "Avot d'Rabi Natan" (Avot of Rabbi
Nathan).
Avot d'Rabi Natan is a work which was created in the footsteps of tractate
Avot of the Mishna. It is intended to compliment and complete it, to bring
to light additional example and to expand its scope in discussions of
various topics with which it deals. Avot d'Rabi Natan is in principle,
but not strictly, like tractate Avot (even though the version of this
tractate that he worked with is not identical to the one known to us)
but much broader than it. For example: on the Mishna in tractate Avot,
"Be moderate in judgment, develop many disciples and make a fence
around the Torah" (1:1) is found in Avot d'Rabi Natan as 15 pages
of discussion and stories connected to the three ideas raised in this
Mishna: the need to be moderate and stable when making legal judgements,
the obligation to spread Torah by raising up many students who come to
places of Torah study and the obligation to provide a framework for every
law that will protect it from being broken.
We will show the character of Avot d'Rabi Natan by describing the way
it deals with the unequivocal statement of the Mishna: "develop many
disciples". We find in Avot d'Rabi Natan, in connection with this
statement, the argument between Beit Shammai (the House of Shammai) and
Beit Hillel concerning a question that has occupied generations (to a
certain extent it is still relevant even today): should we open the places
of Torah study to everyone or just to those who are "wise, modest,
have fathered children and are wealthy"? Beit Shammai held by the
aforementioned view, which calls for students being put through a strict
and selective selection process, based on their personal characteristics
or social standing; Beit Hillel, on the other hand, believe that we should
teach "every man". Beit Hillel's viewpoint is justified by the
claim that "Israel has had many wrongdoers who came closer to Torah
study and became righteous, pious and trustworthy" and this claim
serves as the basis for a series of tales of pious people and acts of
piety, especially acts of charity. Thus we can see how we can build upon
3 words from tractate Avot ("develop many disciples") a wide
construct of discussion, exegesis, expanding, arguments and examples.
This phenomenon recurs throughout most of Avot d'Rabi Natan.
Who was Rabi Natan, whose name appears in the title of this work? He
was probably a scholar who lived at the end of the second century CE,
in the times of Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi (Rabbi Judah the Prince/President),
the editor of the Mishna. It is possible that he was the first editor
of this work, but this has yet to be proven and the title of this work
remains a riddle.
This is not the only puzzle connected to Avot d'Rabi Natan. It is not
clear how this work was moulded until it got to its present form; it is
also not clear how we today have two very different versions of this work
available and when they were created. We also do not know why the wording
of Avot d'Rabi Natan specifically has undergone more disruption than what
is common among other Midrashic works. Therefore Avot d'Rabi Natan presents
researchers with a number of puzzles and it is hoped that more research
will one day provide answers to them.
Characters - Rabbi Yossi ben Chalafta and the Matron
Rabbi Yossi ben Chalafta was a Tanna (i.e. from the generations of scholars
whose wisdom is implanted in the Mishna) who lived in the second century
CE in the town of Zippori. Many sayings and laws are brought in his name
in the Mishna and both Talmuds, and a work known as "Seder Olam Rabba"
(the Great Order of the World) is also attributed to him, which covers
the history of the world from the creation until the outbreak of the Bar
Kochba revolt (which began in the year 132 CE). Due to his great wisdom
it was even said "When Rabbi Yossi died - wisdom ceased" (Jerusalem
Talmud, Tractate Sotah 9:17).
Among the stories of Rabbi Yossi's life and life's work, which are scattered
throughout Midrashic literature, we have about twenty stories of meetings
between him and a "matron" (i.e. a Roman woman of important
standing). Zippori - which is being revealed to us through wide scale
archeological digs currently taking place there - was the main city from
which the Roman controlled the lower Galilee. It was populated by both
Jews and gentiles and therefore a meeting between representatives of both
groups was not unusual.
In most of the stories, the matron addresses Rabbi Yossi with a question
and it is apparent from them that she was interested in many topics connected
to Bible stories and the Jewish way of life: the creation of the universe,
the choice of Israel as the chosen people, the characters of the forefathers
of the nation, etc. The stories reveal to us an educated woman whose religious
beliefs are not clear: sometimes she is mentioned as being Christian,
sometimes as Roman-Pagan and sometimes - as certain researchers theorize
- as a convert to Judaism or as a skeptic Jewess.
In one of the stories (Midrash Rabba 64:8) the matron addresses Rabbi
Yossi and wishes to know what God has been doing since he completed the
creation of the world. The surprising answer: "Sitting and matching
couples - the daughter of Ploni (i.e. "so-and-so") with Ploni,
the wife of Ploni with Ploni, Ploni's wealth to Ploni". To this the
matron responds: "This is his livelihood? Even I can do this! I have
many slaves and maidservants and in a short span of time I can match them".
And thus "she took a thousand slaves and a thousand maidservants
and lined them up in rows, said Ploni will marry Plonit, Plonit will be
married to Ploni' and matched them all up in one night". The story
continues "the next day they came to her, this one with his head
injured, this one with his eye askew and this one with a broken leg. She
said to them 'What is with you?' This one said 'I want this one' and this
one said 'I don't want this one'". The story concludes: "She
immediately sent for Rabbi Yossi ben Chalafta and said to him 'There is
no God like your God, your Torah is true, you have spoken well'…".
The matron's question in this story is the story of God's intervention
in this world: Is he present in the world and does he influence it? Rabbi
Yossi's answer is clearly and unequivocally positive. The matron mocks
this answer and tries to prove him wrong, but is shown the next morning
how much she erred. A successful marriage is not something technical which
can be forced on the couple; it is a delicate and complex act which needs
divine intervention to bring it to fruition.
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