TheYeshiva.net - Rabbi YY Jacobson

The Talmudic Sages #2: Rabbi Eliezer Ben Hurkenos

1 hr 19 min

Series: The Talmudic Sages #2. From the Bustling Beit Midrash to a Solitariness -- The Story of Rabbi Eliezer Ben Hurkenos

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M
Malka -10 years ago
Is your bread tameh or tahor? It matters
To me, all the bricks together as a kli-reminds me of the unity of "aharei rabbim". Sometimes even unity requires calling a spade a spade, or calling "tumah "--"tamei". Sometimes preserving truth may require action that is painful, hence the nidui.

Seeing the bricks as separate--and hence, declaring the oven "tahor"--reminds me of seeing the individual. Looking at each one as individual allows a psak of tahor because each one is on a different level, but the sense of unity thus declared can be illusory. As this event showed, the chachamim were willing to put an esteemed colleague on the line spiritually for the sake of preserving a unity that transcends individualism. What makes the story difficult is the good intentions of Rabbi Eliezer and his wish to transmit what he saw as the most authentic traditions.

I find this story sad but instructive. I wish that the pluralists among us would understand the deep message.

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B
bracha -10 years ago
thank you
amaizing
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DB
David Benveniste,HaLevy,Tsfat -10 years ago
I thought Rabbi Akiva ben Yosef was 39 years old
Bs"d when he turned his life around while looking at water dripping on a stone and causing a hole.He mused, “If water could leave an imprint on a stone, then surely the words of Torah can penetrate my heart as well.”
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Mordechy Zigelboum

Dedicated in loving memory of Rabbi Avraham Eliezer ben RabbiYosef Shmuel Zigelboum. And Rabbi Yosef ben Rabbi Moshe Yehuda Goldstein.