Parshas Bereishis, we celebrated my youngest son’s bar mitzvah. I helped him prepare his pshetl (dvar Torah). In doing so, I deviated a little from the norm in our community. Usually, the bar mitzvah bachur rattles off a complicated exposition on a particular halacha usually pertaining to a bar mitzvah, such as hilchos Tefillin or whether a bar mitzvah says a bracha over sefiras ha-omer if his bar mitzvah falls out in the middle of the omer.
My goal with my son was to “practice what I preach” and help him learn the Gemara he is learning in class with his rebbi according to my own teaching methods, which differ a little from the typical way it is taught in Yeshiva.
Usually, the Gemara being learnt in a yeshiva gemara class is presented to the boys as a self-contained unit: Mishnah and Gemara. Unfortunately, I think this misses a crucial point about the purposes of learning Gemara and leaves many students leaving yeshiva wondering what was the purpose of breaking their heads over these complicated Aramaic debates.
The whole point of learning Gemara, as I explain in more depth in my recently published book “I CAN Learn” (Feldheim, 2023), is to understand Chumash. And of course, the purpose of understanding Chumash is to hear and understand the word of Hashem. That is why I believe that all Gemara teaching should begin with Chumash. This is how I taught the Gemara to my son for his bar mitzvah speech. Bear with me as I elucidate the above by giving the example below.
In Parashas Shoftim, (Devarim 19: 16-19) we read:
טז כִּֽי־יָק֥וּם עֵֽד־חָמָ֖ס בְּאִ֑ישׁ לַֽעֲנ֥וֹת בּ֖וֹ סָרָֽה
If witnesses come to testify falsely against a person, the case will be examined by the judges. If it comes out that the testimony was indeed false
יט וַֽעֲשִׂ֣יתֶם ל֔וֹ כַּֽאֲשֶׁ֥ר זָמַ֖ם לַֽעֲשׂ֣וֹת לְאָחִ֑יו וּבִֽעַרְתָּ֥ הָרָ֖ע מִקִּרְבֶּֽךָ:
Then you shall do to him just like (ka’asher) he plotted (zamam) to do to his brother and thus you shall abolish evil from among you.
These pesukim alone raise a number of questions. What kind of cases are we talking about? What does it mean to receive the same punishment they wanted to inflict? It becomes apparent that the written Torah cannot be followed properly without additional information. Yet the laws involve matters of life and death. A just and loving G-d would surely give a more detailed set of instructions if lives were at stake. Indeed He did. The Torah sheba’al peh (oral law) was given simultaneously with the written Torah at Har Sinai to explain all the details.
Understanding the origins, history, and purpose of Torah sheba’al peh is a crucial part of any Gemara education. I cannot stress enough how important it is to make sure students fully appreciate the Mesorah and how oral law fits into it. In addition, they need to know how, when, and why Mishnah and Gemara were committed to writing. Surprisingly most students I teach have no idea of these important historical and hashkafic details, even though they are central to a true appreciation of Gemara.
We can see how the oral law elucidates the Chumash by continuing with our study of the halacha concerning disqualified witnesses.
So comes along the Mishna, the first level of Torah Sheba’al peh, to answer the questions.
In Maseches Maakos (2a) the Mishnah states:
In what manner do witnesses become zomemin (disqualified witnesses)?
The Mishna brings down two cases where the zomemin do not receive the punishment that the person they testified against would have received if their testimony had been valid. This would seem to contradict the halacha as given in the Chumash.
One of these cases is the situation in which witnesses testify against a Kohen, claiming that his mother was divorced before she married the Kohen’s father. This testimony would render the Kohen in question a Challal (unfit to serve in the Beis Hamikdash). But clearly, this punishment – becoming a Challal – is not something that could be conferred upon a false witness.
The Mishnah says that if the testimony of the witnesses, in this case, is shown to be false, their punishment is that they receive malkus (40 lashes). But this seemingly contradicts the Chumash learned above. The Chumash clearly states that the punishment for zomemin should be the same punishment that they conspired to bring upon their brother.
So now we turn to the next level of Torah She ba’al Peh, the Gemara to help us understand what is going on.
The Gemara explains that this first Mishnah in Maakos is in fact a continuation of a Mishnah which is at the end of Sanhedrin (89a):
“All zomemin witnesses get the same punishment they inflicted on their victim, except in the case where the disqualified witnesses testify about the daughter of a Kohen who had a relationship with a man”.
They will not get the punishment that would be due to the woman, the bas cohen, they testify against, rather the punishment that would be inflicted on the man. And now, the Tanna continues to elucidate in our Mishnah in Makkos yet another exception to the rule of the zomemin. In the case of witnesses coming to testify that the mother of the kohen is a gerusha, the punishment is also not the one they sought to inflict on the person against whom they testified. Rather if the testimony is found false, the zomem will receive 40 lashes.
Tosefos asks a question. Why should a testimony ever be able to disqualify a Kohen for temple service by such a testimony, even if it turns out to be true? Since we have a din, as expounded in Sanhedrin (40a):
הָא הָוְיָא לָהּ עֵדוּת שֶׁאִי אַָָָתָּה יָכוֹל לַהֲזִמָּהּ וְאֵין זֶה עֵדוּת
If a witness would not be able to receive whatever punishment would be due to the person they accuse, the testimony is not considered valid. This type of eidus is not subject to the punishment of hazamah.
But this contradicts the above Mishnah. The Mishnah clearly states that a valid testimony to this effect would make the Kohen a challal.
He answers that since they are getting malkus (lashes), it is considered ka’asher zamam, as they plotted against their brother. This fulfills the original requirement of the Chumash. So even though the punishment is not the same, it is nevertheless equivalent. Therefore their testimony is considered valid.
So we see that the Mishnah elucidates the Chumash, the gemara elucidates the Mishnah, and the meforshim on Chumash and Gemara elucidate further. Gemara cannot and should not be learned independently of the Chumash. It presupposes a thorough knowledge of Chumash.
We also see from the above example that Mishnayos cannot be fully understood out of the context of the whole Shas of Mishnayos.
I was happy that after working on this speech with my son, he was able to understand not just the Gemara in question, but how it related to Torah as a whole.
It is crucial that Gemara learning should be understood for what it is, not just a complicated mental exercise, like doing a really difficult Times Crossword Puzzle. It is our key to understanding Chumash. And understanding Chumash is no less than understanding the world Hashem created (for which Chumash was the blueprint), and our instructions for living and connecting to Him. It is a holy task whose importance can never be underestimated.
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