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Q & A - WITH RABBI RISKINQ: With the current security situation in Israel, many people are afraid to go anywhere or do anything. Others feel that something happens only if there's a "bullet with his/her name on it". Is that true? If there's a terrorist act in a store and someone is injured, would he not have been injured even at home because that bullet had his name on it? What do we believe about the "bullet" with a person's name on it? A: There is certainly a view in the Talmud that "there is no death without one's having sinned, there are no sufferings without one's having transgressed" (R. Ammi R. Assi). From this view of the Talmud - "there is no movement of any individual in the world below which is not initiated by Divine Will from Above" - it is clear that every bullet has a name and address. However there is also a second view which is indeed the major view of the Babylonian Talmud. The Gemarah (B.T. Kidushin 9) attempts to explain how it happened that the great Tanna and teacher of R. Meir, Rabbi Elisha ben Avuya, became a heretic, leaving the religious laws of the Torah and entering the orchard of apikorsut. The Talmud records two narratives. In the first, a father asks his son to climb a tree and bring down a pigeon. The son climbs the tree, sends away the mother bird and descending down from the tree with the pigeon for his father, falls to the ground and dies in the act of fulfilling two commandments which promise long life: respecting his father, and sending away the mother bird. Elisha Ben Avuya witnessed the incident, and cried out "there is no Judge and there is no judgement." The second incident that is related is the death of a great Talmudic Sage, Hutzpit HaMeturgeman, whose stentorian voice and prodigal wisdom made him a most sought after spokesman for the most popular religious addresses given by the leaders of the Talmudic Academy. He was captured and killed by the Romans during the Hadrianic persecution; his tongue was cut out of his mouth, was tied to the tale of a pig and the pig was sent forth into the market place of Jewish communities. Elisha Ben Avuya, upon seeing this cried out, "How could a tongue that spewed forth diamonds now so ignominiously lick the dust? There is no Judge and there is no judgement." Rabbi Yaakov the grandson of Elisha ben Avuya declares that had his grandfather only understood a fundamental truth of Jewish theology, he would never have become a heretic. This truth is: " there is no reward for the commandments in this world." According to this second view the place of reward and punishment is in the other world, the eternal world; this world is a test, a challenge, the vestibule to the world to come, which is eternal. This is often a world of happenstance in which the only promise that G-d makes is that the Jewish people will never be destroyed and redemption will ultimately come to the world from Zion and Jerusalem. G-d sees what happens in this world and may sometimes choose to miraculously enter, but the real place of reward and punishment is the world to come. In this world, each individual must determine what his/her function is in order to help "perfect the world" in the Kingship of G-d - but one has no guarantee that a pious and dedicated life will bring good health, naches and happiness; the place for reward is the world to come. From this perspective, the most important task for the individual is to do what he/she can to make this world in which we live a better one in accordance with G-d's will. Hence I believe that in times of stress and tension such as we find ourselves in now we dare not isolate ourselves in a sealed room. We must go about our business and do what we believe G-d would want us to do, even if we are placing ourselves at risk. Judaism is a high-risk profession and we are living in close proximity to neighbors who wish to destroy us. At the same time the State of Israel is preparing for the Jewish future and Judaism will ultimately bring redemption to all. It may be difficult to be standing on the front line but it is also a blessed opportunity. If you have a question for Q & A, send it to ots@ohrtorahstone.org.il . We cannot guarantee that all questions received will be answered in this column.
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