Avos 3:18

בס׳ד

אבות ג:יח

Rabbi Eliezer Hisma says: The laws governing bird-offerings and the onset of menstrual precautions are the essence of the oral traditions; Calendrical knowledge and the science of space add spice to wisdom.

רַבִּי אֱלִיעֶזֶר בֶּן חִסְמָא אוֹמֵר, קִנִּין וּפִתְחֵי נִדָּה, הֵן הֵן גּוּפֵי הֲלָכוֹת. תְּקוּפוֹת וְגִימַטְרִיאוֹת, פַּרְפְּרָאוֹת לַחָכְמָה:

        A contemporary of Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah at Yavneh, Rabbi Eliezer Hisma was a sage known for his knowledge of the worldly sciences of his day. The gemara (Bavli Horayot 10a) reports that he had a mathematical formula that enabled him to calculate, among other things, the drops of water in the ocean.  In this mishnah, he speaks of the relationship of knowledge transmitted among the Sages to forms of knowledge derived from general culture.

        The laws of bird-offerings (kinin) are the topic of an excruciatingly difficult tractate at the end of seder Kodashim.  It discusses the order of sacrificing doves and pigeons as burnt-offerings and sin-offerings, and some of the problems that emerge if the priest confuses the two.  The laws of menstrual precautions are also complex, but much more well-known, since they are the foundations of the halakhos of tohoros mishpachah (marital purity).  They are discussed in tractate Niddah in Seder Tohorot.

        Two questions arise here.  First, why does Rabbi Eliezer Hisma single out these two topics of law as the “essence” of the halakhic oral tradition?  Secondly, what, if anything, do they have in common?  If someone were to ask you - what are the most important halakhos of the Torah? - you would probably talk about the laws of Shabbos, tefilah, tzedakah, kibbud av ve-em, or any number of other things.

        You might even mention the laws of niddah.  And you’d be right. So what’s the point of starting with kinin?  Remember that Rabbi Eliezer is teaching after the Hurban ha-Bayis, after the end of the sacrificial system that linked Israel to HaShem.  By focusing on the study of kinin, he is insisting that the intense study of the minor details of a now-vanished sacrificial rite remains crucial.  The study of the rite is a kind of performance, and so keeps the original power of the sacrifice alive.

        By the same token, the laws of niddah had their original purpose and application when the Temple stood.  A woman purifying herself had to count exactly the correct number of days before she could bring her purification offerings to the Mikdash.  But now, we still count the days, and women become clean through mikveh - even without the sacrifice.  Although the Temple is no longer available to complete the purification, a Rabbinic takkanah makes it possible for women to regard themselves as clean so that Israel can reproduce itself.  It turns out that kinin and niddah together link the power of the Mikdash to our past and our present.  The laws of menstrual precaution keep the Mikdash alive in our memories, and the laws of bird-offerings bring us into the minutest details of its operation.  The study of both sets of laws is the way we keep the Temple and its reality firmly in our thoughts and hopes.

        Now what’s the relation of the study of these and other halakhos to other kinds of knowledge transmitted in the sciences of non-Jewish cultures?  Rabbi Eliezer raises this question in relation to two important sciences of his own day - the study of heavenly motions (astronomy) and of the shape of the earth’s surface (geometry).

        “Calendrical calculations” (tekufos) use the methods of astronomy to observe and predict the movements of the sun and stars. This is useful, of course, for all sorts of things.  But it is relevant to the life of Jews in a crucial way - in the Sages’ day astronomical calculations determined the time of Rosh Hodesh and the Yom Tovim as well as when certain prayers in the Shmoneh Esreh would be recited.

        So, too, “the science of space” (gematrios).  As a general body of knowledge, geometry yields interesting propositions about, for example, the relation of the diameter of a circle to its circumference, or the relationship of angles in a triangle.  Nothing of particularly Jewish concern here - unless, of course, we want to walk around beyond our town boundaries on Shabbos.  The Torah permits us to walk within 2000 cubits of our own town unless, on Erev Shabbos, we place some food at the 2000 cubit boundary and designate that spot as our Shabbos residence.  That gives us an extra 2000 cubits to roam.  This is called in halakhah an erev tehumin (a blending of domains).  What happens, now, if in calculating our 2000 cubits we come to a hill or valley that stands between our town and the 2000 cubit perimeter of the eruv? How do we calculate the space occupied by the hill in our overall “space budget” of 2000 cubits (Mishnah Eruvin 5:4)?

        These are just two examples of how general scientific learning comes to be of concern to Jews.  In this sense, as Rabbi Eliezer Hisma says, they are the “spice” of wisdom - an enhancement of the life of Torah.  Important founders of Modern Orthodoxy, such as the German Rabbi, Rav Shimshon Raphael Hirsch, had this in mind when they interpreted Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah (Avos 3:17) to argue that Jews should master both “Torah and worldly knowledge (derech eretz).” That is, the anchor of Torah should provide Jews with a firm foundation for engaging in all the knowledge developed by the world and using that knowledge to enhance the understanding of Torah.

        Some meforshim argue, however, that Rabbi Eliezer Hisma is not referring to the classical science of geometry at all.  Rather, they interpret the term gematrios in a sense commonly used in the Talmud, where it refers to the particularly Rabbinic method of discovering hidden meanings in the Torah’s words by calculating their numerical values.  If so, the point of the gematrios are not the central thing in our study, but a kind of pastime that should not detract from the main event.  They can awaken our appetite for holy pursuits, and entice us at first into serious study, but they become “junk food” if they take over our whole diet.  This is particularly useful advice these days when all sorts of  “junk food” is available to “spice up Torah” or “make Judaism interesting.”  Better 5 minutes of attempting to understand a difficult matter of kinim than hours in front of a computer screen with a “Torah Codes” program.  (And a little secret - if you like gematrios, the best ones are found in the Bal Ha-Turim commentary on the Humash by Rabbi Yaakov ben Asher).

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