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The Talmud offers important insights into modern crises.
A prayer must be something that is thought to have an impact.
Nothing is final until it has actually occurred. Even at the last moment, unforeseen happenings can change what may seem to be inevitable.
The world feels precarious at this moment. The stock market can fall precipitously, plunging along with our global health. A virus that we had not heard of two months ago can claim more than 5,000 lives, and upend the travel and gathering of millions. Many of our leaders are chronic liars and yet those opposing the lies can’t seem to agree on an effective counterstrategy. Our anxieties — climate change, coronavirus, the opioid crisis — are unique to our time and our moment. Can we learn anything from a regular examination of texts from an earlier time in history?
Lesson a day
Since Jan. 5, I have been reading a page of an ancient text every day. The Talmud is 2,711 pages divided over 63 tractates. Almost 100 years ago, in 1923, a rabbi from Lublin, Poland, decided that it would be a neat thing if Jews all over the world were studying the same page of the Talmud at the same time. Since the system was set up, 13 cycles of the text have been studied by students around the world; I have chosen to participate in this 14th cycle.
From what I have read for the past 60 days, it turns out that humans then were not so different from humans now. Their anxieties about harm fell into different categories than our own, but they, too, were concerned about harm befalling them. According to Berachot 54b, four classes of people should offer a benediction of thanksgiving: those who cross a sea, those who cross a desert, those who become ill and are recovering, and those who are incarcerated and set free from prison.
These are all precarious circumstances, ones over which humans have little control; the outcome is largely up to others and to luck. Once the anxiety of overcoming one of these dire circumstances has occurred. a public prayer thanking God for the kindness extended to humans is recited, allowing awareness that danger can be averted.
A prayer must be something that is thought to have an impact. That is why the definition of a vain prayer, detailed in Berachot 54a, is that which is made over an event that has already happened or that which cannot be changed. An example would be a prayer to have a son when one’s wife is already pregnant, or a prayer, upon hearing a scream at another location in your city, that the scream not be from one’s own home. These are events which have occurred already and prayer has no efficacy for them.
Another way
In the face of threats and anxieties, we need to take whatever level of control that we can over a situation, even partial control. How a tale is told affects how an event is understood or experienced. A powerful example is the story of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi, who had a conversation with the Angel of Death on Berachot 51a.
The Angel of Death gave him three bits of counsel, the last being not to stand before mourning women when they return from the burial of the deceased because this is a time when the Angel of Death has his sword drawn and is easily able to slaughter humans. But there is a remedy: One can avoid him.
The Talmud instructs a reader to jump four cubits (an ancient unit of length) from where the Angel of Death stands. If there is a river, cross it; if there is another road, take it; and if there is a wall, hide behind it until the procession passes. But, if none of those things are present, the one faced with Death’s winged messenger should turn away and recite the verse: “And the Lord said to the Satan: The Lord rebukes you, Satan, the Lord that has chosen Jerusalem rebukes you; is not this man a brand plucked from the fire?” (Zechariah 3:2), until the group passes.
These options offer us not only the tools to avoid the Angel of Death, but an outlook to carry with us when encountering the world and its difficulties — always know there is another way. Don’t believe that there is only one route to take. With divine assistance, humans are able to pluck themselves out of fires time and time again. Just repeating that mantra — there is always another way — can bestow power in the face of impending doom.
Fate is not sealed
Some of the sages of the Talmud believe that the dead retain perception of the living world. A story in Berachot 18b details the efforts of a sage who heads to a cemetery to ask a dead girl about the location of money he had given her for safekeeping. The recently departed transmits the hiding place of his funds to him, and requests that he ask her mother to send the girl’s comb and blue eyeshadow with a certain individual who will soon be joining the ranks of the dead.
The nature of the items — a comb and eyeshadow — seem to be a way of communicating to the mother that the essence of her daughter has survived the transition to the afterlife; the young woman still cares about her appearance. For someone grieving a loss, to feel that there is something you can do to aid your loved one and that she cares enough to send a message to you, reassuring you that she is still the same daughter you knew in life, is a powerful gift.
This text enables those who are bereaved to comprehend that their relationships with those they love are ongoing. Death does not end all communication. The humanity of this text is what is so striking. As the mother of three daughters, all of whom are constantly asking me to procure things for them, this story really resonated with me.
The daughter’s request in the story creates a continuity between who she was in life and who she is now that she has traveled on to another world. With this message, the daughter enables her mother to feel there are ways, even after death, to care for her child.
This story teaches the oft-repeated lesson that one’s fate is never entirely firmly sealed. In fact, an earlier part of Berachot, Page 10a, states that “even if a sharp sword is resting upon a person’s neck, he should not prevent himself from praying for mercy, as it is stated in the words of Job: ‘Though He slay me, I will trust in Him’ (Job 13:15).”
Nothing is final until it has actually occurred. Even at the last moment, unforeseen happenings can change what may seem to be inevitable.
Reason for hope
This type of thinking breeds an optimism. Yes, negative things may be happening in the world, but there is reason to hope that change can occur.
This is what the rabbis are teaching — don’t assume you cannot have an impact on the world. Your actions matter. Turn away, recite a verse, ford the river, go to the other path. Don’t be helpless. Your behavior has an impact. Even when it seems that forces beyond our control are directing our world, we still have agency.
Now more than ever this message remains vital.