Yeshivat Mercaz HaRav

Rabbi Avraham Shapiro Shlit"a
Rosh Yeshivat Mercaz HaRav

THE TIES OF TRADITION

"The teaching of the wise is a fountain of life... (Prov. 13:14)

"The Sages said: "Moses received the Torah at Sinai and handed it down to Joshua; Joshua to the elders; the elders to the prophets; and the prophets handed it down to the men of the Great Assembly..." (Pirkei Avoth, I:1) According to the commentators mesirah - "handing down" - refers here to the the Oral Law (Torah SheBeal Peh). And Joshua who received the Torah from Moses, was the first and foremost scholar of the Oral Law - and the first link in the chain of the Massoreth -the Tradition - which was to bind Israel and the Torah throughout the generations.

The mitzvah of studying Torah is the duty of all Israel. But the scholar has, in addition, a special obligation to "hand down" the Torah from one generation to the next. "Moses commanded us a law,/A heritage of the congregation of Jacob." (Deut. 33:4) From the outset the Torah was given to Israel not just to be learned but to be handed on as a heritage to the congregation of Jacob. Rabbenu Behayei points out that the word heritage (Heb. morasha) appears in the entire Torah in only two places. The two passages cited by Rabbenu Behayei occur in Exodus and Deuteronomy. "And I will bring you into the land...and I will give it to you for a heritage." (Exod. 6:8) And, "...a law,/A heritage of the congregation of Jacob." (Deut. 33:4)

The word morasha - heritage - is used in reference to two things only: the Land of Israel and the Torah. Both were given in order to be handed on to others. Neither is a free inheritance (Heb. yerusha) to be used or spent or thrown away as the recipient wishes but rather an `entailed estate', a heritage to be held in trust, cared for, and handed on to the next generation.

The Tosafoth on Massehet Shabbat 108:b accuses Israel of erring in not "weeping...for thirty days" for Joshua as they had for Moses and Aaron. But it was through Moses that Israel received the Torah. Joshua was his pupil. How was Israel in error in not mourning for Joshua in the same manner that they had for Moses?

The Ya'avetz, in his Commentary on Avoth formulates a basic principle concerning the Torah. If a person studys Torah and does not intend to pass on what he has learned to another then it is as if he has not learned Torah at all. From the outset one must study in order to hand on what has been learned. Joshua ben Nun was the first scholar to hand on the Torah to the next generation of scholars. This mesirah is the joining together of the generations one to the other through the Torah. This is morasha.

And this was the basis of the accusation against Israel that they did not mourn Joshua properly. For they did indeed mourn and praise him as a talmid haham. But there was no acknowledgement and no acclamation of his unique role - the role of the first Torah scholar - in laying the foundations of the Massoreth - the Tradition - the handing on of the Torah from one generation to the next. Joshua handed on the Torah - and the responsibility of the mesirah - to the elders who passed on what they had learned to each other and to each succeeding generation. And the Massoreth of the Torah binds each and every one of Israel, in every generation, to Sinai.

Joshua handed down the Torah to the elders. "Gather unto Me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom thou knowest to be the elders of the people..." (Num. 11:16) "...Ask thy father, and he will declare unto thee,/Thine elders, and they will tell thee." (Deut. 32:7) After Joshua the obligation to continue the mesirah of the Torah fell upon the elders of each generation. In the Shmoneh Esreh tefilah there is a special prayer for "the righteous...the godly...the elders, the leaders of thy people, the house of Israel, and...the remnant of the sages..." The elders of Israel - these are the scholars who maintain for us and within us the Torah Massoreth from generation to generation.

The Rambam, in the Hakdamah to the Mishneh Torah, lists the great scholars who transmitted the Oral Law from one generation to the next.He devotes two full pages of his Hakdamah to the names of the mosrei Torah (those who "handed down" the Torah), from Moses to Rabbinah and Rav Ashi, that is, until the completion of the Babylonian Talmud. And after this the Rambam traces the mosrei Torah back again, over 40 generations to Moses who received the Torah directly from the "mouth of G-d". So that, concludes the Rambam, through this unbroken progression of mesirah each generation receives the Torah directly from the L-rd G-d of Israel.

According to the Sages, each generation is a lesser generation than the one preceding it. Each generation is diminished in spiritual stature and learning in comparison with the one before. But the Rambam stresses the role of the scholars of the Massoreth as living links in the chain of mesirah which leads directly to Sinai. Thus the Rambam concludes his Hakdamah to the Mishneh Torah with "...[and now] I, Moses ben Maimon of Sephard" have compiled this collection...of the Oral Law, as if to suggest that although each generation ends, the Massoreth continues. And even after the generation of the Talmud passed away and the codification of the Oral Law was concluded, succeeding generations of scholars were to come.

For even though each succeeding generation is lesser than the one preceding it - the Torah itself - Oral and Written - was received directly from the L-rd G-d of Israel at Sinai. This is the chain of mesirah which binds the Creator and Israel through all the generations. This is the Massoreth of Israel - transmitted whole and undiminished.

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