Together Forever

Continuing the discussion of performing an obligation on behalf of others, Ahava, son of Rabbi Zeira, taught the following ba-raita: With regard to all the blessings, even if one already recited a blessing for himself and has consequently fulfilled his own obligation, he can still recite a blessing for others and thereby discharge their obligation, as all Jews are responsible for one another.

GEMARA: Since the mishna referred to Achan’s sin, the Gemara cites several statements concerning that incident. The Sages taught in a baraita: Joshua said to Achan: “Please [na] give glory to the Lord, God of Israel, and make confession to Him.” The word “na” is nothing other than an expression of supplication. Why would Joshua employ an expression of supplication when approaching Achan?

The baraita explains: When the Holy One, Blessed be He, said to Joshua: “Israel has sinned” (Joshua 7:11), Joshua said to Him: Master of the Universe, who is the one who has sinned? God said to him: Am I an informer [deilator]? Go cast lots and find out for yourself. Joshua then went and cast lots, and the lot fell upon Achan. Achan said to him: Joshua, do you come to execute me merely based on a lot, without any corroborating evidence? You and Elazar the priest are the two most distinguished leaders of the generation, but if I cast a lot upon the two of you, it will perforce fall upon one of you. What then can you prove from a lottery? Joshua said to him: I ask of you, do not spread slander about the lots, as Eretz Yisrael will one day be divided by lots, as it is stated: “Nevertheless, the land shall be divided by lot” (Numbers 26:55). Due to you the results of that lottery may be challenged. Therefore, Joshua used the word “na,” pleading with Achan to confess.

Joshua said to Achan: “Please give glory to the Lord, God of Israel, and make confession to Him.” Ravina says: Joshua won over Achan with his words, saying: Do we ask anything of you but a confession? Make confession to Him and be discharged. Thinking that if he confessed, he would be pardoned, Achan immediately responded: “And Achan answered Joshua, and said: Indeed I have sinned against the Lord, God of Israel, and like this and like that have I done” (Joshua 7:20).

With regard to the words “And like this and like that have I done,” Rav Asi says that Rabbi Ḥanina says: This teaches that Achan misused consecrated property from three dedications, i.e., three groups of property that had been dedicated to the Lord. Two were during wars waged in the days of Moses, and one was in the days of Joshua, as it is stated: “And like this and like that have I done,” indicating that he had already committed similar offenses twice before committing the offense in Jericho. Rabbi Yoḥanan says in the name of Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Shimon: Achan misused property from five dedications, four during wars waged in the days of Moses, and one in the days of Joshua, as it is stated: “I have sinned against the Lord, God of Israel, and like this and like that have I done,” with each “and” alluding to an additional prior offense.

The Gemara asks: If so, what is the reason that the Jewish people were not punished on Achan’s account until now? Rabbi Yoḥanan says in the name of Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Shimon: Because God did not punish the nation as a whole for hidden sins committed by individuals until the Jewish people crossed the Jordan River.

The Gemara notes that this is subject to a dispute between tanna’im. The verse states: “The hidden matters belong to the Lord our God, but those matters that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever [ad olam], that we may do all the words of this Torah” (Deuteronomy 29:28). Why in a Torah scroll are there dots over each of the letters in the words “to us and to our children” and over the letter ayin in the word “forever [ad]”? The dots, which function like erasures that weaken the force of the words, teach that God did not punish the nation for hidden sins until the Jewish people crossed the Jordan River. This is the statement of Rabbi Yehuda.

Rabbi Neḥemya said to him: And does God ever punish the nation as a whole for hidden sins committed by individuals? But isn’t it already stated: “The hidden matters belong to the Lord our God…forever,” indicating that the Jewish people will never be collectively held responsible for the secret sins of individuals? Rather, the dots over the words teach that just as God did not ever punish the nation as a whole for hidden sins committed by individuals, so too, He did not punish the entire nation for sins committed publicly by individuals until the Jewish people crossed the Jordan River. The Gemara asks: But if so,

(44a) what is the reason that in the case of Achan they were punished? The Gemara answers: Achan’s offense was not a hidden matter because his wife and children knew about it, and they did not protest.

Rabbi Shimon ben Yehuda Ish Kefar Akko said in the name of Rabbi Shimon: There is no mitzva written in the Torah for which forty-eight covenants were not established 603,550 times, corresponding to the population of the Jewish people in the desert. This is because each member of the Jewish people received the covenant both for himself and as a guarantor for the rest of the Jewish people.

Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi says: According to the statement of Rabbi Shimon ben Yehuda Ish Kefar Akko, who spoke in the name of Rabbi Shimon, there is no mitzva in the Torah for which forty-eight covenants were not established 603,550 times; it follows that for every one of the Jewish people there were 603,550 covenants.

The Gemara asks: What is the difference between the statements of Rabbi Shimon ben Yehuda Ish Kefar Akko and Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi? What does the statement of Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi add? Rav Mesharshiyya said: The matter of a guarantor and a guarantor for a guarantor is the difference between them. According to Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, every Jew is not only rendered a guarantor for every other Jew, but he is also rendered a guarantor for every other Jew’s responsibility as a guarantor. Therefore, according to his calculation, the number of covenants is multiplied again by 603,550.

(10) (Exodus 19:2) "And Israel encamped there": Elsewhere it is written "and they journeyed," "and they encamped" — they journeyed in quarrel and encamped in quarrel. Here, they were of one heart — wherefore it is written "and (it) encamped." "and Israel encamped there": He said to them, you will be there for a (relatively) long time. And, indeed, we find that they were there for twelve months less ten days. "opposite the mountain": to the east of the mountain. "opposite" always signifies to the east.

The Gemara cites additional homiletic interpretations on the topic of the revelation at Sinai. The Torah says, “And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet God; and they stood at the lowermost part of the mount” (Exodus 19:17). Rabbi Avdimi bar Ḥama bar Ḥasa said: the Jewish people actually stood beneath the mountain, and the verse teaches that the Holy One, Blessed be He, overturned the mountain above the Jews like a tub, and said to them: If you accept the Torah, excellent, and if not, there will be your burial. Rav Aḥa bar Ya’akov said: From here there is a substantial caveat to the obligation to fulfill the Torah. The Jewish people can claim that they were coerced into accepting the Torah, and it is therefore not binding. Rava said: Even so, they again accepted it willingly in the time of Ahasuerus, as it is written: “The Jews ordained, and took upon them, and upon their seed, and upon all such as joined themselves unto them” (Esther 9:27), and he taught: The Jews ordained what they had already taken upon themselves through coercion at Sinai.

(27) the Jews undertook and irrevocably obligated themselves and their descendants, and all who might join them, to observe these two days in the manner prescribed and at the proper time each year.

(28) Consequently, these days are recalled and observed in every generation: by every family, every province, and every city. And these days of Purim shall never cease among the Jews, and the memory of them shall never perish among their descendants.