Save
Copy
Add to Collection
Export to Google Docs
Share- Is Halakhah a system of laws that we have to follow to the letter in order to be considered good Jews?
- Or is it something more intangible?
- What role does human reasoning play?
- How much consideration do we give to individual circumstances?
- Just how flexible does Jewish law need to become to navigate the imperatives of the coming century?
(1) Introduction Rabbi Ishmael was a regular disputant with Rabbi Akiva. His teachers were Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Joshua. From Rabbi Nahuniah haKaneh he learned his midrashic methodology, for which he later became famous. His midrashic formula are still recited everyday by those who follow a traditional siddur (prayer book). In our mishnah Rabbi Ishmael discusses how one should act with other people of different social strata.
(יב) רַבִּי יִשְׁמָעֵאל אוֹמֵר, הֱוֵי קַל לְרֹאשׁ, וְנוֹחַ לְתִשְׁחֹרֶת, וֶהֱוֵי מְקַבֵּל אֶת כָּל הָאָדָם בְּשִׂמְחָה:
(12) Rabbi Ishmael said: be suppliant to a superior, gentle to the young, and receive every man happily.
Rabbi Joshua Culp
Rabbi Ishmael said: be suppliant to a superior, submissive under compulsory service, and receive every man happily. Be suppliant to a superior: According to Rabbi Ishmael, when one stands in the presence of a superior, he should consider himself inferior and serve him as he requests.
Gentle to the young. The interpretation is that when with young people, although one does not need to be suppliant with them, one should still treat them with respect.
Rambam
Receive every man happily: you need to greet every person - small or big, freeman or slave, every man of the human species - with joy.
It is taught in a baraita (Tosefta, Sota 15:10) that Rabbi Yishmael ben Elisha said: From the day that the Temple was destroyed, by right, we should decree upon ourselves not to eat meat and not to drink wine, but the Sages do not issue a decree upon the public unless a majority of the public is able to abide by it.
