Can Torah Study Alone Ward Away Suffering? — BT Avodah Zarah 17b — #31

This accords with the opinion of Rav Huna who said: “One who engages only in Torah study is like one who has no God, for it is said, Now for long seasons Israel was without the true God [and without a teaching priest and without Torah] (2 Chronicles 15:3).” What is meant by “without a true God”? [It means] that whoever engages only in Torah study is like one who has no God. And did [R. Chanina] not engage in gemilut chasadim? R. Eliezer b. Yaakov says: “A person should not give his money to the [communal] charity fund unless a Torah scholar like R. Chanina b. Teradyon is appointed to oversee it. [R. Chanina] was certainly trusted [to oversee the charity] but never actually did. But it was taught: [R. Chanina] said to [R. Yose b. Kisma]: “I switched Purim funds and distributed them to the poor.” R. Chanina did [acts of kindness] but not as he should have.

INTRODUCTION

Given that this passage begins, “This accords with the opinion of Rav Huna…” clearly we are in the middle of a longer piece. The context is a story set during the infamous Hadrianic persecutions in the early second century C.E. The Romans outlawed Torah study, observance of many mitzvot, and rabbinic ordination, threatening the survival of Judaism and the Jewish people. Tradition holds that R. Chanina b. Teradyon, together with nine other rabbis, was brutally martyred during this period; the stories of their martyrdom are recounted in many synagogues on Yom Kippur. In the daf following [18a], we find the famous account of R. Chanina’s trial: R. Chanina is wrapped in a  scroll of Torah and burned to death, giving rise to his famous vision of the Hebrew letters miraculously escaping from the parchment and ascending to heaven. 

The larger discussion, of which this passage is a part, begins with a baraita that informs us that R. Chanina and R. Elazar b. Perata were arrested by the Romans and charged with a variety of crimes. R. Chanina tells his colleague, “You are fortunate because you were arrested on five counts, but will be saved. Woe is me who has been arrested on one count, but will not be saved—for you engaged in Torah study as well as gemilut chasadim (deeds of kindness), whereas I engaged only in Torah study.” Was R. Chanina—an eminent scholar— not saved from the fangs of the ruthless Roman establishment because Torah study, however diligent and exemplary, is insufficient to merit heaven’s intervention without gemilut chasadim (deeds of loving kindness)? What we find here is the Rabbis’ desperate attempt to find a reason for R. Chanina’s suffering.

"There is only one question which really matters: why do bad things happen to good people? All other theological conversation is intellectually diverting . . .” (Rabbi Harold Kushner, When Bad Things Happen to Good People, p. 6)

COMMENTARY

Rav Huna brings a verse from Tana”kh that recounts Jewish “history” from Adam through founding of the Davidic dynasty, the Babylonian Exile, and Cyrus’ authorization for the people to return and rebuild the Temple. Rav Huna quotes only the beginning of the verse, but given that the verse ends “without Torah,” we can see that his point is that Torah study is insufficient to secure heaven’s protect from a fate like R. Chanina’s if it is not a accompanied by gemilut chasadim, deeds of loving kindness. But is it true that R. Chanina has no deeds of kindness to his merit? Could that be? R. Eliezer b. Yaakov’s statement that a charity fund should be administered by a Torah scholar of R. Chanina’s eminence is brought to refute the suggestion that R. Chanina had no deeds of chesed to his credit, but an anonymous voice points out that R. Chanina never actually managed the fund—he merely qualified to do so on the basis of his scholarship. An early teaching is then quoted that claims that R. Chanina did, indeed, oversee a charity fund, but he did not insure that the funds were properly disbursed. The suggestion is that his laxity on his part, made him deserving of the punishment he received at the hands of the Romans. The Rabbis did not naively believe that enough kind acts protects a person from the slings and arrows of life. Rather, they are making a profound comment about the inadequacy of studying Torah in the absence of living Torah through acts of gemilut chasadim.

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER AND DISCUSS

1. The problem of theodicy (God’s justice) arises in every generation and in every religious tradition. Why do you think this is? The Rabbis are turning somersaults to find a way to justify R. Chanina’s grisly end. On the following daf [18a] they will record that R. Chanina was executed together with his wife, and that their daughter was consigned to a brothel. Clearly, the story of the mismanaged charity funds is not a capital offense, and certainly doesn’t explain why his wife and daughter suffered as they did, so the Rabbis offer another explanation: R. Chanina uttered God’s ineffable Name. Moreover, his wife failed to restrain him and his daughter was guilty of egregious vanity. Do these explanations resolve the problem of theodicy for you, or do they perhaps compound the problem? Or does this issue not trouble you (i.e., you don’t expect the good to always prosper and the wicked to always suffer) because your understanding of God obviates the concern?
2. Even if you do not subscribe to the belief that God protects those who do good, is there a way in which doing good itself affords a person a measure of protection from the evils of the  world, or does it have no influence ultimately on the course of one’s life?
3. What happens when you decouple Torah study from moral behavior? Consider Pirkei Avot 4:5 (below). How do you understand R. Yishmael? Rashi says that one who studies only in order to teach does so for the sake of status and therefore will be unable to either learn or teach. What do you think Rashi is saying about the quality of learning and teaching when one’s purpose is self-aggrandizement?

R. Yishmael taught: One who studies in order to teach will be enabled to study and to teach. One who studies in order to practice will be enable to study, to teach, to observe, and to practice. (Pirkei Avot 4:5)