{"id":51250,"date":"2019-03-12T18:36:02","date_gmt":"2019-03-12T16:36:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=51250"},"modified":"2022-10-04T12:37:42","modified_gmt":"2022-10-04T09:37:42","slug":"teaching-torah-then-now-and-in-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/teaching-torah-then-now-and-in-the-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Teaching Torah \u2013 Then, Now And In The Future"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[402,363,762],"acf":{"old_id":"51250","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":33877,"related_cahpter":"174","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"The strange beheaded heifer as eternal teaching","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Our chapter begins with the Torah injunction of &#8216;<em>eglah &#8216;arufah<\/em> (the rite of breaking the neck of a heifer): <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If&#8230; someone slain is found lying in the open, the identity of the slayer not being known, your elders and magistrates shall go out and measure the distances from the corpse to the nearby towns. The elders of the town nearest to the corpse shall then take a heifer which has never been worked, which has never pulled in a yoke; and the elders of that town shall bring the heifer down to an ever flowing wadi, which is not tilled or sown. There, in the wadi, they shall break the heifer\u2019s neck\u2026Then all the elders of the town nearest to the corpse shall wash their hands over the heifer&#8230; And they shall make this declaration: \u2018Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it done. Absolve, O Lord, Your people Israel whom You redeemed, and do not let guilt for the blood of the innocent remain among Your people Israel\u2026\u2019 (21:1-9). <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Even one of the greatest minds in Jewish history seems to have puzzled over this rather strange rite. In his Mishneh Torah (<\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Me`illah<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> 8:8), Maimonides lists this law as one of the <\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">hukkim<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> whose rationale is simply not known. But, in his Guide for the Perplexed (3:40), Maimonides provides a rationalist explanation, that such an unpleasant requirement ensures that every possible means will be exhausted to try to identify whomever is guilty of the death of a slain individual. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Midrash (Genesis Rabbah 94:3, see also Rashi to Genesis 45:27) mentions that this biblical law was studied already in the time of the Patriarchs. According to the biblical narrative (Genesis 45:26-28), Jacob believed that his most beloved son, Joseph, was still alive, only when he saw the \u201cwagons\u201d Joseph sent to bring his aged father to him in Egypt. However, the Midrash relates that Jacob believed that Joseph was still alive when he saw not \u201cwagons\u201d (<em>\u2018agalot<\/em>) but \u201cheifers\u201d (\u2018<em>agalot<\/em>), which reminded him that when he and Joseph were last together they were studying the law of <em>\u2018eglah \u2018arufah<\/em>. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">From this imaginative narrative, the Midrash goes on to derive that all the Patriarchs studied Torah, well before it was actually revealed to the Israelites at Sinai! And thus, God said to Abraham: In this world you taught Torah to your children. But in the World to Come, I Myself will teach them Torah, as it says: \u201cAnd all your children shall be taught of the Lord and great shall be the peace of your children\u201d (Isaiah 54:13).<\/p>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n<p>image: Franz Marc, <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Franz_Marc_007.jpg\">The World Cow<\/a>, 1913<\/p>\n","image":{"ID":51251,"id":51251,"title":"dt21-worldcow","filename":"dt21-worldcow.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt21-worldcow.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/teaching-torah-then-now-and-in-the-future\/dt21-worldcow\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"dt21-worldcow","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":51250,"date":"2019-03-12 16:32:07","modified":"2019-03-12 16:32:18","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":800,"height":395,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt21-worldcow-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt21-worldcow-300x148.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":148,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt21-worldcow-768x379.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":379,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt21-worldcow.jpg","large-width":800,"large-height":395,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt21-worldcow.jpg","1536x1536-width":800,"1536x1536-height":395,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt21-worldcow.jpg","2048x2048-width":800,"2048x2048-height":395,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt21-worldcow.jpg","post_full_size-width":800,"post_full_size-height":395,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt21-worldcow.jpg","home_baner-width":800,"home_baner-height":395}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"Teaching Torah \u2013 Then, Now And In The Future","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"The strange beheaded heifer as eternal teaching","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":{"ID":51251,"id":51251,"title":"dt21-worldcow","filename":"dt21-worldcow.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt21-worldcow.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/teaching-torah-then-now-and-in-the-future\/dt21-worldcow\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"dt21-worldcow","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":51250,"date":"2019-03-12 16:32:07","modified":"2019-03-12 16:32:18","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":800,"height":395,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt21-worldcow-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt21-worldcow-300x148.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":148,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt21-worldcow-768x379.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":379,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt21-worldcow.jpg","large-width":800,"large-height":395,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt21-worldcow.jpg","1536x1536-width":800,"1536x1536-height":395,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt21-worldcow.jpg","2048x2048-width":800,"2048x2048-height":395,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt21-worldcow.jpg","post_full_size-width":800,"post_full_size-height":395,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt21-worldcow.jpg","home_baner-width":800,"home_baner-height":395}},"preview_video":"","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"links":false,"send_noty":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51250"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51250"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":108367,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51250\/revisions\/108367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}