Pemikiran Yahudi Pengkhotbah 10:11: Akeidat Yitzchak & Derashot HaRan

From the above it is dear that when man abuses this power of speech, he denies his superiority over the beasts and calls into question the value of his whole existence. It is like a king who presented his servant with a fancy garment, only to have the servant drape it over his donkey. The sages of Israel are complimented when the Talmud Sukkah 28, states that they never indulged in idle talk. Maimonides divides speech into five categories. 1) Obligatory speech, i.e. teaching Torah. 2) Speech which must be avoided; false testimony, slander etc. 3) Disgraceful speech; i.e. what we call idle talk. 4) Desirable speech, i.e. words of mussar, moral instruction, sermons etc. 5) Permissible speech, i.e. speech needed in the pursuit of earning one's livelihood. In view of the above, we can understand Rabbi Shimon ben Gamliel who said that he found silence to be the essence of all wisdom, the best remedy for maintaining one's body's good health. (Avot 1,17) By moving in the company of sages, he learned that more even than the words of wisdom he learned, he learned to appreciate the importance of minimising talk. Silence is the seyag, the protective fence built around wisdom. It ensures that the latter remains untainted. Even a fool may be considered wise, as long as he keeps his mouth shut. We are taught in Pessachim 3, that one should employ few words when teaching one's students. The Mishnah in Avot tells us that "not the exposition is of crucial importance, but the execution, the deed." An alternate meaning of Rabbi Shimon ben Gamliel's statement might be this: "I have not found that sitting silently, without asking for clarification, contributes to the essence, namely the learning process. However, excessive talk is harmful."

"For I am the L-rd who heals you" has puzzled the expositors. How can "healing" be understood without sickness beforehand? I understand it as follows: It is well known that doctors do not heal an illness intrinsically but adventitiously, and that they are called "healers" only by extension. For they do not understand the inter-relationship between the drugs they employ and the nature of man, so that whatever they do is a function of the "tools" they use. If they agree with man's nature, they will cure the illness, and if they disagree with it they will aggravate the illness. And if they neither agree nor disagree with it, then they will have no effect whatsoever. But the Blessed One is the true Healer, who heals intrinsically, His acts not being subservient to the tools that He employs, but the tools being subservient to Him! And He can remove any ailment by any means which He desires. Therefore, it is written: Do not wonder at My assuring you of the removal of illness through the observance of statutes and ordinances, there seeming to be no relationship in your eyes between these — "for I am the L-rd who heals you," and I can remove from you any ailment through any means I desire. For just as you saw Me heal the sickness of the water by that which in its nature should have aggravated it, in the same way you may believe that I can remove illness from your midst through means which, in your eyes, seem to have no relationship to it whatsoever. And this was, likewise, His intent in telling Moses (Numbers 21:8): "Make for yourself a fiery serpent and set it upon a pole." For the Blessed One had sent fiery serpents upon them, having singled out this punishment for their having spoken in vain against G-d and Moses. For in their other complaints, though they had sinned, it was in respect to one of their needs, such as meat or water. But in this instance [their complaint over the manna] they lacked for nothing, but simply reflected a great evil in their souls, nothing other than wickedness of heart, debasing the choicest of foods, the manna. Their sin was slander, and the slanderer is comparable to the serpent in that just as the serpent injures for no cause but simply to satisfy his evil nature, in the same way, the slanderer spews evil from his mouth, not deriving any benefit thereby, but simply giving vent to the great evil within him. This is the intent of the statement of our sages (Ta'anith 8a): "In the future all of the animals will gather before the serpent and say to him: 'A lion tramples and eats; a wolf tears and eats; but you — what pleasure do you have?' And he will answer (Koheleth 10:11): 'What benefit is there to the man of the tongue [the slanderer]?'" And because they had shown the evil of their hearts, He sent against them the most evil of the snakes, the fiery serpents, unparalleled in venomousness (and there transpired with the Jews what transpired). Afterwards, when they admitted their sin and repented, as it is written (Numbers 21:7): "And the people came to Moses and said: 'We have sinned, for we have spoken against the L-rd and against you…'", the Blessed One said to Moses: "Make for yourself a fiery serpent…" The Ramban remarks very aptly that this, if anything, should have aggravated their illness, for it runs counter to the healing art for those bitten by a serpent to gaze upon it, such gazing being extremely injurious to them. But here the Blessed One specifically commanded them to gaze at the form of the serpent to impress it upon them that all of their affairs were in the hands of Heaven, that they had not been consigned to the ways of nature or of chance at all, that with the fulfillment of all of the Torah there need be no fear of fatal agents, as potent as they may be, as witness the episode of R. Chanina b. Dosa and the serpent.