Pemikiran Yahudi Ulangan 22:11: Akeidat Yitzchak & Derashot HaRan

Joseph's brothers say to their father: "recognise whether this is the coat of your son or not." (Genesis 37,32) We are told to remember what Amalek did to us. (Deut. 25,17) We are told not to fear nations surrounding us. (Deut 7,18-21) Since we are human beings, not just animals, it is expected that we can refine certain characteristics, are not limited to instinctive reactions. If one can learn to compensate for the weakness of certain of one's senses, then surely one can find means to reinforce certain character traits. A blind man develops a more acute sense of hearing. A shortsighted person can improve his vision by the use of spectacles. A person suffering from certain character weaknesses must also find means to compensate for this. Using one's power of imagination, one can imagine situations that make one's phobias seem unjustified and ridiculous. The process of thought association with specific objects is known to be an excellent memory jogger. These aids must be applied when we are asked to observe certain commandments involving remembrances. Seeing the tzitzit reminds us of other mitzvot such as kilayim, forbidden mixtures. This has been discussed at greater length in chapter sixty five. Awareness of the importance of memory joggers may have led some prophets to find common denominators for certain mitzvot, and thus make it easy for us to have these short summaries constantly at our command. Isaiah manages to condense Torah into two slogans, "observe justice and perform righteousness." (chapter 56) Chabakuk manages to sum it up in a single slogan, "the righteous will live by his faith" (2,4). No doubt the purpose of these apparent over simplifications is simply to provide a constant reminder, which when triggered will remind us of all the other mitzvot which are incumbent upon us to perform. When the Talmud (Ketuvot 30) tells us that all is in the hands of Heaven except the contracting of colds and heatstrokes, we know very well that both those phenomena are natural phenomena and as such not subject to our control. In fact, no remedy has yet been found for the common cold. Nevertheless, the sages are telling us that if one falls victim to those two ailments, this is due to negligence on the part of man, to wilful over-exposure etc, and cannot be blamed on outside forces. Just as one can control colds and heatstrokes, so, by employing memory properly, one can reinforce one's senses of trust and confidence in the help of G'd, no matter what the circumstances. This is what David said (Psalms 27,1) "The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?, The Lord is the source of my strength, of whom shall I be afraid?" He means that if his attitude is based on remembering G'ds many past acts of kindness and assistance, why would he be afraid of anyone in the future? In the same vein, Moses tells the people: "you are today about to cross the Jordan in order to dispossess people greater and more powerful than you etc." (9,1). This calls for faith and confidence based on the recollection of all the past triumphs achieved through Divine intervention. The foremost memory jogger is the keriyat shema, which for that reason has been included in our daily prayers three times. We will examine the passage in detail to gain a better understanding of its significance. The following questions suggest themselves:

Devarim Rabbah in Parshat Ki Teytze is explicit about how the commandments accompany man wherever he is, since they apply to food, dress, habitation, commerce, etc., in short to every conceivable matter man may at any time be engaged in.

And this is how I understand the statement of our sages (Makkoth 24a): "We heard 'I am the L-rd your G-d' and 'You shall not have any other gods' from the All-Powerful Himself." For if this is not understood as we have said there is cause for wonder here, viz. the stranger a thing is the more verification it requires, and the more apparent it is to reason the more readily should it be believed. And in view of the fact that our forefathers were not simpletons who believed in all things, as befitting them, but only in those things which had been confirmed to them beyond a doubt, as is apparent in many places in the Torah, it would follow that they should not accept until they had heard them from the All-Powerful Himself, the categorical mitzvoth, those with no apparent reason. But the perspicuous ones, those dictated by reason and which every reasoning man, by virtue of the intellect implanted in him, would believe and acknowledge — why should these have to be heard from the All-Powerful? Do we require sign and proof to belief in first principles, such as that the whole is greater than the part, or, what is close to it [in obviousness], the first mitzvah, which is, according to the Rambam, to believe that there is a First Cause from whom all things derive, as he wrote in his Sefer Hamitzvoth and as he expanded in Sefer Hamada (Yesodei HaTorah 1:1): "The foundation of foundations and the pillar of wisdoms…"? Reason itself dictates this. There is no heretic in the world whom, if he wanted to deny this, we could not force to concede it to be true by means of irrefutable logical arguments. This being so, why did it have to be stated by the All-Powerful? This would more naturally commend itself to Moses' belief than (Deuteronomy 22:11): "Do not wear a garment of wool and linen mixture [shaatnez]." And, similarly, "You shall not have any other gods before Me" is more congenial to belief than (Leviticus 19:19): "Do not sow your field with mixed seed." For the very beginnings of thought adduce the inappropriateness of serving aught but the L-rd Himself. True, it could be answered that though these two mitzvoth are completely perspicuous, still, because they are the pillar and root of the Torah, the Blessed One desired that they reach us through Him alone, with no mediation whatsoever — and this would be a valid reply.