Q&A: Historical Research on Observance of the Commandments
Historical Research on Observance of the Commandments
Question
Hello Rabbi,
In your opinion, were commandments such as reciting the Shema, tefillin, and mezuzah observed in the past by people like Ezra the Scribe, King David, or Moses our Teacher?
Also, are questions like these important for our understanding of the Torah?
Best regards,
Answer
I don't know. It doesn't seem very important to me. It could have implications if we reach a clear conclusion that this is our mistake. In that case, one could make use of evidence about what happened historically. But without that, it's not very important what they did back then.
Discussion on Answer
Not necessarily. I wrote that there are two questions here that are independent of one another: 1. Historical—are we doing what our forefathers did? 2. Halakhic—are we making a mistake? I wrote that only if you have halakhic and interpretive considerations that show that we are mistaken can you make use of historical evidence (that our forefathers acted differently). If it were the same question, there would be no point in all this.
If we do things differently from our forefathers, does that necessarily mean that either they or we are mistaken?
Not necessarily. There are different interpretations that can depend on the circumstances.
With God's help, 1 Tammuz 5780
Moses our Teacher speaks about matters of faith, not only in the minimal form of the Shema in the morning and evening, but literally: "when you sit in your house, when you walk on the way, when you lie down, and when you rise," as we see in the book of Deuteronomy, where he returns again and again to matters of faith. And King David too speaks endlessly about matters of faith, as is evident in his psalms. For us, the Sages were lenient and allowed us to make do with the minimum of two or three minutes in the evening and in the morning.
Likewise with the commandment, "And they shall be for you as a sign upon your hand and as frontlets between your eyes," which Moses commanded in his Torah—certainly those who left Egypt fulfilled it. Having seen the sons of the Egyptian princes adorned with ddft, the symbol of their snake-idol, they surely rejoiced to adorn their heads with the symbol of faith in divine unity, and certainly King David too was not ashamed to adorn himself with the symbol of his faith.
As for mezuzah—it seems that in the tents in the wilderness there was no obligation of mezuzah, but when they came to the Land of Israel and built houses and lived in them—they certainly wrote the words of their faith on the doorpost of the entrance.
Best regards, S.Tz.
Dear S.Tz., my question was about the latest time for Shema… It seems to me that King David recited it after the time…
With God's help, 1 Tammuz 5780
To Benjamin, I would say—
It is unlikely that King David—whose waking time ranged from "At midnight I rise to give thanks to You" to "I will awaken the dawn"—waited until the latest time for Shema like the sons of kings; rather, he fulfilled "They shall fear You with the sun."
And by accepting the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven, David would cut down all the harmful forces (including evil thoughts, as Maimonides says), like Jacob's blessing to Benjamin: "In the morning he shall devour the prey, and in the evening he shall divide the spoil."
Best regards, S.Tz.
Can the Rabbi explain his answer: what kind of "our mistake" is being referred to? For example, the time for the morning Shema—we fulfill the commandment only until the latest time for Shema, whereas our forefathers recited it at the time of actually getting up. Is that "our mistake"?