Broken transmission in Bayit Rishon?

The Judaism Reclaimed chapter related to Parashat Ki Tavo explores the implications of the fearsome curses and punishments which are to be unleashed upon Israel in the event of severe national sinfulness – something which the book of Devarim makes clear will come to pass.

As is made clear from later books of Prophets, Israel does indeed descend into idolatry and the nation as a whole no longer appears to obey or be interested in the Torah’s commandments. Could such a nation possibly have faithfully transmitted the Torah’s teachings through such sinful periods?

In his commentary to the curses, Rabbi S. R. Hirsch grapples with these dramatic threats. He observes that it is evident from the recurring conclusions such as “until you will be destroyed”, “until you will be annihilated”, that the Torah cannot mean that all of the various forms of suffering described would fully affect the entire nation. Rather, they appear to indicate that some will perish through illness, others through famine, others again from war, and so forth.

More significantly, writes Rav Hirsch, the general proclamation of these decrees is conditional, to be carried out in their entirety only if the nation descends to a complete defection from God’s Torah. Such a level of degeneration, he argues, was never reached. We know from the books of the Prophets that a loyal nucleus always remained so that even when the upper classes of society, who were more susceptible to the pagan influences of the surrounding nations, descended into idolatry and corruption, a pure and virtuous religious class maintained and transmitted the tradition of the prophets. Since the defection was never absolute, so too God’s punishment was never implemented to its fullest extent, and there was thus no “total annihilation”.

In his Collected Writings, Rav Hirsch develops further the idea of a ‘healthy remnant’ of faithful Jews, based on the opening chapter of Yeshaya. There the prophet describes the moral and religious degeneration of his era, writing: “Had God, Master of the Legions, not left us the trace of a remnant, we would have been like Sodom and resembled Gomorrah”.

What is clear from Yeshaya is that, while this righteous minority certainly existed, it was too small in number to influence the trend of events in the state and therefore seldom appeared in historical records. Elsewhere, Yechezkel testifies that an entire clan of Tzaddokite Kohanim – whose job it was to teach and transmit the Torah’s teachings – remained loyal to the Torah.

The weak and persecuted status of this minority can be seen from further prophetic descriptions such as this statement much later in Yeshaya (66:5): “Listen to the word of God, you who are zealous regarding His word, your brethren hate and shun you ….”

And the description by Yechezkel (9:4) of how the righteous would be saved from Jerusalem’s destruction: “… put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations which are being committed in its midst."

Nevertheless it is their existence alone which prevented the nation from descending to the level of total wickedness and corruption that would have engaged the full force of the tochachah curses.

Rabbi Alex Israel, writing in I Kings: Torn in Two points out how even the generation of the wicked king Achav is described by Eliyahu as “poschim al shnei se’ipin” – wavering between two beliefs rather than being idolatrous through and through.

The books of the prophets, particularly the two books of Kings, tell the story of the decline and fall of the Jewish state. This story focuses upon the leaders and elites since the demoralisation of the people began at the top before spreading downwards and engulfing the nation as a whole. But we learn little about the lives of the masses of people during those centuries.

Prophetic critiques of the sinful state of the nation will often seek to exaggerate its extent for the sake of rebuke. The use of such exaggeration is evident from an exchange between God and Eliyahu during the reign of the wicked Achav. Eliyahu bitterly condemns the entire Israelite kingdom for having “forsaken God’s covenant…I alone have remained” (I Kings 18) – yet not long after God attests to the fact that 7,000 Israelite remained totally loyal to Him.

Rav Hirsch concludes that, without this precious minority, we cannot explain the appearance during sustained periods of ‘total sinfulness’ of such brilliant men as the prophets. Prophets do not just appear overnight; rather, the gift of prophecy is limited to those who excel in wisdom and moral character, qualities that must be patiently acquired.

It follows that a nation which, through the centuries, could produce such luminaries as Devorah, Shmuel, Eliyahu, Elisha, Hoshea, Amos, Yeshaya, Micha, Habakkuk, Yirmiyah, Yechezkel and many others, must have maintained an ongoing cadre of righteous and spiritually healthy members of Jewish society. This is presumably the “healthy remnant” to which Yeshaya refers. A religiously loyal nucleus who would have possessed both the capacity and the motivation to transmit the Jewish tradition throughout its darkest and most sinful periods.

First posted on Facebook 3 September 2023, here.