Our gemara on Amud Aleph discusses a certain law as “a halakha without a reason”. The Aramaic word used is, “Hilkhesa”, which is also used to mean a Halakha LeMoshe Misinai, an oral legal tradition that is part of an ancient chain of teachings, even stemming back to Moshe. It is notable that Rashi understands this use of the word “Hilkhesa” to literally mean Halakha LeMoshe Misinai.  Rashi’s explanation is that these particular laws also are seemingly without logical reason, just as the traditions from Moshe were also seemingly without logical reasons.

Rav Tzaddok (Pri Tzaddik, Sukkos 46.1) explains this on a deeper level. He understands that Moshe's depth of self diminishment and humility allowed him to take a shortcut for a full “download“ of God‘s will represented in the Torah that he gave to the Jewish people. Actually, Moshe did not have a full understanding of the reasons for the derashos because his comprehension was on a meta-level. By way of metaphor, consider that any person, even one with learning disabilities, is able to cross the street gauging the speed that a car is approaching with how fast he or she needs to walk. This is advanced mathematical calculus, determining the rate of change. Yet, I assure you, especially as someone who has great difficulty with mathematical computation, though the math is being done somehow in the brain, there is no access to the computations. So too, Moshe‘s understanding of the absolute truth and necessity of various Torah commands, went beyond the earth-level reasoning. Yet, Rav Tzaddok says, this is only one aspect of torah. There also is the logical, analytical, pilpulistic aspect of Torah study. (Indeed, we have a tradition that 1,700 laws were forgotten during the mourning period of Moshe. Yet, Ansniel Ben Kenaz was able to recover these lost rulings via his own analysis and deduction, see Temurah 16a.)

Pri Tzaddik uses this idea to better understand a most interesting Aggadah regarding Moshe traveling in time and attending. Rabbi Akiva’s shiur (Menachos 29b):

אמר רב יהודה אמר רב בשעה שעלה משה למרום מצאו להקב"ה שיושב וקושר כתרים לאותיות אמר לפניו רבש"ע מי מעכב על ידך אמר לו אדם אחד יש שעתיד להיות בסוף כמה דורות ועקיבא בן יוסף שמו שעתיד לדרוש על כל קוץ וקוץ תילין תילין של הלכות

Rav Yehuda says that Rav says: When Moses ascended on High, he found the Holy One, Blessed be He, sitting and tying crowns on the letters of the Torah. Moses said before God: Master of the Universe, who is preventing You from giving the Torah without these additions? God said to him: There is a man who is destined to be born after several generations, and Akiva ben Yosef is his name; he is destined to derive from each and every thorn of these crowns mounds upon mounds of halakhos.  It is for his sake that the crowns must be added to the letters of the Torah.

אמר לפניו רבש"ע הראהו לי אמר לו חזור לאחורך הלך וישב בסוף שמונה שורות ולא היה יודע מה הן אומרים תשש כחו כיון שהגיע לדבר אחד אמרו לו תלמידיו רבי מנין לך אמר להן הלכה למשה מסיני נתיישבה דעתו

Moses said before God: Master of the Universe, show him to me. God said to him: Return behind you. Moses went and sat at the end of the eighth row in Rabbi Akiva’s study hall and did not understand what they were saying. Moses’ strength waned, as he thought his Torah knowledge was deficient. When Rabbi Akiva arrived at the discussion of one matter, his students said to him: My teacher, from where do you derive this? Rabbi Akiva said to them: It is a halakha transmitted to Moses from Sinai. When Moses heard this, his mind was put at ease, as this too was part of the Torah that he was to receive.

This Gemara is difficult to understand. If it is true that Moshe was distressed at not understanding an aspect of the Torah, and then God took him forward in time to help him see that his descendants would be able to eventually understand it, that story alone is fascinating, but still comprehensible. The ironic twist is that Rabbi Akiva claims to be teaching Moshe’s own tradition!  That is incomprehensible. 

The Rabbis were tapping into the irony of Moshe not understanding Rabbi Akiva's shiur to show how the core ideas in the Torah are like seeds and developed further through study, and so it can be authentically said as coming from Moshe. But Rav Tzaddok goes further than that explanation. His point is that Moshe comprehended it in such an essential way that he did not understand the step-by-step logic of how it made sense; he just knew intuitively it was true. That is why when he attended Rabbi Akiva‘s shiur and heard that it was his own teachings that were being transmitted, he felt a sense of peace. Moshe realized that his children would be able to work with what he gave them, and deepen and broaden their understanding, and how to apply it in everyday physical life.

Indeed, there are some people that are linear analytical thinkers, and their decisions are based on step-by-step analysis. Then there are others who think, symbolically, emotionally and intuitively. Oftentimes they are able to arrive at conclusions that prove to be correct, despite the fact that they are unable to explain how they know that to be true. These are patterns of human behavior that we must respect.

Translations Courtesy of Sefaria, except when, sometimes, I disagree with the translation

Do you like what you see? Please subscribe and also forward any articles you enjoy to your friends, (enemies too, why not?)