God spoke at length to me

Samuel ha-Nagid

Mid-11th Century

God spoke at length to me in his teachings and precepts,

and He gave me the fortune to be a teacher.

And therefore, turn to me, O upright people,

and listen to the upright matters in the instruction.

In God’s Torah, the commandments are explained in general,

but their specifics were preserved by heart.

From Moses, they were received by mouth,

and kept inside the heart, not in writing.

From prophet to prophet they were given,

from sage to sage transmitted.

The sages preserved them, until the time came

when troubles, previously bound, were unleashed.

Now the bread of understanding was lacking from academies,

and waters of understanding were lacking from wells,

So arguments became common in the gates,

and doubts became common among the scholars.

The men of Hillel and Shammai disagreed,

when fearsome troubles came smoothly.¹

Then R. Judah [the Prince] arose and collected material,

six collections of Oral Torah,²

and he enlightened the face of the earth with the Mishnah,

whose orders shine like the constellations.

He mentioned the disagreements that were known

in his days, and he loosened what was bound,³

with tactics available to all that seek them,⁴

as honey flows in a honeycomb.

After him, men disagreed further,

and wrote their disagreements in other teachings [mishnayot].

In each is presented a lone opinion, which is rejected,

and clearly established rules [of the majority]. [ . . . ]

Later on, further doubts arose,

as further fearsome events arose,

and troubles concealed the secrets of the laws,

which had been obvious to the earlier generations.

But the amoraim⁵ found ways to open

all that was sealed in the Mishnah that they were studying.

Through this they caused the Torah to blossom,

to make the laws flower, with buds and branches.

Some collected laws like eggs,

and some gathered commandments like sprouts.

And Rav Asheh and Ravina⁶ placed them

in our Talmud, all assembled properly.

They built a wall and turrets for the Torah,

and put up walls and dwellings for the law. [ . . . ]

But many strayed from them,

from their words, their teachings, in the Talmud.

These strayers [i.e., the Karaites] taught men words

which negate what is stated in the Talmud.

They wrote treatises, in which

their few words are friends of corruption.

And matters were stated in the names of upright leaders—

unfit words, attributed to the noble. [ . . . ]

Thus the sectarians became mighty,

and the law became poor, and weighty matters became light.

These people let their lips speak at length.

Men of short hands set their hands forth.⁷

They blackened what is just and white,

and they whitened what is unjust and black.

Therefore, I, who study God’s law,

in accordance with what ability and intellect I have,

will mention the errors, to discredit them,

and write down the beautiful opinions, to maintain them,

and codify matters about which there is no disagreement,

in eloquent language, in clear ways,

and bring all correctness out of its graves,

and place all corruption into graves.

And I will have the Talmud, for my words,

as their birthplace, their homeland.

When I write and compose, I will rely

on the choice words of the geonim.

And I will place Rav Hay [Ga’on] as the greatest of them.

His wondrous words are wonderful as crowns.

From his well I do draw,

his bread I eat, and I find nothing bitter. [ . . . ]

I will not be ashamed when I come across someone’s mistake,

someone’s stumbling block, like a thorn or a thistle,

to remove it, like stones about to trip people,

to get rid of it, like a pit that would trip a blind person.

I will not show favor to a lofty authority,⁸

for none who show flattery are pleasing to the lofty God.

Translated by Gabriel Wasserman.

Notes

[A pun in Hebrew. The root ḥ-l-q can mean either “smooth” or “disagree.”—Trans.]

[The Mishnah is divided into six “orders.”—Trans.]

[I.e., he clarified what was unclear. Alternatively, the line means that R. Judah wrote down the Oral Law, an action that had hitherto been “bound” or forbidden.—Trans.]

[The “tactics” are the methods of expounding the Torah. The word “seek,” doresh, means also “to expound a text.”—Trans.]

[Teachers after the time of the Mishnah, from approximately the third to fifth centuries CE.—Trans.]

[Fifth-century scholars, traditionally believed to be the compilers of the Babylonian Talmud.—Trans.]

[I.e., people of little ability became active and spread their false opinions.—Trans.]

[He means that if he finds an incorrect opinion, even if stated by a greatly respected scholar, he will not show favoritism to it. The language is from Leviticus 19:15.—Trans.]

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 3: Encountering Christianity and Islam.