Chagiga: What Cannot be Touched; What We Stop Each Other From Touching

Amud (a) of today's daf is absolutely amazing. Aggadic tales that help us to understand the rabbis' understandings of G-d's nature.  Amud (b) was similar to hitting a brick wall after flying through the air.  For me, anyhow.

Rabbi Yochanan teaches that G-d was not found in the wind, the earthquake or the fire.  But after the fire, there was a still, small voice, and the Lord passed by.  

We are told that demons are like angels and like humans.  Through this discussion, we learn about the angels.  The rabbis believe that they can eat and drink, multiply and think, walk upright and speak and excrete like animals.  

In explaining why we should not think about Creation, the rabbis note that the chaos before Creation is not for us to know.  From here they discuss the nature of a rainbow and the dangers involved in staring at it directly.  We are told that searching for the substance of a rainbow is similar to searching for the substance of G-d.  The perfection and beauty; the ethereal quality of mist and refracted light - this seems all too real to us.  

I believe that part of this prohibition is teaching us not to search too hard, in general. When we stare at a rainbow, do we continue to admire its sublime, blissful existence?  Or do we look for those tiny water droplets and the direction of light that is refracting?  Our nature leads us to be logical; to search for answers.  But we are not meant to find all answers.  We cannot know the nature of G-d, regardless of how long we look.  And when we spend our energy on that search, we miss the beauty of what we have, now, in this moment.

Again we are reminded that we are not to disgrace G-d's name in public.  When we are unable to control ourselves, we are to cover ourselves in black and to leave any public centre.

Amud (a) ends with a reminder about trusting our bodies.  Modern customs suggest that we always trust out bodies. However, ancient wisdom suggests that we are liable to fall into the grasp of yetzer hara.  We are told not to trust intimate friendships - this all suggests that our rabbis feared that Jews would not follow the rabbis and their halachot.

Amud (b) shares a Mishna regarding placing our hands on the head of an offering.  It teaches that a number of rabbis believe that we should not place our hands during a Festival because that could be considered labour.  Another group of rabbis, including Hillel, are more lenient.  The rabbis come to discuss whether or not physical strength must be involved in placing one's hands.  This leads them to discuss whether women are obligated, not obligated, or even prohibited from placing their hands. 

A story is told of a group of women who are given an animal to sacrifice; they do this together, as a group, exactly according to halachic instruction.  The rabbis suggest that this might be done to please the women.  But if women are not obligated, is this not allowing them to add to the mitzvot?

It is discussions like this one that remind me of the rabbis serving their own agenda as they interpret and create halacha.  In this case, it is determined that women are in fact prohibited from sacrificing the offering.  How might it hurt the rabbis if women were to continually practice this ritual?  First off, the women might not be as available for other things - including preparing and serving food, caring for children, etc., if they create a minhag that encourages religious practice.  Secondly, if women were allowed to sacrifice, what else might they be allowed to do?  And how would this also be a detriment to men's lives?

Today's daf weaves together the most esoteric and essential quality of religious thought with some of the most enduring acts of disengagement imaginable.