The Nature of God according to the Sages (1)

    In the world of academia, people get all worked up about how the rabbis constructed gender; if, like the Romans, they permitted a slave owner to have sex with his slave; whether or not they approved of corporal punishment. Few seem to care about the concepts of God and Israel the sages entertained. Which is like ignoring the kind of football Clay Matthews plays, and concentrating on what shampoo he uses.

    The idea seems to be that we have nothing to learn from the sages regarding the things that mattered to them above all. As if what we hold to be true about God and Israel requires no defense, the tenets of the Talmud being unworthy of discussion. As far as God goes, the most common understanding today is a blend of Marcionism and New Age fluff. That is, God is not the malevolent bully we find in the Hebrew Bible; for the rest, if there must be a God, he is expected to engage in random acts of kindness but otherwise keep to himself. As far as the notion that Israel is the recipient of an irrevocable calling is concerned, the response is curt: bug off, I have my own life to live. After all, the alternative, that of being A Serious Man, is none too appetizing.

    It is possible to jump into the sea of the Talmud almost anywhere and be immersed in reflection about God and Israel. In this post, I present and comment on a few lines from Talmud Bavli Sanhedrin 39b.

רבי אלעזר רמי

כתיב טוב ה' לכל

וכתיב טוב ה' לקוויו

Rabbi Eleazar laid it out.
It is written, “The Lord is good to all” (Ps 145:9);
it is also written, “The Lord is good to those who hope in him (Lam 3:25).”

משל לאדם שיש לו פרדס

This compares to a man who has a garden.

כשהוא משקה

משקה את כולו

כשהוא עודר

אינו עודר

אלא טובים שבהם

When he irrigates,
he irrigates all of it;
when he thins [changed from "prunes" - see comment thread],
he only thins
the good among them.

    The verb עדר alludes to the practice of cultivating a garden by thinning and cleaning, by means of a hoe or by hand. Whereas HaShem is good to all, he is especially good to those who put their hope in him and are good for that reason: that would be Israel, in principle if not always in fact. Nonetheless, divine benevolence manifests itself in the practice of “thinning” Israel in order to make Israel grow more vigorously over the long term. This conviction, that the divine mercy is manifest sub contraria specie (in its opposite), has accompanied Israel through the darkest nights of history.

    To be continued.

Comments

[David]

It is interesting that you define עודר as pruning. While the concept is true, traditionally עודר is understood as addtional hoeing or weeding. That would suggest a different meaning to the passage.
One speaks to the general bounty that is provided to all creatures, the other speaks to when additional intervention is needed, perhaps personal needs, times of crises etc. a higher level or interaction befitting the relationship.

[JohnFH]

David,

You are right. I mistranslated עודר as if it read זומר. It could be that you have caught the sense of the passage, that Israel receives TLC (tender loving care) from God that other nations do not. Compare Isa 5:1-2, a passage however which goes on to speak of that same special divine attention changing into destructive rage.

I was reading the passage of the Talmud in light of Deut 8:5 and Amos 3:1-2, where election is the reason why Israel pays the consequences of misdeeds early and often as opposed to late or never.

I remain inclined to interpret the passage in that sense. Your interpretation is correct as far it goes, but fails to capture the difficult side of a close relationship between a superior and a favored inferior.