- Build Your Mitsvah
Portfolio
- Current Study Passage
- Join the Discussion
- Maqom Supporters
- Individualized Intensive
Learning
- Annotated Bibliography
- About Rabbinic Literature
- Previous Study Passages
-
- A Talmud Tale
- Jewish Texts: The Owner's
Manual
- The Tefillin Gift
Shop
- Guided Meditations
- The Maqom
Journal
- Art
- Links
- Home
-
- About Rabbi Abrams
HELP MAQOM!
|
CURRENT TALMUD PASSAGE
The musical was an enormous hit! If you'd
like a dvd of the show, please send a contribution
of $18 for an enjoyable, entertaining and inspiring look at the
world of the Talmud!
Posted July 2, 2009, by Rabbi Judy Abrams. Please refer to
Maqom's home page for information about previous passages.
BH
"MR. FIVE SINS" AND HIS ANSWERED
PRAYERS IN THE YERUSHALMI
© Judith Z. Abrams, 2009
We are now in that part of the Jewish
year when those in Israel look longingly to the sky for a hint
of rain. (Indeed, those of us suffering through a record heat
wave here in Texas are looking longingly to the sky, as well.)
Tractate Taanit is the one concerned with precisely this issue.
In the sages’ minds, if someone prays for rain and rain
comes, it is a sign that the person who’s praying is very
righteous, indeed. (In the Bavli, many very great sages pray
for rain and their prayers are not answered.) It is in this context
that we find the following story: Rabbi Abbahu dreamt that “Mr.
Five Sins” prayed that rain would come, and it did come.
Rabbi Abbahu summoned him and asked
him: What is your trade? He said to him: I do five sins every
day: hiring prostitutes, cleaning up the theater, bring home
their garments for washing, dancing and banging cymbals before
them. Rabbi Abbahu asked: What good deed have you done? He said:
One day I was cleaning the theater and a woman came and stood
behind a pillar and cried. I said to her: What’s the matter?
She said: My husband is in prison and I wanted to see what I
can do to free him. So I sold my bed and cover and gave the proceeds
to her. I said: Here is your money: free your husband, but do
not sin. Rabbi Abbahu said to him: You are worthy of praying
having your prayers answered. (Y. Taanit 1:4)
Discussion Questions:
This is part of a long series of stories
of people whose prayers for rain are answered, even though they
seem the unlikeliest of candidates to be righteous enough to
have their prayers answered. “Mr. Five Sins” is clearly
not just surrounded by a sinful environment, he promotes it and
participates in it. But he saves this woman from falling into
this environment. One has the impression that she is hesitating
at the door of the theater, stealing herself to walk in and sign
up as a prostitute in a last ditch effort to buy her husband’s
freedom.
- Given this scenario, what is it that
is so righteous in what he does that overrides his overwhelmingly
sinful lifestyle? How can we model ourselves on the righteousness
of this man, not his lifestyle, but his ability to save someone
from slipping over the edge into the abyss?
- There are other instances in rabbinic
literature of sinful people who do one righteous person and that
earns them eternity in the world to come. Can you count on the
opportunity to do that one shining deed? Is that possibility
always there and we just don’t see it?
|
The Secret
World of Kabbalah
is available at Amazon.com! To order, click here. Additionally, you can also download
a study
guide for use with
the text. |
Build
Your Mitsvah Portfolio | Current Study
Passage | Join the Discussion |
Maqom Supporters | Individualized
Intensive Learning | Annotated Bibliography
| Previous Study Passages | A
Talmud Tale | Jewish Texts: The Owner's
Manual | The Tefillin Gift Shop
| Guided Meditations
| The
Maqom Journal | Art | Links
| Home | About
Rabbi Abrams
Maqom: A Place for the Spiritually Searching admits students
of any race, color and national or ethnic origin. © 2002
Judith Z. Abrams |
