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Religious Dilemmas and Jewish Law [9] Yehudah Leib Gordon, “The Mouth That Forbade Was the Mouth That Allowed” Yehuda Leib Gordon, “Ha-peh sheasar hu ha-peh shehitir,” Kol shire Yehudah Leib Gordon (St. Petersburg: Be-defus G. F. Pines, 1884) 2: 160–62. The Rabbi’s cow—allowed (people say)1 “It’s a scandal, Rabbi, among Jews, that took place An imp of a youth broke the Sabbath, bare-faced.” —What’d he do, pray tell, what has gone on?— “The woman standing, just over yon Saw him while out, while walking apace Carrying a time-keep in a public space.” —A time-keep’s an implement, hence its transport [we say] Is strictly forbidden (Ruled the rabbi—law-keep, a.k.a.) Its carrier sternly must be punishment given To serve for the youth of the times as example Lest they on the words of the Wise do trample. Hurry, you beadles, go find him, Go catch him, To me you must bring him. And the beadles hurried and ran and spread out And one melamed2 caught him and brought Him back to the rabbi who looked—to discover The criminal here was his son, and no other. His heart turned about and his fury passed soon, He smoothed down his beard, and shifted his tune: “Contrariwise, nay? A time-keep [no doubt] Is an ornament, which one’s allowed to take out. And no spaces are ‘public’ in the present age, why All are twixt-and-tween, having few passers-by.”3 And the rabbi’s son thus came away clean By having a father so sharp and so keen Who could twist around words of the living God As a man twists a shoe to his foot, to be shod. If the beadle who found him hadn’t been a melamed He’d never at all to his dad have been trotted! Haven’t they guessed how with rabbis it is? The Torah interpreted has many faces. The beam that’s poking in our eyes To them is a pick, that their teeth divides; What for us and our sons is clearly forbidden [136]   religious life Is quite allowed to them and their children. The gaon rabbi of Havila (holy town) By our great sins, prayer turns down. What do folk say? “That’s his might! He won’t pray, when in his brain there’s a sprite.” In Susa-court, forbade Rabbi Ishmael Etrogim that come from the Land of Israel. And why’s that?—well, his uncle and dear kin Has his etrogim from Corfu to trade in. The son-in-law of Rav Pesach the luminary Takes from the indigent 50 percent usury. In Gamla-town there’s a ban on all Passover wine: The rabbi’s daughter trades in the raisin-juice line. notes 1. [The point here is to suggest that the rabbi’s cow will always be considered kosher, although people may be quite strict in ruling on the status of the cows of others. It is impossible to say how widespread this allegedly popular saying was.] 2. [A melamed is a schoolteacher. Melamdim (pl.) were frequently the target of Jewish enlightenment writers; they were reviled for their lack of pedagogical sophistication, wisdom, cleanliness, and just about all other virtues.] 3. [In Talmudic law a true public domain, in which carrying objects is biblically prohibited, is extremely rare, as it requires that the domain be a contiguous space in which 600,000 people pass by every day (this is the definition according to the medieval sage Rashi [1040–1105], which was widely if not unanimously accepted). Spaces treated as public spaces for the purpose of the Sabbath laws are thus only rabbinically prohibited, and one may therefore be more lenient concerning what may considered a vessel versus an ornament.] [10] Responsum of R. Naftali Zvi Yehudah Berlin of Volozhin: Oaths Naftali Zvi Yehudah Berlin, Meshiv davar, 2: 45 (Warsaw: [s.n.] 1894). Q. On the question that was brought to me: A son was born to a man, and he took an oath to set aside a set amount each week for eighteen years; once the entire sum was saved he would use the sum to purchase a Torah scroll. But when two and a half years had passed, and he had amassed seventeen rubles, the child died. The question is whether he is still bound to his oath, and whether he is permitted instead to spend this money...

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