Vayigash: Siyum Shas

Vayigash: Siyum Shas

The theme of courage is strong in this parsha.  It begins with Judah's approach to the inscrutable viceroy, Secret Joseph. Judah attempts to enslave himself and all of his future generations in exchange for the framed Benjamin, found with the planted chalice in his pannier. He does this to keep the promise to his father, he does not want to see Jacob's reaction to his return without Benjamin. He does it to honor an  agreement that has become more important than the temporal, more important than self preservation.

Joseph has become one of the most powerful people in the world. He distributes the  stored grain to the starving populace. He acquires all of the region's wealth and enslaves the people of Egypt and takes possession of their land in the name of Pharaoh.  He changes Pharaoh from a chief who rules by intimidation to a lord whose manor extends over all of Egypt  and beyond. He bought cheap and sold dear. This is the way of the world

Today, we complete a cycle of daf yomi, we complete an agreed upon portion of the Talmud, studied one page per day, with the entire community on the same page.  The program was begun  on the first day of Rosh Hashanah 5684 (11 September 1923). 

 The standard Vilna edition ends with : 

תנא דבי אליהו כל השונה הלכות בכל יום מובטח לו שהוא בן העולם הבא שנאמר (חבקוק ג, ו) הליכות עולם לו אל תקרי הליכות אלא הלכות
The school of Elijah taught: Anyone who studies halakhot every day is guaranteed that he is destined for the World-to-Come, as it is stated: “His ways [halikhot] are eternal” (Habakkuk 3:6). Do not read the verse as halikhot; rather, read it as halakhot.


Tosafoth says:  Tosefoth intimates that the quote from the school of Eliahu is added to end the tratctate, and talmud on a positive note  There are texts that do not contain this passage, but Rashi and Rabeinu Tam had it.

Rashi comments in the gemara: הלכות - משנה וברייתא הלכה למשה מסיני:

The word Halachoth means mishnah, Braitha and the orally transmitted tradition 

that is attributed to Moshe at Sinai.

The difference between Rashi and Tosefoth has implictaions for the resolution of the preceding argument between Rabbi Akiva, who argues that complex rules can be derived from Torah text, and   Rabbi Elazar ben Azaria who holds that these complex rules  are traditions that can be traced back.  It appears that Rashi supports Rabbi Elazar ben Azaria

The full verse from Habakkuk, from which the quote in the Talmud is taken, reads:

עָמַ֣ד ׀ וַיְמֹ֣דֶד אֶ֗רֶץ רָאָה֙ וַיַּתֵּ֣ר גּוֹיִ֔ם וַיִּתְפֹּֽצְצוּ֙ הַרְרֵי־עַ֔ד שַׁח֖וּ גִּבְע֣וֹת עוֹלָ֑ם הֲלִיכ֥וֹת עוֹלָ֖ם לֽוֹ׃

When He stands, He makes the earth shake; When He glances, He makes nations tremble. The age-old mountains are shattered, The primeval hills sink low. His are the eternal ways:

The verse is a  testament to Gd's power.  In his commentary on Habakkuk,  Rashi explains this to mean that the world order, as initiated by the Deluge in time of Noach and the Dispersion after the tower of Babel are determined by Gd's will. Presumably,  the famine in Egypt and  the  rescue  engineered by Joseph's  was also so determined. 

The Malbim  understands Halichoth, Gd's paths, to be  the laws of nature.  These, too, are subject to the will of Gd. 

When we study the Talmud, we approach an awesome work, a 2000 year old written record of concepts  refine  from the preceding thousand years. The text is surrounded and appended by the scholarship  of geniuses who dedicated their lives to the endeavor of correctly understanding the transmitted tradition.   All who studied it did so with awe and reverence.  When we study the Talmud, we approach the greatest power in the universe, the power that transcends time.  

The laws of nature are currently in force. Halachoth will last forever.