|Tractate Berachot, Chapter 6
Rebbi Meir2 says, “From where [do we know] that just like you have to bless [God] for good [things that happen to you], so too you have to bless [God] for bad [things that happen to you]? The Torah teaches us, ‘… that which Hashem, your God, has given you …’ (Devarim 26:11).3 Your God [meaning] your judge. For every judgment that He judges you, whether positively or negatively.”4
מסכת ברכות פרק ו
רבי מאיר אומר מניין שכשם שאתה מברך על הטובה כך אתה מברך על הרעה? תלמוד לומר (דברים כו:יא) אשר נתן לך ה’ אלהיך. אלהיך – דיינך, בכל דין שדנך בין במדת הטוב בין במדת פורענות.
- In chapter 9 of Berachot the Mishna restates a similar law a few times. Mishna 9:2 says that a person must say a Beracha upon hearing good news and upon hearing bad news. Mishna 9:3 says that a person should say a Beracha on both types of news regardless of their actual outcome, whether positive or negative. And finally, Mishna 9:5 says that a person must bless God for positive things that happen to him as well as for negative things. Talmud Bavli (Berachot 60b) explains that the last Mishna is note referring to a specific Beracha that a person must actually say, but rather it is referring to the way a person should accept in his heart events that happen to him in his life, meaning that even if they are negative he should still accept them with happiness. Our Tosefta, although technically applicable to any of the above mentioned Mishnayot, specifically relates to the last Mishna that is speaking in general about how a person should accept in his heart positive and negative events. It does not refer to an actual particular Beracha that a person must say when positive or negative events happen to him. Although Mishna 9:5 learns out its statement from a verse in the Torah, our Tosefta provides a different source for the same teaching. I have translated the Tosefta according to the way it fits with the general teaching of Mishna 9:5 and not according to the law stated in Mishna 9:2 that a person must say a Beracha upon hearing good news as well as bad news.
- In the printed editions of the Tosefta the words Meir is missing and it instead it says “Rebbi” which is a general reference to Rebbi Yehudah Hanassi, the author of the Mishna. However, all manuscripts have the text written as “Rebbi Meir”. I would like to point out that it is absolutely fitting that Rebbi Meir is the one who said this statement in the Tosefta and not someone else, because of the following two stories that appear in Talmud Bavli (Talmud Bavli, Avodah Zarah 18a-b). Rebbi Meir was married to the famous Beruriah, the daughter of Rebbi Chaninah Ben Teradyon. In the early part of the 2nd century CE, after the Bar Kochba rebellion, the Romans have executed Rebbi Chaninah Ben Teradyon for teaching Torah publicly and ordered that his unmarried daughter, Beruriah’s sister, should be placed in a brothel. Beruriah asked her husband to save her sister. Rebbi Meir took a bag of coins and went to the brothel disguised as a Roman horseman. When he discovered that Beruriah’s sister kept her chastity, despite the fact that she was living in a brothel by pretending that she was always on her period, he offered the money as a bribe to the guard. The guard replied, “When the government will find out what I did they will kill me.” Rebbi Meir answered, “Take half the money for yourself, and use the other half to bribe various officials so that they do not kill you.” The guard answered back, “And when there is no more money, and I still need to give out more bribes what will I do?” Rebbi Meir answered, “Say, ‘The God of Meir – answer me!’ and you will be saved.” The guard asked, “And how can I be guaranteed that this will save me?” Rebbi Meir replied, “You will see for yourself right now.” Rebbi Meir walked over to the angry dogs that were nearby and threw a stone at them. When the dogs ran over to him to bite him, he exclaimed, “God of Meir – answer me!” and the dogs left him alone. The guard was convinced and gave him the girl. When the Romans founds out about what the guard they arrested him and sentenced him to death by hanging. When the executioners tied the rope around his neck he said, “God of Meir – answer me!” The executioners got curious about what he said and started asking him about it. He told them about Rebbi Meir. So the Romans issued an arrest warrant for Rebbi Meir. Due to this Rebbi Meir had to flee to Babylonia. But some people said that that was not the reason why Rebbi Meir fled to Babylonia, but rather it was because of an incident that happened with his wife Beruriah. The Talmud or any other extant rabbinic source does not tell us what that incident was. However, Rashi (Avodah Zarah 18b, Veika Deamri) brings the details of that story. It is generally assumed (see Maharatz Chayes, Mevo Hatalmud, Chapter 31) that in Rashi’s times there were manuscripts of a Midrash that contained that story, which were subsequently lost, although this is unknown. The story is as follows. Beruriah kept taunting Rebbi Meir about the Rabbinic teaching that said that “women are light minded”. (See Talmud Bavli, Kiddushin 80b) He said to her that one day she will find out that that is the truth. Rebbi Meir ordered to one of his students to seduce her. She fell for it and eventually cheated on Rebbi Meir, proving that she was too weak to resist. Once she found out that it was Rebbi Meir who ordered his student to seduce her in the first place she committed suicide and Rebbi Meir fled to Babylonia out of embarrassment. From these two stories it is clear that Rebbi Meir’s life was full of horrible tribulations and still he accepted everything that God sent his way with a happy heart. I have to admit that the story that Rashi quotes sounds dubious, especially the part about Rebbi Meir telling his student to seduce his own wife, but still it illustrates some important points about Rebbi Meir’s life. It should be noted that the Shalshelet Hakabbalah by Rav Gedalyah Ibn Yachya (Jerusalem, 1962 edition p.71) has a slightly different version of the story of Beruriah’s suicide, where it was actually Rebbi Meir pretending to be his student with whom Beruriah slept with. His source is equally unknown. I have seen also quoted in the name of Rabeinu Nissim Bar Yakov of Kairouan, who lived a couple generations before Rashi, this story with a completely different outcome, which says that Rebbi Meir fled together with Beruriah to Babylonia as a result of Roman persecution, implying that Beruriah never committed suicide and the whole affair never took place. It is referenced by H.Z. Hirschberg (editor), Chibur Yafe Min Hayeshua, Mosad Harav Kook, 1970, p.39-40. He quotes the end of the story as brought down by Rabeinu Nissim as follows: הלך [ר’ מאיר] לקח את אשתו וכל מה שהיה לו ועבר אל עראק – Rebbi Meir went, took his wife and everything that he had, and fled to Iraq.
- I have quoted the verse as it appears to be written in the Tosefta in both the Vienna and the Erfurt manuscripts and rightly so as I will explain below. Although the English translation remains the same regardless of the order of the words in the Hebrew verse, whether “Hashem your God” appears before “He has given you” or after, it makes a huge difference in the actual Hebrew text, since a wrong order of words would invalidate a Torah scroll. Many commentators on the Tosefta (see Minchat Bikkurim, Chazon Yechezkel, Mishna Vehatosefta Berachot, by Yakov Meir Zelkind) for some reason were not able to find the correct verse in the Tanach and have attempted to say that the text in the Tosefta is quoted incorrectly, and should be reversed to read as the following 3 possibilities. One possibility is: אשר ה’ אלהיך נתן לך. There are many different verses that would fit. This line appears in the following verses: Shemot 20:11, Devarim 4:21, 4:40, 5:15, 7:16, 12:9, 12:15, 13:13, 15:4, 15:7, 16:5, 16:18, 16:20, 17:2, 17:14, 18:9, 19:1, 19:2, 19:10, 19:14, 20:16, 21:1, 21:23, 24:4, 25:15, 25:19, 26:1, 26:2, 27:2, 27:3, 28:8. The second possibility is: ה’ אלהיך אשר נתן לך, in verse Devarim 16:17, which may fit well into our text since it says, “… according to the blessing that Hashem, your God, has given you.” Although the verse specifically discusses sacrifices that a person should bring when he visits Yerushalayim on the 3 pilgrimage holidays, Pesach, Shavuot and Sukkot, it says specifically that a person should bring as many sacrifices as much as God has blessed him in general, referring to his general fortune. That type of context would fit our Tosefta since it is talking about a person’s general fortune. However, it is also possible that since the Tosefta is specifically emphasizing the word “your God” as “your Judge” it can refer to any of the above mentioned verses and still make sense. The third possibility is: אשר נתן ה’ אלהיך לך. This verse appears in Devarim 20:14 and 28:52. However, I am personally appalled by these commentators’ analysis, as the verse that our Tosefta quotes appears in the Torah twice, exactly as it is quoted in the Tosefta, in Devarim 26:11 and again in Devarim 26:53. It seems to me that the verse in Devarim 26:11 fits best, since it says “And you should rejoice in all the good that Hashem, your God, has given you, and your household…”, which is clearly talking about general personal fortune. To give some credit to the above mentioned commentators it seems that they were confused by the way in which this Tosefta is printed in the printed editions, starting with the first edition of the Tosefta (Venice 1521) including the one in the back of the Vilna edition of the Talmud Bavli and all subsequent printings, where the text of the Tosefta is printed as follows: ת”ל אשר נתן ה’ אלהיך [אשר נתן לך] דיינך. Obviously, they did not check any of the existing manuscripts of the Tosefta and decided on their own what it should be, however due to so many possibilities no obvious conclusion could have been reached. This example shows once again the importance of referring to manuscripts and not rely on printed editions and personal derivations, especially when the text of the Torah is at stake.
- In other words, we should always accept God’s judgment happily, regardless of whatever happened to us seems to be a good thing or a bad thing.