It is in your mouth, and in your heart – and in the oven of Akhnai
Parashat Nitzavim
In this week’s Torah portion, there is a brief but powerful passage that always attracts attention. This is the text of Deuteronomy 30:11–14:
For this commandment which I command you this day, it is not too hard for you, nor is it too far off. It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will go up to heaven for us, and get it that we may hear it and observe it?’ Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will cross to the other side of the sea for us, and get it, that we may hear it and observe it?’ No, the word is very near to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart for you to observe it.
What is “this commandment” (ha’mitzvah ha’zot) that the passage refers to?
The commentator, Ramban, looks back to Deuteronomy 8:1 and notes that there, when referring to the entire Torah, the text reads col ha’mitzvah, all the Instruction/Commandment. He concludes from that that the phrase in 30:11 must be more restrictive. He thinks it refers to the immediately preceding text–Deuteronomy 30:1–10.
But the passage Ramban points to includes, at 30:10, a reference to keeping the commandments written in this sefer ha’Torah, this book of the Torah. And that does not seem restrictive.
It seems to me that the reference to sefer ha’Torah supports a more expansive interpretation—if not the entire Torah, then at least of the book of Deuteronomy.
The Context
The text of Deuteronomy 30:1–10 describes a people that has been exiled from its land, but has now turned back to God, hearing God’s voice, and embracing God’s commandments. God will then have mercy and return the people from captivity. The result, in part, reads:
God will bring you to the land that your forefathers possessed, and you shall possess it … you shall return and listen to the voice of God … God will make you abundant in the fruit of your womb, in the fruit of your animals, in the fruit of your land … God will return to rejoice over you … as He rejoiced over your forefathers … when you listen to the voice of God … to observe God’s commandments, that are written in this book of the Torah
The people were exiled for failing to uphold their covenantal obligations. When they repent, though, and return to proper behavior, God relents and returns them to the land of their forefathers. The question then arises: having returned, how can they avoid repeating the errors of the past? How are they to know how to maintain correct behavior and sustain the renewed relationship with God?
The passage at 30:11-14 addresses that question. The law has been given, it says, at Sinai and now in the final discourses of Moses. It is available.
“It is in your mouth,” meaning that it has been put into words. It has been articulated and spoken.
And “it is in your heart,” meaning that the spirit of the law has also been described.
The text specifically says, “it is not in Heaven (lo ba’shamayim hi).”
In the Holiness Code of Leviticus, and elsewhere, the fundamental ethical teachings of the Torah provide more general guidance to help expand on the words of the Law. In our passage in Chapter 30 Moses is telling the people that they have been given what they need know; they have been told what they need to do.
The point is made in a more dramatic fashion, echoing the same words, in a much later text.
The oven of Akhnai
This subject was addressed more concretely after the destruction of the Second Temple. The question of “where” the law resides was debated in the fascinating discussion of “the oven of Akhnai,” in Tractate Bava Metzia 59 of the Babylonian Talmud.
An oven – a clay cooking vessel – owned by a man named Akhnai, was broken. It was then reassembled using a compound of glue and sand. The question raised was: is this reassembled vessel still an oven, for ritual purposes, or is it a broken vessel?
An oven transmits ritual impurity. A broken vessel does not. The distinction is important for anyone who might eat food cooked in it.
Rabbi Eliezer argued that it was no longer an oven – it was a broken vessel – and so it was ritually pure. The other rabbis took the opposite position, that it was functionally still an oven and so it was ritually impure.
After exhausting all his arguments without convincing the others, Rabbi Eliezer resorted to the supernatural. (I will paraphrase the actual text.)
He said, “if the law is according to my opinion, let that carob tree prove it,” and the carob tree miraculously was uprooted and moved one hundred cubits on its own.
The others said, we don’t learn the law from a carob tree!
Then Eliezer said, “if the law is according to my opinion, this stream will prove it,” and the stream miraculously began to flow in the opposite direction.
The others said, we don’t learn the law from a stream!
Eliezer then said, if the law is according to my opinion, the walls of this study hall will prove it, and the walls leaned in and began to fall.
Rabbi Yehoshua then rose and scolded the walls saying, “Torah scholars are debating here, what business is it of yours?” The walls did not fall, but they did remain leaning.
Finally, Rabbi Eliezer said, “if the law is according to my opinion, Heaven will prove it.” And a voice came from Heaven saying, “the law is always in accordance with Rabbi Eliezer.”
Then, Rabbi Yehoshua again rose and said, “It is not in Heaven (lo ba’shamayim hi)!”
Since the Torah was already given at Sinai, we do not give regard to a Voice from Heaven (bat kol).
To which God is said to have replied, apparently pleased, “My children have triumphed over me!”
It is not in Heaven
The conclusion of the oven of Akhnai dispute is more concrete than “it is in your mouth and in your heart,” but it is an extension of it. It uses the same language as Deuteronomy 30:12, lo ba’shamayim hi, tying the two together thematically. It reflected and met the needs of the time.
Rabbinic Judaism was in its formative phase when the question about the oven was debated. It was necessary to firmly establish authority, and that authority had to reside with the rabbis.
To allow a “Voice from Heaven” to prevail would undermine that authority and open the door to a competition between prophetic and judicial recourse on important questions.
No. It was necessary that the law be interpreted by the authorities of the here and now.
There is a fascinating sequel to this story, but that will be for another time.
We can also look to Deuteronomy 31:9 which says that Moses wrote this Torah (ha’torah ha’zot) and gave it to the priests … The commentator Sforno says refers to the parashat ha’melech, which refers to the passage regarding the appointment of a king. And 31:19, which refers to ha’shirah ha’zot, which seems to refer to the poem that follows in Parashat Ha’azinu, but is cited as prooftext for the commandment that each person must write his own copy of the Torah. It is interesting that this passage continues, and put it in their mouths …
And the Instruction that is given in t he first ten verses of the chapter refers to repentance for prior failures and return to the Lord.
Verse 12 is an expansion and restatement of the idea of nearness in terms of heaven.
Verse 13 is another expansion of nearness using the distance across the sea.
These two verses are simply poetic explication.
Verse 14, “It is in your mouth,” meaning you can verbalize it, articulate it clearly.
“It is in your heart,” you understand it, you know it to be true.
“For you to observe it.” You know it, you understand it, you now must do it.
The commentator, S’forno, looks ahead to another passage at 31:9 that refers to this Torah (ha’torah ha’zot), which he suggests means the teaching regarding the commandment of repentance which he finds in 30:1.