A Matter Of Mesorah

Tosfos answer that Rabbah received a tradition from his mentors that the postulate was correct. True, it was seemingly contradicted by a Mishnah. His mentors, however, were surely aware of the Mishnah, yet they somehow still maintained that the postulate was correct.

Torah knowledge has been on a continuous decline. The earlier generations had a greater understanding of Torah because they lived closer to the time that the Torah was given on Har Sinai. Rabbah understood that his knowledge of Torah paled in comparison to that of his rebbeim. He therefore respected the tradition that he had received and was willing to live pestered by a question for 22 years rather than conclude they were incorrect.

We find that a willful disregard of the decisions of earlier Torah scholars can lead to serious sins. King Uziyahu entered the Heichal to offer Ketores. He did so despite the fact that there is a clear pasuk in the Torah indicating that a non-kohen may not offer the Ketores, under penalty of death. King Uziyahu reasoned that this did not apply to him, since he was a king.

King Uziyahu was a tzaddik. The navi says, “And he did what was proper in the eyes of Hashem.” The Ralbag described him as a wise man who understands the fear of Hashem. The Metzudos Dovid says he was a ba’al binah, understanding amazing things in prophetic visions that come from Hashem. Yet he still made the erroneous assumption that it was permitted for him to offer the Ketores. Such a wise and righteous individual made a terrible miscalculation.

What could have saved him? He should have looked at the earlier generations. Did Dovid HaMelech offer the Ketores? Did Shlomo HaMelech, who was wiser than any other mortal, offer the Ketores? They did not, despite the fact that they were kings. Any reasons that King Uziyahu concluded would permit kings to offer Ketores had certainly already been thought of by the earlier saintly kings. Yet they rejected those reasons. If only King Uziyahu had learned from them, he would have saved himself from sin. In the end, as a punishment for attempting an offering of Ketores, he was stricken with tzara’as and had to live out the last 25 years of his life in seclusion.

Rav Henoch Leibowitz, zt’l, used to quote the above in conjunction with a lesson from Rabbeinu Bachye. The pasuk says that Yitzchak redug the wells that his father, Avraham, had dug but had been closed by the Philistines. Further, he called the wells the same names that his father had called them. Rabbeinu Bachye writes: “From the fact that the Torah informs us of this fact [that he used the same names for the wells that his father did] it appears that this was considered a merit for Yitzchak. And this should most certainly be a lesson for us not to deviate from the paths of our fathers. Yitzchak didn’t want to change even the names of the wells; certainly we should not deviate from the paths, customs, and mussar of our fathers.”