In the Gemara relating the story of R' Chanina Ben Teradyon's Martydom... R' Yose Ben Kisma seems to be encouraging him to follow the edict of the Roman's and decrease his Torah learning and teaching of Torah. I was confused about this response of R' Yose who seemed to have been such a Torah sage up until this point and I was even more confused when I opened up Pirkei Avot and read of R' Yose's extreme postion on Limud Torah and the sacrifices one must make in order to learn.
How am I to view R' Yose in light of the Gemara in Avoda Zara and then specifically in light of Pirkei Avot.
Thank you so much.
Devorah Lubner, Alon Shvut, Israel
I think that the important distinction here is that R. Yosi ben Kisma taught that whilst one should give up all the wealth in the world in order to live in an environment of Torah, nevertheless one should not endanger one's life in order to teach the Torah in public. This is because there are only 3 Mitzvos for which one should give up one's life:
(1) not to worship idols
(2) not to commit murder
(3) not to transgress forbidden sexual relations.
Otherwise saving life is more important than the Mitzvos.
In addition we find in Halachah that human life is more important than all the money in the world. This can be seen from the Halachah that one has to give up all one's money not to transgress a Mitzvah (for instance not to eat Treif food). Therefore if one's house is burning down on Shabbos, Chas v'Shalom, with all one's worldly belongings inside, one is not allowed even to ask a Nochri to extinguish the fire. On the other hand one must desecrate Shabbos even for a chance that this will save the life of a Yisrael. We learn from this that saving life is more important than all the money in the world.
Furthermore I think it should be noted that R. Yosi's objection to R. Chanina was not simply that he was learning Torah but rather that he was teaching Torah in public in a very demonstrative way and making a point of holding the Sefer Torah in order to show everyone that he was not afraid of any eventualities. R. Yosi believed that in such times the Torah should be spread in a more underground fashion.
This is hinted at in Yeshayahu 26:20 "Go, my People, come into your rooms and close the doors behind you. Hide for a short moment until the wrath shall pass away." This indicates that there are times when the Torah has to be taught more secretly. Afterwards Hash-m will annul the decrees of our enemies and we will be free to teach Torah openly.
We have an example in our times of this. Rabbi Yitzchak Zilber, zt'l, spent his life in the Russian labor camps spreading Torah secretly at every possible opportunity but I think you will find that he was careful not to endanger life, even though he went through incredible self-sacrifice to keep the Torah going in Communist Russia. Afterwards he, and thousands of other Russian Jews, got out, Baruch Hash-m, and were able to set up, openly in Eretz Yisrael and elsewhere, entire networks of Torah study for Russian Jews which no one could have dreamed of in the Soviet days.
Ketivah v'Chatimah Tovah
D. Bloom