THE PERIOD BETWEEN THE FIRST AND SECOND TEMPLES WHEN THE JEWS were exiled to Babylonia, they needed to heed even more strongly King Josiah’s exhortation that they should not render halachic decisions unless they applied deep analysis and weighed their decisions carefully. Furthermore, as directed by King Solomon, they had to understand the intricacies of the received laws so that they could apply their conceptual underpinnings to new situations.

The reason for adhering to these stringencies is that the merit of living in Israel itself [even without the Ark and High Priest] enabled one to arrive at the proper decisions with less analysis, which was not true in Babylonia. It is taught in Avos de-Rabbi Nasan, chapter 28, “R. Nasan said, ‘There is no love like the love of Torah, and no wisdom like the wisdom of the Land of Israel.’” Also, in Vayikra Rabbah, chapter 13, “‘The gold of the land is especially good,’¹ teaches that there is no Torah like the Torah of the Land of Israel, and there is no wisdom like Israel’s wisdom.” Further in Avos de-Rabbi Nasan it states: “R. Shimeon the son of Elazar says: ‘If a sage who dwells in Israel leaves for the Diaspora, his scholarship becomes tainted, etc.’” In Tractate Sanhedrin 24a it is written, “[To what does the verse], ‘He has placed me in darkness like the eternally dead’² refer? R. Yirmiyahu answered that this alludes to the study of [Torah] in Babylonia.” [R. Yirmiyahu is not saying] that the Babylonian Talmud contains mistakes, Heaven forbid-[he is extolling the power of pilpul in “darkness”]. Since Babylonia was an abyss of darkness,³ as referring to the long exile. See the Netziv in Ha’amek Davar, Lev. 24:4, which states that “darkness” refers to the lack of the special Divine assistance that existed when the Jews lived in Israel and received the Divine light emitted through the Menorah. totally lacking the light of Torah, only by creating the great torch of pilpul contained in the Babylonian Talmud could they produce in the darkness the light of halachic decision. [As stated ad loc.], “Rabbi Yohanan said, ‘What is Babylonia?⁴ (Babylonia) comes from the root of the Hebrew word livlol, which means “to mix.” See Gen. 11:9. [A place] that blended Scripture, Mishnah and Talmud.’” [To counter this darkness, the Babylonian scholars] needed to apply deep analysis and to study repeatedly all sections of the Torah until they reached sound conclusions. [This way, they] succeeded in magnifying the Torah and creating a magnificent torch-light of Torah.

footnotes: ¹ Gen. 2:12. ² Lam. 3:6. ³ “He has placed me in darkness like those who are dead forever” is explained by the Midrash Lekah Tov ⁴ The word Bavel

This is similar to the parable cited in the Midrash on Koheles.⁵ on Koheles, 2:14, where it comments on Koheles 2:12: “‘I turned myself to behold wisdom’: R. Nahman made two comparisons…. The other comparison was to a huge palace with so many doors that whoever entered it lost his way. There was a shrewd man who, on entering, took a rope of reed-grass that he tied to the entrance. All were then able to enter and depart by means of the guiding rope.” [It compares one who applies deep analysis to a person who enters] a large palace which contains many rooms [and he must strategize to find a way out]. To find his way back to the entrance, he ties one rope to another so that he can retrace his steps. However, someone who has a lamp that illuminates the way to the door does not need to exert that much effort, and can find the door with minimal searching and exertion. However, he will not gain an understanding of the palace. This is not so with the one who has no lamp and must exert much effort to understand the intricacies of the palace; he stumbles and repeatedly gets lost until he finally locates the exit. Such a person obtains a great light – namely, a much greater insight into the design of the building, than the other.

footnotes: ⁵ See Midrash Rabbah

So it is with the sages who lived in Israel. Since the merit of Israel illuminated their path, there was no need for great toil in order to reach the right decisions. However, the Babylonian scholars [between the first and second Temples] could not discover the light of legislation without great effort. In addition, they stumbled many times until they arrived at the proper conclusions. This is analogous to [the amoraic approach to study] as [demonstrated] in the commonly found statement in the Babylonian Talmud, “The words I said before you were mistaken.”⁶ 63b. Obviously, the discussions in the Gemara occurred much later than the period between the First and Second Temples. The Netziv feels that these later discussions shed light on the earlier period. Along these lines, the Talmud in Gittin 43a commented [on the verse discussing the end of the First Temple period] “‘… this stumbling block [the Torah] is under your hand.’⁷ That is, a person does not achieve true understanding of the Torah until he has stumbled and made incorrect decisions.”⁸

footnotes: ⁶ As an example see Shabbos ⁷ Isa. 3:6. The full verse is: “When a man takes hold of his brother of his father’s house [so that he may speak to him, and he says to him], ‘Be a ruler over us and let our stumbling be under your hand….’” The Netziv may be quoting the Talmudic explanation of this verse because it discusses the type of Torah knowledge that would come into being with the destruction of Jerusalem. At that time, the men of Jerusalem had become lax in the study of Torah and experts capable of issuing halachic rulings were scarce. Whenever people encountered someone who seemed well-versed in the Torah, they would implore him to assume the position as their halachic decisor. They would say, “Come, be our leader, for this ‘stumbling block’ [the Torah], is under your hand [i.e., you are well versed in the Torah’s laws].” ⁸ The Talmudic passage reads, “Rava, the son of Rav Huna, thereupon assigned an announcer to precede him and to declare his retraction. He expounded that the verse states, ‘This stumbling-block [the Torah] is under your hand.’ Why is the Torah referred to as a stumbling-block? Because a man does not reach a full understanding of the words of the Torah unless he has first stumbled in interpreting them….”

However, [after such stumbling], by virtue of their great understanding the Babylonian sages [following the first Temple] produced great, enlightened legislation. Pertaining to this [period] it is written in Isaiah 29:18, “In that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness.” This means that only out of darkness and obscurity [such as that in Babylonia] can one gain true intellectual enlightenment, more than those who do not inhabit such darkness.⁹, to Ex.19:19 that when Israel received the Torah at Sinai, Scripture states (Ex. 19:18–19): “The whole of Mount Sinai was full of smoke… its smoke ascended like the smoke of the lime pit….The sound of the shofar continually grew louder….” Smoke is symbolic of the trials and tribulations that Israel would experience throughout the ages, as one covered in smoke experiences both darkness and the inability to see what is happening. This means that when Israel experiences trying times, the outcome is unknown, and it is a mystery why these bad experiences occur. The shofar is symbolic of God’s word – that is, the Torah. At Mount Sinai the blasts of the shofar grew stronger with time, unlike what would occur in the real world, where the sound would diminish. So it is with the Jewish people: when they are confronted with times of darkness symbolized by the smoke, the power of pilpul becomes stronger – a mystery, the sound of the shofar emanating from the dark smoke.

footnotes: ⁹ Related to this subject, the Netziv writes in Harhev Davar