As I sit around my shabbat table, concluding the meal, I regularly throw my cloth napkin across the table to cover up the hallah knife. Most of the time I miss, or I only cover it partially. Actually, the custom is not to cover the knife on shabbat, but the logic of this eludes me. Yosef Karo in his masterwork the Beit Yosef provides two explanations of this custom, but I will only refer to one. (1)
Quoting the Rokeach of Eleazar of Worms, Karo states:
מְכַסִּין סַכִּין בִּשְׁעַת בִּרְכַּת הַמָּזוֹן עַל שֵׁם לֹא תָנִיף עֲלֵיהֶם בַּרְזֶל בִּמְכִילְתָּא אֵינוֹ דִּין שֶׁיָּנִיף הַמְּקַצֵּר עַל הַמַּאֲרִיךְ וְשֻׁלְחַן כְּמִזְבֵּחַ
We cover the knife during the recitation of birkat hamazon (the blessing after food) on the basis of the midrash on the verse לֹא־תָנִ֥יף עֲלֵיהֶ֖ם בַּרְזֶֽל “Do not raise against [the stones of the altar] any iron” (Deut 27:5) for it is not reasonable to raise that which shortens [life] against that which lengthens it [i.e. the altar], and one’s table is like the altar.
A similar law appears in this week’s parashah right after the giving of the ten commandments (Exodus 20:22)
וְאִם־מִזְבַּ֤ח אֲבָנִים֙ תַּֽעֲשֶׂה־לִּ֔י לֹֽא־תִבְנֶ֥ה אֶתְהֶ֖ן גָּזִ֑ית כִּ֧י חַרְבְּךָ֛ הֵנַ֥פְתָּ עָלֶ֖יהָ וַתְּחַֽלְלֶֽהָ
And if you make for Me an altar of stones, do not build it of hewn stones; for by wielding your tool upon them you have profaned them.
I was struck when I looked at this translation (the NJPS), because I would have translated the word חַרְבְּךָ֛ charbekhah as “your sword.” Everett Fox translates it as “iron-tool”. But “sword” fits the midrashic reading cited above: a sword is a weapon of war, and it has no place in the worship of God at the altar which is to bring peace and forgiveness and gratitude and length of days. (2)
As I looked a little more deeply at this issue, I found that Rashbam, Rashi’s grandson and an amazing Torah scholar in his own right, explains the prohibition of using iron in carving the stones for the altar differently.
כִּי כְּשֶׁבּוֹנִין אוֹתָם גָּזִית בִּכְלִי בַּרְזֶל רְגִילִין הַמְּסַתְּתִים לַעֲשׂוֹת בָּהֶם צִיּוּרִים וּצְלָמִים
If you were to build [the altar] from carved stone with metal tools, the stone carvers are in the habit of engraving pictures and idols.
Rashbam (and Shmuel David Luzzatto after him) assume that the stones weren’t carved with iron tools so they would not become objects of idolatry.
So what is all this business about weapons and tools and idolatry? I can’t help but be influenced by what is going on at school, and, as you may be aware, it is the end of the quarter, and I am already spending a lot of time reading over grade comments. Grades and comments can provide a good sense of what is going on in the school. As many of the faculty have become aware, I’m something of an assessment nut. I am always looking for real and valid data to assess our teaching and our students’ learning. And yet, this “tool” can too easily cause injury. Even more significantly, this “tool” can become an instrument of idolatry.
As parents and as people who are concerned about what happens at HACD, you have the right to expect that assessment practices at HACD support all of the good things that we want for our kids–clear communication, clear expectations, directions for improvement, and gratitude for hard-earned achievements. These are the same things that we expected when our people came to the Temple in ancient times.
What had no place at the altar were weapons and idolatry. Grades, and the culture around grades at HACD seems to be fairly mellow, but I hope that as we look at grade reports, and as you think about the “report cards” that are issued throughout our culture, that we look at them for what they are: tools. They are tools that have their place, but they should not be instruments of conflict nor objects of idolatry. And after you have looked at the grades, and had the conversations that they are meant to initiate, and thought about what they mean, toss a napkin over them and have a good shabbat!
Shabbat Shalom,
Jeffrey Spitzer
School Administrator
(1) If you are really interested, feel free to email me and I will discuss it with you. Or you can look it up yourself here following the words “וכתב עוד בשבלי הלקט מפי החבר רבי שמחה” .
(2) This reading is based on Mishnah Middot 3:4.
Shabbat Shalom,
Jeffrey Spitzer