The Tong of Tongs
By Eliezer
Segal
First published in Jewish Free Press June 20th 2002
Page 6
The rabbis of the Mishnah
compiled various lists of items that they claimed were created "at twilight
on the eve of the first Sabbath." Most of those items are associated with
spectacular biblical miracles, such as the mannah, Balaam's talking donkey, and
the fissure that opened to swallow up Korach and his rebellious congregation.
Maimonides argued plausibly
that the lesson underlying this tradition is that God's true greatness is
manifested in the unchanging laws of nature, and not in the ability to
arbitrarily suspend or abrogate those laws. Accordingly, even wondrous events
that appear to us as contraventions of the natural order were in reality
programmed into the structure of the universe at the time of its creation.
The Maharal of Prague
explained that the concept of "twilight" is to be grasped as a
metaphor for the subtle metaphysical dimension in which miracles originate. Just
as the visible twilight is no more than an indefinable moment in the subtle
transition from day to night, so are we to understand that the creation of
miracles occurred in a realm that is outside of time, in the infinitesimal
present moment that is forever sandwiched between the past and the future.
Within this moment lies a dynamic potentiality for change and improvement in
response to constantly changing circumstances.
At any rate, not all the
phenomena that the rabbis portrayed as having been created on that first Friday
evening relate to high-profile miracles. According to Rabbi Judah bar Ilai, the
list should also include… the first pair of blacksmith's tongs.
Among the ancients, the
ability to fashion metal into tools and weapons was often enveloped in an aura
of mystery, or even fear. In primitive cultures, blacksmiths were perceived as
masters of occult lore, and pagan mythologies sang of divine smiths who forged
weapons for the gods.
However, as the Talmud
explains it, Rabbi Judah's reasoning was based on much more prosaic and rational
considerations. When a blacksmith fashions a pair of tongs in the forge, the
only way he can handle the red-hot metal is with tongs. Since we are speaking of
the manufacture of the first pair of tongs, this possibility did not
exist. Ergo, the first pair must have been provided directly by the
Creator himself.
Indeed, the argument sounds
irrefutable.
In its modest and whimsical
way, Rabbi Judah was employing the same method of proof that was adopted by the
great philosophers in order to speculate about such weighty questions as the
origins of the universe or the existence of God. For each observable phenomenon,
these thinkers would persist in asking what was its cause or what set it into
motion. Eventually, as it was no longer possible to keep posing such questions ad
infinitum, they were forced to posit the existence of an Unmoved Mover, an
Uncaused Cause, or a similar hypothesis, in order to account for the existence
of the world.
Nevertheless, there were sages
in the Talmud who challenged the cogency Rabbi Judah's reasoning. It was
possible, they argued, that the person who made the first tongs did so simply by
first making a tong-shaped mold, and then filling it with molten iron.
For the Maharal, the
significance of placing the tongs at the end of the Mishnah's catlogue of
prefabricated miracles lies precisely in the fact that they are the least
supernatural item in the list The mention of the creation of the first tongs
alongside the more dazzling wonders of the biblical past serves to underscore
the lesson that God's concern for human needs does not always manifest itself in
the spectacular pyrotechnics of split seas or burning bushes.
A similar approach was
advocated by the 17th-18th century author Rabbi Jacob Culi
whose Judeo-Spanish compendium Me'am Lo'ez is one of the most beloved
commentaries among Sepharadic Jews.
From the rabbinic discussion
about the origins of the tongs, Rabbi Culi derives a profound moral insight into
the divine plan for creation.
He argues that people should
not be disheartened by the fact that they were created with imperfections and
moral shortcomings. On the contrary, the example of the tongs teaches us that
the Almighty will always furnish us with any articles that are truly necessary
to correct the deficiencies of the human situation.
If this is true with respect
to the material advantages inherent in a simple blacksmith's tongs, how much
more does it apply to the religious realm; so that we can be confident that the
Almighty will always equip us with powerful spiritual resources that will allow
us to overcome our temptations and limitations.
