#hadran

Here is an interesting fact: If there's treif that you must counteract On a knife you got cheap, Plunge it ten times real deep Into earth that is very hard-packed.

It’s been a while since I made an unsolicited Judaism post, but with Simchat Torah last week and my third Siyum HaShas* last night, I’ve been thinking a lot about the whole deal with finishing texts in Judaism.

Texts and learning them are super important in Judaism! (Most people are probably aware of this already.) So when we finish a text it’s a big deal, but it’s also like... like you’re never really finished.

Take Simchat Torah: a holiday on which we celebrate (among other things, but primarily) finishing a cycle of reading the Torah. And you know what we do after we read the last line of the Torah? We immediately begin again from the beginning. We also have a party, because we’re happy with all the Torah we learned.

So the two important ways Judaism commemorates the completion of learning a text:

Party

Learn more text

Which brings me to Siyums, because Simchat Torah only rolls around once a year.

Previous unsolicited Judaism posts have explained about the Talmud and its 36 tractates. Traditionally, when a person finishes studying any one of those 36 tractates in its entirety, they hold a “Siyum.” The word “siyum” literally means “completion,” and a Siyum essentially consists of 2 parts:

Reading the last line of the tractate, followed by a formula text known as the Hadran*, and

Eating! This could be anything from a feast to a couple of baked goods, but notably a Siyum is SO SIGNIFICANT that even during times when observant Jews traditionally don’t eat meat (e.g., the 9 days leading up to the Sad Fast Day of Tisha B’Av), if someone holds a Siyum then they and everyone they invite get to eat meat at it anyway.

So the Hadran! The text said after completing a tractate of Talmud is several paragraphs long and a little rambly (mostly thanking God for the fact that we get to learn Talmud), but the first line of it, for which it is named, and which is repeated 3 times, is super awesome:

“Hadran Alach, _____, vehadrach alan; da’tan alach, ______, veda’tach alan; lo nitneshei minach, _____, velo titneshei minan, lo b’alma hadein, v’lo b’alma d’atei.”

Which translates to:

“WE WILL RETURN TO YOU, [title of book completed], AND YOU WILL RETURN TO US; we are thinking about you, [title of book completed], and you are thinking of us; we will not forget you, [title of book completed], and you will not forget us, not in this world, and not in the world to come.”

And I just think it’s kind of amazing the way we finish a book and immediately promise that we’ll think about it and come back to it and won’t forget it, and also that we treatthat relationship as reciprocal, declaring that the book is thinking of us, too, and will return to us.

*Siyum HaShas is the special term for when someone does a Siyum for completing the entire Talmud.

Subject Null + his handler, Hadran

"I never saw lions haul boxes, Or a shop that was managed by foxes, Nor a deer who dries figs, Ditto, ditto for pigs. Yet a man should work?" --Life's paradoxes.

On Shabbat nullifying a vow Is allowed, if it's needed right now (Or a wife's by a man, Since just that day he can). That's what Papa had taught, anyhow.

Okay but the ending of Massechet Chagigah (the tractate of the Talmud dealing mostly with Temple offerings) is so beautiful?

To paraphrase:

First it says that Jews who learn Torah (talmidei chachamim, “students of sages”) are immune to “ur Gehenom” (best translation would be “the fires of purgatory,” with the caveat that Judaism doesn’t really have a Hell-concept - but think of this as any sort of fiery punishment in the World to Come). Why? We learn it from salamanders. Salamanders are born in fire, and are not harmed by fire; all the more so, then, talmidei chachamim, because we are made entirely of fire, as it says in Isaiah: “Is not My word life fire - declares Hashem.” We are full of God’s word; therefore, we are (spiritually) made of fire, and as such, surely we cannot be harmed by (spiritual) fires.

But it gets better, because it doesn’t end there. The Talmud goes on to add that poshei Yisrael (”the transgressors of Israel,” i.e., those who do not deal in Torah and/or do not deliberately fulfill commandments/mitzvot) are also immune to “ur Gehenom,” because they are as full of (fulfilled) mitzvot as a pomegranate is filled with seeds - as it says in Song of Songs: “your skull is like the pomegranate” (k’phelach ha-rimon rakatech). Do not read rakatech, your skull, but rather reikanim shebach, “the empty ones within you” (a term frequently used in the Talmud to refer to “transgressors,” those who are “empty” of [intent to fulfill] mitzvot) - even the reikanim of Israel are as full of fulfilled mitzvot as a pomegranate is with seeds, and therefore they, too, cannot be harmed by any fiery punishment in the World to Come.

And then we roll the Hadran.

Okay maybe this is just me but I think this is absolutely beautiful? and really feeds into the whole concept of how Judaism is totally not all-or-nothing - we saw it earlier in Chagigah with Elisha ben Abuya’s death, but this really drives it home like “oh okay, you’re a sinner/transgressor? no problem, you’ve still got lots of mitzvot actually, you’re safe.”

When one leaves you, don't say, "Go in Peace," For that means that their life signs will cease. When they go on their way, Rather, "Go to peace," say. In this way will their merits increase.

"If you study the law every day, In the World to Come you'll have a stay For 'His ways are eternal' And herein lies the kernel: For 'halichot', 'halachot' just say."