Raboyseyee and Ladies,
The First Hollywood Scriptwriters:
Shoin, before we begin…is it my imagination, or are people eating more meat -taking advantage of the sium loophole- during the nine days than they do all year round during any nine-day period? What’s pshat?
According to the heylige Internet, films involving giant monsters began in the 1920’s as developments in cinema and animation enabled the creation of realistic giant creatures. Who made these early films? Choices include well known Hollywood icons like Samuel Goldwyn, Carl Laemmle, William Fox, Louis B. Mayer, and the four Warner Brothers (Harry, Albert, Samuel, and Jack), who all organized production of movies in Hollywood. All were nice Jewish boys, mistama with some yeshiva or day school background.
And what inspired them? Could it be Midrashic sources as quoted by Rashi, the heylige Gemora, the heylige Zohar and others? The heylige Ois states with a degree of certitude that the answer is yes; more on that below.
Three weeks ago, while on a walking tour of Barcelona’s Jewish quarter, or more accurately stated- what had once been the Jewish quarter back some centuries ago, the heylige Ois found himself on the street and maybe even in front of the house where the RASHBA lived. Check out the image. Who was he and why is this relevant? We shall soon find out as we read what he and a few others had to say about an interesting Toirah personality by the name of Oig Melech Haboshon (Og, King of Boshon).
This week and in this parsha, we welcome back a giant of a man by the name of Oig (AKA: OG). Oig was an enigmatic figure who gets shouted out by name a total of ten times in the heylige Toirah, of which eight are in this parsha. Good or bad, he is seemingly an important character. Recall, that a few Toirah characters who played important roles never get shouted out by name and we must rely on outside sources to reveal their identities. Ober, let’s get back to Oig as we quote directly from various Midrashic and other sources, and as we share his larger-than-life colorful background. The bottom line: you decide which -if any- of the stories are emes, somewhat emes, or but figments of someone’s very colorful imaginations.
Oig is first mentioned in the introductory pisukim of our parsha (1:4), which state how Moishe began his discourse after smiting Sichoin, the king of the Amorites, and Oig, the king of Boshon. We are later told how Oig had come out to confront the Yiddin, and how he was defeated in battle. Ober who was this Oig guy and why did he live to be around 500 years of age? What?! Wasn’t that age unheard of by the time the Yiddin were in the midbar? Wasn’t the average age approximately 120 by then?
The bottom line: Oig inspired many a medrish, perhaps even a few movies about giants. As well, the heylige internet is chock full of information (mostly repetitive) about this mysterious person. We shall delve into Oig, his background and some of the very tall tales spoken of him. As kimat all my readers know, the heylige Ois loves reading the medrish where he is constantly amazed by the creativity and imagination of its authors. Ober, when it came to Oig, they were next level creative and good. Mimicking a writer’s room for any TV show, or movie, where a select few sit around creating storylines -mamish production ready- they drafted many scenarios leading to one amazing tale after another. Afterall, this Oig fellow just appeared without lineage and the medrish took literary license to create his entire background. Each of their theories was reduced to writing, enriched, and refined before they made their way into the mouths and pens of many an exegete and Midrashic source. Some are quoted in the heylige Gemora which goes on to further elucidate and together, they are mamish Hollywood worthy. We shall go backwards because when we first meet him this week, he’s already dead having been slain by non-other than Moishe. Ober, where did he come from? What was he like? Good guy or bad? Both perhaps?
And with that introduction, let us give a warm welcome to Sefer and Parshas Devorim as the Ois completes his 14th consecutive of parsha postings, this one mamish a gem. It’s also a shtikel long, perfect for shul when one loses concentration. The good news: Year 15 will feature somewhat shorter reviews.
It so happens that the opening pisukim of our parsha lists names of places in the midbar not previously mentioned as being on the route the Yiddin took. These places are new to us. Rashi tells us that these names hint at sins committed by the Yiddin at these locations. Not much news here; it appears that the Yiddin were not quite ready for prime time and sinned in just about every stop they made during their 40-year stint in the wilderness. Ober, in posik four we do find names that have been mentioned before –in fact very recently. Sichon, king of the Emorites, and Oig, king of Boshon. We made their acquaintance towards the very end of Sefer Bamidbar as the defeated and slain enemies of the Yiddin. But why are their names also not given to us in hints, by, say, recalling the places in which they were conquered? Moreover, as mentioned mamish above- these now dead kings are named repeatedly in our parsha. What is so significant about them?
We meet Sichoin first in Parshas Chukas (21:21) where the heylige Toirah says this: “Israel sent messengers to Sichoin, king of the Emorites, saying: Allow us to cross your territory, we will not turn into your fields or your vineyards, we will not drink from your wells… But Sichoin would not permit Israel to cross his border…and went out to meet Israel in the desert… and Israel smote him and took the land.” Done, over and out. Oig appears in the same chapter: “And they (the Children of Israel) went up by way of the Boshon, and Oig, king of Boshon, came to meet them in battle at Edrei. And G-d said to Moishe ‘Don’t be afraid of him, because I have given him into your hands.’” And then, a bit further in the parsha (3:11) the heylige Toirah adds this little factoid: Oig was the last of the giants, or Rephaim, that originally lived before the Mabul (Flood).
כִּ֣י רַק־ע֞וֹג מֶ֣לֶךְ הַבָּשָׁ֗ן נִשְׁאַר֮ מִיֶּ֣תֶר הָרְפָאִים֒ הִנֵּ֤ה עַרְשׂוֹ֙ עֶ֣רֶשׂ בַּרְזֶ֔ל הֲלֹ֣ה הִ֔וא בְּרַבַּ֖ת בְּנֵ֣י עַמּ֑וֹן תֵּ֧שַׁע אַמּ֣וֹת אׇרְכָּ֗הּ וְאַרְבַּ֥ע אַמּ֛וֹת רׇחְבָּ֖הּ בְּאַמַּת־אִֽישׁ׃
Only King Og of Bashan was left of the remaining Rephaim. His bedstead, an iron bedstead, is now in Rabbah of the Ammonites; it is nine cubits long and four cubits wide, by the standard cubit!
He lived when? Who the hec were the Rephaim? When were they around? And why does the heylige Toirah mention the composition of his bed and its size? Was he shopping for a new mattress? What’s pshat here? Was Yaakov’s son Reuvain coming back to life to move it? Shoin, we will circle back to Oig’s bed later ober for now says the medrish (Pirkei DeRebbi Eliezer) that Oig survived the Mabul thanks to the generosity of Noiach. In so doing he swore eternal fealty to him. The same Oig who was around in Noaich’s generation lived until the Yiddin finally took him out in their 40th year of their midbar wanderings? Wasn’t that many hundreds of years back? It was.
Says Rashi – of course quoting other sources, azoy: Oig was the last survivor of the Rephaim in the time of Avrohom. The Rephaim were an ancient race of giants and Boshon, the area over which Oig ruled as king. It was then that king Amraphel, together with his allies, dominated the Fertile Crescent region, and decimated many nations that inhabited it. One of these groups of victims were the Rephaim, and Oig was the sole survivor among them. But wait, there’s more to him! He was also the “refugee” mentioned Back in Sefer Bereishis (14:13) that came to Avrohom to inform him of what had happened, that his nephew Loit was taken captive and more. More on that and his motives, soon.
The heylige Toirah’s reference to Oig’s “bedstead of iron, ”roughly 12 feet long and 6 feet wide, still on display in Rabbat-Amon in the days of the Deuteronomist, did zicher provide an irresistible stimulus to the vilde (wild and vivid) imagination of our Sages. According to Rabbinic Aggadah (Legends of the Jews, III.5, pp. 98-103), the giant Oig needed a bed and chairs of iron because no furniture of wood would support his tremendous weight. Every day he devoured 1000 oxen and an equivalent amount of drink. Ozempic anyone? Another legend, this one found in the heylige Gemora itself, is about a grave digger by the name of Abba Shaul who tells us that Oig’s thighbone alone was over three parsangs (roughly one mile) in length. And if all that weren’t enough to satisfy your appetites for buba mysehs (fictional tales), let’s read this:
The cities founded by Oig were surrounded by “high walls” (Devorim 3:5), that were sixty miles or more in height! On the morning Moishe approached the city he was about to attack, he first thought he saw through a new wall that had been built overnight. But as the mists cleared, he realized what he was looking at was King Oig, sitting on the existing wall of his city, with his feet touching the ground below. So how could Moishe possibly overcome a giant of such enormous proportions? Says the heylige Gemora (B’rochis 54b), that Oig uprooted a mountain and carried it on his head to hurl it upon the Israelite camp, but the RBSO sent ants who bored a hole in this enormous rock, so that it sank around Oig’s neck. When he tried to pull off this proverbial “millstone around his neck,” his teeth projected on each side. When Oig had been immobilized in this way, Moishe took an axe ten cubits (about 15 feet) long, leapt into the air the equivalent of his own height of ten cubits, managed to strike the giant on his ankle, and thus, felled and killed him. The End!
In another source, he is Avrohom’s servant Eliezer, part of a gift given by the hunter-king Nimroid to the patriarch after the latter succeeded in emerging unscathed from the furnace into which the wicked monarch had thrust him. As a reward for his life-long service to Avrohom, the RBSO turned Oig into king of Boshon. Oib azoy, if all -or any- of these medroshim are emes, and if Oig was just killed by Moishe in last week’s parsha, using simple math, Oig would have been just over 500 years old at the time of his death. Well, blow me down! And the bottom line? Oig may have been a 500-year-old giant when taken down by Moishe in last week’s parsha. And taka, one medrish the Ois came across says this: “I am a mere 120 years old,” says Moishe,“ while Oig is over 500 years old – surely that means he has some special merit.” In plain English: Moishe -until given assurances from the RBSO- was afraid of Oig. He rationalized that if Oig got to roam around for 500 years, then the RBSO must have found some special merit in him and Moishe was mamish afraid. And says the heylige Gemora that Oig and Sichoin were brothers: both were giants.
Ober, who was this Oig character? Why did he initially help Avrohom, but then come out to battle centuries later against the Yiddin? Was he really a giant? Says the heylige Gemora (Niddah 61a) -indeed it does, azoy: Oig was the grandson of Shemhazai. Shemhazai was one of the two rebellious angels that had descended to Earth. These two angels argued before the RBSO that He should not have created man, who was faulty and pathetic. The RBSO told the angels that had they been on Earth, and given the same challenges that man faced, they would be even worse. The angels wanted to be tested anyway, and were thus brought down into earthly bodies. Of course, just as the RBSO had said, they quickly fell into sin. This is what is meant by the posik found in Bereishis 6:2, which describes divine beings mating with human women. Let’s read that posik:
| That the sons of the nobles saw the daughters of man when they were beautifying themselves, and they took for themselves wives from whomever they chose. | בוַיִּרְא֤וּ בְנֵי־הָֽאֱלֹהִים֙ אֶת־בְּנ֣וֹת הָֽאָדָ֔ם כִּ֥י טֹבֹ֖ת הֵ֑נָּה וַיִּקְח֤וּ לָהֶם֙ נָשִׁ֔ים מִכֹּ֖ל אֲשֶׁ֥ר בָּחָֽרוּ: |
Let’s get real: Which nice Jewish girl wouldn’t fall for an angel of a person? Shoin, whatever happened there – whether the giants stam azoy chapped the girls against their will, or the girls fell for angelic looking humans, ver veyst, but all agree on this: they got together sexually and shoin. The bottom line: when it comes to women, there are no angles! Period end discussion. It’s just how the RBSO programmed us. In any event, the offspring of these unions were initially called Nephilim. They were large and powerful, and were seen as “giants” by common people. However, during the Mabul (Great Flood of Noiach) all of these semi-angelic beings perished. Except for one, guess who?
The medrish -many of them- famously record that Oig was the only survivor of the Great Flood, aside from Noiach and his family. When the torrential rains began, Oig jumped onto the Tayvo (Ark) and held on tightly. Read this incredible story of survival in the heylige Gemora (Zevochim 113b). He swore to Noiach that he would be his family’s eternal servant if Noiach would allow him into the Ark (Yalkut Shimoni, Noiach 55). The heylige Gemora goes on to tell us that the rain waters of the Flood were mamish boiling hot. Yet, the rain that fell upon Oig while he held unto the Ark was miraculously cool, allowing him to survive. Perhaps Noiach saw that Oig had some merit (after all, his grandfather was the one angel that repented). Noiach therefore had mercy on Oig, and made a special niche for Oig in the Ark. This is how the giant survived the Flood. In another medrish which cannot wrap its arms or head around this last version, the suggestion is that Oig survived by fleeing to Israel, since the Holy Land was the only place on earth which was not flooded. The bottom line: How did Oig survive? Ver veyst? And what happened next?
As promised, Oig became the servant of Noiach and his descendants. The heylige Zoihar (III, 184a) says that he served Avrohom as well, and as part of his -Avrohom’s household, was also circumcised. Recall that the heylige Toirah does specifically state that Avrohom had his entire household -including servants- circumcised. Not to worry, he was still a giant, albeit a bit shorter in one leg, if you chap. Let’s revisit the Rashi quoted above where Oig informed Avrohom that his nephew Loit was kidnapped, and that the armies of Amraphel and his allies were terrorizing the region. And while a few medroshim paint Oig as decent person, other midrashim are less complimentary about the giant, claiming that he lusted after Avrohom’s wife Soroh, and plotted to take her -as his wife or concubine- on Avrohom’s death. Rashi quotes the medrish in telling us that Oig hoped Avrohom would go into battle and perish, so that Oig would be able to marry the beautiful Soro. It appears that Paroy and Avimelech were not the only two jealous of Avrohom’s marriage to Soro; seemingly, the very pretty wife of Avrohom had several suitors. Paroy and Avimelech are mentioned in the heylige Toirah and Oig’s lust comes to life in the medrish. Oig was quite surprised when Avrohom can back unscathed from his defeat of Chedarlaomer, and Oig would, from that point on, be at war with the descendants of Avrohom. Says the medrish (Bereishis Rabbah 42:12) so creatively, azoy: For informing Avrohom, Oig was blessed with wealth and longevity, but for his impure intentions, he was destined to die at the hands of Avrohom’s descendants. The bottom line: like most of us, he had good and bad characteristics.
And that being stated, let’s check out this mamish vilde (wild) medrish (Yalkut Shimoni, Chayei Sarah 109), where a Talmudic sage found his thigh bone and ran through it (Niddah 24b). Another suggests that Oig was actually Eliezer, Avrohom’s trusted servant This is an intriguing possibility, and might help explain how Avrohom and Eliezer alone were able to defeat the conglomeration of four massive armies (read all about that in Bereishis 14, with Rashi).
Whatever the case, the giant soon fell into immorality. Says the heylige Zoihar that although he had initially taken the Covenant upon himself (by way of the circumcision), he had later broken that very same Covenant by his licentious behavior. He used his physical abilities to become king over 60 large, fortified cities (Devorim 3:4). When the Yiddin passed by his territory, he gathered his armies to attack them. We can imagine that he -given his size- visited many a fertile crescent, if you chap.
The bottom line: these are all mamish gishmak stories to read, but are any of these tall tales of giants emes? Why not? As mentioned back on page 1, just a few weeks back the heylige Ois found himself facing the house where the RASHBA grew up and let’s spend a minute reading his final take on these vilde (wild) creative stories. So happens that the Rashba, (real name Shlomo ben Avraham ibn Aderet שלמה בן אברהם אבן אדרת was a medieval rabbi, halakhist, and Talmudist who was born in Barcelona, in 1235. He served as rabbi of the Main Synagogue of Barcelona for 50 years. He died in 1310. As well, he was a preeminent Rishon (early sage) who wrote an extensive commentary on dozens of Talmudic aggadah, including one on all that’s written on Oig. His entire treatise is mamish pages long but the bottom line of what he wrote about these tales is this:
We should not assume that every aggadah contains a deep idea, despite its cryptic formulation; it may be that the idea is “simple or unnecessary,” but that our sages who wrote these stories nevertheless expressed it in a complex manner. Next: Do not assume that every aggadah can be interpreted on its own; it may be that in order to decode an aggadah, one must be familiar with ideas, facts, or metaphors from other sources in Tanach or Chazal. And, do not assume that every detail of the aggadah contains ideas; it may be that the details and nuances were included solely for the purpose of beautifying or completing the allegory. The bottom line: he was clearly skeptical about the many tales written of Oig and it’s quite possible that all the tall tales about Oig are but stories for some other purpose. What that purpose is, ver veyst?
All that being said, we should still learn how Moishe eventually killed Ois. Says the heylige Gemora (last Perek of B’rochis, referenced by the last Rashi of Parshas Chukas) this about that: Moshe was ten Amos tall (between 15-20 feet, based on the question of the size of an Amah) and he jumped ten Amos and hit Oig’s knee. And now you know. It is said that Moishe feared Oig for a number of reasons: Oig had lived for centuries, and was also circumcised, so Moishe figured the giant had a great deal of merit. The RBSO told Moishe not to worry, and gave him the strength to slay Oig himself. As the famous story goes, Moishe used a large ten-cubit (roughly 20 foot) weapon to jump ten cubits high in the air—and was only able to strike Oig’s ankle! Still, it caused Oig to trip over and be impaled by a mountain peak. On that note, there is a little-known Midrash (Midrash Petiras Moishe, 1:128), which states Oig survived the Flood simply because he was so large, and the floodwaters only reached up to his ankles!
The bottom line of all these very creative medroshim is this adage quoted by none other than the Rambam, who says this: One who believes that all medrish is false is a heretic, yet one who believes that the medrish is literally true is a fool. And if that doesn’t make your head spin, leave you confused, and give you a headache, what will? Is it likely that Oig was actually so immense? Was he by definition larger as large or even larger than the Teyvo itself? The Torah tells us his bed was nine cubits long, which the most conservative opinions estimate to be closer to 13 feet, a far more reasonable number.
The final bottom line: Is it a wonder that all the major Hollywood studios were founded by nice Jewish boys? Not! Mistama they were inspired by tall tales of the medrish.
A gittin Shabbis,
The Heylige Oisvorfer Ruv
Yitz Grossman
