עבודה זרה יד עמוד ב
Avimi asked - What law do you find difficult?
Rav Chisda answered - Rebbe Meir says "Even a fine date palm ... it is forbidden to sell to idolaters" implying that a fine date palm one may not sell them but an inferior date palm we may sell them. Yet the mishna taught that we may not sell idolaters anything connected to the ground [which would include even inferior date palms]. The reason one is not allowed to sell idolaters anything connected to the ground is because of the prohibition of לא תחנם which forbids a Jew to sell land to a idolater in Israel [Rashi].
Avimi answered that the meaning of a fine date palm is the fruits [because they were usually offered to idols. But in regard to the tree, any sale is forbidden].
There are two questions on this gemara.
1] Why did this particular question about the prohibition against selling date palms make Rav Chisda sad that we are missing out on the 400 chapter book on idolatry of Avraham. This question is no different than the countless questions in Shas where we contrast two mishnayos?
2] The gemara asked how the mishna can imply that it is only forbidden to sell a fine date palm tree from the law that one must not sell any land in Israel to idol worshipers. This is a wonder, if you think about it. The law of not selling a fine date palm is in the category of avodah zara [because the gentile offers the fruits up to his god] which is super extreme-יהרג ואל יעבור-you have to give up you life rather than transgress, whereas the law of not selling land to an idol worshiper is a plain old לא תעשה so we are talking about 2 completely different categories?? It's "apples and oranges", so what's the gemara's question??
To understand we must go to the Rambam at the beginning of hilchos avoda zara. He tells how Avraham Avinu found G-d and spread the faith etc. etc. and then -
כיון שנתנבא משה רבינו ובחר ד' ישראל לנחלה
הכתירן במצות והודיעם דרך עבודתו ומה יהיה משפט עבודת כוכבים וכל הטועים אחריה עכ"ל
"When Moshe prophesied and Hashem chose the Jewish people He crowned them with mitzvos and informed them of the way of His service and the law of idol worship and all those who mistakenly follow idols."
From this Rambam we learn two huge chiddushim. 1] Besides the giving of the Torah in general there was a special giving of מה יהיה משפט עבודת כוכבים - what is the law of idolatry. 2] The laws of all those who mistakenly follow avoda zara [the people and not just the act] are included in this special giving.
It is likely that the Rambam's source is the gemara in Makkos [23a] that teaches that Moshe gave us 611 mitzvos [the gematria of "Torah" is 611 and we know תורה צוה לנו משה] and two mitzvos we heard directly from Hashem. Those two mitzvos are אנכי and לא יהיה לך the mitzva to believe in Hashem and the mitzva not to serve idols. We see that the mitzva of not serving idols is a unique category unto itself, distinct from the other 611 mitzvos, as it was heard directly from Hashem.
When the Rambam prefaced the halachos of avoda zara with the story of Avraham Avinu, he wanted to teach us the lesson that there is a special category of the "Torah of Avraham Avinu" which was then transposed into the "Torah of Moshe". That is also what our gemara is teaching us - that there is a relationship between our understanding [or lack thereof] of these halachos and Avraham Avinu's understanding.
The second chiddush of the Rambam is that all of the halachos relating to idolators is subsumed under the general category of "Hilchos Avodas Kochavim". The very fact that a nation serves idols requires that we relate to them as if they are idols themselves [see Rambam in the 12th perek of hilchos issurei biah and Pachad Yitzchak Shavuos maamar 14 - והדברים נפלאים פלאי פלאות]. It emerges then that all of the ways we distance ourselves from idol worshipers are included in the category of hilchos avoda zara. That is the reason why these laws are found in maseches avoda zara and the Rambam codified them in hilchos avodas kochavim.
According to our present analysis it emerges that the prohibition against selling land to an idol worshiper is linked to the laws of avoda zara [the Chazon Ish also felt that לא תחנם is a din in avoda zara - this would then prohibit one from selling land to idol worshipers but exclude monotheists such as Arabs from this prohibition]. Now we can understand Rav Chisda's question [why does Rebbe Meir only forbid a fine date palm when an inferior one is also forbidden to be sold to an idol worshiper because of לא תחנם]. Not as we originally thought that there are two distinct categories at work here [avoda zara and לא תחנם] but in fact there is only one operative law and that is avoda zara.
We also understand why specifically at this point Rav Chisda emphasized that we are poorer because we no longer have the 400 chapter book of Avraham Avinu on idol worship. All laws of avoda zara that we have today are all extensions of the "Torah of Avraham" and Rav Chisda felt he didn't properly understand these laws.
This principle will help solve numerous difficulties in Maseches Avoda Zara.
[Based on the Hakdama to the sefer מרבה אמונה]
