The Oven of Akhnai

In Baba Messiah 59b, we have perhaps the most studied sugya in the Babylonian Talmud.

The story known as the Oven of Achnai centers on a rabbi named Eliezer ben Hirknes, who was extraordinary by all accounts.

One day, the rabbis were arguing about an oven, as one does, whether it was pure or impure.

All the rabbis agreed that this oven was impure, except for Eliezer.

The rabbis took those words very seriously.

In the famous story of the Oven of Achnai, when a heavenly voice intervenes in a rabbinic disagreement, Rabbi Yehoshua stands and answers, The Torah is not in heaven.

It has been given to us.

Now we must wrestle with it, interpret it, and take responsibility for what we do with it.