Yitro and Moshe

Hi,

One to ponder:

"Yitro said to him: Accept my condition and I will give her to you as a wife: Your first son should be for idolatry, and the rest for Heaven. Moshe accepted this. He said, 'Swear to me,' and Moshe swore to him."

(Midrash, Mechilta d'R' Yishmael to Yitro, Masechta d'Amalek 1)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Rabbi Akiva and Ben Kalba Savua

Hi,

"R’ Akiva was a shepherd for Ben Kalba Savua. His daughter saw that R’ Akiva was tzanua and good, and she asked him, 'If would accept kiddushin from you, would you go to yeshiva?' He replied, 'Yes.'

"They eloped secretly, and she sent him to yeshiva. Her father heard, evicted her from his home and vowed that she could not benefit from his property.

"R’ Akiva went and sat in yeshiva for twelve years. When he returned, he brought with him twelve thousand students. He heard an elderly man say to her, 'How long will you remain in living widowhood?' To which she replied, 'If he would listen to me, he would stay another twelve years!'

"R’ Akiva said, 'I am doing this with permission!' He returned and sat in yeshiva for another twelve years.

"When he returned, he brought 24,000 students with him. His wife heard and went out to greet him... When she reached him, she fell on her face and kissed his foot. His attendants pushed her away, but he said, 'Leave her be; mine and yours are hers.'

"Her father heard that a great man had come to the city, and he said, 'I will go to him, and perhaps he will nullify my vow.' He came to R' Akiva. R' Akiva asked him, 'Did you intend this vow even if he would become a great man?' To which he replied, 'Even if he would learn one chapter, or one halachah!'

"R' Akiva said, 'I am he.' Ben Kalba Savua fell on his face and kissed his foot and gave him half of his assets."

(Talmud, Ketuvot 62b-63a)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

The impact of thoughts

Hi,

"Every thought and desire, whether good or, Gd-forbid, bad, that passes through a person, does not pass without impact. One by one they gather and are established in the soul, and an edifice is built from them.

"Sometimes a bad trait, far worse than one's normal traits, arises in a person, Gd spare us, and he is shocked at himself. How did I enter such a lowly state?! But as we have said, thoughts and desires as thin as a hair took root in him. He did not know them or sense them, due to their intangibility, but inside him they thickened and gew, and then became visible and were revealed in the form of a repellent trait and ugly block, Gd forbid.

"The opposite is also true - every good thought and desire which rises within you, even if you do not achieve it, will thicken and grow and manifest itself in a holy trait or thought."

(R' Klonymus Kalman Schapiro, Bnei Machshavah Tovah, Seder Hadrachah uKlalim 5)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

The addiction of authority

Hi,

"Rabbi Yehoshua ben Perachyah said: At first, had anyone told me, 'Ascend to authority,' I would have bound him up in front of a lion. Now [that I hold authority], if anyone would tell me to descend from authority, I would pour a pot of boiling water over him!"

(Talmud, Menachot 109b)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Moshe and the Mirrors

Hi,

"When Gd told Moshe to create the Mishkan… the women asked, 'What can we donate for the Mishkan collection?' They stood and brought their mirrors to Moshe.

"When Moshe saw the mirrors, he raged at them, telling the Jews, 'Take sticks and break their legs! For what purpose would we need these mirrors?'

"Gd said to Moshe, 'Moshe! You degrade these things? These mirrors are what created the multitudes of Jews in Egypt! Take the mirrors from them, and make from them the copper sink and its base for the kohanim, with which the kohanim will sanctify themselves.'"

(Midrash Tanchuma Pekudei 9)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

When a judge must explain himself

Hi,


Background: Normally, judges on a Jewish court are not required to present the logic behind their decisions. However, in a particular case (Bava Metzia 69a-b), Rav Pappa explained his decision. Tosafot explains:

"Rav Pappa was required to explain his verdict in this case, specifically, under the principle of 'You shall be innocent from Gd and Israel,' because the litigant had reason to suspect him."

(Tosafot to Bava Metzia 69b כי האי גוונא)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

How to besiege a city

Hi,

"We are instructed to leave a direction open, unsieged, when we besiege a city, so that they should have the means of flight. This way we will learn to act with mercy even upon our enemies in war. Also, this is advantageous in opening a path through which they will flee, rather than strengthen themselves against us."

(Ramban to Sefer haMitzvot, Omitted Aseh #5)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Where is the Garden of Eden?

Hi,

"Gan Eden is a rich place on the globe, with abundant water and trees, and Gd will reveal it to humanity in the future, showing them its path, and they will enjoy it. Perhaps they will find amazing plants there, with great benefit and pleasure, aside from those of which we know. None of this is impossible or distant; it is highly possible, even had the Torah not mentioned it, and certainly since it is explained and publicized in the Torah."

(Rambam, Commentary to Mishnah, Sanhedrin 10:1)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Techiyat haMeitim [the ultimate resurrection of the dead]

Hi,

"R' Tavi said, citing R' Yoshiyah: What is the meaning of the verse, '[Three things are never sated, four never say, 'Enough':] The grave, the barren womb, the earth is never full of water [and fire]'? What is the grave next to the womb? To teach that just as the womb takes in and produces, so the grave takes in and produces."

(Talmud, Sanhedrin 92a)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

What happens in Olam haBa (the world of the future)?

Hi,

"Rav regularly said: The next world is not like this one; the next world will not have eating, drinking, procreation, commerce, jealousy, hatred or competition. Rather, the righteous will sit, with crowns on their heads, benefiting from the radiance of the Shechinah, as it is written, 'And they envisioned Gd, and they ate and drank.'"

(Talmud, Berachot 17a)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Which body comes back in Techiyat haMeitim?

Hi,

"The last body in which the soul was planted, and in which it grew successfully and developed good roots, will rise up at that time."

(Zohar, Bereishit pg. 131a)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

The Secrets of Gd

Hi,

"Gd caused King Chizkiyahu to suffer, and told Yeshayah, "Go visit the sick," as it is written, "In those days, Chizkiyahu became deathly ill, and the prophet Yeshayah son of Amotz came to him and said, 'So says Gd: Instruct your household, for you will die and not live.'"

"What did that message mean? You will die in this world, and you will not live in the next world.

"Chizkiyahu asked: Why should all this befall me?

"Yeshayah replied: Because you have not been involved in procreation.

"Chizkiyahu explained: I saw in a Divinely inspired vision that I would have bad children!

"Yeshayah replied: What business do you have in the secrets of the Merciful One? You should do as you are instructed, and Gd will do whatever pleases Gd."

(Talmud, Berachot 10a)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Why Ramban could not accept Christianity

Hi,

"I cannot believe in his messiahship because the prophet says (Psalms 72:8) "He will have dominion from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth" and he did not have dominion...

"The prophet also says (Jeremiah 31:33) "No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, 'Know the Lord,' for they shall all know Me..." And it says (Isaiah 11:9) "The earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea." It says (Isaiah 2:4) "they shall beat their swords [into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks;] nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." But from his time until now the world is full of murder and theft..."

(Kitvei Ramban, 1:311)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Jews and Lions

Hi,

"The Beit haMikdash is called a lion… The monarchy of David is called a lion… Israel is called a lion… Nevuchadnezzar is called a lion. He destroyed the Temple and took the monarchy of David and exiled Israel, and so Gd said, "Where is the home of the lions," where are my children? And then He roars for His home."

(Midrash, Shemot Rabbah 29:9)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Cups in Tanach

Hi,

"In the Tanach, כוס [kos, or cup] is always a figurative expression of the Divinely ordered purpose of life. In this sense the cup is also used by our Sages as a symbol replete with meaning… The drinking from the cup thus expresses the taking to heart and affirmation of a Divine ordained destiny."

(Rabbi Samshon Raphael Hirsch, Horeb 188)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

One-legged angels?

Hi,

"Doubtless, they [the angels envisioned by Yechezkel] had two legs... But perhaps their legs were seen as a single, straight leg in order to state that their legs always sped along in righteousness, justice and fairness, never veering from the command of their Gd."

(Abarbanel to Yechezkel 1:6)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Faith and Intellect in the thought of Rav Kook

Hi,


"Human frailty causes a person who is gifted in intellectual analysis to have a weaker inclination toward faith, and a person who is whole in faith to reduce his intellectual insight and wisdom of the heart. But the goal of the straight path is that each strength not reduce the other, and not be reduced by the other, but rather that both be revealed in their full strength, as though it alone was in control.

"Faith must be as complete as if there was no possibility of analysis, and complementing this must be a force of intellect which is elevated and energized, as though there were no force of faith in the soul. "Man and animal (Tehillim 36)" – clever in intellect, and making themselves as [unthinking] beasts."

(Rav Avraham Yitzchak haKohen Kook, Orot Yisrael 1)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Only gratitude will remain

Hi,

"In the future, all korbanot [offerings] will be cancelled other than the korban todah [thanks offering], and all prayers will be cancelled other than prayers of thanks.

"It is written [regarding the world of the future], "The voice of joy, the voice of happiness, the voice of grooms, the voice of brides, the voice of those who say, 'Thank Gd!'" which is a prayer of thanks, and [the verse continues] "And those who bring thanks to the house of Gd" which is the thanks offering."

(Midrash, Vayyikra Rabbah 9:7)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

What did Yechezkel see?

Hi,

"Gd showed Yechezkel His glory and manifestation travelling and leaving the Temple; [this means] that His supervision and protection and ministering angels who fulfill His will, His spheres and heavens and mighty ones who carry out His word, which all camped about Israel in their times of success, saving them and acting as agents on their behalf and saying good things about them - all of them were now traveling and leaving His protection, being elevated from upon the land."

(Don Isaac Abarbanel, Introduction to Yechezkel)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Shavuot is for you

Hi,

"R' Eliezer said: On Yom Tov one either eats and drinks or sits and studies. R' Yehoshua said: Split it – half for eating and drinking, half for the study hall.

"R' Yochanan said: Both learn it from the same text: One passage says, 'A celebration for HaShem your Gd,' and one passage says, 'It shall be a celebration for you.' R' Eliezer said it should be for Gd or for you, and R' Yehoshua said to split it, half for HaShem and half for you.

"R' Elazar said: All agree that for Shavuot we require 'for you', because that is the day when the Torah was given."

(Talmud, Pesachim 68b)

Have a great Yom Tov,
Mordechai

The script on the Tablets, Part II

Hi,

"I cannot accept or bear that any tanna or amora [ie sage] would think that Assyrian script was entirely created in the days of Ezra. Rather, this is what happened: The aseret hadibrot were written on the tablets, according to everyone, in Assyrian. No one argues with this at all."

(Responsa of Radbaz 3:442)

Have a great Yom Tov,
Mordechai

The script on the Tablets, Part I

Hi,

"According to all, the script on the luchot was Assyrian, for we have already said that the debate was only regarding the script used by Israel, because it was appropriate that the script of Israel be Paleo-Hebrew."

(Maharal, Tiferet Yisrael 64)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Where to market your Torah

Hi,

Rav Hillel Witkind asked the Chazon Ish for advice, for he had a yeshiva in Tel Aviv and it was not succeeding. The Chazon Ish told him to move the yeshiva to Bnei Brak.

Rav Witkind asked, "There are many yeshivot in Bnei Brak!" To which the Chazon Ish replied by pointing to Menachot 85a, "Bring vegetables to market in a city which already has a vegetable market."

(Rav Chaim Kanaievsky, cited in Maaseh Ish and in Margaliyos haShas to Menachos 85a)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Visions of Gd

Hi,

"The prophets saw Gd in forms which varied in association with His deeds...

"At a time of anger against the nation, when Gd planned to travel and remove His presence from among them and His supervision from upon them, Yeshayahu saw Gd sitting on a throne, high and elevated, as though distancing His supervision form them and removing it fom the lower realms, placing it in the upper realms...

"Yechezkel saw Gd at the time of His travel, the destruction of the Beit haMikdash... as though on a chariot, prepared for the King, Gd, Lord of Hosts, to travel, like kings who travel from place to place, for whom they prepare a chariot to go on his way. All of this is a parable, in human speech."

(Abarbanel, Introduction to Yechezkel)

Have a great day,
Mordechai