Chasidut for Pirkei Avot 5:22
בֶּן בַּג בַּג אוֹמֵר, הֲפֹךְ בָּהּ וַהֲפֹךְ בָּהּ, דְּכֹלָּא בָהּ. וּבָהּ תֶּחֱזֵי, וְסִיב וּבְלֵה בָהּ, וּמִנַּהּ לֹא תָזוּעַ, שֶׁאֵין לְךָ מִדָּה טוֹבָה הֵימֶנָּה:
Ben Bag Bag says: Turn it [Torah] over and over, for [you will find] all in it. And through it you shall see. And grow old and hoary in it, and do not budge from it, for there is no better middah than it. [Do not say: I have learned the wisdom of Israel; I will now go and learn the wisdom of the Greeks. For it is permitted to do the latter only where it is not permitted to meditate in words of Torah, as in the bath-house or the lavatory. When they asked R. Yehoshua whether it was permitted to teach one's son Greek wisdom, he answered that it was permitted to do so when it was neither day nor night, it being written (Joshua 1:8): "And you shall meditate in it day and night."]
Kedushat Levi
Deuteronomy 1,3. “Moses spoke to the Children of Israel in accordance with all that Hashem had commanded him concerning them.”
This verse will be better understood when we look at the Zohar III 149.where the Baraitha of Rabbi Yishmael at the beginning of Torat Kohanim, states כל דבר שהיה בכלל ויצא מן הכלל וגו', “anything that was included in a general statement, but was then singled out to teach something, was not singled out to teach only about itself., but to apply its teaching to the entire generality;” When applied to the Holy Torah, we have to distinguish between matters treated by the Torah as “more profound than immediately visible after a superficial reading of the text, i.e. פנימיוות וסוד, “something mystical, buried deep inside,” and between matters that every reader can understand at once, such as references to places, dates, such as when the Torah relates details of the lives of Avraham, Yitzchok and Yaakov. When the Torah reports about their respective dealings with Lavan, or stories told about the matriarchs, Bileam and his ass, these are not to be understood only at face value, but they contain deeply hidden aspects, such as that we are to learn from the excerpts of Avraham’s life how do practice loving kindness with our fellow man. From the details revealed about Yaakov’s life, we are to learn about the righteousness of Yaakov; similarly there are many human attributes practiced by our matriarchs which we are to learn to emulate by immersing ourselves more deeply in the stories of the Torah than one does by reading a novel. Proper reading of these “stories” helps us understand that we are till this day benefiting by the merits accumulated by our forefathers, some of which, we, as their descendants, are being rewarded for. Rachel’s foregoing marriage to her betrothed, Yaakov, in order not to publicly shame her sister Leah, is one of the outstanding examples of selflessness from which we are to learn, according to our sages, when they comment on Jeremiah 31,14 קול ברמה נשמע נהי בכי תמרורים רחל מבכה על בניה מאנה להנחם על בניה כי איננו, “a voice is heard in Ramah- wailing, bitter weeping- Rachel weeping for her children she refuses to be comforted for her children who are gone.” In its introduction to megillat eychah, Lamentations, the author, quoting above verse from Jeremiah interprets it as G’d’s promise to bring redemption to Rachel’s descendants on account of her merits.
If the Torah took the trouble to relate fragments from the lives of the patriarchs and matriarchs to teach us to emulate their virtues, it wrote of Bileam’s conduct in order to teach us not to emulate the abuse Bileam had made of his freedom of choice. Anyone reading of how boastful Bileam had made a fool of himself and left Balak after having become totally discredited, will surely learn a lesson from this. Avot 5,9 points to the difference between the disciples of Avraham and the disciples of Bileam. Avraham’s virtues are worth emulating, whereas Bileam’s great intellectual gifts, due to their being abused by their owner, must be shunned. In other words, although we are able to derive much value from just reading the text superficially, what is hidden behind such superficial reading of the text is even more illuminating. Similarly, with the parts of the Torah that on the surface purport to teach G’d’s commandments; although we must, of course use the text in order to know which commandments to perform and when and where, the text contains many hidden nuances that are discovered only when we apply ourselves with the intention to discover them.
This is what the author of the Baraitha of Rabbi Yishmael that we quoted earlier meant when it stated that “any matter that was part of a general statement, etc,” the general statement is the Torah as a whole, whereas “the statements singled out,” are the specific details about critical moments in our patriarchs’ and matriarchs’ lives, as well as critical details in the lives of other personalities the Torah has singled out from the millions it could have chosen. The words in the Baraitha “but was then singled out from a general statement to teach something only about itself,” refer to specific attributes possessed by the persons mentioned, which are meant either to be emulated or to be shunned. The words: “was not singled out to teach only about itself,” teaches that the attribute emphasized in that example is not to be treated as an exception but is to be applied generally.
That Baraitha also hints by its wording that we must not only look for something beyond the bare text in the stories the Torah tells about outstanding personalities, but search for deeper meaning in the text teaching the commandments. There is a lesson to be learned not only regarding how to perform the commandments, but also regarding moral/ethical lessons to be derived from each commandment.
This latter idea is somewhat elaborated on in the Zohar. It is interesting to note that the fifth Book of the Torah is known also as משנה תורה, [loosely translated as “review of the Torah,” although it is much more than that, containing commandments that did not appear previously at all. Ed.] In this Book, the emphasis is not so much on the attributes of outstanding human beings, but on the attributes of the Creator, and His relationship to His chosen people under various circumstances.
Knowing the manner in which G’d relates to His people is the key to all the warnings issued by Moses to the people concerning their deviating from the right path and the consequences which this would bring in its wake sooner or later, whenever G’d’s patience in waiting for the people to repent would come to an end. Since the Book of Deuteronomy was addressed (at the time) to the generation of Israelites who had not been adults at the time of the Exodus, or who had not even been born yet at that time, they did not need to have everything spelled out for them by means of the stories in the Torah, i.e. parables, as according to Moses’ own testimony in Deut. 29,3 they had become a generation that could use their eyes and ears (not only physically). This was a generation that was not tainted by the ritual pollution it had taken out with them from Egypt.
This is how we must understand Bereshit Rabbah 12,3 that wherever the Torah commences a paragraph with the words: אלה וגו', “these,” etc., it signifies that conditions that had existed prior to this point had become completely irrelevant. In the line in Genesis 2,4 where we find the word אלה for the first time, this signals that anything that the Torah had written about the state of the universe before the creation of light, i.e. the state of תהו ובהו, utter chaos, had by now become totally irrelevant. When we apply this Midrash to the Book of Deuteronomy, it means that rules that had been relevant to the people who had left Egypt as adults no longer had any relevance. The present generation was on a spiritually so much higher level that Moses could speak to them without having to use parables. This is also what Rashi had in mind when in his commentary on the words: אחרי הכותו את סיחן וגו', “after He had smitten Sichon, etc.” (1,4) he says that Moses waited with his words of rebuke for the people until G’d had begun the fulfillment of His promise to give the land of the Canaanites to Israel by giving them vast territory on the east bank of the Jordan. That important victory had concluded the 40 years of wandering in the desert without meaningful progress. At that point Moses became able to speak to the people in the manner G’d had commanded him to do (end of verse 3).
This verse will be better understood when we look at the Zohar III 149.where the Baraitha of Rabbi Yishmael at the beginning of Torat Kohanim, states כל דבר שהיה בכלל ויצא מן הכלל וגו', “anything that was included in a general statement, but was then singled out to teach something, was not singled out to teach only about itself., but to apply its teaching to the entire generality;” When applied to the Holy Torah, we have to distinguish between matters treated by the Torah as “more profound than immediately visible after a superficial reading of the text, i.e. פנימיוות וסוד, “something mystical, buried deep inside,” and between matters that every reader can understand at once, such as references to places, dates, such as when the Torah relates details of the lives of Avraham, Yitzchok and Yaakov. When the Torah reports about their respective dealings with Lavan, or stories told about the matriarchs, Bileam and his ass, these are not to be understood only at face value, but they contain deeply hidden aspects, such as that we are to learn from the excerpts of Avraham’s life how do practice loving kindness with our fellow man. From the details revealed about Yaakov’s life, we are to learn about the righteousness of Yaakov; similarly there are many human attributes practiced by our matriarchs which we are to learn to emulate by immersing ourselves more deeply in the stories of the Torah than one does by reading a novel. Proper reading of these “stories” helps us understand that we are till this day benefiting by the merits accumulated by our forefathers, some of which, we, as their descendants, are being rewarded for. Rachel’s foregoing marriage to her betrothed, Yaakov, in order not to publicly shame her sister Leah, is one of the outstanding examples of selflessness from which we are to learn, according to our sages, when they comment on Jeremiah 31,14 קול ברמה נשמע נהי בכי תמרורים רחל מבכה על בניה מאנה להנחם על בניה כי איננו, “a voice is heard in Ramah- wailing, bitter weeping- Rachel weeping for her children she refuses to be comforted for her children who are gone.” In its introduction to megillat eychah, Lamentations, the author, quoting above verse from Jeremiah interprets it as G’d’s promise to bring redemption to Rachel’s descendants on account of her merits.
If the Torah took the trouble to relate fragments from the lives of the patriarchs and matriarchs to teach us to emulate their virtues, it wrote of Bileam’s conduct in order to teach us not to emulate the abuse Bileam had made of his freedom of choice. Anyone reading of how boastful Bileam had made a fool of himself and left Balak after having become totally discredited, will surely learn a lesson from this. Avot 5,9 points to the difference between the disciples of Avraham and the disciples of Bileam. Avraham’s virtues are worth emulating, whereas Bileam’s great intellectual gifts, due to their being abused by their owner, must be shunned. In other words, although we are able to derive much value from just reading the text superficially, what is hidden behind such superficial reading of the text is even more illuminating. Similarly, with the parts of the Torah that on the surface purport to teach G’d’s commandments; although we must, of course use the text in order to know which commandments to perform and when and where, the text contains many hidden nuances that are discovered only when we apply ourselves with the intention to discover them.
This is what the author of the Baraitha of Rabbi Yishmael that we quoted earlier meant when it stated that “any matter that was part of a general statement, etc,” the general statement is the Torah as a whole, whereas “the statements singled out,” are the specific details about critical moments in our patriarchs’ and matriarchs’ lives, as well as critical details in the lives of other personalities the Torah has singled out from the millions it could have chosen. The words in the Baraitha “but was then singled out from a general statement to teach something only about itself,” refer to specific attributes possessed by the persons mentioned, which are meant either to be emulated or to be shunned. The words: “was not singled out to teach only about itself,” teaches that the attribute emphasized in that example is not to be treated as an exception but is to be applied generally.
That Baraitha also hints by its wording that we must not only look for something beyond the bare text in the stories the Torah tells about outstanding personalities, but search for deeper meaning in the text teaching the commandments. There is a lesson to be learned not only regarding how to perform the commandments, but also regarding moral/ethical lessons to be derived from each commandment.
This latter idea is somewhat elaborated on in the Zohar. It is interesting to note that the fifth Book of the Torah is known also as משנה תורה, [loosely translated as “review of the Torah,” although it is much more than that, containing commandments that did not appear previously at all. Ed.] In this Book, the emphasis is not so much on the attributes of outstanding human beings, but on the attributes of the Creator, and His relationship to His chosen people under various circumstances.
Knowing the manner in which G’d relates to His people is the key to all the warnings issued by Moses to the people concerning their deviating from the right path and the consequences which this would bring in its wake sooner or later, whenever G’d’s patience in waiting for the people to repent would come to an end. Since the Book of Deuteronomy was addressed (at the time) to the generation of Israelites who had not been adults at the time of the Exodus, or who had not even been born yet at that time, they did not need to have everything spelled out for them by means of the stories in the Torah, i.e. parables, as according to Moses’ own testimony in Deut. 29,3 they had become a generation that could use their eyes and ears (not only physically). This was a generation that was not tainted by the ritual pollution it had taken out with them from Egypt.
This is how we must understand Bereshit Rabbah 12,3 that wherever the Torah commences a paragraph with the words: אלה וגו', “these,” etc., it signifies that conditions that had existed prior to this point had become completely irrelevant. In the line in Genesis 2,4 where we find the word אלה for the first time, this signals that anything that the Torah had written about the state of the universe before the creation of light, i.e. the state of תהו ובהו, utter chaos, had by now become totally irrelevant. When we apply this Midrash to the Book of Deuteronomy, it means that rules that had been relevant to the people who had left Egypt as adults no longer had any relevance. The present generation was on a spiritually so much higher level that Moses could speak to them without having to use parables. This is also what Rashi had in mind when in his commentary on the words: אחרי הכותו את סיחן וגו', “after He had smitten Sichon, etc.” (1,4) he says that Moses waited with his words of rebuke for the people until G’d had begun the fulfillment of His promise to give the land of the Canaanites to Israel by giving them vast territory on the east bank of the Jordan. That important victory had concluded the 40 years of wandering in the desert without meaningful progress. At that point Moses became able to speak to the people in the manner G’d had commanded him to do (end of verse 3).
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