Halakhah zu Daniel 1:22

One has to be careful when he is about to say birkat ha-mazon not to leave the table without any bread on it, as they said in tractate Sanhedrin:¹⁸¹B. Sanhedrin 92a. “Whoever does not leave bread on his table, about him Scripture says, ‘With no remnant for him to eat, his goodness will not take hold.”¹⁸²Job 20:21. The reason for this practice is so that the blessing about which this was said will take hold; for if nothing is left, in what can the blessing take hold, because no blessing takes hold upon nothing, but only upon something? And the table in the sanctuary, which never was without bread, attests to this. And that bread was eaten by the priests who ministered to the sanctuary, and only a little of it was enough to feed many of them, and so our rabbis said, “Every priest who approached it was made doubly happy,”¹⁸³B. Yoma 39a. R. Bahya seems to allude to double portion of manna in the manna miracle as well as to the two loaves offered to the priests in Lev. 23:17. and through this very bread on the table blessing descended and was dispersed in the food of the world, from the showbread, by way of “something from something” and not something from nothing. For even the prophets who were “capable of serving in the royal palace”¹⁸⁴Dan 1:4. were not capable of producing something from nothing, but rather only something from something. Let me call for myself reliable witnesses:¹⁸⁵An allusion to Is 8:2.Elijah and Elisha, the former through “flour in a jar,”¹⁸⁶I Kg 17:12: “kad ha-kemah,” which R. Bahya used as the title for his famous encyclopedic collection of sermons. the latter “a jug of oil” – all was “something from something,” for no one has the power to make something from nothing but the Holy One Blessed be He, Shaper of creation which He created from nothing, and with all due to respect for Him, we find that even He only did it in the six days of the creation of the world. From then on till now, everything is “something from something.” And thus it is written, “which God created and made.”¹⁸⁷Gen 2:3. The explanation: “which God created” – something from nothing; “and made” – from then on, something from something, not something from nothing. So accordingly, it is necessary that a person about to recite birkat ha-mazon, leave a piece of bread on the table, for even a little of it is enough for the blessing to take hold in, and its power will be distributed through an increase of the small amount, just like the hidden miracles that are done for us every day, without us knowing or being aware of them. Just as our rabbis said: “¹⁸⁸B. Nidah 31a.No miracle-worker is aware of his own miracle.” And you should know that the cause behind the blessing that drops down in the food of the world and in the showbread is explained in the verse: “It [the frankincense] shall be a reminder-offering with the bread.”¹⁸⁹Lev 24:7. R. Bahya seems to allude to the miracle of the manna here in the language he uses about the showbread drawing miracles and blessings down to the earth, and of the priests being “doubly happy” See note 183 above . And later he explicitly associates the covering of bread on the table with cloths above and below with the miracle of the manna. As you already knew that they used to place frankincense on top of the bread, which is what is written just before, “With each row you shall place pure frankincense,”¹⁹⁰Ibid. the showbread and the frankincense used to counteract one another, just like the etrog and the lulav,¹⁹¹B. Menahot 27a. and the blue dye and white cloth (when blue dye could still be found). For the Most High has no share in the showbread, while the ordinary mortal has no share in the frankincense, which they would burn upon the fire. Therefore Scripture said, “It shall be a reminder-offering with the bread,” because by burning the frankincense which is on top of the bread, it becomes a reminder to the power above for blessing to drop down on it and from it into the food for the world. And understand this, that it is for this reason that there were twelve hallot arranged on top of the table. And from there the blessing came, which corresponded to the twelve angels¹⁹²Pirkei de Rabbi Eliezer 4. surrounding the throne of glory, which are called “four camps of the Shekhinah,” from which the world is blessed to the four winds, and they serve three to each wind, the meaning behind the four banners that were in the desert. Also corresponding to them below were the twelve lions on Solomon’s throne, and they are like these twelve hallot and the twenty-four tenth-measures,¹⁹³Lev 24:5. Each loaf – hallah – was made of two tenth-measures – ‘esronim – of choice flour, i.e., 24 = 2 x 12. and arouse your mind to this!

And know indeed that what kind of person one is, is determined at the table, for there his qualities are revealed and made known. And thus our rabbis z”l said, “By three things a person is known: through his purse, through his cup, and through his anger.”³⁴B. Erubin 68b. The clever wordplay of be-kiso, be-koso, be-ka’aso of the saying is lost in the translation. For being drawn to wine and other pleasures – surely these are “the drippings of the honeycomb”³⁵Psalm 19:11, that is, the flowing “honey, the drippings of the honeycomb” than which the “fear of the Lord” and “judgments of the Lord” (19:10) “are sweeter.” – is one drawn to the drug of death, and by his grasping this path he will die an everlasting death. But whoever wants to live ought to keep far from this path; “he will eat and live forever.”³⁶Gen 3:22, an allusion to the immortality that would have come from eating from the Tree of Life. In other words, unlike the way Adam and Eve chose, there is another way one can and should eat to gain eternal life. And thus our rabbis z”l said in tractate Gittin of the Talmud, “A meal for your own enjoyment – pull your hand away from it,”³⁷B.Gittin 70a. and similarly said, “‘You shall be holy,’ that is, ‘you shall be abstemious (perushim),'”³⁸Sifra on Lev. 19:2. and “Make yourself holy through what is appropriate for you.”³⁹B. Yebamot 20a: “Make yourself holy through what is permitted to you.” And the author of Ecclesiastes said, “I said to myself, ‘Come, I will treat you to merriment. Taste mirth!’ That too, I found was futile.”⁴⁰Eccl. 2:1. And after that, he said, “I ventured to tempt [limshokh] my flesh with wine.”⁴¹Ibid. 2:3. Limshokh here is from the root of the same verb R. Bahya used above to refer to being drawn to wine, i.e., “being drawn [he-hamshekh] to wine and other pleasures…is one drawn [nemshakh] to the drug of death.” Thus, R. Bahya is using Eccl. 2:3 as a sort of prooftext for his point about wine. And in tractate Sanhedrin of the Talmud:⁴²B.Sanhedrin 70a. “Thirteen woes are said about wine, and they are specified in Parshat Noah. It is written, ‘Noah, the tiller of the soil, was the first to plant a vineyard,’⁴³Gen 9:20. which means from the moment he began to plant, he made his holiness profane. That is the point of the expression va-yahel – “he began”- which includes both the connotations of “beginning” (tehilah) and “profanation” (hillul). And because of wine, one third of the world was cursed.⁴⁴That is, the descendents of Ham were condemned to serve the descendents of his brothers Shem and Japhet, because when Noah, after drinking his wine, fell asleep in a drunken stupor, Ham “saw his nakedness.” Normally this is a Biblical euphemism for having sexual relations, hence the severity of the curse. The curse was actually directed at Ham’s son Canaan, most likely to justify morally the Israelites’ subsequent subjugation of the Canaanites and their land. However, the whole account is ambiguous and full of apparent non-sequiturs, prompting a quite a fruitful growth of midrashic attempts to explain the story. One unfortunate stream of interpretation, that Ham’s curse not only involved eternal servitude but also the blackening of his skin color, was later adopted in Christian and Muslim traditions, and used to justify the enslavement of Black Africans well into the 19th century – the so-called “Curse of Ham.” And they also taught in a midrash, “Don’t eye the wine, as it reddens…,”⁴⁵Prov. 23:31. that is, it yearns for blood.⁴⁶B. Sanhedrin 70a. And likewise Bathsheba warned King Solomon not to tempt his flesh with wine,⁴⁷B. Sanhedrin 70b.when she said to him, “Wine is not for kings, O Lemuel; not for kings to drink, nor any beer for princes.”⁴⁸Prov. 31:4. The midrash above identifies “Lemuel’s mother” (Prov. 31:1) with Bathsheba, the mother of King Solomon. And so he said, “I ventured to tempt my flesh with wine,”⁴⁹Eccl. 2:3. and “for who eats, and who feels the pleasures of the senses but me?”⁵⁰Ibid., 2:25. and then remarks after that, “That too is futile.”⁵¹Ibid., 2:26. For it is well known that someone in whose heart reverence for HaShem and fear of Him is strong, will reject and separate himself from the pleasures of the world, and will scorn them to the utmost, for he knows and is familiar with their consequences, while others who are lesser or worthless will fill their bellies with what delights them, and their vessels will return empty; they’re empty because they lack sense “They neither know nor understand; they walk about in darkness.”⁵²Ps. 82:5. About this, Solomon said, “When you sit down to dine with a ruler, consider well who is before you.”⁵³Prov. 23:1. He said, “If the wrath of the ruler rises up against you”⁵⁴Eccl. 10:4. and you go out to eat “the king’s food or the wine he drank”⁵⁵Dan. 1:8. in the house of the king who rules the land, understand well and look at those who were before you who chose this way- “what they saw in that matter and what had befallen them.”⁵⁶Esth. 9:26. Doesn’t the high status and greatness of most of them end up in humiliation and submission, “wholly swept away by terrors”?⁵⁷Ps. 73:19. Just what is written right afterwards in Proverbs, “Thrust a knife in your gullet!”⁵⁸Prov. 23:2.And our rabbis z”l said, “Do not yearn for the tables of kings, for your table is greater than their table, your crown greater than their crown.”⁵⁹M. Avot 6:5. Therefore, a person should not seek excessive gains and pursue them, for if he does, his days will be painful and he will never be satisfied, because there is no end to these gains, and whoever pursues things that have no end – is he not sick, blinded by his stupidity? For “every fool is embroiled.”⁶⁰Prov. 20:3. It goes without saying that he has no share in the Torah, because if he were rich and used to eating and drinking with silver dishes, he would be liable to think little of them and become unsatisfied until he had utensils of “turquoise, sapphire, and diamond,”⁶¹Ex 28:18. and as soon as he obtained one of them, he’d want two or three, and this would go on without out end. And therefore a person with good qualities must not in his heart crave for excessive gains, and should be satisfied with a little.

And you need to understand the statement our rabbis z”l made: “The righteous who in time to come will live again do not return to their ‘dust,’ but rather will keep on lasting, as it is said, ‘And those who remain in Zion, and are left in Jerusalem…shall be called holy.’¹⁴⁴Is 4:3. Just as the Holy lasts forever, so the righteous in time to come will live and last forever, as they explained in a midrash in the Talmud, Tractate Sanhedrin.¹⁴⁵B. Sanhedrin 92a: “Raba said: Whence is resurrection derived from the Torah? … Rabina said, [it is derived] from this verse, ‘And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.’ (Dan 12:2.) And in another place they taught in a midrash: “The dead whom the Holy One Blessed be He will in time to come bring back to life do not return to ‘their dust,” but rather will last forever, and delight themselves in seven huppot – wedding canopies.¹⁴⁶B. Baba Batra 75a. And this is the explanation of the matter and the secret of the statement, for the decree of Scripture: “For dust you are, and to dust you shall return,”¹⁴⁷Gen 3:19. is only from the perspective of the original sin, but when sin is taken away and “He will destroy death forever,”¹⁴⁸Is 25:8. and the day “will return to its normal state [le-eitano] in the morning,”¹⁴⁹An allusion to the miraculous parting of the Red Sea in Ex. 14:27, playing on the verbal similarity between yom – “day” and yam – “sea.” I.e., Ex 14:27: “the sea [yam] returned to its normal state in the morning.” that is, the strength of the world,¹⁵⁰Because according to Mekhilta Be-Shalah on Ex 14:27, eyn eitano ela’ tokfo, wherever it says eitano, it means “its strength” – tokfo. and no one will be able to lead into sin any work of the hands of the Lord (may He be blessed), for the Accuser will be gone in the blink of an eye – therefore they do not return to the dust forever. For when sin is taken away and cancelled, so the decree is cancelled, and so they do not return to ‘their dust.” But even though they never return to their dust, you shouldn’t understand this to mean that their bodies keep existing as real flesh and blood, with muscles and bones, as we are now. But rather, they will have earned the capacity to take on some sort of transformation, but it won’t ever be returning back to their dust. Thus, it is necessary for anyone with a clear mind to understand, and not to deceive himself with the “king’s food” of his desires and “wine he drank,”¹⁵¹An allusion to Dan 1:5. nor be seduced by the sort of things fools and those stuck in the “slimy depths”¹⁵²Ps 69:2. of their ignorance are seduced by.

I shall explain the verse “it will bring forth produce for the three years” (ibid. 25:21).⁸⁸ Scripture states: “If you should say: ‘What will we eat on the seventh year? Behold we will neither plant nor gather our produce.’ I shall command My blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it will bring forth produce for the three years. You will plant in the eighth year and eat of the old produce until the ninth year, until the arrival of its produce, you will eat old” (Leviticus 25:20–22). Among the problems that these verses present are: (1) the “three years” are listed as through the ninth year, which tallies to four years (6, 7, 8, and 9) instead of three. (2) We do not even have three full years, since the produce serves for half the sixth year, the whole seventh year, and half the eighth year. (3) Why would they be eating old produce through the ninth year when they can plant and harvest on the eighth year (since the year begins with Tishre)? Ibn Ezra addresses these problems. Be aware that a minute remaining of a Biblical day is considered a full day. For example, it is written “On the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised” (ibid. 12:3). If one is born on Friday one-half hour before the Sabbath commences, he is circumcised the following Friday morning, even though he has not completed seven full days.⁸⁹ Thus we see that when Friday ends one full day is completed, even though it was not 24 hours. Therefore the following Friday is the eighth day. Similarly, one day in the year is considered a full year. Sometimes it is counted as a separate year and sometimes it is left as part of the previous full year. Thus it is written “you will bear your sins for forty years” (Numbers 14:34). Now this incident occurred in the second year, and God did not punish them before they sinned.⁹⁰ The problem is how to arrive at a figure of forty years of wandering from the time they sinned (the slanderous report of the spies), when they remained in the wilderness only 39 more years. The number forty was due to their not crossing the Jordan until the “tenth of the first month” (Joshua 4:19) in the forty-first year.⁹¹ In this case part of one month counted as a year. This is in contrast to “they ate the manna forty years” (Exodus 16:35).⁹² The manna began in the first year of the exodus from Egypt and continued into the forty-first year. Yet Scripture writes “forty years,” omitting the one month of the forty-first year. In Scripture the “seventeenth” (1 Kings 14:21) is identical with “the eighteenth year” (ibid. 15:1);⁹³ We know that Rehoboam and Jeroboam began their reigns in the same year, with Rehoboam preceding Jeroboam by a few weeks. Also, Scripture relates that Rehoboam ruled for seventeen years (1 Kings 14:21), which would likewise be the seventeenth year of Jeroboam. Yet Scripture states that Rehoboam’s son, Abijam, began his reign in the eighteenth year of Jeroboam (ibid. 15:1). Obviously here “seventeenth year” and “eighteenth year” were the same year. also the “nineteenth.”⁹⁴ The eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar (Jeremiah 52:29) is also referred to as the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar (ibid. 52:12). “The eleventh year” (2 Kings 9:29) is the same as “The twelfth year” (ibid. 8:25).⁹⁵ The verse relates that Ahaziah began his reign in the eleventh year of Jehoram (2 Kings 9:29), while in 2 Kings 8:25 it is written that Ahaziah began his reign in the twelfth year of Jehoram. Also, Ahaziah ruled for two years beginning with “the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat” (1 Kings 22:52), yet Jehoram his brother ruled after him “in the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat” (2 Kings 3:1). There are many similar examples.