Halakhah sobre Jeremías 2:40

The first blessing is al netilat yada’im -“over the washing of the hands”. Our rabbis z”l specifically fixed the form of this blessing with the word “netilah,” which literally means “raising high,” as the Targum translates “then a spirit lifted me up [va-tise’ni]”²Ez 3:12. – “raised me up” [va-nitaltni]. These two verbs are also used synonymously when it is written “He raised them and lifted them up [va-yitlem va-yinas’em] all the days of old.”³Is 63:9.It is necessary to raise up one’s hands when saying this blessing. Moreover this would include the point of raising hands in prayer, to concentrate one’s mind on them (i.e., the ten fingers of one’s hands) to be made holy by them from the ten sefirot. It is like someone who raises their hands upward to concentrate on opening the source above, pulling and drawing down the divine energy flow. This is what Scripture means when it says, “I reach up for your commandments which I love.”⁴Ps 119:48. This verse teaches you that in some of the commandments there is an imprint or picture above, which a person needs, in order to follow them below, so you should raise your hands toward them above. Even here over the table when you are eating, you ought to lift up your hands and raise them above.⁵Or “ought to perform the ritual of al netilat yada’im raising his hands upward …;” the Hebrew can mean either, or most likely, both. You should concentrate on the ten sefirot when you lift (or wash) before you eat, and likewise after you eat with the mayim aharonim [i.e., the washing after the meal]. Scripture talksabout this when it says, “Lift your hands toward the sanctuary and bless the Lord.”⁶Ps 134:2Similarly with the ten things that are necessary for a cup of blessing, according to the custom of those in the past.⁷R. Bahya is referring to b. Berakhot 51a:
Rabbi Zeira said in the name of Rabbi Abahu – others say it is taught in a beraita: “Ten things were said to have been required for of a cup of blessing: (1) washing and (2) rinsing it before use, (3) undiluted, (4) a full cup (5) closing it [itur] (6) covering with a cloth [ituf], (7) lifting it up with two hands and putting it in the right, and (8) elevating it at least a handbreadth from the ground, (9) looking at it; and some say, (10) sending it as a gift to household members.” Rabbi Yohanan said, “we know of only four: Washing, rinsing, undiluted, and full.”
Though R. Yohanan’s view became the accepted practice, R. Bahya is suggesting that there nevertheless was an ancient custom that did associate the rituals concerned with blessing a cup of wine with the ten sefirot. That is why Rabbi Zeira et al. specified ten, according to R. Bahya’s interpretation of his rationale. So Chavel in his notes explains R. Bahya’s reference to “the custom of those in the past.” See below, where R. Bahya discusses in more detail the ten things connected with the cup of blessing. See also the Zohar 2:157b. All this is to hint that the purpose of concentrating on our eating at the table is only for our body to be sustained and be able to serve theCreator so that our soul will merit to stand among “the ten,” and that the brilliant light be her food and hover protectively over her. And know the truth, that the structure of the body with ten fingers on the hands that can be raised above, and ten toes below, with our body in the middle – was designed this way, to get us to visualize the connection between heaven and earth. Just so, our body links our upper and lower ten digits.⁸In other words, the connection between our 10 toes and fingers with our body in the middle is analogous to the connection between our 10 fingers lifted up in netilat yada’imdown here on earth and the 10 sefirot in the upper world. This is the “imprint” of the cosmos in the human body to which R. Bahya just referred. Perhaps R. Bahya’s particular wording here to introduce this analogy, “Know the truth [ha-emet],” is an allusion to Ps. 85:11: “Truth [emet] will spring up from the ground.”

And understand for this reason the Torah describes the sanctification of the priests’ hands and feet, as Scripture says, “They shall wash their hands and feet, that they may not die.”⁹Ex 30:21. This washing Targum Onkelos (may his memory be a blessing) translates with a word that connotes holiness, even though in the other places where “they shall wash” is written, it is translated “they shall remove the dirt from” [va-yes’hun], but here he translated it “they shall sanctify” [va-yikadshun]. This is to explain that the priest used to sanctify his hand and his feet. With his right hand for his right foot and his left hand for his left foot, he would concentrate on “the ten” and make himself holy through their holiness, and draw upon the blessing from their blessedness, and with this thought in mind the priest would sanctify his hands and feet in the basin when he approached the altar. Thus the table is called an altar. For this reason they [the rabbis] were very severe with the punishment for someone who makes light of hand washing; he is to be “uprooted from the world.”¹⁰B.Sotah 4b. The severity of this punishment is because hand-washing hints at the thing upon which the whole world depends. So whoever makes light of “lifting” the hands (for washing) causes a washing that destroys the world. As it has been said, “wash before or be fed pig meat; wash after or a life might be lost.”¹¹B.Hullin 106a. Chavel explains this somewhat elliptical saying in his notes by bringing two stories. First, there was a Jewish shopkeeper who would sell kosher meat that he would cook and feed to a Jew, but when a gentile came into the store, he’d feed him trayf. But if a Jew came to eat and didn’t wash his hands, thinking he was a gentile, the storekeeper would feed him pig meat. As for the danger of not washing afterwards, Chavel retells the story of the man who entrusted his wife with purse of money, and then went out to the market without washing his hands after the meal. A wicked man came along who saw the husband give his wife the purse. He came to the woman and said to her, “Give me the purse that your husband gave you.” She replied to him, “Give me a sign” (i.e., that proved he know her husband and that he sent him). He told that he knew her husband just ate lentils (since he had seen them on her husband’s unwashed hands). So she gave him the purse. When her husband came home, she told him what happened, and he killed her! And this also was said about netilat yada’im: “whoever makes light of hand-washing will end up poor.”¹²B.Shabbat 62b. Wealth is accumulated by the work of one’s hands, and so it is written, “in all that you extend your hand to,”¹³Dt 15:10: “The Lord your God will bless you in all you do, and in all that you extend your hand to.” and blessings are linked to “the ten.” This is hinted at in “you shall surely set aside a tenth,”¹⁴Deut. 14:22. that is, “from ten [‘eser] so that you will become rich [tit-‘asher].¹⁵B.Ta’anit 9a, which interprets the Biblical Hebrew emphatic infinitive absolute construction: ‘iser te-‘aser (“you shall surely set aside a tenth”) as ‘eser te’asher (“ten will make you rich”), punning on the similar spelling and sound of ‘eser, “ten” and ‘osher, “wealth.” They proved that ‘osher –“wealth” – which is a shibboleth [“an ear of wheat” spelled with a shin] is from the ma’aser [“tithe” spelled with a sin] which is a sibboleth [that is, the letter shinin ma’aser is pronounced like the letter samekh in “sibboleth,” to hint that blessing and wealth is linked to “the ten” (the ten sefirot).¹⁶The point of the midrash is that ‘eser (ten) and ‘osher (wealth) are more or less equivalent, even though one is pronounced with an /s/, the other with a /sh/ sound. Of course this an allusion to the story in Judges 12 where the Gileadites used the word shibboleth as a password to distinguish their people from the Ephraimites, who could only pronounce it “sibboleth.” Though R. Bahya on the one hand seems to stress the interchangeability of shibboleth and sibboleth to make his point, I would not put it past him to be also hinting that knowing the equivalence of ‘eser, ‘osher, and the mystical secret of the connection between the ten sefirot and acquiring blessing is itself a sort of “shibboleth,” as it were. Having the wisdom to make these connections distinguishes the Torah scholars from those who don’t know or appreciate the secrets of the Torah and their benefits. Proof of this is in the birkat kohanim (the priestly) when they raise and extend their hands.¹⁷I.e., to draw down the blessings from the ten sefirot through their ten fingers. R. Bahya in effect implicitly associates the lifting of the ten fingers when to draw down blessing when one washes before eating at the table, to the blessings drawn down by the hereditary priests. It should become clear from this that the more a commandment requires this sort of thinking directed above, the greater the punishment for making light of it. This is like the issue of saying “Amen.” As great as one’s reward is for answering “Amen,” double is the punishment for making light of it. This is what our rabbis z”l taught in a midrash: “Everyone who is careful to answer “Amen” in this world deserves to answer “Amen” in the world to come.” David (peace be upon him) said, ‘Blessed is the Lord forever, Amen and Amen;’¹⁸Ps 89:53. ‘Amen’ in this world, and ‘Amen’ in the world to come. For everyone who answers ‘Amen’ deserves two worlds: this world and the world to come.¹⁹M. Tanhuma 96:7. And in the Temple, when The Name of God was spoken aloud as it is spelled, they did not answer “Amen.” But in the precincts of the Temple where it was not permitted to say it as it is spelled, they would say aloud “Amen” instead of The Name, because the word “Amen” hints at the letters of The Name.²⁰B. Berakhot 63a. The numerical equivalents for the names of God ADoNaY (65) and YHWH (26) when added together equal AMeN (91). Therefore, greater is the one who says “Amen” than the one making the blessing using a circumlocution for the actual name of God.²¹I.e., like saying “Adonai” instead of pronouncing YHWH. And everyone who makes light of saying “Amen,” their punishment is double in the circles of hell, that is, the circle called “a land whose light is darkness,”²²Job 10:22. which is lower She’ol. The prophet who spoke about those that make light of answering “Amen” referred to this when he said “They have forsaken Me, the Fount of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns which cannot even hold water.”²³Jer 2:13. But whoever answers “Amen” with its letters opens “the Fount” and draws out the flow of blessing. And accordingly the verse refers to those who make light of it when it says “hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns.” That is to say, they are punished with a double punishment, the one worse than the other.²⁴R. Bahya is picking up on the repetition of the word “cisterns” (be’erot) to hook his midrash. Thus you learn that the greater the reward is for doing something, the greater the punishment for not doing it. Now right after washing and drying his hands, he ought to eat, and so they said, “Right after washing his hands, ha-motzi’.²⁵B.Berakhot 52b, which actually says, “right after washing hands, the meal.”

Mari the grandson of R. Huna the son of R. Jeremiah the son of Abba taught: A person should not take leave of his fellow other than with a matter of Halakhah for thereby he will remember him. R. Kahana escorted R. Shimi the son of Ashi from Pum Nahara to Be-Zenyata of Babylonia. When he arrived there he said to him… "What is meant by the verse 'Through a land that no man had passed through and where no man dwelt' (Jeremiah 2:6)? Since no one passed through, how could anyone dwell? It is to teach you that any land which Adam decreed should be inhabited is inhabited and any land which Adam decreed should not be inhabited is not inhabited."

On the three Shabbosos between the seventeenth of Tammuz and Tishah beAv, we read the "Three haftaros of retribution," which are: Divrei Yirmiyahu (The words of Jeremiah) (Jeremiah 1:1), Shim'u devar Hashem, (Hear the word of Hashem) (Jeremiah 2:4), Chazon Yeshayahu, (The vision of Isaiah) (Isaiah 1:1). Their initials form the acronym DeShaCh. If, by mistake, the reader recited on the first Shabbos the haftarah of the weekly portion, on the second Shabbos, he should read the haftarah of both Divrei Yirmiyahu and Shim'u, because they are close to each other. If Rosh Chodesh Av occurs on Shabbos, he reads the haftarah Hashamayim Kis'i (The heaven is My throne) (Isaiah 66), but in some communities, the haftarah Shim'u is read.

Laws of Rosh Ḥodesh that happens to fall on Shabbat, which has three clauses: On Rosh Ḥodesh that happens to fall on Shabbat, for the 'aravit, shaḥarit, and minḥah services pray the regular seven blessings, but say Ya'aleh v-Yavo in the 'avodah prayer, and it is not necessary to menton Shabbat in the Ya'aleh v-Yavo. And take out two Torah scrolls, and read from the first the seven regular readings for the day, and from the second read the mafṭir — "and on the Sabbath day" and "and on your new moons" until the end of the portion, Numbers 28:9-15. And as a prophetic conclusion read Isaiah 66, "The heavens are My throne" except for Rosh Ḥodesh Elul that falls on Shabbat, on which we read Isaiah 54:11–55:5, "Unhappy, storm-tossed..." (Rema: And some do say Isaiah 66, and thus is the custom in our lands, but on Rosh Ḥodesh Av that falls on Shabbat we as a prophetic conclusion read the portion starting with Jeremiah 2:4, "Hear ye," and this is the general practice where there is no custom. And if Rosh Ḥodesh happens upon one of the four special Shabbatot, we read the final prophetic reading for that reading, and see below, siman 785.)