Halakhah sobre Proverbios 8:39

Laws of Judges - (Pirkei Avot 1:18) “Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel says: On three things is the world established - on judgement, on truth, and on peace.” Rabbeinu Yonah z”l explains: The explanation cannot be that “because of these three things the world was created,” because the beginning of the chapter said that on three things does the world stand, and these three are not listed there. Rather, first [Pirkei Avot] relates that for three things the world was created, i.e. Torah, Avodah and Gemilut Chasadim. Torah, that it says, (Proverbs 8:22) “God made me as the first of His way...” The Torah says, “I was created before all of the creations and for my sake were all creations created.” Similarly, [the world was created] because of “Avodah” because God chose Israel from all of the nations, and chose the Beit Hamikdash from all of the places, that they should serve Him in it, and for its sake to God create the world. And similarly Gemilut Chasadim, which is the middah of chesed that causes one to be approved before God. Here [Pirkei Avot] states, “...the world is established.” This means that after the world was created it is preserved through these things - that through judges that judge between people does the world continue. Because were it not for law the more powerful would conquer. And similarly truth, like it says in Shabbat 104a, that lies have no legs [to stand on] but truth is the foundation and it is a big pillar for all things. And similarly, peace, as they say in Avot (Pirkei Avot 3:2), “One should pray for the peace of the government, for were it not for the fear of government, people would swallow each other alive.”

Five are the things they said about bread: (1) Don’t put raw meat on bread; (2) don’t put the cup on top of the bread; (3) don’t put the plate on top of the bread; (4) don’t throw the bread; and (5) don’t sit on the food – so it is taught in the laws of Derekh Eretz.¹³Ibid.Rejoice over your table when the hungry come and enjoy from your table, for that will lengthen your days in this world and earn you life in the world to come. And so also from Derekh Eretz we learn: “Let no guest say, ‘Give me and I shall eat,’ until they speak to him, though it is not necessary to say explicitly that he should eat when on the table in front of him is whatever he needs and is able to eat. For thus it is written in the Torah: “But when food was set before him, he said, ‘I will not eat until I have said what I have to say.'”¹⁴Gen 24:33. Who said anything to Eliezer about eating that he should reply, “I will not eat,” unless he was responding to the fact that the food was prepared, set before him, and up to him to eat? There was no one putting himself between him and his food for him to say to him “I will” or “I will not eat.”

So it is with the talmid hakham in this world; his glory is at the end, as they say about the Torah scroll – “the talmid hakham rolls up the torah scroll in the end.”²⁶An allusion to the honor of rolling and tying the Torah scroll back up after it is read publically in the synagogue service – the honor of being the “golel.” According Chavel, R. Bahya takes “the greatest among them rolls up the sefer torah” in b.Megillah 32a to refer to the talmid hakham, the Torah scholar. I believe R. Bahya is also implying that the reward the torah scholars – talmidei hakhamim – will receive at the “end of this world” is in the world to come, and will be much greater than the perks that the kohanim receive for their hereditary status only in this world.
This expresses the same belief in the spiritual superiority of the talmidei hakhamim over non-torah scholars (‘ammei-ha-‘aretz) about which R. Bahya speaks at length in the previous Second Gate. Moreover, this reflects the general tendency of rabbinic Judaism to supplant the priests with rabbinic Torah scholars as the ideal Jewish religious authorities and role models. However, R. Bahya and his fellow kabbalists accentuate the priest-like, “sacramental” powers of the Torah scholars – those adept in both rabbinic and kabbalisticTorah – by comparing them to the kohanim in the Temple, using priestly language especially to describe their divine service (‘avodah ‘elohit) at the table, the “little Temple” (mikdash me’at). An ordinary Jew who is a talmid hakham ought to confer honor on the kohen by letting him go first, provided that the kohen is a talmid hakham. But if the ordinary Jew were a talmid hakham and the kohen an ‘am ha-‘aretz,²⁷A Jew who is not learned in rabbinic torah. the talmid hakham says the blessing first, for thus they said in the Talmud in the tractate Horayot on the order of statuses: “An illegitimate child [mamzer] who is a talmid hakham has precedence over the High Priest if he is an ‘am ha-‘aretz.”²⁸B. Horayot 13a. If someone who is not a talmid hakham, – driven by his pride and need to dominate – wants to say a blessing over the table instead of a talmid hakham, the talmid hakham may not give him permission to do so. And thus they said in the section in the Talmud about “fellow townsmen”: “Any talmid hakham before whom an ‘am ha-‘aretz, even if he is the High Priest, says a blessing, deserves to die,” as it is said, ‘All those who hate me [mis’anai], love death.’²⁹Prov. 8:36. Wisdom (Hokhmah) personified is the “me” speaking. Don’t read this as mis’anai (those who hate me), but as masniy-ai (those who cause people to hate me).” ³⁰B. Megillah 28a. They said in the laws of Derekh Eretz: “Don’t eat the bread of an ‘am-ha-‘aretz priest [kohen] lest he feed you the holy things dedicated to Heaven.”³¹Derekh Eretz Zuta 1.

However, we are distinguished by our regimen of pleasures [dat sha’ashu’im] from the nations who err, rebel, and sin. For we found our Rock in the desert in the land of souls, and there He set for us a table against the nations, and thus David, said, ‘Set before me a table against my enemies’ [Ps 23:5). There the Lord gave us an abundance of charity and good things. There He gave us a marvelous portion of the bread in our law, bread from heaven through no toil. There He showed us through great love something like the world to come—where the divisions of His marvelously formed angels are fed without toil, hewn from flames and awesome fires; and the planting of the Lord of Hosts. Our holy race is lovely because our heart was tested in the desert. We rose up like sweet-smelling incense to thank the Lord and said a blessing over the table. As it is written regarding the manna: “In the morning you shall have your fill of bread and you shall know that I the Lord am your God.”¹⁹Ex. 16:12. Even while we were in the land of our enemies bearing our punishment,the manna soothed our dry and shriveled gullets,²⁰Nu. 11:6. while the flowering vines of our enemies spread heavy on the ground. Even without temple or altar, no medicine-making; the Torah of the Lord with us will save us from breaking. Marked as we are by our circumcision, fringes, and shaving–– the food on our table will help us recognize and remind ourselves to respect His greatness. Let us bless over the table of Him whose food we have eaten.²¹An allusion to the wording of the grace after meals. It is not so with the wicked, whose sins have earned them aninextinguishable fire;²²Ps. 14:4. their table lies before them like mire. Rising early in the morning they devour food and they do not call to the Lord; their hearts and eyes they raise to what delights them, but toward the One above not even the slightest look. Such is the sentence of the nations, that they are a vile and foolish nation filled with folk devoid of sense. Unlike those other nations is Jacob, for he will bless the sacrifice and then eat it.²³Jer 10:16; I Sam 9:13. All his fruit shall also be set aside for jubilation before the Lord;²⁴Lev 19:24. he will withdraw his right hand until the blessing is drawn back into the ‘palace that is before Me.’²⁵I Kg 6:17 [heykhal lifnay], usually translated as ‘the front part of the House’ (i.e., the Temple). Bahya reads lifnay as “before Me,” in order to allude to the mystical idea that saying a blessing returns the vital energy in what is eaten back to its source in the heavenly realm. This is among the ways of wisdom to keep the heart of man straight upon the path of the Lord’sbright lights, to prevent one straying from the service of his God; so that the temptationsof pleasure would not draw our purpose away from being drawn to Him, nor our sinfulinstincts seduce us from serving our Creator,²⁶An untranslatable wordplay here on yetzer and yotzer. from waiting for Him at the doors of His gates.²⁷Prov. 8:34.

It is a great mitzvah to pray in a synagogue or in a Beis Midrash¹⁹House of Study. because these are sacred places. Even if it happens that there is no minyan,²⁰Ten people which form the quorum necessary for congregational prayer. Nevertheless it is better to pray in a house with a minyan rather than in a synagogue without a minyan. it is nevertheless a mitzvah to pray there even when praying alone, because these are holy places. If you usually study in a Beis Midrash you should also pray there, with ten people, even though in your city there is also a synagogue. However, if you are not accustomed to study in a Beis Midrash, you should pray in a synagogue where there is a multitude of people, for "In the multitude of people is the glory of the king."²¹Proverbs 14:28. If there are two synagogues in your city, you should go to the more distant one, in order to earn a reward for the added steps. Said Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi: "A person should always awaken early and go to a synagogue in order to be counted among the first ten people, because even if a hundred come after him, he receives a reward equal to all of them."²²Maseches Berachos 47b. Our Sages, of blessed memory, have also said: "Whoever goes morning and evening to the synagogue or to the Beis Midrash in the proper time, and remains there the proper amount of time, and conducts himself there with proper sanctity, will merit long life, as it is written: 'Fortunate is the man who listens to Me, watching daily at My gates, waiting at the posts of My door.'²³Proverbs 8:34. And it is written following this: 'For whoever finds Me finds life.'"²⁴Proverbs 8:35.,²⁵Maseches Berachos 8a.

It is a great mitzvah to pray in a synagogue or in a Beis Midrash¹⁹House of Study. because these are sacred places. Even if it happens that there is no minyan,²⁰Ten people which form the quorum necessary for congregational prayer. Nevertheless it is better to pray in a house with a minyan rather than in a synagogue without a minyan. it is nevertheless a mitzvah to pray there even when praying alone, because these are holy places. If you usually study in a Beis Midrash you should also pray there, with ten people, even though in your city there is also a synagogue. However, if you are not accustomed to study in a Beis Midrash, you should pray in a synagogue where there is a multitude of people, for "In the multitude of people is the glory of the king."²¹Proverbs 14:28. If there are two synagogues in your city, you should go to the more distant one, in order to earn a reward for the added steps. Said Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi: "A person should always awaken early and go to a synagogue in order to be counted among the first ten people, because even if a hundred come after him, he receives a reward equal to all of them."²²Maseches Berachos 47b. Our Sages, of blessed memory, have also said: "Whoever goes morning and evening to the synagogue or to the Beis Midrash in the proper time, and remains there the proper amount of time, and conducts himself there with proper sanctity, will merit long life, as it is written: 'Fortunate is the man who listens to Me, watching daily at My gates, waiting at the posts of My door.'²³Proverbs 8:34. And it is written following this: 'For whoever finds Me finds life.'"²⁴Proverbs 8:35.,²⁵Maseches Berachos 8a.

What brought this commentator to this difficulty was because many treated the verse “In the beginning God created (bara)” (ibid. 1:1) as if it was written “At the beginning of God’s creating (bero) the heavens and the earth, the earth was empty (tohu) and void (vohu)” – it did not exist, meaning there was no earth. Similarly, “darkness” is the absence of light, meaning there was none.¹⁰ According to this interpretation nothing existed prior to the creation of light. So the first created condition was light, followed by darkness at night. Thus a 24-hour day consists of light followed by darkness – day followed by night. But this interpretation is completely incorrect. Because why did he need to mention the heavens since it did not state that they were nonexistent like the earth? Also, from a grammatical point of view, why is there an added vav (“and”) to the word “veha’arez”? This is not the same as the extra vav found in verbs, as in “On the third day Abraham lifted (vayisa) his eyes” (ibid. 22:4), “he abandoned (vaya’azov) his servants” (Exodus 9:21). They are like the weak fe in Arabic, for Arabic forms are similar to those of the Holy Tongue (Hebrew). However, no vav is added to nouns. Also, according to this interpretation the wind and the water were not created,¹¹ No mention is made of the creation of air and water, even though they are referred to in verse 2. yet it is written in the book of Psalms with regard to both of these “for He commanded and they came to be” (148:5).¹² The verses in Psalms are: “Praise Him, heavens of heavens (the sphere of fire), and waters that are above the heavens. They should praise the name of God, for he commanded and they were created” (148:4–5). Even darkness was created, as it is written “who forms light and creates darkness” (Isaiah 45:7).

It appears to this writer that the wearing of slacks by students attending institutions of Jewish learning and others identified as standard-bearers of Jewish observance poses the possibility of a quite different transgression. Rambam, Hilkhot De'ot 5:9, presents a detailed discussion of the garb appropriate for a talmid ḥakham. A Torah scholar is forbidden to wear gaudy or ostentatious clothes, or garments which are demeaning in nature. The Gemara, Shabbat 114a, interprets Proverbs 8:36 as teaching that a scholar who by his conduct or personal appearance causes animosity and scorn toward Torah scholars brings contempt upon the Torah itself. It is quite evident that the term talmid ḥakham in this context does not refer exclusively to one who has excelled in scholarship but to anyone who is viewed by the public as a member of the scholarly community. It would also appear that the dictum, "The wife of a scholar is as a scholar" is applicable with regard to these provisions. The governing concern is that those viewed as exemplars of Torah study, whether male or female, comport themselves in a way which enhances rather than detracts from the honor and esteem in which Torah is held. Hence, it would seem that as long as slacks are viewed as improper attire by significant segments of the Jewish community, the wearing of such garb by those charged with bearing the banner of Torah should not be sanctioned.