תלמוד על במדבר 21:19

R. Joshua b. Levi said: Every day a Bath Ḳol¹⁰lit. ‘a daughter of a voice’, used of a heavenly proclamation. goes forth from Mount Ḥoreb¹¹Another name for Sinai. and proclaims, ‘Woe to mankind for the contempt which they display¹²By neglect to study and observe its laws. towards the Torah! For whoever is not constant in his study of the Torah is termed ‘censured’,¹³Heb. נזוף. By the Rabbinic method of Noṭariḳon, the word is constituted from certain letters of the Heb. phrase, a ring of gold in a swine’s snout. as it is stated, As a ring of gold in a swine’s snout, so is a fair woman that turneth aside from discretion,¹⁴Prov. 11, 22. and it states, And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables.¹⁵Ex. 32, 16. Do not read¹⁶A form of Rabbinic exegesis, where, by a change of vowel, another and sometimes higher interpretation is derived. ḥaruth [engraven] but ḥeruth [freedom], for no man is free but he who occupies himself with the Torah; and whoever studies the lore of the Torah is exalted, as it is stated, And from Mattanah to Naḥaliel; and from Naḥaliel to Bamoth.¹⁷Num. 21, 19. These are place names meaning lit. ‘gift’, ‘inheritance of God’ and ‘heights’. They are interpreted homiletically as the stages of a man’s spiritual progress through the study of the Torah. By accepting the Torah, which is God’s gift, and making it his valued possession, the inheritance of God, he rises to the spiritual heights.