Halakhah su Esodo 38:78
Shulchan Shel Arba
And if you think and “your heart carries you away”134Job 15:12. to say, what need is there for the resurrection of the dead since the souls are already on the level of the heavenly hosts, assembled in awesome view of Ha-Shem the King of the hosts,135There’s a untranslatable play of words here on tzeva’ot (armies – as in “the heavenly hosts”) and tzov’ot be-mar’ot (“assembled in view of”), an allusion to the mar’ot tzov’ot(“the mirrors of the assembled women”) at the Tent of Meeting in Ex 38:8. those of the completely righteous who served Him lovingly with sincere hearts in this world? Is it proper for the Holy One Blessed be He to perform this miracle upon them, to make them live again after they died? Wouldn’t it be better to remain in their honored and pure place in the upper palace in heaven than to return to their body to dwell in a “house of clay,”136An allusion to Job 4:19. even if these dwellings were precious, “trimmed to give shape to a palace,”137Ps 144;12. brilliant with precious stones, as I mentioned above?
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Peninei Halakhah, Women's Prayer
Likewise, we find that in all the great events which occurred to the Jewish people, the great virtue of women was manifested, for they preceded men in choosing the path of faith. It seems, then, that masculine intellectual analysis is sufficient under normal circumstances; however, where additional spirituality and more faith are required, it is specifically the feminine attributes which are necessary. “R. Akiva preached, ‘In the merit of righteous women, the people of Israel left Egypt’” (Yalkut Shimoni, Tehilim 795, and see Rashi on Shemot 38:8). At the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai, the women were addressed first (Rashi on Shemot 19:3, based on a midrash). Similarly, we learn how to honor the Torah from women (below, 7:1). Men even learn Torah in the merit of women’s profound insight (see Berakhot 17a and below, 7:1). Additionally, women did not participate in the sin of the Golden Calf (Pirkei De-Rabbi Eliezer §45) or the sin of the Spies (Tanḥuma Pinḥas §7). Concerning the future, the Sages say “Generations are only redeemed in the merit of its righteous women” (Midrash Zuta, Ruth 4:11).1It seems that from the standpoint of the human intellectual virtue, men are more universal, whereas from the standpoint of the perception of the divine idea and faith, as expressed via intuitive vitality, women are more universal. Therefore, women grasp momentous historical divine processes to a greater degree.
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