Halakhah su II Samuele 22:57

Therefore the reverent person ought to have his intention connected to the higher things, and have his eating be to sustain his body alone and not to be drawn to physical pleasures, for being drawn to physical pleasures is the cause for the loss of both body and soul, and the cause for forgetting the point, for out of eating and drinking he will become full of himself [lit., lift up his heart] and stumble into great pitfalls and sins, and do things which should not be done. See how Joseph’s brothers sold him only in the middle of eating and drinking, as it is said, “They sat down to a meal, and looking up…”²²Gen 37:28. While eating the brothers looked up and saw the Ishmaelites to who they sold Joseph. R. Bahya expands upon this more fully in his commentary to the Torah on this verse. And for this reason the Torah said not to eat on Yom Kippur, which is the day of judgment for criminal cases involving people, because one’s eating might cause his soul to sin. And they even said in civil cases dealing with monetary compensation: “akhal ve-shatah al yorah” – “Don’t instruct right after eating and drinking!”²³A rhyming proverb in the Hebrew. Yorah, which means to instruct or teach, is the same verb used in the Biblical passage from Lev. 10:11 that R. Bahya cites. It is from the same Hebrew root as the word Torah. R. Bahya subtly makes another point here besides the obvious one that people are inclined to make bad judgments right after they’ve eaten and drunk. Namely, with this wordplay and the analogy to the Biblical priests, he’s reiterating his general contention that engaging in torah is a sacramental priest-likeactivity, even when done by non-priests – i.e., rabbinical torah scholars, or even ordinary Jews fasting on Yom Kippur. Why is this so? From what is written, “Drink no wine or other intoxicant, you or your sons,”²⁴Lev 10:9, addressed to Aaron and his sons, that is, the priests. and connected to it, “to instruct [le-horot] the Israelites.”²⁵Ibid., 10:11. When they were commanded to instruct [le-horot], they were warned to avoid wine, because wine confuses the mind, and it does not distinguish between the holy and the profane, which is why it is written “to distinguish.”²⁶Ibid., 10:10. All this is proof that eating and drinking causes human beings to move themselves away off the track of Torah and worship, and to cast aside all the statutes of Ha-Shem, may He be Blessed. All this is caused when one has eaten and is satisfied, and therefore the Torah commanded, “And you shall eat and be satisfied, and you shall bless” (Deut 8:10). That is to say, after you will have eaten and have been satisfied, and you are close to throwing off the yoke of the commandments, “You shall bless YHWH your God” at the very moment you need to bless Him, so that you will take upon yourself the yoke of His rule and bless His name. And this in my opinion is the meaning of the Scripture, “In all your ways, know Him;”²⁷Prov 3:6. it means even at the time of eating when you are close to forgetting Him and to severing your reason from your mind, at that very moment, “know Him” and cleave to Him. And if you do this, “He will straighten your paths,”²⁸Prov 3:6. He will straighten your ways on the paths of life, namely, the soul’s successful attainment of the world to come. If so, then a person ought to eat only for the sustenance of his body alone, and it is forbidden for him to pursue any sort of pleasure unless it is to make his body healthy and make the eyes of his intellect clear-sighted. In order for his body to be healthy and strong, he should pursue what pleases [his intellect] and his Creator, for his organs are combined and possess the capacity exactly in the measure that enables him to bear the yoke of the Torah and its commandments, which is the point of the verse written about the tribe of Issachar, “he bent his shoulder to bear the burden” (Gen 49:15), which is the same language used to refer to the giving of the Torah, “He [God] bent the sky and came down” (2 Sam 22:10). And anyone whose intention is this, is an angel of the Lord of Hosts, but whoever does not direct their intention to this end, is “likened to the beasts that perish.” (Ps 49:13,21). “You can see for yourself”²⁹1 Sam 24:12: Re-eh gam re-eh – “you can see for yourself” (JSB). Joseph the righteous, who was noted for his quality of reverence [yir’ah], from what is written, “I am a God-fearing man”³⁰Gen 42:18. and “Am I a substitute for God?”³¹Ibid. 50:19. hinted at this point when he said, “take something for the hunger of your houses and be off.”³²Ibid. 42:33. He comes to instruct and to teach people to know that they should only eat to break their hunger, not to fill their belly and be drawn by the taste, which is base and to be scorned, because that is a disgrace to us, utter waste, and a thing which has no point to it. And do not say that this because it was a time of famine, because when Joseph was “a prince and commander of peoples,”³³Is 55:4.and the treasuries of the king were under his control, he had the power to supply bread and food to his father and brothers, as in the other the years of plenty. However, instead he made it known to us that this is the way of Torah and fear of Ha-Shem (may He be blessed!), that a person should only eat, satisfy himself, and fill his belly to satisfy his soul.

You will find also in the words of Moses at the end of the Torah a promise well-known to be about the world to come, which is what is written, “O happy Israel! Who is like you, A people delivered by the Lord.”¹¹⁵Dt 33:29. Because it specified above the destined physical rewards, when it said, “Thus Israel will dwell in safety, untroubled will be Jacob’s abode, in a land of grain and wine, under heavens dripping dew,”¹¹⁶Ibid., 33:28. so it connected it immediately to “O Happy Israel!” to say “don’t think that the only recompense and reward you’ll have for doing the mitzvoth will be in this world.” That’s why it said, “O Happy [ashrekha] Israel,” as our sages taught in a midrash, “‘You shall be happy [ashrekha] and you shall prosper,’¹¹⁷Ps 128:2. ‘You shall be happy’ – in this world, and ‘You shall prosper’ – in the world to come.”¹¹⁸M. Avot 4:1. And afterwards it said, “Who is like you?”¹¹⁹Dt 33:29. that is to say, who among all the nations is like you will be “delivered by the Lord” – which means the salvation [t’shua’at] of the soul in the world of souls, which is why it said, “delivered [nosha’] by the Lord.”¹²⁰Ibid. It’s like the similar expression of the prophet: “Israel has been delivered [nosha’] by the Lord, with salvation [t’shuat] everlasting.”¹²¹Is 45:17: literally “salvation of the worlds” – t’shuat olamim – the plural of which R. Bahya without a doubt understands as an allusion to salvation in both worlds – this world and the world to come. And it said, “your protecting shield”¹²²Dt 33:29. because after it specified the reward of the soul and its salvation in the world of souls, it gave a sign for this and said that Ha-Shem (may He be blessed) is their shield, their protection and their “sword triumphant” [herev ge’utam], ¹²³Ibid., literally, “the sword of your pride.”that is, something they could be proud [le-hitga’ot] about, hence “your protecting shield.”¹²⁴Ibid. And this would even include what midat ha-din above is called – magen – “shield”, because one usually holds a shield in the left hand, and He keeps us safe with it so that by protecting us, we need not be afraid of the enemy overpowering it, and so David said, “You have granted me the shield of Your protection – magen yish’ekha“¹²⁵2 Sam 22:36, or “shield of Your salvation.” – the shield which protects You. And he explained further, “For YHWH God is sun and shield,”¹²⁶Ps 84:12. that is, “the Great Name” [of YHWH], the quality of Jacob, which is called “sun.”¹²⁷E.g., in Joseph’s dream, Gen 37:9, where the sun clearly stands for Jacob. I think R. Bahya means that “sun” is expression for God’s other main attribute, His “right hand” – midat ha-rahamim. Thus, when David referred to “Lord God” as “sun and shield” in Ps 84:12, from a kabbalistic perspective, it’s a reference to God having both midat ha-din and midat ha-rahamim, the attribute of severity and the attribute of compassion. I.e., YHWH (“Lord”) = “sun” = “Jacob” = midat ha-rahamim, while Elohim (“God”) = “shield” = midat ha-din. And so our rabbis z”l taught in a midrash, “Jacob said, ‘Who revealed to him [Joseph] that my name [sh’my] was ‘sun’?”¹²⁸Bereshit Rabba 84:10. Or as R. Bahya interprets it, sh’my= shem Y’, “the great name of YHWH.” And he called the heavenly midat ha-din “shield,” and this what is meant by “For YHWH God is sun and shield;”¹²⁹Ps 84:12. this is why it is specified “Your protecting shield, your sword of pride”¹³⁰Dt 33:29. because of Israel having this eternal success and ultimate victory over all their enemies. So all this is a sign that they are attached to and will be delivered by Ha-Shem in the world of souls. If so, then the account of the things destined for the soul in the Torah are only there by analogy and as a sign, so set your heart to the words of Moses, how he wanted on the day of his death to “seal” his words in the upper world – understand this!

One has to be very careful in the prayer of Minchah of the holy Shabbat, for it has [the potential for] many ascents upwards. And even though there are siddurim in which it is written "And who is like Your nation Israel?"--the main idea is that one must say "like Your nation, like Israel" [and not "like Your nation Israel"], and just as [the author] wrote in Shalmei Chagigah in the name of Rabbi Ya'akov Tzemach in Nagid UMitzvah, and so it is in the siddur of our master, Rabbi Shalom Shar'abi of blessed memory, which is found among us. And from the language of Sha'ar HaKavvanot [by Rabbi Chayyim Vital], which mentions "like Your nation Israel"--from this [citation] there is no proof in general. And I said, with the help of Heaven, that the language of "like Israel" is more correct, for in II Samuel 7[:23], it says "like Israel," and, in [I] Chronicles 17[:21], it says, "Israel," and therefore what our master Rabbi Ya'akov Tzemach of blessed memory well wrote is correct, that we must say "like Israel"--on account of this being a verse from Prophets. And like this, we have found the pronouncing of 'Migdol yeshu'ot malko' (II Samuel 22:51) in Birkat HaMazon, for on Shabbat, we say "Migdol," just as it is written in Prophets (II Samuel 22:51), and, on a profane day, "Magdil," just as it is written in Scriptures (Psalm 18:21).

On the seventh of Pesaḥ, the nights before the holiday, we sanctify it with Kiddush over the wine, and we do not need to say the blessing Sheheḥeyanu over the season. And here ¹ Pesachim 102b:5 is the proof. As it says there: Because Rav did not say that one recites the blessing over the season, learn from that that we are discussing the seventh day of Pesaḥ. Whatever wine he had, he already consumed, and does not have enough for two more cups. And the explanation for this is that the season is included within the pilgrimage. And we pray as on the first two days of Pesaḥ, for the evening and for the morning, but in the Musaf prayer we add to the verses of And you shall present ² Numbers 28:19-24, and we say, And on the seventh day a sacred gathering it will be for you, all laborious work you will not do.³ Numbers 28:25 And its offerings, etc. And we take out two Torah scrolls and read from And it was when he let them go⁴ Exodus 13:17 to For I am the LORD your healer ⁵ Exodus 15:26, since on the seventh day the Israelites of the exodus said the Song at the Sea. And the mafṭir reads from And you shall present to the end of the part⁶ Numbers 28:19-25, and concludes in Samuel, from And there was again fighting in Gath⁷ II Samuel 21:20 to the end of the song of David⁸ II Samuel 22:51, because it is a song, and it has language within it showing similarity to language of the exodus from Egypt, like Smoke went up from His nostrils⁹ II Samuel 22:9 or And he let loose bolts¹⁰ see II Samuel 22:9. And a minor translates it all into the Aramaic translation verse by verse, from And it was when he let them go¹¹ Exodus 13:17 and from the entire song, for this very day Israel crossed the sea, and the section is translated to publicize miracle. And just as it is our custom to translate the Torah into the Aramaic of Onkelos, so too we translate the Prophet into the Aramaic of Jonathan. And we also translate the readings on Atzeret that is to say, Shavuot, but not on the other festivals. On the eighth day we read Every firstborn to the end of the reading¹² Deuteronomy 15:19-16:17, and conclude with Isaiah, at That same day at Nob up to Shout and cheer¹³ Isaiah 10:32-12:6, because the downfall of Sanḥeriv was on Pesaḥ.

On the seventh of Pesaḥ, the nights before the holiday, we sanctify it with Kiddush over the wine, and we do not need to say the blessing Sheheḥeyanu over the season. And here ¹ Pesachim 102b:5 is the proof. As it says there: Because Rav did not say that one recites the blessing over the season, learn from that that we are discussing the seventh day of Pesaḥ. Whatever wine he had, he already consumed, and does not have enough for two more cups. And the explanation for this is that the season is included within the pilgrimage. And we pray as on the first two days of Pesaḥ, for the evening and for the morning, but in the Musaf prayer we add to the verses of And you shall present ² Numbers 28:19-24, and we say, And on the seventh day a sacred gathering it will be for you, all laborious work you will not do.³ Numbers 28:25 And its offerings, etc. And we take out two Torah scrolls and read from And it was when he let them go⁴ Exodus 13:17 to For I am the LORD your healer ⁵ Exodus 15:26, since on the seventh day the Israelites of the exodus said the Song at the Sea. And the mafṭir reads from And you shall present to the end of the part⁶ Numbers 28:19-25, and concludes in Samuel, from And there was again fighting in Gath⁷ II Samuel 21:20 to the end of the song of David⁸ II Samuel 22:51, because it is a song, and it has language within it showing similarity to language of the exodus from Egypt, like Smoke went up from His nostrils⁹ II Samuel 22:9 or And he let loose bolts¹⁰ see II Samuel 22:9. And a minor translates it all into the Aramaic translation verse by verse, from And it was when he let them go¹¹ Exodus 13:17 and from the entire song, for this very day Israel crossed the sea, and the section is translated to publicize miracle. And just as it is our custom to translate the Torah into the Aramaic of Onkelos, so too we translate the Prophet into the Aramaic of Jonathan. And we also translate the readings on Atzeret that is to say, Shavuot, but not on the other festivals. On the eighth day we read Every firstborn to the end of the reading¹² Deuteronomy 15:19-16:17, and conclude with Isaiah, at That same day at Nob up to Shout and cheer¹³ Isaiah 10:32-12:6, because the downfall of Sanḥeriv was on Pesaḥ.