Bibbia Ebraica
Bibbia Ebraica

Halakhah su Isaia 28:35

Shulchan Shel Arba

And our rabbis also taught in a midrash: “Leviathan is a pure fish” [i.e., a kosher fish with fins and scales] as it is said, “The layers of his flesh stick together,”60Job 41:15.and it is written, “his underparts are jagged shards”61Job 41:22. – these are the scales fixed to him.62In other words, R. Bahya takes these particulars of the Book of Job’s lengthy description of Leviathan as references to its fins and scales. And the intellectual meal for both the body and soul will occur at the time of the resurrection of the dead. And now I will explain to you in what follows about the world of souls, which will come to human beings after their separation from the world, and the matter of the world to come, which is after the resurrection and the matter of the joy that the soul has in all these worlds together. Know that the intellectual meal for the body and soul at the time of the resurrection of the dead, because the routine for the body will be cancelled completely, and another routine – marvelous and new – will replace it, and moral rot –zohama’ – will cease from the world,63According to b. Shabbat 146a: When the serpent came upon Eve, he infected her with zohama’ (“filth” or “moral lasciviousness”). Israel, who stood at Mt. Sinai – their filth ceased. The nations of the world, who did not stand at Mt. Sinai – their filth has not ceased. Thus, R. Bahya must be referring to the cessation of the whole world’s moral rot that will occur in the world to come after the resurrection of the dead (Chavel). and the Accuser will be swallowed up, “there is no adversary [satan] and no mischance,”641 Kg 5:18. “the Lord will make something new on earth,”65Jer 31:21. and the souls will be made anew like the eagle is renewed;66An allusion to Ps 103:5: “He satisfies you with good things in the prime of life so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” all of them shall be new, “the work of the Artist’s hand,”67SS 7:2. so much the more so than with vessels of glass.68B. Sanhedrin 91a: “Just as vessels of glass, which are the work of the breath of flesh and blood, are broken and it is possible to repair them, how much the more so with flesh and blood, who were through the breath of the Holy One Blessed be He.” Then the “children of the resurrection of the dead” whose body and their soul have been renewed shall take delight in the intellectual meal in the world to come, which is after the resurrection, in which there is no bodily meal at all, and it is regarding this meal that our rabbis z”l said,69B. Berakhot 17a. “Rav was accustomed to say, ‘In the world to come, there is no eating and no drinking, no envy, no hatred, and no rivalry, but rather the righteous will sit with crowns on their heads and enjoy the splendor of the Shekhinah.'” And this statement should teach they will exist there in that world in a body and a soul, which is why he said “no eating and drinking.” For if they did not have there a body and soul, there would be no need for Rav to say “no eating and drinking for souls,” but rather they will certainly be there in body and soul, and despite that there will be no eating and drinking. For their bodily powers will be suspended from them, as they were suspended from Moses and Elijah70Ex 34:28: “And [Moses] was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he ate no bread and drank no water;” 1 Kg 19:8: “And with the strength from that meal [Elijah] walked forty days and forty nights.” (peace be upon them). And if you would say that the “vessels” of their bodies and soul serve no purpose, they do serve a purpose, because they receive the reward and enjoyment together, just as they toiled in the Torah body and soul together. For the Holy One Blessed be He does not rob any created being of its reward, and He wants the body to receive its reward and He will not hold back on His judgment. For even though the soul is the most important, the body is nevertheless not superfluous; for it too is of great importance, for it is the tool through which the soul reveals its activities, and it has no power to realize them in action without it. That being so, the body should be destined with the gift of its reward together with the soul. And what “and their crowns on their heads” meant was a reference to the brilliant light that hovers over them, as it is written, “On that day the Lord of Hosts shall become a crown of beauty and a diadem for the remnant…”71Is 28:5. which our rabbis z”l interpreted in a midrash: It will be like someone who puts scraps on himself, though they are indeed “children of the resurrection of the dead.” 72I.e., these crowns of light will be so commonplace among those rewarded with them that they’d think nothing of it. And more could be said about “and their crowns on their heads” – in the image of the crowns that were given to them at Mt. Sinai. This the finery which they merited at their receiving of the Torah, as it is said, “And the Israelites were stripped of the finery from Mt. Horeb.”73Ex 33:6. That is, the finery must have already been given to them at Mt. Horeb (Sinai), if now, after the sin of the Golden Calf, it was stripped from them. Our rabbis taught in a midrash:74Exodus Rabbah 45:1. “The armor of God’s Ineffable Name girded them. But when they sinned, they were taken from them, and Moses earned them back, and this is what Scripture meant by ‘from Mt. Horeb. And Moses would take the tent.’75Ex 33:5-6. “And Moses took the tent” immediately follows “from Horeb,” and thisjuxtaposition implies that Moses took back what the Israel got “from Horeb” but lost after that because of the sin of the calf (Chavel). That is to say, he took all these marks of status and kinds of lights back for them – that is, ‘the tent –ha-ohel,’ which is like the expression: ‘be-halo nero– when His lamp shone [over my head].'”76Job 29:3. By “creative philology” the midrash associates the similarly sounding words ha-ohel – “the tent” and be-halo – “when it shone.” And just as their measure of delight is like Adam’s measure of delight in the Garden of Delights before the sin, so the crowns on their heads are in the image of the crowns on at Mt. Sinai before the sin.
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Shabbat HaAretz

So the land will shake off the impurity of the “drunkards of Ephraim”54Isa. 28:1. The full verse reads: “Ah, the proud crowns of the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is but wilted flowers on the heads of men bloated with rich food, who are overcome with wine.”—the rebellious rulers and gangs of thieves who love bribery and pursue only their own gain, kicking against God out of their abundance of good things. They will melt away, along with all their power and glory. After a long time, scattered individuals gradually began returning to the land, drawn there by God’s hand and by the holiness of the land rather than by any concern with material well-being or with reestablishing national government.55Rav Kook refers to the trickle of pious individual Jews who found their way to the Land of Israel from the thirteenth century onward. In the early nine-teenth century, the numbers of such immigrants increased, motivated by the messianic expectations directed to the 600th year of the sixth millennium (1840), based on prophecies of the Zohar. Between 1808 and 1840, the Jew-ish community in the Land of Israel more than doubled in size. The most notable group consisted of more than 500 disciples of the Gaon of Vilna, who arrived around 1813. See Arie Morgenstern, Hastening Redemption: Messianism and the Resettlement of the Land of Israel (Oxford: Oxford Univer-sity Press, 2006), for an account of the fascinating and little-known episode of pre-Zionist Jewish immigration to Israel.
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Sefer Chasidim

“The righteous eateth to the satisfying of his desire; but the belly of the wicked shall want” (Prov. 13:22). As the wise man is known through his wisdom and understanding and is thus distinguished from the rest of the people, so should he be recognized by his deeds, eating, drinking, sexual intercourse, toilet habits, gait, words and dealings.1Derekh Eretz Zuta, Chapter VII. And let all of these activities be most becoming and orderly.2Ibid., Chapters III, IV. Let him not be a glutton, but eat those foods suited for him to keep his body healthy. Let him not eat heavily, or be bent upon filling his stomach, like those who gorge their stomachs with food and drink to the point that their body and stomachs are about to burst. Concerning them it is said in the Bible, “And will spread dung upon your faces even the dung of your sacrifices” (Mal. 2:3). These are the people who eat and drink and make all their days as holidays3Shabbath 151b. and say to each other, “ Let us eat and drink to the utmost for tomorrow we die” (Isa. 22:13). This (aforementioned) is the food of the wicked and their tables, the very same that he shamed.4The prophet. Concerning them Scripture says, “For all tables are full of filthy vomit and no place is clean.” (Isa. 28:8).5Maimonides, Hilkhoth Deoth, 5:2. But the wise man eats only a dish or two and eats only to maintain himself, and not until his belly is full with all that the palate desires like a dog or an ass. A man should not leave less than one-quarter of his stomach empty.6Gittin 70a. The text emphasizes moderation in eating. And while eating and drinking he should not think, “ I will eat and drink so that my limbs will be whole and strong.” And during coitus let him not think, “I will indulge so as to have many children who will engage in work and labor for my needs.” This is not the good way, rather let him take it upon himself to drink, be happy with his lot, keep his body healthy and his soul upright so that he may know God. For it is impossible to become wise in learning while he is sick or aches in one of his limbs. And when he has a son let him engage in teaching him, perhaps he will become a scholar in Israel. He who treads this path all his life serves God constantly even in the hour of everyday activity. And this is what Solomon said, “In all thy ways acknowledge him” (Prov. 3:6) and this is a small portion upon which all essential parts of the Law are dependent.7Berakoth 63a.
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