Halakhah su Salmi 23:78

And it is necessary that you know that just as Israel merited at the crossing of the Red Sea two marvelous and profound statuses, and they merited them in the body and the soul – the first, that they crossed the sea feeling this in their bodies the great miracle that was made for them with the sea splitting into twelve different divisions, and the twelve tribes, crossed through these cuts tribe by tribe during its own cut; the second, that their soul was elevated and they prophesied there and a serving maiden of Israel saw there what Ezekiel ben Buzi never saw, so in the future Israel will merit two statuses in their body and soul. Bodily meals of fine and pure foods which I mentioned, and an intellectual meal for the soul alone of the holy spirit, for so all Israel will ascend to the level of prophecy, as it is said, ‘It shall come to pass afterwards that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh and your sons and your daughters will prophesy,”⁵⁸Joel 3:1. and the weakest among them like David and the house of David, like gods, like an angel of the Lord before them. This will be at the time of the redemption after the wars have ceased and Israel is back on its own land. Therefore, one should not think these meals are not bodily affairs in the literal sense. In addition you will find that our rabbis z”l explained it [literally]: “In the future the Holy One Blessed be He will make a great banquet for the righteous in the future to come from the flesh of Leviathan. Any whoever did not eat prohibited trayf foods will deserve to eat at it.”⁵⁹Lev. R. 13:3.

And the meal is for the world to come after the resurrection of the dead, and “the cup of blessing” – this is an allegory, for it was already explained that the world to come has in it no eating and drinking, and it comes to teach us about King David (peace be upon him), that he is the first of all the righteous to praise the Holy One Blessed be He. And they said in Tractate Yoma:⁸⁴B. Yoma 76a. “The cup of David in the world to come will be two hundred twenty-one logs, as it is said, ‘You have anointed my head with oil, my cup runs over [revayah].’⁸⁵Ps 23:5. ReVaYa”H by gematria is numerically equivalent to two hundred twenty-one.” All this is an allegory for the matter of the virtues and praises with which he will praise him, and he will be first of all of them in the status of kingship. And already our rabbis z”l explained to us that he is the first of all the righteous in the Garden of Eden, which is the world of souls, which we get from what they said that the Holy One Blessed be He said to Jereboam: “Repent, and then I, you, and the son of Jesse will walk with the righteous in the Garden of Eden.” He replied, “And who shall be at the head?” He said, ‘The son of Jesse.” He said, “Then I do not want to.”⁸⁶B. Sanhedrin 102a. You find yourself learning that just as he [David] is the first among all of the righteous in the Garden of Eden, so, he explained, here in the world to come after the resurrection of the dead, that he is the head of all of them and the first to bless and praise.

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.

The practices of the month of Elul, Selichos, and the eve of Rosh Hashana 1. From Rosh Chodesh Elul and on are days of mercy, and forgiveness, and days of desire. So, there is to each person to awaken their heart with repentance, and to act to absolve the sins that are on their soul from the day he became. In order he be vindicated in his verdict as the King sits on the Throne of Judgment on the day the world was born. It appears to me my countrymen that it be good to organize the practices of these holy days to find a respite for the masses from the harried people of our nation, as they do not console from the agitation of the days and the hassles of their hearts and eyes. The Torah is closed in learning from the old sources and the changing times, and their hearts are buzzing with the arrival of the sanctity of these days. They remember that it is a time for G-d, and their souls thirst to run in the upright way and path. Yet since there is not to them fitting time to search and delve the ways except within the more expansive books. And the masses say - who can show us the shorter path, "He shall lead me in the righteous path" (Psalms 23:3), in order to understand the difference between holy and empty, the way of the King he shall go, not to point to the right or left. And because of this matter, I have seized with my right hand on support of the reed and end of the staff that is in my hand, to guide them in a clear way, to direct them in the pleasant path, to go in holiness, from the day of blasting (of the shofar) on Rosh Chodesh until the end of the 40 days, when one blows (the shofar) at the time of the closing of the gates (Neilah Services on Yom Kippur). I have ordered the matters according to order of the Shulchan Aruch. And I have not inscribed with longevity and I have not delved in the differing opinions in law; rather, quickly I have run the words in a language that is clear and concise on the roots of the laws I have traced. And in the merit of the masses I have leaned and I have been strengthened. I beseech and requested I be assured they not be returned empty, to lift the stumbling block from the path of G-d, and that G-d give support to me to merit and to enable the merit of his brothers, his nation, and heart of the masses shall turn to the Staff of Ephraim.