욥기 15:46의 Halakhah

The host enters first into the house, then the guest after him. And when the guest leaves, the guest leaves first, then the host after him.¹⁷Derekh Eretz Rabba 4. One must beware of saying birkat ha-mazon if one’s father, or teacher, or someone greater in wisdom than he is at the table, unless he gets permission from them. And if there is a kohen among them, one should defer to the kohen, for thus it is written, “And you shall make him holy,”¹⁸Lev. 21:8 and the sages interpreted this in a midrash to mean, “you shall make him holy in everything that involves holiness, such as letting him open first, say a blessing first, take the nicest portion first, since a person is required to bestow honors upon the seed of Aaron.¹⁹B.Gittin 59b. And if there’s a kohen who’s a talmid hakham (i.e., a Torah scholar)²⁰Lit., “disciple of a sage,” i.e., someone learned in rabbinic Torah. and an ordinary Jew who’s a talmid hakham, and the kohen wishes to bestow an honor on him, he may. For it is said about a kohen, “You shall make him holy [ve-kidashto]” but it is also said about ordinary Israelites “Set bounds about the mountain and make it holy [ve-kidashto],” and in the entire Torah there are only these two occurrences of “ve-kidashto:” one at the beginning of the verse, the other at the end of the verse.²¹Lev. 21:8 and Ex. 19:23. In Ex. 19:23, Moses says to the Lord, “The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai, for you warned us saying, “set bounds about the mountain and make it holy [ve-kidashto].” However, R. Bahya takes the “it” in the pronominal suffix of ve-kidashto to refer to “the people [ha-‘am],” i.e., the Israelites, not the mountain. Grammatically both are masculine singular. This comes to teach about the kohen, that his greatness comes when he begins things, like opening first, or saying a blessing first. But the talmid hakham, his greatness comes at the end, which we derive from what is written, “to the holy ones [la-kedoshim] who are in the land,”²²Ps. 16:3. which the sages interpret in a midrash to mean the holy ones are not called “holy ones” until they have been given their “land.”²³Midrash Tehillim on Ps. 16:3. as it is said, “they become holy ones [la-kedoshim]- those who are in the land.”²⁴The midrash seems to read la-kedoshim (“to the holy ones) as if it were in the Hebrew grammatical construction “hayu le-:” “they became holy ones.” But about them during their lifetime it is written, “He should not trust that he is among His holy ones.”²⁵Job 15:15, as R. Bahya creatively reads the verse, which the JSB translates “He puts no trust in His Holy ones.”

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?

From the laws of the commandment is that which they, may their memory be blessed, said (Pesachim 11b) that we eat chamets all [the first] four hours of this day, and we suspend [it] all of the fifth - meaning to say that we do not eat [it], due to the decree because of a cloudy day, and we do not burn [it], but rather we [can] benefit from it, to feed it to any creature or to sell it to a person - and we burn it at the beginning of the sixth hour. And this is an ordinance of the Sages regarding the commandment, in order to distance a person from sin, so that he will not stumble to eat it at the beginning of the seventh hour - which is a Torah prohibition, as we have said. And [it is] also like they, may their memory be blessed expounded from another verse; as they said there in Pesachim 4b, "It is is written (Exodus 12:19), 'Seven days leaven, etc.,' yet it is [also] written (Exodus 12:15), 'but on the first day, etc.' Behold, how is this? [It is] to include the fourteenth day for destruction [of chamets]." And [so] the understanding of "first" (rishon) would be like [its usage], "Were you born rishon Adam" (Job 15:7), the understanding of which is before. And from that which the verse obligated to dispose of it on that day, we knew that part of that day would necessarily be permitted, as it is impossible to determine the exact first instant of a day and dispose of it then. And since it is like this: That part of the day is permitted, and Scripture did not elucidate which part of it is permissible, we divided it equally from true logic - as if you divide in [any] other way, there will be no foundation to the thing at all. And that is what they said over there, "[The word,] 'but (akh),' divides." And those that explained that akh is chats (divide) in [the letter susbtitution pattern called], "achs, betaa" did not understand the words of the Sages. [This] and the rest of the details of the commandment are in Tractate Pesachim in the first chapter.