민수기 23:31의 Halakhah

However negation of the positive is a different matter. And that is that you negate the predicate from the subject. As when you say, "X did not eat yesterday; y did not drink today; Reuven is not Shimon's father" - and that which is similar to this - it has nothing to do with the notion of a commandment at all. Behold this is all negation of the positive, and there is no trace of a command in it. And the word with which to negate in Arabic is generally mah, but they also negate with the word, lah. But the Hebrews generally negate with the word, lo, which is exactly the same word they use to prohibit. However they also negate with ayin and that which is connected to it, such as eino, einam, einchem and the other ones. Indeed negation in Hebrew is with the word lo, as when it states, "Lo arose another prophet like Moshe" (Deuteronomy 34:10); "Lo a man is God that He should be untrue" (Numbers 23:19); and many like these. And negation with ayin is like its saying, "and man was ayin" (Genesis 2:8); "but the dead einam know anything" (Ecclesiastes 9:5); and many others. Hence behold that the difference between a prohibition and a negation is already clear to you - and that is that a prohibition is a type of command and will only come with the exact verb of a command. That means to say, just like the verb of a command will always be in the future, so too will [the verb of] a prohibition. It is not possible for a command to be in the past, and so too with a prohibition. And there is no room to group a command as a [type of] narrative sentence: For a narrative sentence requires a predicate and a subject; whereas a command is a complete sentence (without an explicit subject) - as is explained in the books written about this. And a prohibition is also not to be included with a narrative sentence. But a negation is not like this, for a negation can be a narrative sentence. And negation can be in the past, the future or the present. And this is all self-evident with some observation. And since this is so, it is inappropriate to include negative statements that are negations as negative commandments in any way. And this is a demonstrable matter - there is no need for affirmation of it, besides that which we mentioned about the understanding of the nature of words, so as to differentiate between a prohibition and a negation.

(Hay) ”Before the soul descends, it is made to swear, ‘Be righteous and do not be evil. But even if the whole world tells you that you are righteous, you should be like an evildoer in your [own] eyes.’” And this is a statement of the Talmud in Niddah 30b in the chapter [entitled] HaMapelet. And this ostensibly contradicts that which they said in Avot 2:13, “Do not be evil in front of yourself (bifnei atsmecha, which can also be understood as, in the face of your essence).” And it appears to me [that this can be explained by noting what is written] in Ps. 62:10, “Men are mere vanity; mortals, deception; placed on a scale all together, they weigh less than vanity.” And [it is written] in the Yalkut (Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 645), “The deceptions and vanities that Israel does are worthwhile – as they are men, the sons of Avraham, who was the greatest man among the giants – to be raised upon the scales, in the month of Tishrei,⁸²The month in which the High Holidays fall and which is traditionally associated with yearly judgement. the sign of which is Scales (Libra) – to be raised together above the vanity.” And this requires elucidation, as there is nothing worse than the sin of deceptions and vanities. And it appears [that it can be explained according to that] which is [found] in the Midrash (Bereishit Rabbah 48: 10):
“Let a little water be taken” (Gen. 18:4) – Rabbi Eliezer said in the name of Rabbi Simai, “The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Avraham, ‘You said “Let a little water be taken” – by your life, I will repay your children’; this is that which is written (Num. 23:17), ‘Then Israel sang, “Spring up, O well; sing to it, etc.”’⁸³Traditionally understand as a reference to a well that accompanied the Jews throughout their sojourning in the wilderness. See Rashi ad loc. ‘You said “wash your feet” – by your life, I will repay your children in the wilderness, in their settlement (in Israel) and in the future to come.’ In the wilderness, from where [do we know it]? As it is stated (Ezek. 16:9), ‘I will wash you in water.’ In their settlement, from where [do we know it]? As it is stated (Isaiah 1:16), ‘Wash yourselves, purify yourselves.’ In the future to come, from where [do we know it]? As it is stated (Isaiah 4:4), ‘When the Lord washes the, etc.’”
And ostensibly these repayments are not equal to one another. As in the wilderness, it is well stated – “I will wash you”; and also in the future to come, “When the Lord washes, etc.” – and its understanding is that the Holy One, blessed be He, Himself, washes [them]. But this is not the case in the settlement, about which it is written, “Wash yourselves.” How is this a repayment of reward, if they are washing themselves – without ‘His bounties?’ And in my humble opinion, it appears that [it can be explained according to that] which is [found] in Midrash Shir HaShirim Rabbah 1:6:3:
[“Don’t stare at me because I am swarthy” (Song 1:6)] – Rabbi Yitschak said, “[There is] a story about a townsman who had a black maidservant who went down to fill water from the spring with her companion. She said to her companion, ‘Tomorrow my master will divorce his wife and take me for a wife.’ [The companion responded] to her, ‘Why?’ ‘Because he saw that her hands were charred.’ She said to her, ‘There is no [greater] fool in the world [than you]. Let your ears hear what your mouth is saying: If you say that he wants to divorce his wife who is so beloved to him because he saw that her hands were charred for a short time, it is all the more so with you – as you are totally charred, black from your mother’s innards.’ [‘As the sun has tanned me, etc.’ (Song 1:6) ] – To what are we (i.e. Israel) similar? To the son of a king who went out to the wilderness of a city and the sun beat down upon his head and his face darkened. But when he returned to the city and washed with a little water and went to the bathhouse, he regained his beauty. And behold he is as he was, etc. But you (the other nations) are tanned from the innards of your mothers, etc. [See there.]
And with this it is understood: In the merit of Avraham, his descendants were pure and clean like him. As the father gives over to the child his appearance, his beauty, etc.⁸⁴Mishnah, Eduyot 2:9. And even if their form was damaged afterwards through sins, behold this is like the tanning of the skin, which only covers the fine appearance for a short time. But after a little washing, it returns to its fineness – to its original essence (etsem). And this was the promise of the Holy One, blessed be He, to Avraham – “Wash yourselves,” the explanation of which is that they will be able to wash and remove the dung from upon them, like that townswoman who returns to her beauty. And it appears that this is the intention of the lamenter (Lam. 4:7-8), “Her elect were purer than snow […]; their etsem ruddier than corals. Now their faces are blacker than soot.” And [this is] meaning that their essence (etsem) was beautiful and pleasant – their ‘stump is a holy seed.’ And this is [the meaning of] “their etsem ruddier than corals.” However “Now their faces are blacker than soot” – meaning their external appearance.

“For there is no enchantment with Jacob” (Num. 23:23). Our Creator commanded us, “neither shall ye practice divination” (Lev. 19:26). With our wrongs that are multiplied as of this day, they are divining in Israel.¹Jonah Gerondi, Sefer ha-Yirah, ed. Benjamin Silber (Jerusalem: Horeb Publishers, 1952), Chapter CCXXVIII, p. 25a. They search their perversions and recall at the conclusion of the Sabbath not to eat eggs, nor take fire twice²In the event that the fire does not kindle the first time, he is not permitted to go back and take fire a second time. Not eating eggs refers to the rest of the week. if someone is sick in the house or gave birth within nine days, and many such things that the mouth cannot speak of wherein they transgress the commands of our King. And there is another form of divination quite prevalently practised. Standing and looking into the fire and seeing burning coals, they say, “We will have a guest,³Toseftah, Shabbath 7:2. however, if you extinguish it with water the guest will fall into the water,” and there is no divination graver than this. And the contention that this is true and firm and that numerous people have proven it, is but Satan’s doing, it is he who leads them astray. When Satan sees this one divining, and saying, “The guest will fall into the water,” then Satan says, “I will go and throw the guest into the water in order to deceive him that this be a sign to him to divine for ever.”⁴Abodah Zarah 55a. And woe unto those who do so, for they transgress numerous prohibitions such as, “Neither shall ye practice divination” (Lev. 19:26).⁵These are negative commandments. “There shall not be found among you etc…. one that useth divination” (Deut. 18:10). “Neither shall ye walk in their statutes” (Lev. 18:3). Moreover, they render false the testimony of the Torah, “For there is no enchantment with Jacob” (Num. 23:23). Those who vow when a headache occurs never to eat from the head of an animal, or when they suffer with their intestines never to eat intestines, follow the customs of the Amorite.⁶Daath Zekenim Baale Tosafoth, Genesis 32:33. Trust only in the Holy One, blessed be He, and He will cure you. Also we need not be apprehensive about a sign, except in the way our scholars intended (directed us) as in the case where they said, “On New Year’s let them eat of the head of a ram, because of the thought, ‛Let it be the head of a good year,’ also of various sweets because of ‛a sweet year,’ ‛let him raise a cock,’ also let him ‛kindle a light in the house that the wind does not extinguish.’”⁷Horayoth 12a. Those people that need to fulfill a command such as start the studies of their children, or some such other command, but say, “let us wait until the new month,” even though this is not divining it is not good, for who knows whether he will live or die within the month, with the result that he may die and not fulfill the command. The best procedure is to perform a meritorious deed when it presents itself and not postpone it, thus our scholars expounded,⁸Rashi, Yoma 33b. “And ye shall observe the feast of unleavened bread” (Exod. 12:17). Do not say matzos, unleavened bread, but mitzvos, commandments, which is to say, if a meritorious deed presents itself to you, do not allow it to become sour but perform it immediately.⁹The two words share five letters in common. Adding a vav to the word matzos (unleavened bread) gives us a new Hebrew word meaning “commandments.” And if he intended to perform a meritorious deed but was accidentally prevented from doing so Scripture credits him as if he had performed¹⁰Kiddushin 48a. it, for it is said, “And that thought upon His name” (Mal. 3:16). The Holy One, blessed be He, equates a good thought with action.

From the laws of the commandment is that which they said that it is forbidden to mention the name of idolatry even not by way of an oath; and that the name of all idolatry written in the Holy Books (Bible) is permissible to mention - such as Peor (Numbers 23:28), and Bel and Nevo (Isaiah 46:1), and similar to them. And that it is forbidden to cause others to vow or to affirm with the name of idolatry, but the only one to get lashed is the one that makes the oath or the one that makes the affirmation in its name - meaning the one who swears, himself, and not the one who makes him swear, even though the one who makes someone swear is also included in this negative commandment, according to the opinion of Rambam, may his memory be blessed. And the rest of its details are elucidated in the seventh chapter of Sanhedrin.

It is from the roots of the commandment [that it is] because these matters are crazy things and total foolishness; and it is not fitting for the holy true people that God chose that they pay attention to false words. And also because they are a cause to push man away from faith in God, may He be blessed, and from His holy Torah and to come through them to complete denial [of God and/or Torah]; as he will think that all of his good and all of his evil and all that happens to him is coincidental, and not from the supervision of his Creator. And it will happen that through this he will go out from all of the principles of the religion. Therefore, since God, may He be blessed, wanted our good, He commanded us to remove this thought from our hearts. As all the bad and the good comes out of the mouth of the Most High, according to the actions of man - if they are good, or if they are evil. And the divinations do not [help or hurt], and as it is written (Numbers 23:23), "As there is no divination in Yaakov and no clairvoyance in Israel." The details of the commandment are in the seventh chapter of Shabbat [in Chapter 6 of Sanhedrin] and in the Tosefta Shabbat, Chapter 8.

The law of the recitation of Shema morning and evening: That we were commanded every day, morning and evening, to read one verse from the Torah in this Order, and that is "Hear Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one" (Deuteronomy 6:4). And about this verse is it stated (Deuteronomy 6:7), "and you will speak in them in your sitting in your home, in your laying down and in your rising up." And the explanation about this comes (Berakhot 10b) [that it is] at the time that people lay down and at the time that people get up. And it is established to us for the Rabbis (Berakhot 10b) that all of the night until the dawn rises is called the time that people lay down - and like the matter that is written (Leviticus 26:6), "and you will lay down and there is no one that makes to tremble"; and so [too], "it does not lay down until it eats prey" (Numbers 23:24) - since all the time of its laying down is implied. And also that people are divided in their attributes regarding laying down. There are those that do not lay down until half of the night, and some [not] until its end, and there are some that lay down immediately at the beginning of the night. And because of this, they said (Berakhot 10b) that the time of the recitation of Shema at night is from the time that the priests retire to eat their priestly tithe - which is the coming out of the stars - until the dawn rises. And the time that people rise up was understood [by] them [to be] from the beginning of the day - meaning to say when the morning is light [enough] that a man can recognize his fellow from the distance of four ells - until three full hours (Mishneh Torah, Laws of Reading the Shema 1:11). And rising up was not understood by them to be all of the day, like laying down; as it is not the way of any person that is healthy to rise up from his bed at the end of the day, or even its middle. And they, may their memory be blessed, said (Berakhot 9b) about the recitation of Shema of the morning that, in any case, from here onward - meaning from the end of three hours until the end of the day - he who did not read [it] did not lose [out] that he not be able to read it with its blessings.