시편 119:62의 유대 사상

It is part of civilised behaviour to giftwrap offerings. Already Joseph's brothers giftwrapped their father Jacob's gift at the time they had been invited to lunch with Joseph. (Genesis 43,25) "They prepared the gift until Joseph would arrive at noon." Therefore, halachah, Jewish law requires that when a variety of species are brought as bikkurim, they must be suitably separated and presented species by species. The basket itself is also an integral part of the whole offering. "And you shall proceed to the place" (26,2) indicates, that personal attention is preferable to despatch of a delegate to perform this mitzvah. Since the delegate could not have recited the whole passage of the prayer, (due to the nature of its wording) it is clear that the proper way to perform this mitzvah is by doing it personally. The whole procedure then is a practical demonstration of the "you have enthroned G'd" syndrome, a realisation of the verse "For I will proclaim the name of the Lord, render greatness to our Lord." (Deut.32,3) The processional described by the Tossephta, has great psychological significance then. When reading through the statement made on the occasion of presenting the first fruit, it becomes clear that possession of the land is not the result of military conquest, but that the land was a gift from G'd. The priest accepts the basket in the middle of the declaration, i.e. he interrupts the declaration, so as to show that our gratitude needs to be expressed both in general terms (possession of the land) and in specific terms (our personal share of the bounty G'd bestows on this land) (2) The "you will answer" is to be understood as the stage following deposition of the basket of fruit before the altar. At that time, the donor invites the people to acknowledge the gift of the land, after which he himself acknowledges the personally experienced bounty of the Lord. (4) The "confession" containing a reference to Laban, is to contrast our descent to Egypt with our Exodus. Had it not been for the fact that Jacob had married four daughters of Laban, and that he referred to himself as a blood relation of Laban "the brother of my mother," the hatred and jealousy that existed between the brothers (Jacob's sons and Joseph) could not have been accounted for. As it was, it may have been somewhat hereditary, maternally, since all the brothers were grandsons of the envious and jealous Laban. Had it therefore not been for that blood relationship, Joseph would not have caused his family's eventual bondage in Egypt. He would never have come to Egypt in the first place. Whereas the brothers' descent into Egypt then was caused in no small measure by their own inadequacies, their descendants' exodus had nothing to do with their abilities. However "the Lord took us out from there." It was all G'ds doing. (5) The admission that even the source of individual success flows from the altar, which far from consuming our wealth is its true source, is emphasized by the swinging over the altar of the bikkurim'm the various directions. The word arami, is the word rama-i reversed. Laban is called the arami, since a swindler "reverses" the truth. Just as one appreciates a precious stone more if it had been the gift of a high ranking person, its inherent value being enhanced by the recipient's knowledge that he is held in high esteem, so something similar occurs in the case of bikkurim. When the farmer's efforts are crowned with success, he feels as if he is a recipient of a gift from His Maker, the master of the universe. A gift which originates from on high, is doubly treasured. Harvests therefore are celebrated. Vesamachta bechol hatov, you shall rejoice with all the good. (26,11) The way this joy is expressed in practice includes the Levite, the stranger etc. whose status re ownership of the land precludes him from participating directly in this bounty. The generosity displayed at such a time by the Jewish landowner is described in our opening Midrash as the floral contribution made by the bride to the home she establishes with her groom. The groom will, of course, respond by further increasing and matching the gifts already contributed by his bride.

Prayer at night is praised in the holy scriptures, such as: "At night I remembered Your name, O L-ord..." (Tehilim 119:55), and "At midnight, I rise to give thanks to You.." (Tehilim 119:62), and "I rose before the dawning of the morning, and cried out" (Tehilim 119:147), and "My eyes preceded the watches to speak of Your word" (Tehilim 119:148), and "at night I was opposite You" (Tehilim 88:2), and "Arise, cry out in the night, Pour out your heart like water before G-d" (Eicha 2:19), and many more like this.

Regarding the afternoon (mincha) and evening (arvit) prayers and (tikkun chatsot): And you need to know that within the arrangements for [God's] direction of the day, it is surely divided into two parts: The morning; and after midday, which is the afternoon. And the night is also divided into two parts, and as we have written above. However the arousal and influence to the worlds must continue in all of them, according to the characteristic of that time period. And because of this, they arranged the prayers according to their [actual] number. And that is that during the two parts of the day, they ordained the morning prayers and afternoon (mincha) prayers. But behold in the morning, which is the time of the renewal of the flow according to the attribute of day, they ordained the order to be lengthy, according to all that is necessary. But for the second half of the day, which follows from the first, it only requires a little effort in order to complete the matter, corresponding to that period of time. But since there is a greater change with the night - because of the change of the characteristics, meaning the [arrival of the] characteristic of night, which is more different than the change from morning to afternoon - they therefore ordained a longer order [of prayer] than in the afternoon, and that is with the blessings over the Shema. Yet it is shorter than in the morning, since the flow is nevertheless already coming down from the morning. However for the second part of the night, in order not to burden the community (at such an inconvenient time), they did not fix an order [of prayer] for everyone at all. Rather they left the matter to the pious ones, to get up and chant - each one according to his ability. And even the night prayer service itself was already just optional - and they [only later] set it up as an obligation - all the more so the rectification of midnight (tikkun chatsot). And behold, see that the patriarchs ordained the three prayer services (Berakhot 26b). And from this angle, it is incumbent upon on all of Israel to follow their order (and say all three). However it was David that was alacritous with the rectification of the second part of the night, as it is stated (Psalms 119:62), "I arise at midnight to praise You." And he is the one who complements the patriarchs in their refinement of Israel, as we wrote above. However the matter was not fixed for all of Israel, but rather for their pious ones - since they are on a level slightly below the patriarchs.