Musar do Daniela 12:78

"And those that bring many to be righteous will be like stars forever" (Daniel 12:3).

But there are people that do not sense the matter of death, to make provisions for the road and to rectify their actions; and they do not pay attention to the day of their death until it comes. So they are compared to animals that do not sense the matter of death until the day of slaughter - as it is stated, (Psalms 49:15), "Sheeplike they head for the pit, with death as their shepherd; the upright shall rule over them in the morning, and their form - from above him - shall waste away in the pit." Its explanation is: They lead their souls to the pit, since they don't sense the matter of their death until its sudden arrival. "With death as their shepherd" - the death of evildoers is not like the death of animals; the death of animals is once, but the death of the evildoers will shepherd them every day. [That shepherd can be a verb in the continuous present is indicated] from the wording, "shepherd Bashan and Gilead" (Micah 7:14); and from the content of (Job 18:13), "death’s first-born consumes his tendons." For destruction and deterioration will cling to the soul of the evildoers at every instant, until it is destroyed, ends and is gone. "The upright shall rule over them in the morning" - it compared the time of the resurrection of the dead to the morning, when a man wakes up from his sleep; and like the matter that is stated (Daniel 12:2), "Many of those that sleep in the dust of the earth will awake." For then the righteous will rule over the evildoers, as it is written (Malachi 3:21), "And you shall trample the wicked to a pulp, for they shall be dust beneath your feet." And our Rabbis, may their memory be blessed, said about the matter of the day of judgement for the resurrection of the dead (Rosh Hashanah 17a), "After twelve months, their bodies end, and their souls are burnt and become ashes under the feet of the righteous - as is is stated, 'And you shall trample the wicked, etc.'" [And it is written (Psalms 49:15),] "And their form (tsuram) shall waste away in the pit" - tsuram is like tsuratam (the conventional way of writing, their form). Likewise, "idols, ketvunam" (Hosea 13:2), is understood as ketvunatam. And the soul is called the form of man. But there are some among those who speak about the soul that said, about the definition of the soul, that it is a (essential) [contingent] form. And the explanation of the matter is that the pit wears out the evildoer's soul. And it is "above (zevul) him" - for the soul is from the higher beings. [This is seen] from the wording (Isaiah 63:15), "from Your holy height (zevul)." And with his sins, the evildoer caused and brought about that his precious and elevated soul that is above him will be worn out by the pit below. And how difficult is death for the one who has not separated desires of the world from his soul until it is separated by death! And our Rabbis, may their memory be blessed, said in Tractate Derekh Erets, "Is your will not to die? Die before you die." The explanation of the matter is [that] the one that wants that the day of his death be [a gateway] for him to eternal life should speak to his heart - since his end is to leave the ground and to leave the matters of the body, and in his end, he will despise them and abandon them; he should leave them when he is [still] alive, and only use the ground for service to the Creator, may He be blessed. And then the day of death will be [the beginning] of life without end for him.

"Torah protects a man all the years that he is in the grave, as it is written (Proverbs 6:22): 'In your walking, it [Torah] will guide you] — in this world; 'In your lying down, it will protect you' — in the grave, during death; 'and when you awake, it shall speak for you' — in the world to come." The explanation is as we find in the holy Zohar: "When you lie in the grave, Torah will protect you from the din of this world. And when you awake, it shall speak for you. In the world to come, when you awake after death, it will speak for you. That is, it will speak good for you on behalf of your body, so that it awake first for eternal life, as it is written (Daniel 12:2): 'These for eternal life, etc.,' because they occupied themselves with eternal life, i.e., Torah. And all those words that one uttered in studying Torah in this world will stand before the Holy One Blessed be He and speak out, and they will not be silenced.

It teaches us that intellectually alert people who conduct themselves with the proper degree of discretion and caution will assure themselves of the blessing in Daniel 12,3: "The wise will shine like the radiance of the firmament, and those who make the many righteous, like the stars, forever and ever."

We must try and understand why Rabbenu Bachyah was so selective in his comparison of the creation with the construction of the Tabernacle. He could have cited additional parallels. A look at a lengthy Midrash in Shemot Rabbah 33,4 quotes Rabbi Berechyah as presenting a long list of parallels between the Tabernacle and מעשה בראשית. The list includes many items found in the heavens such as ערפל, זבול, עצי שטים, כרובים, אופנים and many others. In each case Rabbi Berechyah demonstrates that the Tabernacle contained something parallel.

Eicha Rabbah interprets that in a verse in Kings II 25,9 in which Nevuzaradon is described as destroying Jerusalem and "the great house," "the great house" refers to Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai. Since Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai lived over 600 years later than Nevuzaradan, it is clear that the Midrash views the person of Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai in a sense similar to what Rabban Gamliel told us. The Talmud is replete with similar interpretations.

We therefore perceive that the candlestick symbolised the seven emanations which form the בנין, all of which in turn are nourished from a higher source. When the Torah speaks of אל מול פני המנורה יאירו שבעת הנרות, "The seven lamps shall give light opposite the face of the candlestick" (Numbers 8,2), this means that the candlestick in the Tabernacle corresponded to and was "opposite" its counterpart in the Celestial Sanctuary. We view the candlestick as symbolising man. There are three arms or pipes on either side. The lower ones are longer than the middle ones, and the middle ones are longer than the upper ones which are nearer the centre-shaft. The lights all burned on the same level. The centre-shaft represented the גוף, torso or body of the candlestick. Man is like the candlestick. He has three projections on either side of him, the arms, the legs and the ears. The legs are longer than the arms, and the arms are longer than the ears, just as the lower arms of the candlestick were longer than the middle ones and the upper ones, respectively. The overall height of the candlestick was 18 handbreadths, the equivalent of three cubits, the height of an average-sized man from the ground to the shoulder (Tossaphot Shabbat 92).

Remember that heaven, - i.e. even the part that is visible to us, - is merely an expansion of a heaven that originates in "higher" emanations as high as the emanation תפארת, origin of the written Torah. The existing luminaries and stars may be viewed as branches of the Torah, as based on Daniel 12,3: והמשכילים יזהירו כזהר הרקיע ומצדיקי הרבים ככוכבים לעולם ועד, "And the wise will shine like the radiance of the firmament, and those who make the many righteous, like the stars, forever and ever."

This leaves us with the meaning of Abraham's saying עד כה, which had been interpreted as Abraham wondering how the promise of כה יהיה זרעך could now be fulfilled. Instead of understanding this as a degree of doubt on Abraham's part, we must understand this as Abraham hoping that Isaac would really be able to live up to the highest expectations one can make of human beings. He prayed that כה, "thus", i.e. of such superior calibre, would be his descendants. If G–d had meant that hyperbole in Genesis 15,5 to describe the physical dimensions of Abraham's offspring, He should have compared them to the dust of the earth or the sand on the beaches of the sea, as we repeatedly read. G–d, however, referred to the spiritual dimension, and that is why He told Abraham to look towards heaven, and chose the hyperbole of "like the stars in heaven."

Shemot Rabbah 15,31 describes Exodus 12,1 in a parable. A king betrothed himself to a girl, promising her a few gifts in writing. When the time arrived for the wedding, he guaranteed her many gifts, as is the custom for a husband. One must view this present world and the Hereafter in a similar light. In this world only few gifts are guaranteed. Our existence in this world is comparable to that of a bride who, though betrothed, is still awaiting the wedding. We are reminded of this by the formula we recite whenever we put on the phylacteries on our arm: וארשתיך לי לעולם, I will be betrothed to you forever" (Hoseah 2,21-22). It is an allegory that in this world Israel has only been given the moon, as we know from our verse in Exodus 12,1. In Messianic times, however, there will be a real wedding (between Israel and G–d) as we know from Isaiah 54,5: "For He who has made you will be your spouse." When that time arrives, G–d will hand over all His treasures to the Jewish people as is recorded in Daniel 12,3: "And the wise will shine like the brightness of the sky, and they that turn the many to righteousness will be as stars forever and ever." Thus far the Midrash. The meaning of the parable is clear. Israel is the bride; the mystical aspect of the betrothal is the gift of the moon, whereas the Torah represents the gift to be received at the time of the wedding. It is the wedding document popularly known as the כתובה, which spells out the obligations the groom assumes when marrying a bride. The obligations spelled out in the document can only be claimed in the Hereafter.

From here we see that one who gives the poor money does not receive as much merit as one who gives them bread, meat and wine, thereby sparing them the need to go and purchase these things and enabling them to benefit more readily. For this reason the ideal custom is to distribute flour to the poor. Although this overtaxes the charity officers, they receive more reward as a result. Moreover, our Rabbis have said of the verse, “And those who lead the many to righteousness are like stars forever and ever” (Daniel 12:3), — “This refers to the charity officers” (Baba Basra 8a).

Let us now return to our statement that פרשת ויקרא as well פרשת צו speak about the people offering the sacrifices as well as about the objects of these sacrifices. Among the latter there are some which serve as atonement for their owners, such as the קרבן חטאת, and the קרבן אשם. There is the קרבן חטאת קבוע, the purpose of which is to obtain forgiveness for a “מום קבוע,” the kind of sin which has become second nature to us due to the pollutant from the serpent. There are also sin-offerings for various leaders of the community and the community as a whole respectively. In each of these instances different elements are at the root of the sin committed. This is why separate sacrifices are needed to secure atonement and absolution of the residual pollutant of the serpent. There is even a type of sacrifice called אשם תלוי, a sin-offering of a suspended nature, which must be offered when the owner is in doubt whether he has become guilty of a certain transgression. One's duties were clear as the light of the sun, and being in doubt whether one had behaved in a circumspect manner or not is the kind of doubt that should never have arisen.

What all this has to do with Samael injuring the כף ירך יעקב, the thigh joint of Jacob, is simple. Our sages say on 32,26: וירא כי לא יוכל לו, ויגע בכף ירכו ותקע כך ירך יעקב, that the thigh joint of Jacob refers to the later descendants who experienced the harsh decrees by the various nations who were their hosts in exile. When the Hasmoneans overcame the Greeks, they reversed this injury, i.e. the כף became a פך a cruse of oil. What had been a vulnerable part of Jacob's ירך now became the solid basis of the candelabra, ירך מנורה.