Halakhah к Ийова 10:24

And understand for this reason the Torah describes the sanctification of the priests’ hands and feet, as Scripture says, “They shall wash their hands and feet, that they may not die.”⁹Ex 30:21. This washing Targum Onkelos (may his memory be a blessing) translates with a word that connotes holiness, even though in the other places where “they shall wash” is written, it is translated “they shall remove the dirt from” [va-yes’hun], but here he translated it “they shall sanctify” [va-yikadshun]. This is to explain that the priest used to sanctify his hand and his feet. With his right hand for his right foot and his left hand for his left foot, he would concentrate on “the ten” and make himself holy through their holiness, and draw upon the blessing from their blessedness, and with this thought in mind the priest would sanctify his hands and feet in the basin when he approached the altar. Thus the table is called an altar. For this reason they [the rabbis] were very severe with the punishment for someone who makes light of hand washing; he is to be “uprooted from the world.”¹⁰B.Sotah 4b. The severity of this punishment is because hand-washing hints at the thing upon which the whole world depends. So whoever makes light of “lifting” the hands (for washing) causes a washing that destroys the world. As it has been said, “wash before or be fed pig meat; wash after or a life might be lost.”¹¹B.Hullin 106a. Chavel explains this somewhat elliptical saying in his notes by bringing two stories. First, there was a Jewish shopkeeper who would sell kosher meat that he would cook and feed to a Jew, but when a gentile came into the store, he’d feed him trayf. But if a Jew came to eat and didn’t wash his hands, thinking he was a gentile, the storekeeper would feed him pig meat. As for the danger of not washing afterwards, Chavel retells the story of the man who entrusted his wife with purse of money, and then went out to the market without washing his hands after the meal. A wicked man came along who saw the husband give his wife the purse. He came to the woman and said to her, “Give me the purse that your husband gave you.” She replied to him, “Give me a sign” (i.e., that proved he know her husband and that he sent him). He told that he knew her husband just ate lentils (since he had seen them on her husband’s unwashed hands). So she gave him the purse. When her husband came home, she told him what happened, and he killed her! And this also was said about netilat yada’im: “whoever makes light of hand-washing will end up poor.”¹²B.Shabbat 62b. Wealth is accumulated by the work of one’s hands, and so it is written, “in all that you extend your hand to,”¹³Dt 15:10: “The Lord your God will bless you in all you do, and in all that you extend your hand to.” and blessings are linked to “the ten.” This is hinted at in “you shall surely set aside a tenth,”¹⁴Deut. 14:22. that is, “from ten [‘eser] so that you will become rich [tit-‘asher].¹⁵B.Ta’anit 9a, which interprets the Biblical Hebrew emphatic infinitive absolute construction: ‘iser te-‘aser (“you shall surely set aside a tenth”) as ‘eser te’asher (“ten will make you rich”), punning on the similar spelling and sound of ‘eser, “ten” and ‘osher, “wealth.” They proved that ‘osher –“wealth” – which is a shibboleth [“an ear of wheat” spelled with a shin] is from the ma’aser [“tithe” spelled with a sin] which is a sibboleth [that is, the letter shinin ma’aser is pronounced like the letter samekh in “sibboleth,” to hint that blessing and wealth is linked to “the ten” (the ten sefirot).¹⁶The point of the midrash is that ‘eser (ten) and ‘osher (wealth) are more or less equivalent, even though one is pronounced with an /s/, the other with a /sh/ sound. Of course this an allusion to the story in Judges 12 where the Gileadites used the word shibboleth as a password to distinguish their people from the Ephraimites, who could only pronounce it “sibboleth.” Though R. Bahya on the one hand seems to stress the interchangeability of shibboleth and sibboleth to make his point, I would not put it past him to be also hinting that knowing the equivalence of ‘eser, ‘osher, and the mystical secret of the connection between the ten sefirot and acquiring blessing is itself a sort of “shibboleth,” as it were. Having the wisdom to make these connections distinguishes the Torah scholars from those who don’t know or appreciate the secrets of the Torah and their benefits. Proof of this is in the birkat kohanim (the priestly) when they raise and extend their hands.¹⁷I.e., to draw down the blessings from the ten sefirot through their ten fingers. R. Bahya in effect implicitly associates the lifting of the ten fingers when to draw down blessing when one washes before eating at the table, to the blessings drawn down by the hereditary priests. It should become clear from this that the more a commandment requires this sort of thinking directed above, the greater the punishment for making light of it. This is like the issue of saying “Amen.” As great as one’s reward is for answering “Amen,” double is the punishment for making light of it. This is what our rabbis z”l taught in a midrash: “Everyone who is careful to answer “Amen” in this world deserves to answer “Amen” in the world to come.” David (peace be upon him) said, ‘Blessed is the Lord forever, Amen and Amen;’¹⁸Ps 89:53. ‘Amen’ in this world, and ‘Amen’ in the world to come. For everyone who answers ‘Amen’ deserves two worlds: this world and the world to come.¹⁹M. Tanhuma 96:7. And in the Temple, when The Name of God was spoken aloud as it is spelled, they did not answer “Amen.” But in the precincts of the Temple where it was not permitted to say it as it is spelled, they would say aloud “Amen” instead of The Name, because the word “Amen” hints at the letters of The Name.²⁰B. Berakhot 63a. The numerical equivalents for the names of God ADoNaY (65) and YHWH (26) when added together equal AMeN (91). Therefore, greater is the one who says “Amen” than the one making the blessing using a circumlocution for the actual name of God.²¹I.e., like saying “Adonai” instead of pronouncing YHWH. And everyone who makes light of saying “Amen,” their punishment is double in the circles of hell, that is, the circle called “a land whose light is darkness,”²²Job 10:22. which is lower She’ol. The prophet who spoke about those that make light of answering “Amen” referred to this when he said “They have forsaken Me, the Fount of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns which cannot even hold water.”²³Jer 2:13. But whoever answers “Amen” with its letters opens “the Fount” and draws out the flow of blessing. And accordingly the verse refers to those who make light of it when it says “hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns.” That is to say, they are punished with a double punishment, the one worse than the other.²⁴R. Bahya is picking up on the repetition of the word “cisterns” (be’erot) to hook his midrash. Thus you learn that the greater the reward is for doing something, the greater the punishment for not doing it. Now right after washing and drying his hands, he ought to eat, and so they said, “Right after washing his hands, ha-motzi’.²⁵B.Berakhot 52b, which actually says, “right after washing hands, the meal.”

(Bet) In [Parashat] Haazinu (Deut. 32:46-47) it states, “He said to them, ‘Take to heart all the words that I am testifying to you this day […] that they may keep and do all the words of this Torah. For this is not a trifling thing for you, but it is your life.’” And this is that they should not say that they are not able “to keep and do all of the words of this Torah” – in the way that it is stated in Job 10:7, “It is Your knowledge that I am not guilty”; and as it is stated in the first chapter of Bava Batra, “You have created the righteous, You have created the evil”; but their goodness is not in their hands, but rather only that which has been decreed from His heights of holiness, to provide goodness to the good one.¹⁰Bava Batra 16a. Hence it states, “For this is not a trifling thing for you,” – the understanding of [“not… for you”] is from yourselves, with the aspect of a cistern that is not from itself but is instead filled from others. Rather in this matter, you have the aspect of a well which emanates from itself when you keep the commandments of God. That is why it states, “but it is your life,” with the oppositional expression (“but”) – and its understanding is, but rather it is your life and it is in your hands, from yourselves. And so the essence of the creation was that you should ‘all be living today.’ And this is the intention of the statement of the [Sages], may their memory be blessed, “A boor (which can also be read as cistern) does not fear sin” (Avot 2:5). As the fear of Heaven is not decreed upon the drop [that will form the fetus],¹¹See Berakhot 33b. like other virtues that have the aspect of a cistern; as it has the aspect of a well [instead]. And this is why we say about the Torah and the service [to God], “As they are our lives”¹²From the blessing before the recitation of the Shema. – the understanding of which is that they are our actual lives. And this is also the intention of their statement, may their memory be blessed, “The wicked are called dead even during their lives” (Berakhot 18b). As it is for one man in a thousand that the whole world was created, as company for this [one man]. And everything was created for the righteous. As Rambam writes, “Were it not for the group of crazies that travel in wildernesses, etc. [the world would not be settled for the righteous].”¹³Introduction to the Commentary on the Mishnah. According to this, the evil person has no independent life – his life is only the life of the righteous one – and hence, he is called dead.

Said Antoninus to Rabbi [Judah the Prince], "When is the soul placed in man; at the time of conception or at the time of creation (i.e., when the fetus assumes human form as evidenced by the development of flesh, sinews and bones)?" [Rabbi] said to him, "From the time of creation." [Antoninus] responded, "Is it possible for a piece of meat to stand three days without salt without becoming putrid? Rather, from the time of conception." Said Rabbi: "This matter Antoninus taught me and Scripture supports him for it is written, 'And your decree has preserved my spirit'³I.e., my soul. Support from this verse bolstering Antoninus’ position is based upon the use of the term “pekidah” or “decree” in the phrase “and Your decree—u-fekudatkha.” The term employed by the Gemara for conception is also “pekidah” or “decree.” Rashi explains the use of this nomenclature by stating that the literal reference is to the moment the angel turns his attention to the “tipah” (i.e., the fertilized ovum) and brings it before God for a decree concerning its fate as described in the Gemara, Niddah 16b. (Job 10:12)."

Our Rabbis also taught us that in our time, we do the redemption of the first-born in an order like this: They bring a cup of wine and a myrtle branch to the home of the father of the son or to [some] other place, and the priest to whom the father chooses to give the redemption of his son blesses first over the wine and over the myrtle and then recites this blessing - "Blessed are You, our Lord, King of the Universe, Who sanctified the fetus in his mother's innards, and at forty days individuated his limbs into two hundred and forty-eight limbs, and then breathed in the spirit of life, as it is written (Genesis 2:7), 'and He breathed in his nostrils ...'; He clothed him with skin and flesh, and covered him with bones and ligaments, as it is written (Job 10:11), 'He clothed me with flesh and skin and covered me with bones and ligaments.' He appointed food and drink for him, honey and milk to bring him joy, and appointed two ministering angels to guard him in his mother's womb, as it is written (Job 10:12), 'with life and kindness, etc.'" His mother says, "This is my firstborn son, with which God opened the doors of my belly." His father says, "This is my first-born and I am warned about redeeming him, as it is stated (Exodus 13:13), 'and all the first-born of man, your sons shall you redeem.' May it be the will in front of You, Lord, my God, that as You have allowed his father to merit to redeem him, so too should you allow him to merit Torah, marriage and good deeds. Blessed are You, Lord, who sanctified the first born of Israel to be redeemed." The father of the son then recites two blessings: 'on the redemption of the first born'; and 'Who has allowed us to live.' He gives the well-known redemption to the priest, which is five sela, as specified in the Torah. This is equal to sixty argents of refined silver in our land. And after the redemption, the priest recites these three blessings that we wrote.

Our Rabbis also taught us that in our time, we do the redemption of the first-born in an order like this: They bring a cup of wine and a myrtle branch to the home of the father of the son or to [some] other place, and the priest to whom the father chooses to give the redemption of his son blesses first over the wine and over the myrtle and then recites this blessing - "Blessed are You, our Lord, King of the Universe, Who sanctified the fetus in his mother's innards, and at forty days individuated his limbs into two hundred and forty-eight limbs, and then breathed in the spirit of life, as it is written (Genesis 2:7), 'and He breathed in his nostrils ...'; He clothed him with skin and flesh, and covered him with bones and ligaments, as it is written (Job 10:11), 'He clothed me with flesh and skin and covered me with bones and ligaments.' He appointed food and drink for him, honey and milk to bring him joy, and appointed two ministering angels to guard him in his mother's womb, as it is written (Job 10:12), 'with life and kindness, etc.'" His mother says, "This is my firstborn son, with which God opened the doors of my belly." His father says, "This is my first-born and I am warned about redeeming him, as it is stated (Exodus 13:13), 'and all the first-born of man, your sons shall you redeem.' May it be the will in front of You, Lord, my God, that as You have allowed his father to merit to redeem him, so too should you allow him to merit Torah, marriage and good deeds. Blessed are You, Lord, who sanctified the first born of Israel to be redeemed." The father of the son then recites two blessings: 'on the redemption of the first born'; and 'Who has allowed us to live.' He gives the well-known redemption to the priest, which is five sela, as specified in the Torah. This is equal to sixty argents of refined silver in our land. And after the redemption, the priest recites these three blessings that we wrote.