Комментарий о цитате к Йешайау 55:2

A Midrashic approach to our verses, based on Eiruvin 55: The words “it is not in heaven,” mean that Torah is not to be found amongst haughty, arrogant people. The words: “it is not beyond the ocean,” mean that Torah is not to be found among people who constantly journey from place to place to make their livelihood, i.e. hawkers. Samuel said that Torah cannot be found among astrologers or professional astronomers, seeing that the Torah writes: “it is not in heaven.” The Torah may be found only among people preoccupied with the pursuit of matters which are oriented toward heavenly concerns. People challenged Samuel, saying to him that seeing he himself was an astronomer how could he make such a statement? He answered: “in all my days I have never looked at חכמה except when I was relieving myself” [at a time when I was forbidden to engage in the pursuit of Torah. Ed.] (compare Devarim Rabbah 8,6). Thus far the Midrash.
Concerning these disciplines, i.e. astrology and astronomy, Isaiah warned the people of Israel, saying to them (Isaiah 55,2) “why do you spend money for what is not bread and your toil for that which does not satisfy?” Isaiah meant that his compatriots were wasting their money in order to acquire “wisdom” which would neither satisfy their bodies nor their souls; he added: “give heed to Me, (G’d) and you shall eat choice food and enjoy the richest viands. Hearken and you shall be revived.” Torah is described in Proverbs 4,2 as לקח טוב, “a good purchase.” It is the true food, satisfying those that “consume it.” When Isaiah said תתענגו בדשן נפשכם, “enjoy with your souls the richest foods,” he refers to the “bread” which truly satisfies the soul of man, spiritual food, the Torah. The simile of דשן, something physical, material, is used by the prophet to illustrate in human language the spiritual essence of what Torah supplies to those who study it. Such metaphors for spiritual matters are also found in Psalms 63,6: “milk and fatness satisfy my soul.” Clearly, David does not mean for the soul to be fed milk.
All of the above teaches that Samuel did not engage in the study of astronomy at a time when this would have competed with the study of Torah. Seeing that it is forbidden to engage in the speaking of Torah, or even contemplating thoughts of Torah, while one is in the bathhouse or in the toilet, he could use such time to increase his knowledge in other disciplines. Our sages (Menachot 99) said: “go and study Greek philosophy at a time which is neither day nor night.” What they meant was that preoccupation with any disciplines other than Torah study exposes the student to the danger of being influenced by the theologically unsound element, some of which is always found scattered in those texts. This is the reason these disciplines have been compared to silver, seeing that silver invariably contains some impurities unless it has been refined over and over again. Our Torah is compared to such silver, i.e. כסף צרוף. This is what David meant in Psalms 12,7 when he wrote: “the words of the Lord are pure words, silver purged in an earthen crucible, refined sevenfold.”

in the seventh month, on the tenth of the month, you will afflict your souls From the passage “let your soul delight in fatness” [Isaiah 55:2] we know that “affliction” of a soul must be the opposite of its delight — i.e., a fast. Moreover, the phrase “be generous to the hungry” [Isaiah 58:10] means the same as “satisfy the afflicted soul” [Isaiah 58:10], because the prophetic style is to speak in parallelisms. Since we possess a tradition for the meaning of this idiom, there is no need to adduce additional evidence (the phrase “I afflicted my soul with fasting” [Psalms 35:13] does not provide additional evidence, because there the word “fasting” is explicitly mentioned). The general rule is: “affliction of soul” denotes fasting, wherever it appears in Scripture.