אִֽמֲר֣וֹת יְהוָה֮ אֲמָר֪וֹת טְהֹ֫ר֥וֹת כֶּ֣סֶף צָ֭רוּף בַּעֲלִ֣יל לָאָ֑רֶץ מְ֝זֻקָּ֗ק שִׁבְעָתָֽיִם׃
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Rabbeinu Bahya
In this verse Solomon taught the people that the first kind of wisdom they are to acquire is the wisdom dispensed by the Torah. This is the meaning of ראשית חכמה in the verse we quoted. Once a person has acquired this wisdom he also needs to acquire insight, discernment, in order for him to understand the connection between different phenomena. Wisdom is always totally incomplete unless accompanied by a measure of such ability to discern relationships. Seeing that the attribute (or emanation) בינה insight, discernment, is so crucial, Solomon advises a person to spend his entire fortune in his search to acquire בינה. The words: “with all your acquisitions acquire insight,” mean that “even if you have to spend all your money in order to acquire this attribute, do so, for true wealth is בינה, not money.” Wisdom is also portrayed as shouting (to its owner) (Proverbs 8,18) “riches and honor belong to me, enduring wealth and success.
Solomon was forced to inform us here that the first and foremost requirement for his נפש, personality, is the acquisition of Torah knowledge before learning any other disciplines. If he were to acquire other kinds of knowledge first, these are apt to turn his heart away from true wisdom and implant in his mind worthless ideas. However, if a person studies Torah first and makes it the mainstay of his outlook in life he is then permitted to study other disciplines, sciences, etc., seeing that if he has built a sound base of Torah knowledge for himself he is not liable to be corrupted by the philosophically negative elements which are part of other disciplines. Torah knowledge will always remain “floating” on top just as does purified silver.
This is also what David had in mind when he described G’d’s words as pure, i.e. just “like refined silver purged in an earthen crucible, refined sevenfold,” not containing any dross (Psalms 12,7). The meaning of that verse in Psalms is that although all disciplines (wisdom) are comparable to silver [when compared to ignorance, Ed.], Torah wisdom is like silver which has been refined seven times over. All other wisdom contains elements comparable to dross, impurities, which have a tendency to invalidate that wisdom. Our Torah, by contrast, will not lead man to sustain losses either in money or through misleading him philosophically.
When Solomon demands that Torah must be the first subject studied, he means that unless one learns about the meaning and purpose of miracles one may fall victim to the theory that nature preceded the Lawgiver chronologically, that the universe was not created by Hashem. The reason that in Hebrew nature is known as טבע is that if one delves into the study of nature before having studied Torah such study is liable to swallow a person, he will “sink into a morass,” just as people who are drowned by the sea, טובעו, were drowned, because they had not learned to swim first.
A person who has studied Torah and early Jewish history summarized in the Torah knows that in addition to “nature” and natural laws, the Creator Who is totally free has demonstrated on many occasions that He is the master of what we call “laws of nature” by temporarily suspending these so-called eternal laws and thus demonstrating that it must have been He who had created and formulated them in the first place.
Scientists, i.e. people who study nature, believe only the evidence of their eyes. When they read about the miracles which the Torah records they assume that the desert through which the Israelites marched must have been a very benign strip of land, capable of producing crops, etc., etc. They totally deny what the Torah describes as “this great and terrible wilderness inhabited by fierce serpents, etc., etc., through which the Lord your G’d has led you” (Deut. 8,15). The point made by the Torah is precisely hat the deserts through which the Israelites marched was even more hostile to human habitat than regular deserts. This is why the Torah stresses beyond doubt “it was not a place where one could sow or expect to plant fruit-bearing trees such as figs, pomegranates, etc.” There were no wells. The prophet Jeremiah testifies that even by his time, 1000 years later, that region had not been one in which people set foot voluntarily. The experience of the Jewish people therefore was by itself so miraculous that unless we study it before we study general subjects we would not appreciate the greatness of G’d and His works.
This explains why the Torah took pains in our portion to list so many details of the places where the Israelites stopped in their trek through this inhospitable country. That information contained many valuable lessons both for the nations of that period and for us the descendants of the generation which experienced the Exodus and the wanderings through the desert on the way to the Holy Land.
Solomon was forced to inform us here that the first and foremost requirement for his נפש, personality, is the acquisition of Torah knowledge before learning any other disciplines. If he were to acquire other kinds of knowledge first, these are apt to turn his heart away from true wisdom and implant in his mind worthless ideas. However, if a person studies Torah first and makes it the mainstay of his outlook in life he is then permitted to study other disciplines, sciences, etc., seeing that if he has built a sound base of Torah knowledge for himself he is not liable to be corrupted by the philosophically negative elements which are part of other disciplines. Torah knowledge will always remain “floating” on top just as does purified silver.
This is also what David had in mind when he described G’d’s words as pure, i.e. just “like refined silver purged in an earthen crucible, refined sevenfold,” not containing any dross (Psalms 12,7). The meaning of that verse in Psalms is that although all disciplines (wisdom) are comparable to silver [when compared to ignorance, Ed.], Torah wisdom is like silver which has been refined seven times over. All other wisdom contains elements comparable to dross, impurities, which have a tendency to invalidate that wisdom. Our Torah, by contrast, will not lead man to sustain losses either in money or through misleading him philosophically.
When Solomon demands that Torah must be the first subject studied, he means that unless one learns about the meaning and purpose of miracles one may fall victim to the theory that nature preceded the Lawgiver chronologically, that the universe was not created by Hashem. The reason that in Hebrew nature is known as טבע is that if one delves into the study of nature before having studied Torah such study is liable to swallow a person, he will “sink into a morass,” just as people who are drowned by the sea, טובעו, were drowned, because they had not learned to swim first.
A person who has studied Torah and early Jewish history summarized in the Torah knows that in addition to “nature” and natural laws, the Creator Who is totally free has demonstrated on many occasions that He is the master of what we call “laws of nature” by temporarily suspending these so-called eternal laws and thus demonstrating that it must have been He who had created and formulated them in the first place.
Scientists, i.e. people who study nature, believe only the evidence of their eyes. When they read about the miracles which the Torah records they assume that the desert through which the Israelites marched must have been a very benign strip of land, capable of producing crops, etc., etc. They totally deny what the Torah describes as “this great and terrible wilderness inhabited by fierce serpents, etc., etc., through which the Lord your G’d has led you” (Deut. 8,15). The point made by the Torah is precisely hat the deserts through which the Israelites marched was even more hostile to human habitat than regular deserts. This is why the Torah stresses beyond doubt “it was not a place where one could sow or expect to plant fruit-bearing trees such as figs, pomegranates, etc.” There were no wells. The prophet Jeremiah testifies that even by his time, 1000 years later, that region had not been one in which people set foot voluntarily. The experience of the Jewish people therefore was by itself so miraculous that unless we study it before we study general subjects we would not appreciate the greatness of G’d and His works.
This explains why the Torah took pains in our portion to list so many details of the places where the Israelites stopped in their trek through this inhospitable country. That information contained many valuable lessons both for the nations of that period and for us the descendants of the generation which experienced the Exodus and the wanderings through the desert on the way to the Holy Land.
Rabbeinu Bahya
Throughout the Book of Proverbs Solomon always speaks in the name of the attribute (or emanation) חכמה, wisdom; he refers to all the 613 commandments in the Torah as either אמרים , “words” or מצות, “commandments.” His father David before him already referred to the commandments as אמרים, as we know from Psalms 12,7: אמרות ה’ אמרות טהורות, “the Lord’s commandments are pure commandments.”
The commandments of the Torah are subdivided into three groups. They are known as 1) מצות מקובלות, 2) מצות מושכלות, and 3) מצות שאין טעמם נגלה ומבואר 1) Commandments which are based on historical precedents; 2) commandments which appeal to our minds and which are easy to understand and appreciate. 3) Commandments the reason for which and the usefulness of which are completely outside our ability to comprehend. The first group which includes such laws as making and wearing phylacteries or putting fringes on our four-cornered garments as well as the commandment to circumcise our male babies, etc., have a common denominator in that they are associated with the history of our people and our special protection by the Almighty. When we perform any of these commandments we testify to the fact that we belong to the chosen people and that we as well as our forefathers have accepted His covenant and are loyal to it, bound by it. None of these commandments would have been invented by man as only G’d can legislate what are suitable symbolic acts to recall events in our history. This is why many of our sages also call these commandments עדות, “testimony.” They are all of Divine origin. The Torah describes the second generation of Israelites as inquiring after what they perceive to be these “testimonial laws” in Deut. 6,20. Some of these laws testify to the fact that G’d created the universe out of no tangible material, others testify to the selection of the Jewish people as His special nation; still others testify to the manner in which G’d provided for us in the desert, etc. David (Psalms 119,24) is on record as viewing even these commandments as שעשעי, “my delights.”
The second group of commandments, even if not always in their details, are the ones which the human mind would have had to invent and legislate if the Torah had not done so; this is why they are called מושכלות, “rational” in essence. Examples are how we are to deal with the crimes of theft, robbery, murder, unfair business practices, etc., etc. The term applied to these kinds of commandments in the Torah is משפטים.
The third group of commandments, the ones which completely baffle us, are the legislation not to mix certain seeds, wear clothes combining wool and linen, mixing of meat and milk (though they are part of the same animal), the dispatch of the scape-goat to the Azazel, and the laws involving the red heifer. The Torah’s appellation for all of these types of laws is חקים, “statutes.” This is also one of the groups of laws referred to as the subject of the inquiry by second generation Israelites (and later generations) in Deut. 6,20-21. The answer suggested by the Torah to such inquiries is prefaced with the words: “we used to be slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt who maltreated us in a cruel manner until the Lord our G’d redeemed us from there ad brought us to this land of Israel.” The Torah emphasises “the Lord our G’d did all this,” i.e. that as of that point in time the reputation of the Lord as our national G’d was greatly enhanced. It is therefore appropriate that we loyally accept all three groups of commandments. The passage in Deuteronomy we quoted refers to three groups of commandments, עדות, משפטים, חקים. In the verse quoted above from Proverbs, Solomon merely paraphrases the words of the Torah by speaking of the עדות as אמרי; he refers to the משפטים as שמור מצותי וחיה, “observe My commandments so that you may live (a civilian and secure life).” Finally, when Solomon says: ומצותי תצפון אתך, “treasure My commandments with you,” he refers to the חקים statutes, which, though not understood by you, should be treasured nonetheless. G’d in His capacity as our king has the right to legislate statutes such as the one of the red heifer without revealing His motive.
The commandments of the Torah are subdivided into three groups. They are known as 1) מצות מקובלות, 2) מצות מושכלות, and 3) מצות שאין טעמם נגלה ומבואר 1) Commandments which are based on historical precedents; 2) commandments which appeal to our minds and which are easy to understand and appreciate. 3) Commandments the reason for which and the usefulness of which are completely outside our ability to comprehend. The first group which includes such laws as making and wearing phylacteries or putting fringes on our four-cornered garments as well as the commandment to circumcise our male babies, etc., have a common denominator in that they are associated with the history of our people and our special protection by the Almighty. When we perform any of these commandments we testify to the fact that we belong to the chosen people and that we as well as our forefathers have accepted His covenant and are loyal to it, bound by it. None of these commandments would have been invented by man as only G’d can legislate what are suitable symbolic acts to recall events in our history. This is why many of our sages also call these commandments עדות, “testimony.” They are all of Divine origin. The Torah describes the second generation of Israelites as inquiring after what they perceive to be these “testimonial laws” in Deut. 6,20. Some of these laws testify to the fact that G’d created the universe out of no tangible material, others testify to the selection of the Jewish people as His special nation; still others testify to the manner in which G’d provided for us in the desert, etc. David (Psalms 119,24) is on record as viewing even these commandments as שעשעי, “my delights.”
The second group of commandments, even if not always in their details, are the ones which the human mind would have had to invent and legislate if the Torah had not done so; this is why they are called מושכלות, “rational” in essence. Examples are how we are to deal with the crimes of theft, robbery, murder, unfair business practices, etc., etc. The term applied to these kinds of commandments in the Torah is משפטים.
The third group of commandments, the ones which completely baffle us, are the legislation not to mix certain seeds, wear clothes combining wool and linen, mixing of meat and milk (though they are part of the same animal), the dispatch of the scape-goat to the Azazel, and the laws involving the red heifer. The Torah’s appellation for all of these types of laws is חקים, “statutes.” This is also one of the groups of laws referred to as the subject of the inquiry by second generation Israelites (and later generations) in Deut. 6,20-21. The answer suggested by the Torah to such inquiries is prefaced with the words: “we used to be slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt who maltreated us in a cruel manner until the Lord our G’d redeemed us from there ad brought us to this land of Israel.” The Torah emphasises “the Lord our G’d did all this,” i.e. that as of that point in time the reputation of the Lord as our national G’d was greatly enhanced. It is therefore appropriate that we loyally accept all three groups of commandments. The passage in Deuteronomy we quoted refers to three groups of commandments, עדות, משפטים, חקים. In the verse quoted above from Proverbs, Solomon merely paraphrases the words of the Torah by speaking of the עדות as אמרי; he refers to the משפטים as שמור מצותי וחיה, “observe My commandments so that you may live (a civilian and secure life).” Finally, when Solomon says: ומצותי תצפון אתך, “treasure My commandments with you,” he refers to the חקים statutes, which, though not understood by you, should be treasured nonetheless. G’d in His capacity as our king has the right to legislate statutes such as the one of the red heifer without revealing His motive.
Kli Yakar
And because it says “This is the statute of the Torah” and not “the statute of the cow,” we learn that the Torah and the red heifer are one matter, just as the Torah is called by Moses’s name, as it says Remember the Torah of Moses My servant (Malachi 3:22), so too the red heifer is called by his name. And the reason for both is one: Because 50 gates of understanding were created in the world, and all were given to Moses except one (Nedarim 38a). And through the 49 gates of understanding that he attained, he had an entrance to come into the secret of God, to interpret the Torah in 49 ways of purity and 49 ways of impurity, as it says And search for it as for hidden treasures (Proverbs 2:4) — the word treasures [matmonim] hints at twice 49 [the first two letters having a numerical of 49], monim [times] being two times, because through this, the words of God are pure words, refined sevenfold (Psalms 12:7), meaning seven times seven.
Similarly, the reason for the red heifer is hidden from all living beings, even from Solomon, of whom it says he was wiser than any man (1 Kings 5:11), and it was revealed only to Moses through the 49 gates of understanding that he attained, as concluded in Yalkut Shimoni (658 on Psalms 12): Silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified sevenfold. Rabbi Shimon ben Pazi interpreted this verse regarding the section of the red heifer, which has seven times seven: seven cows, seven sprinklings, seven burnings, seven washings, seven impure persons, seven pure persons, seven priests. If someone tells you they are lacking, tell him that Moses and Aaron were also included.
We should examine what significance this number has that a verse about refined sevenfold was expounded upon it. Rather, certainly the opinion of this midrash is to give a reason for what is written in the midrash (Yalkut Shimoni 759 on Chukat 19): And they shall take to you a red heifer — to you I reveal the secret of the heifer, but to others it is a statute. And why was it hidden from all living beings? Because it contains the number 49, which hints that its matter can only be refined and purified through the 49 gates of understanding that were revealed only to Moses. Therefore, it remains a statute to others, even to Solomon.
Similarly, the reason for the red heifer is hidden from all living beings, even from Solomon, of whom it says he was wiser than any man (1 Kings 5:11), and it was revealed only to Moses through the 49 gates of understanding that he attained, as concluded in Yalkut Shimoni (658 on Psalms 12): Silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified sevenfold. Rabbi Shimon ben Pazi interpreted this verse regarding the section of the red heifer, which has seven times seven: seven cows, seven sprinklings, seven burnings, seven washings, seven impure persons, seven pure persons, seven priests. If someone tells you they are lacking, tell him that Moses and Aaron were also included.
We should examine what significance this number has that a verse about refined sevenfold was expounded upon it. Rather, certainly the opinion of this midrash is to give a reason for what is written in the midrash (Yalkut Shimoni 759 on Chukat 19): And they shall take to you a red heifer — to you I reveal the secret of the heifer, but to others it is a statute. And why was it hidden from all living beings? Because it contains the number 49, which hints that its matter can only be refined and purified through the 49 gates of understanding that were revealed only to Moses. Therefore, it remains a statute to others, even to Solomon.
Rabbeinu Bahya
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Доступно только для Premium-участниковRashi
appointed him by God Heb. אִמְרוֹ. What was said about him from before the Omnipresent. The word אִמְרוֹ is in the masculine gender, from the form of (Ps. 5:2), “Give ear to my words (אַמָרַי).” אִמְרָתוֹ appears (ibid. 147:15) in the feminine gender, from the form of (ibid. 12:7) “pure words (אַמָרוֹת).”
Rashi
He will not have regard for any money to expiate for his denial of Him and his cleaving to idolatry. And our Rabbis expounded (Tosefta Baba Kamma 7:3): They will not despise a thief—This is one who steals away from his friend and goes to the study hall and engages in Torah. If he is found, he will pay sevenfold. [The intention is that] eventually, he will be appointed as a judge, and he will render legal decisions, for “sevenfold” refers only to the Torah, as it is said (Ps. 12:7): “refined sevenfold.”