Mishnah Kiddushin on the Laws of Witnesses to the Process of Kiddushin

The Mishnah tractate Kiddushin describes the process by which a woman is legally married by her husband. Generally in Talmudic law, witnesses are required to be present in order for an act to be considered legally binding. However, consider the conflict instigated by the very first mishnah:

"A woman many be acquired in one of three ways: through money, through a document of betrothal, or through cohabitation." -- Mishnah, Kiddushin 1:1

The commentators indicate their sensitivity to the laws of testimony:

THROUGH MONEY : "He gives money or an object of monetary value. This must be performed in the presence of two witnesses." -- Rashi

THROUGH A DOCUMENT : "Her gives a document which states that she is betrothed to him." -- Rashi. "It must be handed to the woman in the presence of two witnesses." -- Rambam

THROUGH COHABITATION : "He cohabits with her, telling her in advance that he is betrothing her through intimate relations." -- Rashi. "The witnesses do not observe the actual act, but observe the couple entering a private place together." -- Rambam

I find Rambam's last comment here to be interesting, since it conveys an ethical value that is not readily apparent in the original text of the mishnah.

Sefer HaZohar on the Stones Jacob Arranged

"And arranged them מראשותיו at his 'heads' [the literal translation]. At whose heads? At the heads of that place. What does this mean? If you say, 'Like a person putting something under his head' - no! Rather, at its heads, at the four heads, directions of the world: three stones to the north, three to the west, three to the south, three to the east, with that place above them arrayed upon them. Then, 'he lay down in that place'. Once the bed was prepared, he lay upon it. Who lay upon it? The sun."

-- Sefer HaZohar, 1:148a


This Zohar passage contains an esoterically encrypted meditation exercise. The specific step-by-step directions and geometrical placements will be obvious to those who already know them; the upshot here is to link this practice to the recitation of the verse from the Torah.

 

Sefer HaZohar on the Body Parts of the Torah

"Everything exists for the sake of humanity, as is written: 'I made the earth and created humankind upon it' (Isaiah 45:12). Torah stands calling out to human beings to engage in her, strive for her, but no one bends an ear.

"Come and see: Whoever engages in Torah sustains the world, maintaining every work of creation perfectly, fittingly. Every single smooth member in the human body corresponds to a creature in the world. For just as a human being is composed of members upon members, all standing rung upon rung, arrayed one upon another, yet all one body, so too the world: all those creatures are members upon members, standing one upon another, which when arrayed actually form one body.

"All these resemble Torah, for Torah is entirely members, joints, and sections - standing one upon another, all arrayed, becoming one body."

-- Sefer HaZohar, 1:135a


This section is coded for Shi'ur Qomah.

Sefer Hashi'ur on the Divine Body - The Use of the Word "Gubah" as the Height of the Body

Sefer Hashi'ur begins with a description of the divine body.  The Hebrew word for the height of the body is "gubah" (גובה).

This word was also used in the Babylonial Talmud as the word for "log", but specifically as the log of the palm tree in Bava Kamma 96a:


"If one stole a palm tree and made it into logs, he does not acquire it.  For even now, at any rate, they are still called 'palm-tree logs'.  Their name, then remains essentially the same.  If however, he stole logs and made them into beams, he does acquire them."

The reason is that the logs are called 'palm tree logs', while the beams are simply called 'beams', not 'palm tree beams'.  This indicates that a change of name effects the ruling.  This reveals a similarity in the concept of names between the halakhic ruling and the names of the parts of the divine body. 

The word is also used in tractate Shabbat 109a as the word for the pieces of a snake, in the following sense:

"One who swallowed a snake should be fed hops with salt, and be made to run for three mils.  There are those who report that Rav Shimi bar Ashi swallwed a snake. The prophet Elijah came and appeared to him as a horseman. He made him eat hops with salt, and he made him run in front of him for three mils. The snake came out of him in pieces."

The idea behind the word "pieces" means that the parts that came out were still intact to the point of being called 'pieces' of snake, and not as an amorphous decomposed matter.  This indicates that the word can represent the concept of a system being divided into pieces that all retain their ordered relationship to the whole, both in terms of the part-to-whole and part-to-part connections.

The teaching is that the names are the secret codes used by the divine intelligence to map words onto body parts with a mathematical precision that is a function of the sequence of Hebrew letters that make up the word.

Talmud Bavli Shabbat on One Who Swallowed a Snake

"One who swallowed a snake should be fed hops with salt, and be made to run for three mils.

"There are those who report that Rav Shimi bar Ashi swallwed a snake. The prophet Elijah came and appeared to him as a horseman. He made him eat hops with salt, and he made him run in front of him for three mils. The snake came out of him in pieces."

-- Talmud Bavli, Shabbat 109b

Talmud Bavli Bava Batra on the 'Double' Cave of Mechpelah

"Rabbi Bana'ah would mark the boundaries of burial crypts, so that people would not inadvertently walk over them and contract tumah (ritual impurity). When he reached the crypt of Abraham and sought to enter in order to measure its dimensions, he found Eliezer, the servant of Abraham, standing at the front of the entrance. Rabbi Bana'ah said to him, 'What is Abraham doing?' He replied, 'He is lying in the arms of Sarah, and she is peering at his head.' Rabbi Bana'ah said, 'Go and tell Abraham that Bana'ah is standing at the entrance.' Abraham said to him, 'Let him enter. It is well known that there is no physical desire in this world.' Rabbi Bana'ah entered the crypt, surveyed its dimensions and departed.

"When he reached the nearby crypt of Adam, and attempted to enter to measure its dimensions, a Heavenly voice came forth and proclaimed, 'You have gazed at the likeness of My image [i.e. Jacob]. Do not gaze at My image itself [i.e. Adam]. Rabbi Bana'ah replied: 'But I want to mark the extent of the crypt in order to ascertain the precise dimensions.'

"The heavenly voice responded, 'As the dimensions of the outer crypt (where the Patriarchs and Matriarchs were buried), whose size you have already determined, so are the dimensions of the inner crypt, in which Adam is buried. There is no need for you to enter and measure. And according to the one who says that the 'double' cave of Machpelah was configured as two rooms, one atop the other: As the dimensions of the upper room, in which the Patriarchs and Matriarchs are buried, so are the dimensions of the lower room, in which Adam is buried. Either way, no additional measurements need be taken.'

"Rabbi Bana'ah said, 'I glimpsed Adam's two heels from outside the crypt, and they were like the two orbs of the sun."

-- Talmud Bavli, Bava Batra 58a

Mishnah Yoma on Reviewing One's Torah Learning Often

It is a great virtue to review one's Torah learning regularly and consistently. It is reported that the Vilna Gaon reviewed the entire Babylonian Talmud every month (which normally takes 7.5 years by the Daf Yomi cycle), and that he reviewed the entirety of the tractates "Shabbat" and "Eruvin" every Sabbath. The word "Mishnah" means repetition, and it is especially important to verbally recite mishnayot often, so that they are always fresh in one's mind.

This virtue is brought to light in the Mishnah itself, in tractate "Yoma". This mishnah describes the preparations made by the Kohen Gadol during the week before the Yom Kippur avodah:

"They assigned the Kohen Gadol two elders from among the elders of the Sanhedrin. They would read to him from the Torah passage that describes the order of the Temple service on the Day of Atonement, and elaborate on its laws. And they would say to him: 'My master, Kohen Gadol, you should read this passage with your own mouth, in case you have forgotten, or in case you have not learned.'" -- Mishnah, Yoma 1:3.

Notice that the suggestion that the Kohen Gadol read the passages out loud, in case he forgot or didn't really learn them, is not taken an insult to the Kohen Gadol's stature. We learn from this that even the greatest Torah scholars should review their learning often and with great care.

The Distribution of Mitzvot in the Torah

The Torah is primarily thought of as a book of law. While the word "Torah" means "a teaching / the teaching" generically, some translate the word as "law". This comes from the idea of God giving commandments to Israel through his prophet Moshe. These 'laws' are the 613 mizvot (commandments).

The 613 mitzvot are distributed among the five books as follows:
1. Sefer Beresheet - 3 mitzvot
2. Sefer Shemot - 111 mitzvot
3. Sefer Vayiqra - 247 mitzvot
4. Sefer Bamidbar - 52 mitzvot
5. Sefer Devarim - 200 mitzvot

If you've been reading the weekly Parshah, know that the mizvot will be scarce in Sefer Beresheet. So far, we have only encountered the mitzvah to "be fruitful and multiply" (Gen. 1:28) and the mitzvah that "every male among you shall be circumcised" (Gen. 17:10).

Why are there so few mitzvot in the first book of the Torah? The purpose of the first book is to first set the stage and define the rules of the game, otherwise there would be no context to the narrative of God giving commandments to Moses from Sinai or from the Tent of Meeting. Additionally, the rest of the mitzvot would be incomprehensible if not for the narrative context that they are embedded within.

God gave the commandments to Israel. But who is Israel? We need Sefer Beresheet to first understand how Israel came about. This is why we find detailed lists of the generations of Adam and Noah and the patriarchs in Sefer Beresheet, while very little of this type of material appears elsewhere in the Torah.

Sefer HaZohar on Abraham's Circumcision and The Covenant

"Rabbi Hiyya opened, 'The blossoms have appeared on the earth, the time of singing has arrived; the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land' (Shir haShirim 2:12). 

"'The voice of the turtledove is heard in our land', for the word of the blessed Holy One was absent from the world until Adam was created.  As soon as Adam appeared, everything appeared.  Once he sinned, everything disappeared from the world and the earth was cursed.

"Noah arrived, but later, 'he drank of the wine and became drunk' (Gen. 9:21).  The inhabitants of the world came and sinned before the blessed Holy One, so the powers of the earth disappeared as before, and so they remained until Abraham arrived.

"As soon as Abraham arrived in the world, immediately, 'the blossoms appeared on earth' - all powers of earth were arrayed and revealed.

"'The time of pruning has arrived' - when the blessed Holy One told him to circumcise himself.  The moment that the covenant manifested in Abraham through circumcision, this entire verse was fulfilled, the world was firmly established, and the word of the blessed Holy One was openly revealed, as is written, 'YHVH appeared to him' (Gen. 18:1)."

-- Sefer HaZohar 1:98a

Sefer HaZohar on Torah Study and the Tree of Life

"How intensely human beings should contemplate the service of the blessed Holy One and engage in Torah day and night!  For on everyone engaging in Torah, the blessed Holy One prides Himself above and below - since Torah is a tree of life, a tree of life for all those grasping her, extending them life in this world and in the world that is coming."

-- Sefer HaZohar, 1:107a

Midrash Rabbah Beresheet on Abraham's Circumcision as an Offering

"Rabbi Levi opened: 'And a bull and a ram for a peace-offering (shelamim) to slaughter before the Lord, ... for today the Lord appears to you' (Leviticus 9:4).  Rabbi Levi said: Now if for this one who offered a bull and a ram for My sake, I will reveal Myself to him and bless him, then regarding Abraham, who circumcised himself for My sake, how much more so!  This is why immediately after the story of the circumcision it is written: 'The Lord appeared to him in the plans of Mamre' (Genesis 18:1) to indicate that God came to bless him in reward for having performed the mitzvah of circumcision."

-- Midrash Rabbah Beresheet, 48.5


Implicit in Rabbi Levi's midrash is the idea of Abraham's circumcision being analogous to the ritual sacrifices offered by the Kohanim in the Beit HaMikdash.

Sar Torah on Seeking Torah and Talmud

"I know what you seek and My heart recognizes what you crave: you seek an abundance of Torah and a tumult of Talmud, you hope for a multitude of legal discussions, to ask about the law. For a tumult of extension you are longing in order to multiply testimony - mountains and mountains of it; to set down sound wisdom - hills and hills of it; to magnify Talmud in the streets and dialectic in the squares; to multiply laws 'like the sand of the sea' (Gen 32:13) and my mysteries like the dust of the inhabited world."

-- Sar Torah, §287

The Sotah and The Parah revealed through Beresheet 18:27

"And the Lord said, 'If I find in Sodom fifty righteous men within the city, I will forgive the entire place for their sake.' And Abraham answered and said, 'Behold now I have commenced to speak to the Lord, although I am but dust and ash (עָפָר וָאֵפֶר). Perhaps the fifty righteous men will be missing five. Will You destroy the entire city because of five?' And He said, 'I will not destroy if I find there forty-five.'"

-- Sefer Beresheet 18:26-28

ALTHOUGH I AM BUT DUST AND ASH :

"As a result of this statement, Abraham's descendants merited the two mitzvot involving the ashes of the red cow, and the dust used for the sotah."

-- Baal HaTurim, Commentary on Beresheet 18:27

Moreover,

עפר = "dust"
=350
לשוטה = "for the sotah"
=350

ואפר = "and ash"
=287
בפרה = "regarding the cow"
=287

The "sotah" or suspected adultress, was forced to go through the ordeal described in Numbers 5:11-31.

The "red cow" is the Parah Adumah, whose ashes ashes are used for the purification ritual described in Numbers 19:1-22.

There is an entire tractate in the Mishnah called "Sotah" which deals with the laws of the suspected adultress. It is in the third order Nashim.

There is an entire tractate in the Mishnah called "Parah" which deals with the laws of the red cow. It is in the sixth order Taharot.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordeal_of_the_bitter_water

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_heifer

The Three Angels of Beresheet 18:2

From the beginning of Parashat Vayara, who are the three beings who appeared to Abraham?

"He lifted his eyes and saw: And behold! three men were standing over him.  He perceived, so he ran toward them from the entrance of the tent, and bowed toward the ground."

-- Beresheet 18:2


"Who were these 'three men'?  They were the angels Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael.  Michael, who came to relay good tidings to Sarah that she would bear a son; Raphael, who came to heal Abraham; and Gabriel, who went to overturn Sodom."

-- Talmud Bavli, Bava Metzia 86b


והנה שלשה = "and behold! three men (=701)"
אלו מיכאל גבריאל ורפאל = "these are Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael (=701)"

-- Ba'al HaTurim, Commentary on Beresheet 18:2