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

Midrash Tanchuma Beresheet on the Order of Creation

"Rabbi Yitzchak said: When a mortal builds a palace, be begins building from the bottom and then builds the upper part. But, the Holy One, Blessed Is He, first built the upper part and then He built the lower part, as it is stated, 'In the beginning of God's creating the heaven', and then afterward, 'and the earth'."

-- Midrash Tanchuma, Beresheet §4

Midrash Rabbah Vayiqra on the Eight Character Traits of Moses

"Any Torah scholar who lacks knowledge (Da'at), an animal carcass is better than he. Know that this is so. Go forth and learn from Moses, the father of wisdom, the father of the prophets, who took Israel out of Egypt, and through whom numerous miracles were performed in Egypt, and awe-inspiring deeds at the Sea of Reeds, who ascended to the heavens above and brought down the Torah from heaven, and who was the one who concerned himself with the work of constructing the Tabernacle. Yet, he did not enter the innermost chamber of the Tabernacle until God called him, as it is stated, 'He called to Moses and God spoke to him' (Leviticus 1:1)."

-- Midrash Rabbah, Leviticus 1.15


FATHER OF WISDOM : Chesed
FATHER OF PROPHETS : Hod
OUT OF EGYPT : Malkhut
NUMEROUS MIRACLES : Gevurah
AWE-INSPIRING DEEDS: Netzach
ASCENDED TO THE HEAVENS : Yesod
TORAH FROM HEAVEN : Tif'eret
TABERNACLE : Keter, Chokhmah, Binah

Introduction to Mishnah and Talmud

The Talmud is the Mishnah and the Gemara. Gemara means Completion. The Gemara is the completion of the Mishnah. The Mishnah is written with an extreme brevity of language; its statements are highly-terse and compact, requiring it to be unpacked and expanded in order to fully understand.

The Sages of the Mishnah began their tradition long before the writing the the Talmud as we know it today (these sages are referred to as "Tanna'im"), which consists of the redaction of the Mishnah and the much lengthier Gemara, which comprises the overwhelming bulk of the text of the Talmud.

The Gemara is the accumulated documentation of a period of intense Torah scholarship that lasted for well over 300 years. The scholars whose debates and inquiries are recorded in the Gemara are known as the "Amora'im".

There are in fact two Talmuds: Talmud Yerushalmi and Talmud Bavli. The Talmud Yerushalmi was begun slightly earlier than the Bavli. The Yerushalmi was written in Eretz Yisrael while the Bavli was written in Babylonia.

Talmud Yerushalmi contains a Gemara for every Tractate until the end of the Fourth Order of the Mishnah. The Sages of Yisrael were unable to complete the redaction of the Gemara for all Six Orders of the Mishnah. Talmud Bavli contains a Gemara for almost every Tractate for the Second through the Fifth Order of the Mishnah.

So for neither the Yerushalmi or the Bavli were the Sages able to finish the Gemara. The major missing component of both Talmuds is therefore the Sixth Order of the Mishnah, the Order of Purities.

The result of this analysis proves that the Sixth Order of the Mishnah remains the most elusive and difficult to understand of all the Orders of the Mishnah.

Talmud Yerushalmi on Keeping a Torah Scroll in the House

"If one sells a Torah scroll he inherited from his father, he will never see a sign of blessing. But whoever keeps a Torah scroll in his house, about him scripture states, 'Wealth and riches are in his house, and his righteousness endures forever' (Psalms 112:3)."

-- Talmud Yerushalmi, Bikkurim 26b


"A continuous fire shall burn upon the altar; it shall not go out." 

-- Leviticus 6:6