Talmud Bavli Ta'anit on Teachers Learning from More From Students

"Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak said: Why are the words of Torah compared to a tree?  As it is said: 'It is a tree of life for those who cling to it' (Proberbs 3:18).  This is to teach you that just as a small piece of wood ignites a large one, so too with Torah scholars - the younger ones sharpen the minds of the older ones.

"And this is what Rabbi Chanina said: I have learned much from my teachers, and from my colleagues more than from my teachers, but from my students more than from them all."

-- Talmud Bavli, Ta'anit 7a


How do the younger ones sharpen the minds of the older ones?  When they persist with many difficult Qashe questions.

Sefer Hekhalot on Seventy Names of Metatron and the Oral Tradition of Torah

"Seventy names has Metatron which the Holy One, Blessed be He, took from His own Name and put them upon him. And all of them were revealed to Moshe on Sinai so that he learned them during the forty days, while he was sitting up there. The Torah in the seventy faces and seventy tongues, the Halakhot in the seventy faces and seventy tongues, the Shamu'ot in the seventy faces and seventy tongues, the Hagadot in the seventy faces and seventy tongues, and the Toseftot in the seventy faces and seventy tongues. These seventy names are a reflection of the Shem HaMeforash on the Merkava which are engraved upon His Kissei Kavod. For the Holy One, Blessed be He, took from His Shem HaMeforash and installed the Seventy names in His name: Metatron."

-- Sefer Hekhalot, ch. 48 (transl. S.A.O.)


HALAKHOT : Ways of life.
SHAMU'OT : Oral traditions.
HAGADOT : Parables.
TOSEFTOT : Lucid teachings.
SHEM HAMEFORASH : Explicit Name.
KISSEI KAVOD : Throne of glory.

Rashi on Exodus - The Patriarchs and Those Who are Lost and Not Found

"Moses returned to Hashem and said, 'My Lord, why have You harmed this people, why have You sent me? From the time I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your Name he harmed this people, but You did not rescue Your people."

-- Exodus 5:22


"The Holy One, Blessed is He, said to Moses in response: Woe! For those who are lost and are not found! I have good cause to bemoan the death of the Patriarchs. Many times I revealed Myself to them as El Shaddai, yet they did not say to Me, 'What is Your Name?' But you said, 'If they will say to me, What is His Name, what shall I say to them?'"

-- Rashi, Commentary on Exodus


LOST : Because they did not enter the promised land.

NOT FOUND : They did not find what Moses found when he asked for the Name to be revealed to him.

Midrash Tanhuma on the Day the Mishkan was Erected

"The Holy One, Blessed be He, said, 'Also I, when I come to you, I will come loaded with blessings and I will bless you. Where did He hint this to them? At Sinai, as it is stated, 'An altar of earth shall you make for Me... wherever I permit My Name to be mentioned I shall come to you and bless you' (Shemot 20:21).

"And when He came to them He blessed them, as it is stated, 'May Hashem bless you and protect you' (Bemidbar 6:24). When? On the day the Mishkan was erected. 'It came to pass on the day Moshe finished erecting the Mishkan' (Bemidbar 7:1). Do not read 'finished' (כלות), instead read 'bride' (כלה): 'On the day the bride entered the wedding canopy (chuppah)'."

-- Midrash Tanchuma, Naso §26


Once the Mishkan was erected, the Shekhinah dwelt with all Israel. Similarly, when the bride enters underneath the chuppah, the Shekhinah dwells with the couple and bestows blessings upon them.

Maimonides on Becoming a Prophet

"It is impossible that an ignorant person should be a prophet; or that a person being no prophet in the evening, should, unexpectedly on the following morning, find himself a prophet, as if prophecy were a thing that could be found unintentionally.

"But if a person, perfect in his intellectual and moral faculties, and also perfect, as far as possible, in his imaginative faculty, prepares himself in the manner which will be described, he must become a prophet; for prophecy is a natural faculty of man. 

"It is impossible that a man who has the capacity for prophecy should prepare himself for it without attaining it, just as it is impossible that a person with a healthy constitution should be fed well, and yet not properly assimilate his food, and the like."

-- Maimonides, Moreh Nevuchim 2:32

Aderet Eliyahu Commentary on Ezekiel - Anointed with Oral Torah

"Then I washed you with water, and I cleaned your blood from you, and I anointed you with oil." -- Ezekiel 16:9

Commentary ADERET ELIYAHU:

"In this verse, Hashem began to tell them the good deeds that He did for them at Mount Sinai: that He initially gave them the Written Torah and then the Oral Torah.

"The Torah is called 'water' as in Isaiah 55:1, 'For everyone who is thirsty, go to the water'. It is also called 'oil', as in Song of Songs 1:3, 'your oils have a pleasant fragrance'.

"Thus, the Written Torah is called 'water': just as everyone needs water every day and cannot live without it, so must everyone study the Written Torah every day. However, there are many who do not study the Oral Torah and hence, it can be called 'oil' because some people anoint themselves with oil and others do not.

"'I washed you with water', meaning that the Written Torah washes and cleans the soul of a person. 'I cleaned your blood from you' means that at the time of the giving of the Torah, the contamination they received from the serpent had ceased to be among them. 'I anointed you with oil' means that He then gave us the Oral Torah."

---

"And if the entire community of Israel sins, the congregation shall bring a young bull as a sin offering. They shall bring it before the Tent of Meeting. The ANOINTED KOHEN shall bring some of the bull's blood into the Tent of Meeting. Then he shall cause it to go up in smoke on the altar. Thus the kohen shall make atonement for the community, and they will be forgiven." -- Leviticus 4:13-20

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You will find that the ones who study Oral Torah and learn the secrets of Metatron will be the ones chosen to serve as the ANOINTED KOHANIM in the rebuilt temple and offer the sacrificial bulls and make atonement for the sins of all human beings. Only those who master the Oral Torah will be able to correctly perform the priestly service, thereby arousing the highest levels of divine mercy. 
 

Rashi on the Shema - To Love Hashem your God

"And it will be that if listening, you will listen to My commandments that I command you today, to love Hashem your God..." -- Deuteronomy 11:13

"TO LOVE HASHEM : That you should not say, 'Behold I shall learn so that I will be rich', or 'so that I will be called Rabbi', or 'so that I will receive reward for having studied'. Rather, all that you do, do out of love and the honor will come in the end." -- Rashi


honor = כבוד
כבוד = 32