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.