Notes
Prologue
1
See A. J. Heschel, Man Is Not Alone. A Philosophy of Religion, New York 1951, p. 200.
2
According to Bertrand Russell, time is “an unimportant and superficial characteristic of reality … A certain emancipation from slavery to time is essential to philosophic thought … To realize the unimportance of time is the gate of wisdom.” Our Knowledge of the External World, pp. 166-67.
3
“Time is an evil, a mortal disease, exuding a fatal nostalgia. The passage of time strikes a man’s heart with despair, and fills his gaze with sadness.” N. Berdyaev, Solitude and Society, p. 134.
4
See also A. J. Heschel, The Earth Is the Lord’s, p. 13f.
5
This is one of the aspects which distinguishes the religious from the esthetic experience.
6
Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Teshubah 1,3, on the basis of Mishnah Yoma, 8,8. A more radical view is found in Sifra to 23:27, and Shebuot 13a (the Soncino translation): “I might think that the Day of Atonement should not atone unless he fasted on it, and called it a holy convocation (by including in the prayers of that day: Blessed art thou, O Lord … who sanctifiest Israel and the Day of Atonement; and by wearing holiday garments to signify his acceptance of the Day as holy; see Tosafot Keritot 7a), and did no work on it. But if he did not fast on it, and did not call it a holy convocation, and worked on it —whence do we deduce (that the Day atones for him) ? Scripture says, It is a Day of Atonement—in all cases it atones.” However, the view that the Day atones even for those who do not repent but actually sin on the very Day is not shared by most authorities. Compare also the opinion of Rabbi, Yoma 85b.—Significant is Rabbi Yose’s conception of special times, Sanhedrin 102a. See also Tan huma to Genesis 49:28.
See also the views expressed by Rabbi Yohanan in Ta’anit 29a and by Rabbi Yose in Erachin 11b. Also Pedersen, Israel 1-11, p. 488 and p. 512; E. Panofsky, Studies in Iconology, pp. 69-93.
7
Genesis 2:3. “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. … for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth … wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy” (Exodus 20:8.11). In the Ten Commandments, the term holy is applied to one word only, the Sabbath.
8
See Tanhuma, Exodus 34:1 (31); Seder ‘Olam rabba, ch. 6. Rashi to Exodus 31:18. See, however, Nahmanides to Leviticus 8:2.
Holiness of time would have been sufficient to the world. Holiness of space was a necessary comprise with the nature of man. The erection of a tabernacle was not commanded in the Decalogue. It was begun in answer to a direct appeal from the people who pleaded with God: “O Lord of the world! The kings of the nations have palaces in which are set a table, candlesticks and other royal insignia that their king may be recognized as such. Shall not Thou, too, our King, Redeemer and Helper, employ royal insignia, that all the dwellers of the earth may recognize that Thou art their King?” Midrash Aggada 27:1; Louis Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews, III, 148f.
9
Numbers 7:1.
10
Each revolution from one new moon to the next constitutes a lunar month and measures about 29 days and 12 hours.
11
The Babylonian seventh day was observed on every seventh day of the lunar month; see J. Barth, The Jewish Sabbath and the Babylonians, The American Israelite, Nov. 20, 1902; also H. Webster, Rest Days, New York, 1916, p. 253f.
Chapter I
1
Philo, De Specialibus Legibus, 11,60 (Loeb Classics, Philo, VII).
2
Ethica Nicomachea X,6.
3
Rabbi Solomo Alkabez, Lechah Dodi.
4
The Evening Service for the Sabbath.
5
Zohar, I, 75.
6
H. O. Taylor, The Medieval Mind, I, p. 588 ff.
7
Mekilta to 31:13.
8
Genesis rabba 19,3.
9
Except the prohibition of idolatry, adultery and murder.
10
Otzar ha-Geonim, Yoma, p. 30,32.
11
Duas tantum res anxius optat, panem et circenses, Juvenal, Satires X.80.
12
The Afternoon Prayer for the Sabbath.
13
Isaiah 58:13. “He who diminishes the delight of the Sab. bath, it is as if he robbed the Shechniah, for the Sabbath is (God’s) only daughter,” Tikkune Zohar 21, ed. Mantua 1558, 59b.
14
Deuteronomy rabba 3,1; see Midrash Tehillim, chap. 90.
15
See Toledot Ya‘akob Yosef, Koretz, 1760, p. 203c.
16
Therefore we say on the Sabbath … “Rejoice O heavens, be glad O earth” (Psalms 96:11). “Heavens symbolizes the world to come, the world of souls, while earth symbolizes this world which is earthly and mortal.” Al Nakawa, Menorat ha-Maor, ed. Enelow, II, 182.
17
Shibbole ha-Leqet, chap. 126.
18
The Afternoon Prayer for the Sabbath.
19
Jer. Demai II, 23d.
20
Zohar, 88b. cf. 128a.
21
Rabbi Zvi Elimelech of Dynow, Bne Issachar, Shabbat, 1.
22
B. Auerbach, Poet and Merchant, New York, 1877, p. 27.
23
Quoted as a Midrash by Rashi on Megillah 9a; on Genesis 2:2; Tosafot Sanhedrin 38a.
According to the hellenistic Jewish philosopher, Aristobulus, on the seventh day was created the light in which all things can be seen, namely the light of wisdom. See Eusebius, Praeparatio Evangelica, ed. Gifford, Book XIII, chap. 12, 667a.
24
Genesis rabba 10,9.
25
Deuteronomy 12:9; cf. Kings 8:56; Psalms 95:11; Ruth 1:19.
26
Job 3:13.17; cf. 14:13 ff.
27
Psalms 23:1.2.
28
Shabbat 152b; see also Kuzari V,10; Yalkut Reubeni, Amsterdam, 1700, 174a, and the prayer El male rahamim.
29
See Shabbat 119b.
30
Wertheimer, Batei Midrashot, Jerusalem, 1950, p. 27; see L. Ginzberg, Legends of the Jewa, I, 85; V, 110.
31
Or Zarua, II, 18c. See the emendation suggested by L. Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews, V, 101; Geonica II, 48. Compare, however, the beautiful legend in Yalkut Shimoni, Tehillim, 843.
Chapter II
1
Exodus 20:9; 23:12; 31:15; 34:21; Leviticus 23:3; Deuteronomy 5:13.
2
Mekilta de-Rabbi Shimeon ben Yohai, ed. Hoffmann, Frankfurt a.M. 1905, p. 107.
3
Pirke Abot 1,10.
4
Abot de-Rabbi Natan, ed. Schechter, chap. 11.
5
See Shabbat 49b.
6
Rabbi Isaiah Horowitz, Shne Luhot ha-Berit, Frankfurt a.d. Oder, 1717, p. 131a.
7
Shabbat 12a.
8
“Rabbi Sheshet used to place his scholars in a place exposed to the sun in summer, and in a shady place in winter, so that they should arise quickly (when he lectured to them on the Sabbath). Rabbi Zera used to seek out pairs of scholars (engaged in learned discussion) and say to them, ‘I beg of you do not profane it’ (the Sabbath, by neglecting its delights and good cheer).” Shabbat 119a-b.
9
Al Nakawa, Menorat ha-Maor, II, 191.
10
Sefer Hasidim, ed. Wistinetzki, Berlin, 1924, p. 426; see Jer. Berachot 5b.
11
Deuteronomy 5:15.
12
K. Kamelhar, Dor De‘ah, Bilgoraj, 1933, p. 127.
13
Mekilta to 20:9. According to Edward Mahler, the verb “shabbat” does not mean “to rest” but “to be complete.” Shabbatu, the noun, means in Babylonian a cycle in a chronological sense, the day on which the moon completes its cycle, the day of the full moon. Der Schabbat, ZDMG, LXII, 33-79.
14
Jer. Shabbat 15a.
Chapter III
1
Shabbat 33b and the version and English translation in Maaseh Book, translated by Moses Gaster, Jewish Publication Society, Philadelphia, 1934, p. 25 ff.
2
Cf. e.g., J. H. Weiss, “Zur Geschichte der Jüdischen Tradation” (Hebrew), II, 143.
3
Friedlaender, Roman Life and Manners, London, 1908,1,6.
4
See, for example, the inscription on the tomb of Midas, Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, ed. Loeb, I. 99 f: “I am a maiden of bronze and I rest upon Midas’s tomb. So long as water shall flow and tall trees grow, and the sun shall rise and shine, and the bright moon, and rivers shall run and the sea wash the shore, here abiding on his tear-sprinkled tomb I shall tell the passers-by—Midas is buried here.” A similar view is implied in Joshua 4:7.
5
The designation urbs aeterna occurs already in Tibullus, and in the Fasti of Ovid (3, 78) and frequently in the official documents of the Empire, see Thesaurus Linguae Latinae, I, 1141. Jerusalem is never called ‘ir ‘olam. In the Hellenistic period the epithet eternal is emphatically applied to God, ribbon ha-‘olamin, θεóς (e9781466800090_img_1008.gife9781466800090_img_973.gifριoς, e9781466800090_img_976.gifαοιλe9781466800090_img_973.gifς) αe9781466800090_img_943.gife9781466800090_img_8032.gifνιος. See W. Bousset, Die Religion des Judentums, 3 ed., Tübingen 1936, p. 311, n. 5. We find, however, the expression ‘am ‘olam, Isaiah 44:7; Ezechiel 36:20, and the blessing in Jeremiah 17:25. The expression for cemetery, bet ‘olam, Ecclesiastes 12:5, is an ancient Oriental phrase.
6
Similar criticism of the Roman government was expressed in the circle of Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai, Baba Batra 10b; see also Pesikta de-Rav Kahana 95b. Praise of the Roman Empire is expressed by Rabbi Shimeon ben Laqish, Genesis Rabba 9,13.
7
W. W. Fowler, The Religious Experience of the Roman People, p. 387; G. F. Moore, History of Religions, I, 551. See especially Erwin Rohde, Psyche, Tübingen 1925, II, p. 336 ff.
8
Rohde, Psyche, II, p. 395.
9
Philippics, XIV, 12. According to an old maxim, “pleasures are transient, honors are immortal,” Diogenes Laertius, 1.97.
10
Mihi populus Romanus aeternitatem immortalitatemquem donavit, Oratio in Pisonem, 7. About Cicero’s true attitude toward the problem of immortality, see Rohde, l.c., p. 326, 1.
10a
Epistolae Morales (Loeb Classics) C11, 29. See A. Kaminka, in Sefer Klausner, Tel Aviv, 1937, p. 172.
11
Isaiah 40:6.8.
12
See the statement by Rabbi Akiba who was Rabbi Shimeon’s teacher in Abot 3, 14.
13
The blessing recited after reading the Torah.
14
Pesikta, ed. Buber, p. 39 b.
Chapter IV
1
Jer. Hagigah 77b.
2
Jer. Hagigah 77b.
3
Abot de-Rabbi Natan, chap. 28.
4
Berachot 35b.
5
See J. G. Frazer, The Myths of the Origin of Fire, London, 1930, p. 193 f.
6
Bet Midrash, V, 153.
7
Mishneh Torah, Ishut 10,4.
8
Rashi, Shabbat 150b.
9
Mishnah Sotah 9,14; Tosefta 15,8; Talmud 49b. The Hebrew word for myrtle hadassah was the original name for beautiful Esther (Esther 2:7). In Halevi’s poetry, the bride is described as “a flowing myrtle tree among the trees of Eden.” See I. Löw, Die Flora der Juden, II, 273. In Greek mythology, the myrtle is Aphrodite’s special plant and a symbol of love. Pauly Wissowa, s.v. Aphrodite, p. 2767; s.v. Myrtle, p. 1179.
10
Ketubot 17a. Rabbi Samuel the son of Rabbi Isaac danced with three twigs. Said Rabbi Zera: The old man is putting us to shame. When Rabbi Samuel died, a pillar of fire appeared, separating him from the rest of the world. And there is a tradition that a pillar of fire establishes such a separation only for one or two men in a generation. See also Jer. Peah 15d; Jer. Abodah Zara 42c.
11
The myrtle came to be considered as the plant of the Sabbath (“The Sabbath needs the myrtle,” Sefer Hasidim, ed. Wistinetzki, Frankfurt a.M., 1924, 553, p. 145). Following Rabbi Isaac Luria, many people would take on Friday evening two bunches of myrtle, recite the benediction over them and smell their fragrance. See Shulhan Aruch of Rabbi Isaac Luria, Wilno, 1880, p. 29a; see also Rabbi Isaiah Horowitz, Shne Luhot ha-Berit, Frankfurt a.d. Oder, 1717, p. 133b. Lauterbach’s explanation of the use of the myrtle on the Sabbath, Hebrew Union College Annual, XV, 393f, is incongruous with its role in the story of Rabbi Shimeon ben Yohai.
At the conclusion of the Sabbath, when the additional soul departs, one must be refreshed by smelling aromatic herbs, for at that moment “the soul and the spirit are separated and sad until the smell comes and unites them and makes them glad.” Zohar III, p. 35 b. According to Ibn Gabbai, Tola’at Jacob, p. 30a, the myrtle is preferable for that purpose. Compare the other sources cited by Lauterbach, Hebrew Union College Annual, XV, 382f. The Talmud speaks always of the use of aromatic herbs for the habdalah ceremony and never refers specifically to the myrtle. To this day, the custom of reciting the blessing over aromatic herbs contained in a spice box during the habdalah is common.
12
Following the statement of “the old man” that he was holding two bundles of myrtle in honor of the Sabbath (see above, p. 37), Rabbi Shimeon asked him: “But one should suffice you?” The old man replied: “One is for ‘Remember’ and one for ‘Keep.’” This was an allusion to the two different words with which the commandment of the Sabbath begins in the two versions of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:8 and Deuteronomy 5:12). According to an old mystic text, “Remember” is a reference to the male principle, “Keep” to the female principle, Bahir, Wilna, 1913, p. 17d. This we may assume suggested to Rabbi Shimeon the idea that the Sabbath was the bride and Israel the bridegroom.
Chapter V
1
Genesis rabba 11,8. The interpretation offered here is allegorical; compare Beure Hagra, Gaon of Wilna, Warsaw, 1886, p. 98. Israel’s relationship to God is partly an open fact of history and partly a mystery, an intimate act. To Rabbi Shimeon ben Yohai, the Sabbath is the sign of the mystery in that relationship. Says he: All mitzvot, all commandments, the Holy One gave to Israel in public, except the Sabbath which was given in privacy, as it is written between Me and Israel it is a sign for Israel le-‘olam, (Exodus 31:17). Between … and is a Hebrew expression for intimacy of husband and wife (cf. Nedarim 79b). The word le-‘olam (for ever) is written in such a way that it may be read as if it were vocalized le-‘alem: to be kept as a secret (Bezah 16a).
2
Shabbat 119a. Rabbi Yannai’s first residence was in Sephoris. Later rabbis found an allusion to the idea of the Sabbath as a bride in the world vaykullu (Genesis 2:1). Lekah Tob, ed. Buber, Wilna, 1884, p. 9a. Cf. the quotation from Midrash Hashkem in Al Nakawa, II, 191.
3
Rabbenu Hananel, Baba Kama 32a. Cf. R. Rabinowicz, Variae lectiones, ad locum.
4
Shabbat 119a. Rabbi Hanina ben Hama of Sephoris died about the year 250. There is, or course, no inconsistency in calling the Sabbath both “bride” and “queen.” An old Hebrew proverb states “the groom is like a king.” Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer, chap. 16, end. Specifically it is said in Zohar, Raya Mehemna, III, 272b: “The Sabbath is both queen and bride.”—If the day is a bride, who is the king? In the utterances of the scholars just quoted, it is left unsaid. To Rabbi Shimeon ben Yohai, however, the Sabbath is the mate of Israel. Yet, in the course of time, the idea assumed a new connotation. Indeed, Rabbi Yohanan, a scholar of the third century, speaks of the Sabbath as being the queen of God. See Deuteronomy rabba 1,18; Exodus rabba 25,11. Rabbi Yohanan, the famous head of the Academy in Tiberias, who died about the year 279, was a disciple of Rabbi Hanina the Great (see Jer. Baba Metzia, chap. 2, end; Bab. Niddah 20b) and of Rabbi Yannai (Baba Batra 154b; Yebamot 92b).
The famous Palestinian homilitician of the third century, Rabbi Levi, a pupil or a contemporary of Rabbi Yohanan, adopted the same metaphor. He explained why a boy is not circumcised until the eighth day: it is like a king who entered a province and issued a decree, saying: “Let no visitors that are here see my face until they have first seen the face of my lady.” The lady is the Sabbath. Since there can be no seven continuous days without a Sabbath, the child is exposed to the covenant of the Sabbath before it is entered into the covenant of circumcision. Leviticus rabba 27,10. In subsequent ages the second conception prevailed: the Sabbath is the bride, and God is like the groom. The Sabbath is the union of the bride with her heavenly spouse. Rabbi David Abudraham who lived at Seville, Spain, about 1340, says: Because the Sabbath and the Community of Israel are the Bride and God is the Groom, we pray: Grant us that we may be like Thy bride, and that Thy bride may find tranquility in Thee, as it is said in Ruth rabba: a woman finds nowhere tranquility except in her husband. Abudraham, Prague,1784, 44c; see also 45a. The Midrash referred to is probably Ruth rabba, 1,15 to 3,1. See Rabbi Moses ben Abraham Katz, Matteh Mosheh, chap. 450. This is also the way in which the term “bride” in Lechah Dodi is usually understood, see the quotation in Yessod ve-Shoresh ha-Abodah, Jerusalem, 1940, p. 164. See also Tikkune Shabbat, Dyhernfurth,1692, f. 28. The Sabbath is a synonym for the Shechinah, for the presence of God in the world, Zohar, III, 257a. See Bahir, Wilna, 1912, p. 17c. Rashi, the classical commentator, afraid lest the feminine metaphor led to misunderstandings, tried to rob it of any literal meaning by changing either the gender or the object of the metaphor. Rabbi Hanina, he said, behaved “like one who goes out to meet a King” (Baba Kama 32a). Or: “Out of affection he calls the celebration of the Sabbath ‘queen’” (Shabbat 119a) ! Similarly, Rashi states that Rab Nahman bar Isaac welcomed the Sabbath “like one who welcomes his teacher” (Shabbat 119a). See also Al Nakawa, Menorat ha-Maor, III, 586. Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Shabbat 30,2, employs likewise the term “king.”
It was the prophet Hosea who was the first to use the idea of romantic love and marriage in describing God’s relationship to Israel. God, according to him, is wedded to His people, loving it as a husband loves his wife (3:1). Yet it was another prophet who was the first to compare that relationship with the love of a groom for his bride: “As the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee” (Isaiah 62:5). Rabbi Berachiah enumerates ten places in Scripture in which God refers to Israel as a bride, Deuteronomy rabba 2,26; Canticles rabba, 4:21; see Pesikta de-Rab Kahana, ed. Buber, p. 147b.
That idea became a power in the history of the Jewish soul. It endowed the life of piety with superhuman poetry. It found its culmination in the interpretation of the greatest love song man has ever known: the Song of Songs. The Song of Songs assumed only one meaning: that of a dialogue between Israel, the bride of God, and her Beloved; an allegory of the history of Israel from the exodus from Egypt to the time when Messiah will come. On that subject see Salfeld, Das Hohelied Salomo’s bei den judischen Erklärern des Mittelalters, Berlin, 1879; S. Lieberman, Yemenite Midrashim (Hebrew), Jerusalem, 1940, p.12.
The event at Sinai is described as an act of God’s betrothal to Israel, Deuteronomy rabba 3, 12. And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet God. (Exodus 19:17). Said Rabbi Yose: The Lord came from Sinai (Deuteronomy 33:2) “to receive Israel as a bridegroom comes forth to meet the bride” (Mekilta to 19:17). Compare Ziegler, Die Königsgleichnisse des Midrasch, Breslau, 1903, chap. 10.
There is, however, an essential difference in the way the metaphor of the bride is used by the rabbis from the way it was used by the prophet. In the declaration of the prophet, Israel is called the bride, and the initiative, the attention, is on the part of God. In the words of the rabbis, not Israel but the Sabbath is the bride, and the initiative, the attention, must come from man.
5
See above, p. 22.
6
Geniba was a contemporary of Abba Arika who died in the year 247, see Jer. Abodah Zarah II, 42a.
7
Genesis rabba 10,9.
8
See Exodus rabba 41,6.
9
Al Nakawa, Menorat ha-Maor, 2, p. 191. “The Sabbath is actually wedded to Israel and the ceremony of the Sabbath eve is like the wedding-ceremony, namely the leading of the bride into the chamber. The Sabbath is also called Queen because of her being a royal bride: all Israelites are princes. This is why at sunset of the Sabbath Rabbi Hanina would exclaim: Come, let us go out to welcome the queen Sabbath, because it is the manner of the groom to go forth to welcome the bride. While the manner of Rabbi Yannai was different, he would not say let us go forth to welcome the bride, but, on the contrary, he would remain on his place and when she arrived he would say: Come in, bride; Come in, bride. Just as the bride arrives after the ceremony from the house of her father at the house of her husband.” Rabbi Samuel Edels (1555-1631), Baba Kama 32b.
Chapter VI
1
The Falashas did personify the Sabbath. To them the Sabbath is God’s favorite angel whom all the other angels adore and to whom they chant a song; see Louis Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews, V, 110. On the general problem of hypostatization in Judaism see Paul Heinisch, Personifikationen und Hypostasen im Alten Testament und im Alten Orient, Miinster, 1921; and W. Bousset, Die Religion des Judentums im Späthellenistischen Zeitalter, 3. ed., pp. 342-357.
2
Rabbi Joshua ben Hanania said: When a festival falls after the Sabbath (beginning Saturday evening) two blessings must be said, one with which we bid farewell to the Sabbath (habdalah) and one with which we welcome the festival (kiddush); first we must recite the habdalah and then the kiddush. Explained Rabbi Hanina the reason for this order: The hour on which the Sabbath ends and the festival begins is to be compared to a king who departs from a city and to a governor who then enters it; first you escort the king, and then you go forth to greet the governor. Pesahim 103a.
3
R. Meir Ibn Gabbai, Tola‘at Jacob, Warsaw, 1876, pp. 49, 38. Cf. the same reference in ha-Manhig, 70; Machsor Vitri, p. 116; Or Zarua, Zitomir, 1862, II, 49b. The custom is perhaps indicated in the passage, quoted in fn.2 of this chapter.
4
about 1, 15; 3,12.
5
Halakot Gedolot, p. 206, see I. Mahrschen, Jeschurun, Berlin, 1922, IX, 46. Cf. also Or Zarua, II, 9b.
6
“When the Sabbath arrives, we receive him with song and melody.” Midrash Tehillim, ed. Buber, chap. 92, p. 403. The generally accepted view that the service of welcoming the Sabbath, including the reading of Psalms 95, 96, 97, 98, 99 and 29, was first instituted toward the end of the sixteenth century by the Kabbalists of Safed (I. Elbogen, Der Jüdische Gottesdienst, p. 108) is open to question. Already Al Nakawa, who lived in Spain and who was killed in the year 1391, mentions the custom of reciting Psalm 96 at the arrival of the Sabbath, which he calls movaeh Shabbat, (a term unknown to me from any other source; it apparently corresponds to motzaeh Shabbat), see Menorat ha-Maor, II, 182. The choice of the particular Psalms may be explained with the reference to the kingship of God found in all these Psalms. The idea of the Sabbath as a queen is an allusion to the kingship of God. The song in the Musaf service: “They that keep the Sabbath, they that call it a delight shall rejoice in Thy kingdom” (Siddur Saadia, p. 112), may also be an allusion to the same idea.
Chapter VII
1
Sefer Hasidim, vulgata, § 54.
2
Shabbat 25b. According to some Kabbalists, the reason for the washing of hands and feet on the eve of the Sabbath is that we are like the priests at the temple in Jerusalem who were required to perform such ceremonial washing of their hands and feet before they began the sacred service.
3
Zohar, III, 136b. Quotations in this chapter are from the Friday Evening Service, except the one from the Song of Songs, 8:6.7.
Chapter VIII
1
“The Seventh day is the sign of the resurrection and the world to come,” and there shall therefore be no mourning on that day. Vita Adae et Evae, 41.1, The Apocrypha and Pseudopigrapha, ed. Charles, II, 151. According to Louis Ginzberg, The Book of Adam, Jewish Encyclopedia, the book is of purely Jewish origin.
2
Alphabet of R. Akiba, Otzar Midrashim, p. 407; see also p. 430. Cf. also the Midrash quoted in Kad ho-Qemah, Shabbat, end.
3
Mekilta to Exodus 31:17.
4
Mishnah Tamid, end. Cf. Rosh Hashanah 31a, where this Mishnah is ascribed to Rabbi Akiba.
5
Abot de-Rabbi Natan, chap. 1, where the final passage is found. The description of the world to come is also transmitted in the name of Rab. Berachot 17a. See also Midrash Tehillim, chap. 92, ed. Buber, p. 201a.
6
Rabbi Solomon of Karlin.
7
See above p. 41.
8
On the Sabbath a prayer is said at the end of grace: “May the All-merciful let us inherit the day which will be all Sabbath and rest in the life eternal.” Solicitude for eternal life is not brought to expression in the daily liturgy (see Kuzari III, 20). Yet in the central prayer for the Sabbath (the Amidah), which is read four times, we read the phrase: “Lord, our God, let us inherit Thy holy Sabbath,” This is perhaps a reference to the Sabbath as a synonym for the life to come, since the earthly Sabbath is, of course, already in the possession of man.
9
rabbi Elijah De Vidas, Reshit Hokmah, Sha‘ar haqedushah , ch. 2.
Chapter IX
1
The phrase Holy Spring (he-Aviv ha Qadosh), used as a title of a book published in 1947 in Tel Aviv is a gross spiritual anachronism.
2
Hermann Cohen, Jüdische Schriften, Berlin, 1924, I, 325.
3
Deuteronomy 12:5. 11.14.18.21.26; 14:23.24. 25; 15:20; 16:2.6.7.11.15.16; 17:8.10; 23:17; 31:11.
4
II Samuel 7: 1-2.
5
Psalms 132: 1-5.
6
Psalms 132:13.14.
7
Later rabbinic tradition claimed that on the spot where the temple was erected several important events took place (see Maimonides, Mishne Torah, Bet ha-Behirah II,2). Yet there is no reference to these events in the biblical account. See M. Buber, Ben Am le-Artzo (Hebrew), Jerusalem, 1945, p.2.
8
(Psalms 132:7.
9
Isaiah 66:1.
10
Cf. Isaiah 66:2.
11
Yalkut Shimoni I, 830. See the Midrash quoted in Tosafot Hagigah 3b.
12
This is why on the festivals we conclude the Haftora benediction: “Who sanctified Israel and the times,” while on the Sabbath we conclude: “Who sanctified the Sabbath,” —“because the Sabbath preceded Israel”; it came with the creation of the world, Soferim 13,14.
13
See Mekilta to 12:1; Eduyot 8,6; Mishneh Torah, Terumot 1,5; Tosafot Zebahim 62a.
14
“And Moses declared unto the children of Israel the set feasts of the Lord” (Leviticus 23:44). “Only the festivals need sanctification by the Bet Din (the rabbinic courts which must declare which day is a new moon, when the new month begins and thus fix the day upon which the festival will occur), not the Sabbath” (Nedarim 78b). See Mekilta to 31:15.
15
Boldly a Midrash declares: “The holiness of God, the holiness of the Sabbath, the holiness of Israel, all these are like one.” Seder Eliyahu Rabba, ed. M. Friedman, Wien, 1902, p. 133. Yalkut Shimoni, I, 833, reads: “The name of God.” It is perhaps an allusion to Isaiah 6:3—The sanctity of the Sabbath day was so keenly felt that for the nonobservance of its laws, the Bible had only one name: hilel. Hilel means to pollute, to defile, to profane the holy. It is a term for desecration; cf. Exodus 31:14; Isaiah 56; 2.6; Ezekiel 20:13.16.21.24; 22:8; 23:38; Nehemiah 13:17.18.
16
A ritual object is one which serves no other function than that of ritual. The wine and the bread over which the sanctification of the day is recited are neither sacramental nor ritual objects.
17
Numbers rabba 14,5.
18
Bahir, ed. Wilna, 1913, p. 7a.
19
See Shabbat 86b.
20
Rabbi Solomon ben Abraham Adret of Barcelona (1235-1310) in En Ya‘akob, Taanit 27b. The idea is implied in Bahir, ed. Wilna, 1913, p. 7a and 15b. Cf. the commentary by Rabbi Moshe Alsheikh to Genesis 2:7.
Chapter X
1
Mekilta to 31:14.
2
Genesis rabba 11,2.
3
See Mekilta to 20:11.
4
Bezah 16a; Ta‘anit 27b. The author of that saying is Rabbi Shimeon ben Laqish, who lived in the third century. See above, chap. 5, n. 11.
5
Rashi, the classical commentator of the eleventh century, gives it a psychological interpretation. To him, it is “the enhanced receptivity of the soul for quietness, joy and the partaking of food as well as the absence of any feeling of disgust Bezah 16a; see his remark to Toanit 27b. The text of Rabbenu Hananel in Bezah 16a is apparently corrupt. A more metaphysical conception is given by Ibn Ezra, the rationalist contemporary of Rashi, who claims that on the seventh day there is an actual increase in the intellectual power of the soul. See his commentary to Genesis 2:3. A somewhat similar view is found in Rabbi Menahem Meiri, Book of Repentance (Hebrew), ed. A. Schreiber, New York, 1950, p. 531. Even the great mystic Nahmanides is opposed to taking literally the concept of the additional soul; see his Commentary to Genesis 2:2; Similarly Rabbi Menashe ben Israel, Nishmat Hayim, Amsterdam, 1652, p. 53b. The Italian exegete, physician and philosophical author, Rabbi Obadiah Sforno (1475-1550) characterizes the additional soul as the enhanced capacity of man to attain that which God had willed that he attain when He said “Let us make man in our image, after our likeneas”, Commentary to Exodus 31:17. See also Meyer Waxman in Sefer Hashanah, vol. VIII-IX, p. 210f, New York 1947.
6
Zohar II, p. 88b.
7
Zohar Hadash, Genesis, 17b; Zohar III, p. 242b. A scholar of the thirteenth century, Rabbi Zedakiah ben Abraham Anan of Rome, says specifically: “On the Sabbath there are two souls in a man.” Shibbole ha-Leqet, 130. According to the Maaseh Book translated by M. Gaster, p. 305, “Man has one more soul on the Sabbath day than on a week day, and this can be easily observed in the fact that one is more carefree on the Sabbath than on any day of the week”.
8
Zohar III, p. 173a.
9
Rabbi Aaron Samuel ben Moses Shalom of Kremnitz (died 1616), Nishmat Adam, Pietrkow, 1911, p. 24.
10
A similar legend is told about Rabbi Joshua Horowitz, see Nezir ha-Shem, Lemberg, 1869, in the preface.
11
Sidduro shel Shabbat, Warsaw 1872, p. 8c.
12
Direct repetition is used today in rhetoric: He expressed a new idea—an idea of great significance.
13
The awareness of the spirit of the Sabbath is not restricted to one seventh of the week. The Ten Commandments are found in two versions: in the Book of Exodus and in the Book of Deuteronomy. In the first version the commandment of the Sabbath begins with the words: Remember (zahor) the seventh day, and in the second: Keep (shamor ) the seventh day. Said a medieval sage: “Remember it always, wait for its arrival (shemor means also to wait eagerly) … Wait, look forward to it like one who looks forward to Meeting a person he loves.” (Al Nakawa, Menorat ha-Maor, III, 575).
14
In the Sabbath liturgy we say: “Thou wast pleased with the seventh day and dist sanctify it, the most coveted of days didst Thou call it.” Where in the Bible is the Sabbath called “the most coveted of days”? The verse in Genesis 2:2, which we usually translate: “and God completed on the seventh day,” reads in an ancient Aramaic version: “and God coveted the seventh day.” See M. Ginsburger, Das Fragmententhargum (Targum Jeruschalmi zum Pentateuch), Berlin, 1899.
Epilogue
1
J. A. Wilson, “Egyptian Myths, Tales and Mortuary Texts,” in Ancient Near Eastern Texts, p. 8.
2
The Legend of the eben shetiyah is of post-Biblical origin, cf. Louis Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews, V, 14-16. Maqom as an appellation for God in rabbinic literature does not imply the deification of space but, on the contrary, the subordination of space to the divine. Space is not the ultimate; it is transcended by God.
3
See A. J. Heschel, Man Is Not Alone, A Philosophy of Religion, p. 200.
4
Tanhuma, ed. Buber, II, 76; see Rashi to Exodus 19:1; Deuteronomy 26:16.
5
Mishnah Pessahim 10,5.
6
Yadayim 3,5.
7
Abodah Zarah 10b, 17a, 18a.
8
Abot 4,22.
9
In the daily morning service we read: “The Lord of marvels, in His goodness He renews the wonders of creation every day, constantly.” The preservation of the world or the laws that account for the preservation of the world are due to an act of God. “Thou art the Lord, even Thou alone; Thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens with all their hosts, the earth and all things that are thereon, the seas and all that is in them, and Thou preservest them all” (Nehemiah 9:6). “How manifold are Thy works, O Lord … All of them wait for Thee, that Thou mayest give them their food in due season … Thou hidest Thy face, they vanish … Thou sendest forth Thy spirit, they are created” (Psalms 104:24.27.29.30). Note the present tense in Isaiah 48:13; 42:5; see also, 48:7. Job 34: 14-16; Kuzari 3, 11. On seeing the wonders of nature we pray: “Blessed art Thou … who performs the wonders of creation” (Mishnah Berachot 9,2; see the opinion of Resh Laqish, Hagigah 12b and Rashi ad locum). The idea of continuous creation seems to have been the theme of an ancient controversy. According to the School of Shammai, the benediction over the lights which is said at the outgoing of the Sabbath, is: “Blessed art Thou who created the lights of fire”; whereas, according to the school of Hillel, we recite: “Blessed art Thou … who creates the lights of fire” (Mishnah Berachot 7,5); see Joseph Salomo Delmedigo, Ta‘alumot Hokmah, Nobelot Hokmah, Basel, 1629, p. 94.