How I became a Torah Scholar. By Aharon Moshe Sanders

I'm not really a Torah Scholar, just an enthusiastic student of Torah seeking my soul mate!
I Love to read Gemara- Artscroll in English!

There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle. Albert Einstein

You do not know me, nor do I know you. I'm the fellow who comes to minion, on a great day by 6am, on a perfect day at 8:30am, on an outrageously fine day (like yesterday) at 9am!

To what do I owe my insight to?

First answer out of the shoot, and into my brain, now flowing much more slowly, the typewriter-..the (keyboard rather) nowhere in particular. The second answer, also honest but it took me an extra step in thought,...Hashem. Do we not say the phrase each day- Ata chonayne l'odom da-as (or Da-at) if you daven nusach sphardi.

Now, if I go ultra politically correct, still true, however with an element of ingratiating myself with the powers that be, or may be, in the orthodox community which I live in: third answer (praise someone namelessly) and deflect honor away from self [Please excuse all spelling errors on all these pages]:

I owe my insight to the Daf Yomi, which you to can attend, even if sometimes you get there late and leave early.

I would never have gotten the insights that I now have regarding Torah concepts had I not started to attend the Daf Yomi in our shul which is given over every-day (not that I make it every day...unfortunately) at 7am. Well Sunday and Shabbos, the schedule differs, check the schedule.

Oh the insight...here it is:

According to Chagigah: Artscroll English pg 12a2-12a3, we learn about Tohu (astonishment/bafflement) and Bohu (emptiness/desolation)- Rashi..see Maaaei Hashem, Maaseh Bereishis ch3 very early in Bereishis )

Ten things were created on the very first day of creation: they are listed in Chagigah Artscroll 12a3:

Heaven

Earth

Tohu

Bohu

Darkness

Light

Breath

Water

Length of the day

Length of the Night

Now there is also the opionion that the 7 word phrase, In the beginning..and then all the way until G-d Elokim " Yihi Or" Said Let here be light!

Chagigah state that Rav Zutra bar Tovia said in the name of Rav: (pg 12a3) The world was created with ten things:

1) Wisdom

2)Insight

3) Understanding

4) Strength

5) Rebuke

6) Might

7) Justice

8) Kindness

9) Compassion

10) Righteousness

The actual 10 things mentioned in the Parsha Bereishis 1-5, and the ten things which Chagigah mentions ten attributes (more than an an allusion to the ten spherot-AhMbdvd ). finally the completion of the first 5 versus of Bereishis 1-5, is completed in 52 words. If we acknowledge that time is coming into the equation, then we know that the day is specifically mentioned, then we can extrapolate that the 52 words, is equivalent to a full calendar solar year of man. But man has not yet been created.

Man does not arrive on the scene until 317 words of Torah which correspond to 25 versus of Bereishis, and the creation of a number of many entities. (to be continued)

PS: I do not truly consider myself a Torah Scholar, as much as I consider myself an enthusiatic beginner with a great enthusiasm to learn.

Aharon Moshe Sanders 5:20pm September 26, 2007

Chag Sameach!

PS: The Gemara in places uses a numeric value of something of the order of 300 or more as a huge number. Therefore that fact that 300 words of Torah explain creation would be enough proof that there was a vast amount of time where things on heaven and earth came into being long before Adam Rishon came into existence.

Fianlly when man does come into existence after a complete cycle (like our solar year but on a much grander scale- a complete "creation cycle" of torah words (over 365 hebrew words) and the creation of man is discussed as "let us create man in our image". All the Rabbis state that this is G-d almighty, the Aleph to Tav of everything, the only true force in the universe, the knower of all things, the ominipotent being which exists outside of time, space motion, consulted with angels before creating man.

Why would the rabbis tell us that? What are they hiding from us? Do you want to know the truth?

You can't handle the truth!

The ten luminous emanations.

AhMbdvd October 1, 2007 11:48pm EST

http://thefirststartingpoint.blogspot.com/

The Ten Luminous Emanations

Here is how Talmud Mesechta Chagiga explains Creation:

Ten specific things came into being on the 1st day of creation. Tohu and Bohu were among the earliest creations. Tohu can be expalined as a sense of bafflement, or astonishment. Bohu seems to be on a lower level that of vastness or emptiness.

Breaking away form Chagigah we can actually count the hebrew words that are contained within the 1st 5 lines of Bereishis. Try it each and every time there should be no surprise that there are 52. Why should it surprize anyone to learn that the length of the day as told by Chagigah was also created on the 1st day and so we could also have the length of a year, as in 52 weeks.

Amongst the ten things that were created on the first day was Shamyim and HaEretz. Then we get some descriptive words of the earth, it was not formed (as in the opposite of-yesod)- yiso, and then of course Tohu, and Bohu. The tenth word in the description is Tohu, and then bohu comes as word number 11 in this very detailed description of the creation of everything that has been, is, and will be.

The first description of the first (creation) seven words of our Torah ends in HaEretz. It really is enough to understand that Hashem created everything in the begining, but would Hashem-Elokim, our teacher, be satisfied to give us such a simplistic explanation. The details get explained however there are no so straighforward or simple to get.

The fact that HaEretz is the same word just used to complete the first line of our Torah is now used to begin the second line of this incredible explanation us to how:the world, the luminaries, water, light, darkeness, land, stars, the moon, the sun and jellyfish, and all the living creatures and plants were created or formed, might cause one to wonder why that word Ha-Eretz (The World) gets repeated. How is Ha-Eretz, the 7th word of Bereshis, equal to the 8th word or the the first word of he 2nd line of Bereshis? Exactly!

Hmmmm...? I imagine my reader to be rubbing his/her eyes right now wondering...wait did I miss something. Absolutely! We all did! Hashem-Elokim our teacher is showing us the story within the story. The seven words, not suprisingly enough corresponds to our seven days, our week has seven days because that is how G-d created our ever so important calendar. Seven words from the mouth of Hashem-Elokim, turns into seven days for us.

I could mention here, particularly since the length of the day has not yet been created in the Torah's narrative, that how long does it take the average person to say seven words, would you agree maybe two seconds. Well those same two seconds could be like seven days, or even seven years in the life of a man. There are authors who do a far better job on man time and days versus G-d time and days then I, one notable one being Susan Roth in a book entitled "Moses in the 20th Century".

Okay, now back to the Torah. The first word of the second line of the description of the creation of everything from nothing, picks up the expalantion by using the very same word that ended the previous sentence. does the seem like a fluid blow by blow description of the events of creation to you? If we were in pre-1a reading: See spot run. Run spot run. then okay, that would be fine. No, this is Torah, there is a depth which must be plumbed or mined. Only with much digging, can we penetrate the actual meaning of the first 8-52 words of the Torah.

No. It seems like something started, then abruptly came to a crashing halt, (the breaking of the vessels) then after some semingly immeasurable amount of time (eternity might be a good word to describe how much time seeems to have gone by) creation picks up again with Hashem, now picking up the pieces (both literally and figuratively) and taking inventory of what has become of The World - Ha-Eretz!

Now, of course I do not expect one to simply think, oh...thats how it went down. No of course not. Students all over the world stay up all night gazing at the stars, considering the vastness of the universe, thinking and wondering, in awe of G-d Hashem-Elokim's creation, and how it came to be, and how it came from nothing!

Then we further break down G-d's active creation and formation of the universe, from the initial thought of creation. The thought of creation is not typically discussed becuase the world we live in today puts such little value in what a person may be thinking!

Then suddenly G-d Hashem-Elokim, creator of everything that is, was or will be removes a portion of himself, simply to allow space for the creation to exist independently from him. Creating darkness, and forming light in the very same instant, and...

Incredible energy, (which would make an Atomic bomb seem like a firecracker) gets released, condensed, momentarily, then released again in an a cataclysmic explosion with shock waves which are still emmanating in all directions at an incredible speed (faster then the speed of light) to this very day. Kabalists refer to this event as the breaking of the vessels.

(to be continued)

Aharon Moshe ben-Dovid
http://ratzon.blogspot.com/
http://thewriterscafe.org

Imitation- The Sincerest Form of Flattery!

Would G-d be Angry that we are cloning sheep!

I forgot why, but I always remember my brother saying that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. I suppose along with we might remember hearing that flattery will get you everywhere.