The Lakewood View

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

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/

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