Pisqa’ 3351
1
“Then God said:
Take to heart all of the matters with which I have charged you today—
that you must command your sons to preserve and to observe all
the words of this Torah” (Dt.32:46)—
a person needs to coordinate his heart, eyes, and ears
through words of Torah.
And so He says:
“Spawn of Adam!
See with your eyes and hear with your ears
all that I am saying to you,
And take to heart your entry into the Abode” (Ezek.44:5).
Why, it is a logical inference!
For just as the Abode of Holiness,
which is visible to the eye and measurable by the hand,
requires [for its perception] the coordination of heart, eyes, and ears,
all the more so, should words of Torah
[require coordination of the mind and the senses],
for they are like mountains
suspended by a hair.2
2
“That you must command your sons to preserve and to observe all
the words of this Torah” (Dt.32:46)—
Moses said to them:
You’ve earned my gratitude for fulfilling the Torah after me,
just as you will be grateful to your disciples for fulfilling the Torah after you.
It once happened:
Our Master [R. Judah the Patriarch] arrived from Laodokia3.
R. Yose b. R. Judah and R. Elazar b. Judah
entered to study before him.
He said to them:
Draw near!
You’ve earned my gratitude for fulfilling the Torah after me,
just as you will be grateful to your disciples4 for fulfilling the Torah after you!
Were Moses not a great [teacher],
and had others not received the Torah from him,
it would have had no impact.
All the more so, for us!
This is why it is stated:
“Which you shall command to your sons” (Dt.32:46).
- H:344-345; JN2:386-387.
- //M.Hag.1:10; T.Hag.1:9.
- The modern city, Latakia, is like its Roman-era namesake, a major port on the Syrian coast. Rabbis are often depicted as departing by ship for Laodokia to raise funds for Jews in the Land.
- Heb: literally, “sons.” Cf. Pisqa’ 34:4 for the equivalence of “sons” and “disciples.”