ב אֶת-שַׁבְּתֹתַי תִּשְׁמֹרוּ, וּמִקְדָּשִׁי תִּירָאוּ: אֲנִי, יְהוָה.
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2 You shall keep My sabbaths, and reverence My sanctuary: I am the LORD.
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ג אִם-בְּחֻקֹּתַי, תֵּלֵכוּ; וְאֶת-מִצְוֹתַי תִּשְׁמְרוּ, וַעֲשִׂיתֶם אֹתָם.
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3 If you walk in My statutes, and keep My commandments, and do them;
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ד וְנָתַתִּי גִשְׁמֵיכֶם, בְּעִתָּם; וְנָתְנָה הָאָרֶץ יְבוּלָהּ, וְעֵץ הַשָּׂדֶה יִתֵּן פִּרְיוֹ.
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4 then I will give your rains in their season, and the land shall yield her produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.
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ה וְהִשִּׂיג לָכֶם דַּיִשׁ אֶת-בָּצִיר, וּבָצִיר יַשִּׂיג אֶת-זָרַע; וַאֲכַלְתֶּם לַחְמְכֶם לָשֹׂבַע, וִישַׁבְתֶּם לָבֶטַח בְּאַרְצְכֶם.
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5 And your threshing shall reach to the vintage, and the vintage shall reach to the sowing time; and you shall eat your bread until you have enough, and dwell in your land safely.
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ו וְנָתַתִּי שָׁלוֹם בָּאָרֶץ, וּשְׁכַבְתֶּם וְאֵין מַחֲרִיד; וְהִשְׁבַּתִּי חַיָּה רָעָה, מִן-הָאָרֶץ, וְחֶרֶב, לֹא-תַעֲבֹר בְּאַרְצְכֶם.
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6 And I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid; and I will cause evil beasts to cease out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land.
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ז וּרְדַפְתֶּם, אֶת-אֹיְבֵיכֶם; וְנָפְלוּ לִפְנֵיכֶם, לֶחָרֶב.
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7 And you shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword.
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ח וְרָדְפוּ מִכֶּם חֲמִשָּׁה מֵאָה, וּמֵאָה מִכֶּם רְבָבָה יִרְדֹּפוּ; וְנָפְלוּ אֹיְבֵיכֶם לִפְנֵיכֶם, לֶחָרֶב.
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8 And five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall chase ten thousand; and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.
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ט וּפָנִיתִי אֲלֵיכֶם--וְהִפְרֵיתִי אֶתְכֶם, וְהִרְבֵּיתִי אֶתְכֶם; וַהֲקִימֹתִי אֶת-בְּרִיתִי, אִתְּכֶם.
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9 And I will have respect to you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you; and will establish My covenant with you.
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י וַאֲכַלְתֶּם יָשָׁן, נוֹשָׁן; וְיָשָׁן, מִפְּנֵי חָדָשׁ תּוֹצִיאוּ.
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10 And you shall eat old store long kept, and you shall bring forth the old from before the new.
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יא וְנָתַתִּי מִשְׁכָּנִי, בְּתוֹכְכֶם; וְלֹא-תִגְעַל נַפְשִׁי, אֶתְכֶם.
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11 And I will set My tabernacle among you, and My soul shall not abhor you.
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יב וְהִתְהַלַּכְתִּי, בְּתוֹכְכֶם, וְהָיִיתִי לָכֶם, לֵאלֹהִים; וְאַתֶּם, תִּהְיוּ-לִי לְעָם.
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12 And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you shall be My people.
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- According to Rashi’s comment on verse 5, what does “your threshing shall reach to the vintage, and the vintage shall reach to the sowing time” mean? What do you think an ancient person would think if he or she walked into a supermarket today? What are good things about abundance? What are some potential bad things?
- According to Rashi’s comment on verse 6, why are the blessings listed in this Torah portion in the order of abundant food and then peace? What does Rashi teach about peace? What do you think is a minimum to have peace? If you were to imagine a world at peace, what would it look like?
- According to Rebbe Nachman’s Torah on 26:4 (Leviticus, p. 427), what does rain symbolize? Where do you believe inspiration or genius comes from? Is it divinely inspired, or is natural? Why?
- In the Etz Hayyim chumash (p. 748, bottom commentary on verse 9), how does Maimonides explain why God rewards us with good things? What does he compare it to? Do you think this is true? Why or why not?
Adin and I chose to go with question numero tres: What does rain symbolize? Rebbe Nachman says rain symbolizes the world to come. We think this makes sense because after every rain storm there is sun afterwards which symbolizes the better in life.
ReplyDeleteAri and Adin
From Giselle Danielle and Rebecca:
DeleteWe agree with this. Similar to a rainbow at the end of a rainstorm, life gets better.
Sometimes after a rainstorm it is cloudy and sometimes there is more rain. Symbolizing that after something bad happens it might take awhile to get better, like theres clouds after a storm. Clouds represent the after effect after something bad happens.
DeleteClara and Mia
Yeah, but the worms after a rainstorm on the sidewalk don't exactly improve life, either. For them or for us.
DeleteIt may also mean life. Because without rain it would be very hard to live, ex: crops, water, etc.
DeleteAlso, thunderstorms are short, but dark and loud. If rain represents the world to come, thunderstorms could represent the bad in the world to come.
DeleteAlex you are right we didn't think of that and to Mia and Clara yeah you are right
DeleteNot to mention how Hannukah and Christmas are in the middle of winter, during the darkest part.
DeleteI am answering question 1 using Rashi. Rashi says that "your threshing shall reach to the vintage, and the vintage shall reach to the sowing" means that the grain will be very plentiful until it is time to harvest grapes, and then the grapes will be very plentiful until the grain season.
ReplyDeleteThe commentary is on Leviticus 26:5 by Rashi. According to the comment, the grain harvesting or threshing will last until the vintage or grape pressing. That will last until the sowing. There is overmuch yield from your fields with so much resources and materials that you will be working constantly with all of the abundance of natural sources. This was from Torath Kohanim 26:6 from the Talmudic sources. This is positive rewards for not doing negative commandments.
ReplyDeleteClara and I did question number 1: "According to Rashi’s comment on verse 5, what does “your threshing shall reach to the vintage, and the vintage shall reach to the sowing time” mean? What do you think an ancient person would think if he or she walked into a supermarket today? What are good things about abundance? What are some potential bad things?" Rashi says that there will be so much threshing that it will last until the vintage and you would have the vintage season until the sowing season. We think that an ancient person would be overwhelmed by the amount of food the supermarket has. It is good because we have options, but its bad if you are fat and keep buying the unhealth food.
ReplyDelete~Mia and Clara
I am answering question number 2, according to Rashi’s comment on verse 6, why are the blessings listed in this Torah portion in the order of abundant food and then peace? What does Rashi teach about peace? What do you think is a minimum to have peace? If you were to imagine a world at peace, what would it look like?
ReplyDeleteRashi says: "You might say, “Here is food, and here is drink, but if there is no peace, there is nothing!” Scripture, therefore, states, after all this [blessing], “I will grant peace in the Land.” From here, [we learn] that peace is equal to everything else. And so, [this is illustrated in our morning prayers,] when we say: “[Blessed are You, O Lord…] Who… makes peace and creates everything” [a paraphrase of the verse] (Isaiah 45:7). - [see Ber. 11b; Torath Kohanim 26:7]"
Rashi is teaching us that peace is equal to everything else, all of God's creations. The minimum to have peace is for people to treat other people the way they would want to be treated.
Micah Kanter
ReplyDeleteCommentator: Rashi
Question:According to Rashi’s comment on verse 5, what does “your threshing shall reach to the vintage, and the vintage shall reach to the sowing time” mean? What do you think an ancient person would think if he or she walked into a supermarket today? What are good things about abundance? What are some potential bad things?
Answer: He means that you will be producing so much you won't be able to take in all these materials. Your harvesting of wheat will be so much that you won't be able to harvest it all once pressing of grapes season begins. Your pressing of grapes will be so much that you won't be able to press all the grapes before sowing season begins.
Lessons: This can be very good because people will be happy with their lives and there will be less stealing. People will also learn that following in God's ways will reward you. However, this may be bad because people might start selling their food for extra wants instead of giving the extras to the poor. This may start bribery. Also, if one person has a lot more food than another, then coveting can happen.
Rashi comments on verse 6, "And I will grant peace: You might say, “Here is food, and here is drink, but if there is no peace, there is nothing!” Scripture, therefore, states, after all this [blessing], “I will grant peace in the Land.” From here, [we learn] that peace is equal to everything else. And so, [this is illustrated in our morning prayers,] when we say: “[Blessed are You, O Lord…] Who… makes peace and creates everything”
ReplyDeleteRashi is saying that peace is even more important than anything to a society on a whole, because anything other than peace can change a society REALLY drastically, and if there is never peace, the society is constantly changing.
I think that peace is not a bear minimum, because so many countries are belligerent so often. World peace can only be achieved by one final change, and thus world peace would never have any change, and we would always be thinking of the past, and never moving forward. Also, all the political science people would be screwed.
I agree
DeleteWe are answering the question number 1. According to Rashi: what does “your threshing shall reach to the vintage, and the vintage shall reach to the sowing time” mean? What do you think an ancient person would think if he or she walked into a supermarket today? What are good things about abundance? What are some potential bad things?
ReplyDeleteWe found in verse 5 that it says “your threshing shall reach to the vintage, and the vintage shall reach to the sowing time” means that the harvest that you receive will be so plentiful and will last far into the next sowing season.
What do you think an ancient person would think if he or she walked into a supermarket today?
We think that the ancient person would be surprised and maybe horrified with the endless supply of food we have at our disposal and how much of it ends up going to waste. He might think that the modern people are thankful and don't know the good thing they've been blessed with. Also, now-a-days we do not have to work ourselves for the wood that we get. It is given to us so simply and easily.
What are some good things about abundance? What are some potential bad things?
It's good because we have enough for everyone and there won't be shortages. Also, if there is an abundance of something the poorer or less fortunate people will still be able to have a portion. For example there is an abundance of water in the world for the time being and we know that the poor and homeless in America will have definite access to water.
We know that there are also potential problems with abundances of resources. For example if we have too much of something good we take it for granted and forget how lucky we are to have it. Also, if we harvest too much of something, there might be a time where we don't have enough of it anymore. At that time, we will not know what to do with ourselves and it will come as a huge difficultly and surprise.
Danielle Rebecca and Giselle
That last paragraph reminds me of the story of Yosef, where he prophesies that there will be 7 years of abundance and then 7 years of famine.
DeleteAlso, if threshing shall reach to the vintage, and the vintage shall reach to the sowing time, and also God curses the land, then that might happen.
Leora worked on this too
DeleteI answered question 1 Rashi thinks it means that you will be sowing the land until it is time to vintage and vintage until it is time to sow again. I think if a ancient person walked into a supermarket they would think about how amazing that all the food you need would be in one place and also they would think how it would be hard to fallow some of gods laws because they don't have to farm anymore. I think that abidance is good because they won't do anything bad and will lessen to you and never disagree with you. On the other hand if they are odidant and never there own person so I could never get to know them as a individual only as part of the obidant group.
ReplyDeleteJared
We did question one which was According to Rashi’s comment on verse 5, what does “your threshing shall reach to the vintage, and the vintage shall reach to the sowing time” mean? What do you think an ancient person would think if he or she walked into a supermarket today? What are good things about abundance? What are some potential bad things? That means that you will have just enough food till each time till you get more food. I think they would think it was crazy because we have so much variety and so much food. It is good because then we will not run out. But also the problem is that having so much food some places take away from other places.
ReplyDeleteI am answering question number 4, in the Etz Hayyim chumash (p. 748, bottom commentary on verse 9), how does Maimonides explain why God rewards us with good things? What does he compare it to? Do you think this is true? Why or why not?
ReplyDeleteMaimonides compares people not always being reward for following God's ways to a teacher who bribes children to do their lessons with gifts of nuts and candy. He also adds from (Mishnah Commentary, Intro. to Sanh. 10). that a good person should not ask "If I perform these commandments, what reward will I get?"
This teaches us that we should not follow God because we think we are going to get a reward. I think the reward everyone following God's laws is that the world can be a peaceful, orderly world.
Micah Kanter
ReplyDeleteCommentator: Rashi
Question: According to Rashi’s comment on verse 6, why are the blessings listed in this Torah portion in the order of abundant food and then peace? What does Rashi teach about peace? What do you think is a minimum to have peace? If you were to imagine a world at peace, what would it look like?
Answer: People first need to be able to survive, then you can move forward in society like making peace with others and then upgrading technology. For example, many African countries can't be technologically advanced like western countries because there is war and not a lot of food there. He teaches us that after peace is one of our needs that is why we put it with needing food because we don't put peace first, we put our life first.
Lessons: I disagree with this text because peace is not on the same level of importance of everything else. It is a need for humans to think of the now and that is what food and water represent. However thinking of the future and the good that could happen there is peace. Peace allows people to work together so that technologies can make us more happy. Thinking of the future is important but it is not a priority. The now is a priority because we must live in the now. If we live in the future, we don't know who we are and we could be living in our own land.
The commentary is on Leviticus 26:9 from the Etz Hayim Chumash. According to Maimonides, he recognizes that people who walk in God's path don't always get blessed and fortunate with abundant resources and long life. Maimonides compares this passage with a teacher bribing children to learn with toys and candy. According to Maimonides, a good person should not ask "If I perform these commandments, what reward will I get?". This will get into the human selfishness because they will expect abundant rewards to constantly be good people. Maimo says that we should do these actions and perform these commandments because we want to be good people, contribute to the community with material resources and community services, and not think about our rewards, produce, business, and afterlife. God just stated that good stuff will happen. We don't know when or how. For all we know, the prosperity could be thoughts of having no guilt or being pure in the spirit. These are not material rewards but they are spiritual rewards. I think things happen and being good throughout is the duty for a functional society to have order and prosperity and peace.
ReplyDeletei agree
Delete