Avot299

נושא: Avot

BET MIDRASH VIRTUALI

Ten things were created on Erev Shabbat at twilight. They are: the mouth of the earth, the mouth of the well, the mouth of the she-ass, the rainbow, the manna, the rod, the Shamir, the letters, the writing and the tablets. Some say that also the imps [were created at this time], Moses' grave and Abraham's ram. Some say that a wrench was made with a wrench.

11:
The mouth of the well. The Torah [Numbers 20:1] records the death of Miriam, the sister of Moses and Aaron. In the following verse we are told that there was no water for the people to drink. Although these two verses seem to be independent of each other the sages made the second a consequence of the first:

The Israelites arrived in a body at the wilderness of Zin on the first new moon, and the people stayed at Kadesh. Miriam died there and was buried there [and] the community was without water, and they joined against Moses and Aaron.

12:
The Tosefta [Sotah 11:1] explains that Miriam's virtue provided the people with a well which miraculously followed them throughout their wanderings through the wastes of Sinai.

As long as Miriam was alive that well supplied Israel [with water]; when Miriam died … the well vanished.

The Gemara [Ta'anit 9a] expands on this:

Rabbi Yosé the son of Rabbi Yehudah says: Israel had three good leaders, Moses, Aaron and Miriam; and three gifts were given to Israel by them: the well, the cloud and the manna. The well was because of Miriam's virtue … When Miriam died the well disappeared…

13:
Clearly, the later sages thought that a mobile well which followed the Israelites for 40 years and supplied them with water was something 'not natural'. Therefore, it was necessary that the well be 'implanted' into the blueprint of Creation, as that first friday became the first Sabbath.

To be continued.

I apologise for the extreme delay in posting this message. In Avot 295 we related to the statement in mishnah 5 that no fly was ever seen in the slaughterhouse. Reuven Artzi has the following very interesting information:

There is an opinion that in the slaughterhouses they much used insect-repelling incense of the kind that is based on pyrethrins derived from chrysanthemums. This grew in China and reached Persia and neighbouring countries. (Today a pyrethrin derivative, pyrethroids, is an insect repellant that has properties which are almost non-toxic to humans.)

I respond:

The Talmud of Eretz-Israel [Yoma 23a] gives the recipe for compounding the incense that was used in the Bet Mikdash. We do not find chrysanthemums there. Of course, some of the names of the ingredients may have indicated a plant other than the one it identifies for us today.

The festival of Sukkot begins on Wednesday evening. The Bet Midrash Virtuali is now going for its traditional break for the festival and the next shiur in this series will be, God willing, on Tuesday 9th October. I take this opportunity of wishing everybody a Ĥag Samé'aĥ.

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