my_torah

I recently listened to a programme on BBC Radio 4 "Religion and numbers" in the "Beyond Belief" series.

It was such an ill-informed attempt by three [all Jewish?] presenters to explain the significance of "special" numbers in Bible and Judaism, that it made me think that even I could do a better job
- so here are my quickly produced notes on that topic - please feel free to comment and correct

Significance of numbers in the Torah and in Judaism
===================================================

First of all it is worth saying that in Biblical and Talmudic times Jewish numbers operated on the basis of a mix of a decimal system Units of 10s 100s etc and the Babylonian system based on base 60.

The Babylonians and before then the Sumerians were amazing mathematicians and astronomers and they knew Pythagorus' theorem a thousand years before Pythagoras, calculated Pi and the square root of 2 with some accuracy, invented or pioneered alphabetic writing and knew about musical chords and harmonies. Our Semitic ancestors inherited much from their culture.

1 Unity, God
2 witnesses, tablets of stone [sides of a covenant]
3 comes up a lot – a rhetorical number eg “x said 3 things”.
4 corners of garment, of the earth, 4 amot = 3 paces – a person’s space, 4 expressions of redemption
4 x 4 tephachim a minimum measure of an area
5 one more than four [fifth expression of redemption, future redemption]
5 fingers on a hand
6 one less than seven
7 days in a week, days the world was created, seven years to the sabbatical year – a quarter moon
[Babylonian Astronomy – The five visible planets planets - Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn + moon + sun = 7, each corresponding to a deity and a day of the week]
8 one more than seven – circumcised on 8th day
10 men making a congregation – 10 bad spies, 10 righteous men to save Sodom
10 sayings to create the world, 10 commandments [speakings]
10 plagues
10 generations from Adam to Noah, from Noah to Abraham
10 digits on two hands
10 tephachim – a minimum height dimension for a succah [size of main part of a human body]
12 tribes, spies
12 hours in the day [from Babylonian system]
12 bones in the fingers of one hand [& a way of counting on the fingers of one hand using the thumb]
15 half way through month, full moon, commencement of many Jewish festivals [Akkadian mid-month SABBATTU]
18 Chai [life], 18 benedictions, 18 minutes added to start of Shabbat, time it takes a man to walk a talmudic mile?
20 amot, maximum height for a succah
28 days in a month [approx]
30 days in a month[approx]
39 one less than 40 [In the Mishnah the primary types of “melacha” creative work that may not be done on Shabbat, less the one that only God can do ie [yesh me-ayin] “the creation of something from nothing”]
40 days and nights of rain in flood, Moses on Sinai,
“Forty is associated with almost each new development in the history of God’s mighty acts, especially of salvation, e.g. the Flood, redemption from Egypt, Elijah and the prophetic era,.. The following periods of 40 days may be listed: the downpour of rain during the Flood (Gn. 7:17); the despatch of the raven (Gn. 8:6); Moses’ fasts on the mount (Ex. 24:18; 34:28; Dt. 9:9); the spies’ exploration of the land of Canaan (Nu. 13:25); Moses’ prayer for Israel (Dt. 9:25); Goliath’s defiance (1 Sa. 17:16); Elijah’s journey to Horeb (1 Ki. 19:8); Ezekiel’s lying on his right side (Ezk. 4:6); Jonah’s warning to Nineveh (Jon. 3:4);”
40 years for a generation to die out in the wilderness, land was at peace for 40 years
“For 40 years, the general designation of a generation, the following may be quoted: the main divisions of Moses’ life (Acts 7:23, 30, 36; Dt. 31:2); Israel’s wandering in the wilderness (Ex. 16:35; Nu. 14:33; Jos. 5:6; Ps. 95:10); the recurring pattern of servitude and deliverance in the era of the judges (e.g. Jdg. 3:11; 13:1); “
40 se’ot = volume of human body, 40 volume of a mikvah
50 one more than 49 = 7 x 7 Shavuot celebrated, Jubilee year
60 a Babylonian hundred
1 in 60 [in the Talmud] is the equivalent of 1% nowadays
70 descendants of Noah to repopulate the earth, 70 nations of the world, 70 understandings of Torah, 70 elders appointed under Moses, 70 men in the Sanhedrim, 70 years the span of a man’s life
“Seventy is often connected with God’s administration of the world. After the Flood the world was repopulated through 70 descendants of Noah (Gn. 10); 70 persons went down to Egypt (Gn. 46:27); 70 elders were appointed to help Moses administer Israel in the wilderness (Nu. 11:16); the people of Judah spent 70 years of exile in Babylon (Je. 5:11; 29:10); 70 weeks, ‘sevens’, were decreed by God as the period in which Messianic redemption was to be accomplished (Dn. 9:24);”
100 me’ah “mah hashem elohecha sho’el meimcha?” What does God ask of you? 100 berachot a day, 100 blasts on the shofar on Rosh HaShanah
“Deuteronomy 10:12, Moses tells the Jewish people: "What (mah) does God ask of you?” The Talmud explains that the word mah can be read as me’ah, meaning 100. In other words, God asks us to recite (at least) 100 brachot every day.”
365 the days in a year, the years in Enoch’s life – suggesting perfection? Number of positive mitzvot, bones + organs in the body [though that is not a fixed number]
600 is a Babylonian thousand
1000 a thousand years – a day in God’s sight. Adam lived 1,000 less 70 years [which he gave to his descendant King David].
600,000 is a Babylonian million [population of Israel in wilderness = the men, approximate number of letters in the Torah]

This is the first of two posts, as the exercise has led me to question

"What is special about the number 40 in the Bible?"

That will be the subject of PART 2.

As you teach, you learn...

I have just started, what I hope will be an ongoing project at least for a few months, of learning regularly with my youngest son.
We are learning "Middos" - good attributes of behaviour - and reading Pirkei Avot, the section of the Mishna that records the "Ethics of the Fathers".

When I read the first verses with my son, all sorts of questions came to my mind that I had never noticed before, and I want to blog about them here.
--------

Ethics of the fathers - Mishna Avot Chapter 1

כל ישראל יש להם חלק לעולם הבא, שנאמר ועמך כולם צדיקים, לעולם יירשו ארץ, נצר מטעי מעשה ידי להתפאר.

Kol yisrael yesh lahem cheilek l’olam habah, she-neh-eh-mar, v’ameich koolam tzaddeekeem, l’olam yeershoo ah-retz, neitzer mah-tah-ai, mah-ah-say yah-dai, l’heet-pah-air.

All Israel have a share in the World To Come, as it is stated (Isaiah 60:21): ‘And your people are all tzadikim (righteous).’ They shall inherit the land forever. They are the branch of My planting, the work of My hands, in which I take pride. (Talmud, Sanhedrin 90a)

The tradition is to open each chapter with the passage above which derives the [at first glance] very comforting idea [for Jews] that every Jew has a portion in the World to Come. A birthright, apparently.

This teaching is not part of Mishna Avot but is taken from elsewhere in the Mishna [Sanhedrin 11:1] and it uses a verse from Isaiah 60:23 to argue every Jew has a part in the World to Come.

My Questions:

1. Why is this added here?
2. What is meant by "The World to come" ?
3. How can one possibly say that ALL of the Jewish people are righteous?
4. What is meant by this "portion" in the World to come?
5. And how does the Mishna derive that conclusion from the verse in Isaiah which seems to be saying something totally different

I have been looking for answers:

1. "Why is this added here?" - I don't know - let's come back to that.

2. "What is meant by "The World to come" ?" - I always thought the World to Come meant Heaven / the afterlife - however the Lubavitche Rebbe argues that here specifically it means the life on earth after the resurrection of the dead. See http://www.chabad.org/therebbe/article_cdo/aid/145229/jewish/Part-I.htm
because those who do not believe in the resurrection of the dead forfeit it, according to the following section in Mishnah Sanhedrin. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Talmud/sanhedrin11.html
Well, there goes my portion, I guess!

3. Clearly all peoples and nations have good people and bad people [and in-between people]. one reading of Isaiah would be "IF your people are all of them righteous THEN they will inherit the land forever" - a bit less reassuring, but nevertheless consistent with many other conditional promises in the Torah.

However this does not work so well with the context in Isaiah and certainly not with the interpretative reading in the Mishna. Reading the Radak's commentary on the verse in Isaiah he says that this means that in this ideal future time of which Isaiah speaks, God will have "refined the people of Israel like silver" Zecharia 13:9, leaving only the righteous surviving in Jerusalem!

A far less comforting thought...!

4. "What is meant by this "portion" in the World to come?" - One explanation is that it is a plot of land [maybe a metaphorical plot of land]

You have your plot of land but how good it is will depend on how you work on it.

5. "And how does the Mishna derive this...from the verse?"
- le'olam in the verse appears to mean "forever"
- the Mishna puns on this word to take it to mean "for the World [to come]" then the "land" in the verse is taken to be a plot of land - a portion that each person will inherit.
And of course the World to Come is well known to be for "the Righteous" so it all reads very nicely in this novel interpretation.

This brings us back to Q1. "Why is this added here?" at the beginning of the study of the chapters of Avot which deal with ethical behaviour.

I think it is saying - each of you has your metaphorical plot of land for the next World - but if you neglect to work on your character, ethics and good deeds in this life, your reward will be less in the word to come - your plot will be mangy and depleted. Work on character, ethics and good deeds contained in these chapters and your "plot of land" in the World to Come will be a rich and fertile one - you will reap your reward.

This was my contribution to the shul newsletter celebrate the Bar Mitzvah of my younger son who read maftir of Ki Tetze:

How can we relate to those of whatever persuasion who breach the peaceful sanctity of a House of G-d through acts of violence?

Today’s Sedrah concludes with the command: ‘Blot out the memory of Amalek’ (Devarim 25:19). On Purim 1994, a Jewish man, Baruch Goldstein, entered a mosque in Hebron and started shooting people, equating Arabs with Amalek. If we identify enemies of Israel today with Amalek, it is a short step to believing that we are commanded to ‘wipe them out’.

It is therefore important to teach our own children that Amalek is not to be identified with anyone today. We learn in the Talmud (Berachot 28a) that Sennacherib, King of Assyria, ‘mixed up the nations’ long ago. According to this teaching, since Amalekites cannot be identified today it follows that it is impossible nowadays to fulfil ‘Blot out the memory’ by killing Amalekites.

Nevertheless, historically Jews have identified Amalek with various nations such as Rome and Germany. We need a ‘fence around the Torah’ when we feel driven to ‘religious’ violence: the inner ear of conscience. HaRav Aharon Lichtenstein zt’l (d. 2015) wrote (in ‘Halacha VaHalachim’): ‘Of course, a Jew must be ready to answer the call “I am here” if the command “to offer him up as an offering” is thrust upon him [a reference to the Akedah – Binding of Isaac]. However, prior to unsheathing his sword, he is permitted, even obligated, to clarify if indeed this is what has actually been commanded. ...To the extent that there is a need and room for Halachic exegesis – and this must be clarified – a sensitive and insightful conscience is one of the factors that help to shape the decision-making process.’


--
I had to cut a lot out, as there was a word limit of 300 words.

I would have liked to reference the fine essay
by Rabbi Nathaniel Helfgott in Mikra and Meaning,
“Amalek: Ethics,Values, and Halachic development”

Also worth a read for those troubled by the Amalek mitzvah are Gil Student's blog posts:
http://www.torahmusings.com/2012/03/amalek-and-morality/
and
http://www.torahmusings.com/2012/02/contemporary-amalek/

My son recently reached the age of Bar Mitzvah.

I had some qualms about saying the blessing "Shepatarani" “Blessed be ...who has exempted me of responsibility of this child)” - since I am not sure exactly when a father becomes free of responsibility for his son.

I noticed when the Rabbi instructed me to say the relevant blessing in Synagogue after his call-up and reading from the Torah that it is said b’li shem u’malchut (without the words "HaShem our God, King of the Universe") – so that it is not really a “berachah” – so I felt fairly OK to conform to convention and say it and I assume from this wording that the Rabbis had similar doubts about the blessing.

I found online this goes back to Moshe Isserles (the Gra) who is the Ashkenasi commentator on the Shulchan Aruch:

https://ccarnet.org/responsa/curr-88-90/
“There is, of course, a fairly simple way out of the objection against the violation involved in beracha l'vatala (wasted blessing). This is illustrated by the decision of Moses Isserles (the Rama) to Orah Hayyim 225:2 (in the Shulchan Aruch), where there is some doubt as to the validity of the blessing to be recited by the father at the son's Bar Mitzvah. Here, there is danger of a beracha l'vatala if, after all, the blessing is really not required. Therefore Isserles solves the problem by having the blessing recited, leaving out the words, "O Lord, our God, King of the universe." This is the method that the rabbis often follow when they are uncertain as to whether the blessing is required or not. They have the blessing recited without using the Name of God, or as they say, "b'li Shem u-malchus, " because the real objection to the "wasted" blessing is using the name of God in vain. When you leave out the name of God, the objection to reciting the blessing virtually vanishes.”

I read some more interesting further discussion on Judaism.stackexchange where it emerges that the use of “b’li shem u’malchut” for a blessing said in a case of a doubtful commandment or action or change of status is only used in certain restricted cases where it is not possible to say Amen to someone who is definitely obligated. The preferred solution to a case of doubt is for the person to say "Amen" to another who has a more definite obligation:
http://judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/28650/why-dont-we-count-sefirah-without-shem-umalkhut
gives some examples:
“@joshwaxman I know of only 5 such instances in Shulchan Aruch: birkot hashachar if you didn't do that action, hagomel (the blessing said on surviving a danger), miracle location (blessing on a place where a miracle occurred), chalitza (the levirate marriage ceremony), and shepterani (blessing by a father on his child reaching Bar/Bat Mitzvah. (Orach Chayim 46:8 218:9 219:3 225:2 Even HaEzer Chalitza 57). “
In each case the person is in a situation where there is doubt about whether the blessing is required and they cannot say Amen to someone who is definitely obligated (which would be the preference).

There are other cases where people say blessings “without Name of Kingship” – there is the “Baruch dayan emet” one says on hearing of a death, and there is “Baruch HaMavdil” that people say before switching on the lights on Shabbat evening when they have not made Havdallah.

IN the case of “Baruch dayan emet” I imagine the doubt is about how sincere we are able to be when we say this. The saying "Blessed is the true Judge" on hearing of a person's death is a theological statement which rides in the face of our emotional response - there may be a recognition in say the blessing in short form that we are actually a bit conflicted when we say it.

As for Baruch HaMavdil - I do not understand this practice.

--
There is an interesting case discussed in Talmud Berachot of Benjamin the Shepherd and his Aramaic blessing after bread.

Benjamin's blessing is recorded as being (in Aramaic) "Brich malka d’alma marei d’hai pita. . The Rabbis ask "Was this a valid blessing?"

See my friend Alexander's blog http://alexandermassey.com/brich-rachamana/ and also Talmud, Berachot 40b.

I think the issue in Berachot 40b is that blessing after bread is considered to be a positive mitzvah d’orayta (from the Torah). The question the Talmud is discussing is whether Benjamin with his wording in Aramaic fulfilled his Torah commandment to bless after eating bread. (“And thou shalt eat and be satisfied, and bless the LORD thy God for the good land which He hath given thee. Deut 8:10).

They conclude that without the Name of God in the wording (and according to one opinion without the Name and Kingship of God) mentioned, he had not.

Blessing on bread is an unusual case, since most blessings are d’rabannan (ie instituted by the Rabbis) – though I am not sure that this makes much difference to the halacha, except in cases where there is a doubt about whether one should say the blessing. Perhaps also it makes any doubt about whether one had said the blessing “properly” more significant.

A shepherd might also be an interesting case because he would be someone who would be eating alone with his sheep, perhaps, so could not say Amen to the blessing of someone more educated with whom he was eating.

I like that Rav validates the blessing of this ignorant but pious 3rd century Jewish shepherd.

The Talmudic passage also establishes the idea that one can fulfill a blessing in translation in the vernacular – which when I come to think about it makes it possibly slightly problematic saying a blessing in both Hebrew and in English translation, as the second of these would be a wasted blessing.

On the other hand many things may be done for "chinuch" (for the sake of education of children).

Astract:

My starting point was the question

“Why do we lift up our hands to the light when we say the blessing “Borei More Ha’aish” (who creates the lights of the fire).

My investigation of this question not only answered the original question but has led me into a deeper and I think fascinating understanding of the Jewish customs and practices of Havdallah, and also perhaps, of Shabbat and Friday night.

This is a relatively long article for my Torah blog, but if it succeeds in explaining to you what all the customs of Shabbat are about, isn’t it worth persisting and reading to the end?


Foreword:
I have quoted some Midrashim to form a flow of ideas and to propose a thesis for the origins of Shabbat & Havdallah customs. However I would not want to give the impression that there are not other contrary Midrashim. For every question there will be a plethora of Midrashic answers. The “truth” in Midrash is like the lights of the Havdallah candle - many lights forming a flickering fiery flame.

The First Light
First let us start at the very beginning:
The creation of Light on the first day of creation.

Sceptics about the Biblical creation story often pose the question:
“How could Light and Darkness, Day and Night have been created on the 1st day when the sun and moon are not created until the 4th day?”

The Rabbinic answer (dating back thousands of years) is that we are talking on the first day of creation about a wholly different type of “Light”:

Genesis Rabba XI 2.
III. 6] MIDRASH RABBAH

6. It was taught : The light which was created in the six
days of Creation cannot illumine by day, because it would
eclipse the light of the sun, nor by night, because it was
created only to illumine by day. Then where is it? It is
stored up for the righteous in the Messianic future, as it
says, “Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light
of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the
light of the seven days” (Isa. xxx, 26)

With the sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden there was a consequent diminishing of this primordial light. The light of the first day was “hidden away” for the “Olam HaBa” (the world to come) and the righteous will enjoy it.

Next there is the question of a curious act of chesed (kindness) by God to the first Man and Woman. At the end of the decree of punishment of Adam and Eve for disobeying the first mitzvah, and eating the fruit of the tree of Knowledge of good and evil in the garden of Eden, the Torah says:

כא וַיַּעַשׂ יְהוָה אֱלֹהִים לְאָדָם וּלְאִשְׁתּוֹ, כָּתְנוֹת עוֹר--וַיַּלְבִּשֵׁם. {פ} 21 And the LORD God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins, and clothed them.

There are a number of oddities about this verse.
It seems slightly unexpected – an act of love at the end of God’s passing judgement on them.
The words “garments of skins” “kotnot or” are very specific. It could have just said “begadim” (clothes).

If they were of skin, where did the skin come from?
We imagine the Garden of Eden as being a place without slaughter of animals.
The midrashim offer several suggestions: it was made of the skin shed by the snake, it was from the skin of the Leviathan (that we know from another Midrash God slaughtered near the beginning of creation). It was made of wool (ie not actual skin but that which grows from the skin). And most ingenious and curious of all: before that Adam and Eve did not have skin they were covered with a fingernail like covering that shone with beams of light (like the Moses face after the giving of the Torah) and after they sinned they lost that, so God gave them skin instead as at this day, leaving the fingernails and toenails peeping out as a reminder of the original covering.

Pirkei d’Rabbi Eliezer
“What was the dress of the first man ? A skin of nail,
and a cloud of glory covered him. When he ate of the fruits “
of the tree, the nail-skin was stripped off him,' and the cloud of glory departed from him, and he saw himself naked”

* The dress of Adam and Eve was, according to the Pal. Targum,
Gen. iii. 7, "onyx-coloured " ; cf. Gc-n. Rab. xx. 12 The legend of an
original skin of nail is preserved in the custom which still obtains
among orthodox Jews, who gaze at their nails with the Habdalah
light at the termination of the Sabbath.

And why did they need added clothing – given they had sewed themselves girdles (hagoroth) out of fig leaves? We know that Adam hid because he still felt naked in his fig leave kilt.

It feels to me like a transition from a warm sunny paradise where grass-skirts suffice to the cold harsh world outside.

There is a halachic reason explained in the Midrash too for why we hold our hands up to the Havdallah candle before we make the blessing (which is an unusual sequence as normally the blessing is said before enjoying the “fruit”):

Genesis Rabba XI
And God saw the light. R. Ze'ira, the son of R.
Abbahu, lectured in Caesarea 5 : Whence do we know that
you must not recite a blessing over a lamp until you have enjoyed (ie benefitted from) its light? From this: “And he saw the light... and
he pronounced a division”. 6 R. Judah b. R. Simon
said : He [God] set it apart for Himself. 7 Our Rabbis said :
He set it apart for the righteous for the future, just like
a king who had a goodly portion [served to him at table],
but set it aside for his son.


The halachic approach would seem to be that we hold up our finger to the flame in order to derive a use from its light. That use is to distinguish one shade (that of the finger nail) from another eg the skin – or alternatively to see he difference of the shaded area on the palm from the lit area of the palm.


It’s all about the Garden of Eden

To better understand Havdallah and its significance, however, we need to examine the Chronology of the Garden of Eden story:

From the text of the Torah, the timing seems to be:
• Adam and Eve are created late on Friday after all the other animals.
• They eat of the tree on Fri afternoon before Shabbat.
• They make girdles of fig leaves – but still felt naked.
• God confronts Adam towards dusk of Friday “at the breeze of the day”
• God makes coats of skin for Adam and Eve.
• He expels them from the Garden of Eden.

So one view (which Clive Lawton proposed) could be that they were expelled from Eden on erev Shabbat and we are still living in the final moments of the eve of the 7th day – awaiting the day (the world to come) which will be entirely Shabbat!

The classical Midrashim mostly take a different view that God, in an act of clemency, allowed the first couple to remain for Shabbat in Eden. Shabbat is a “taste of Olam HaBah (the world to come)” which is also associated with Gan Eden (The Garden of Eden) so it feels fitting that their first Shabbat should have been spent in The Garden of Eden, rather than in their having just been expelled from it.

Also the Midrash suggests that primeval light of Eden stayed lit for them on Friday night and continued throughout Shabbat, only vanishing at the end of Shabbat when for the first time Man saw darkness fall upon the world. So Shabbat is strongly associated with both Light and the World to Come.
--

Yet, Adam had lost his lustre:

"He (Adam, the first Man) was of extreme beauty and sun like brightness" (B. B. 58a).[2]
"His skin was a bright garment, shining like his nails; when he sinned this brightness vanished, and he appeared naked" (Targum Yerushalmi aka Targum Yonatan. Gen. iii. 7; Genesis Rabba xi.).

Adam and Eve were thus expelled from the garden of Eden on motzei Shabbat (at the end of Shabbat) at Havdallah time.

Man was afraid when the world began to get dark that the snake might bite him, but says the Midrash, God made him a pillar of fire – or in another version God made him find 2 flints and by striking them together he lit a fire.

Fire was thus created for the first time at Havdallah time after the creation.
So at Havdallah time we are exiting Shabbat into the working week and recalling the expulsion from Eden into the world of work.

It is also notable that apparently Man makes our Havdallah blessings for the first time at Havdallah, over the fire and over the distinction of holy from work-a-day.

Consider the following Midrash:
Genesis Rabba XI 2.

The Rabbis were suggesting ways in which “God blessed the Shabbat day and made it holy”:
“He blessed it with the light of a man's face : the light of a man's face during the week is not the same as it is on the Sabbath”
He blessed it in respect of the sun and moon. R. Simeon b.
Judah said: Though the sun and moon were “spoilt”1 on the
eve of the Sabbath, yet they were not smitten until the
end of the Sabbath. This agrees with the Rabbis
but not with R. Assi, 2 who maintained: Adam's glory
did not stay the night with him. 3 What is the proof?
But Adam passeth not the night in glory (Ps. xlix, 13). 4
The Rabbis maintain: His glory abode with him, but at
the termination of the Sabbath He deprived him of his
splendour 5 and expelled him from the Garden of Eden,
as it is written, Thou changest his countenance, and sendest
him away (Job xiv, 20). As soon as the sun set on the night
of the Sabbath, the Holy One, blessed be He, wished to
hide the light, but He showed honour to the Sabbath;
hence it is written, And God blessed the seventh
day: wherewith did He bless it? With light.

When the sun set on the night of the Sabbath (ie Fri night), the light continued
to function, 6 whereupon all began praising, as it is written,
Under the whole heaven they sing praises to Him (ib. xxxvii,
3) 7 ; wherefore? Because His light [reaches] unto the ends
of the earth (ib.). 8 R. Levi said in the name of the son of
Nezirah: That light functioned thirty-six hours, 9 twelve
on the eve of the Sabbath [i.e. Friday], twelve during the
night of the Sabbath, and twelve on the Sabbath [day].
When the sun sank at the termination of the Sabbath,
darkness began to set in. Adam was terrified, [thinking,]
Surely indeed the darkness shall bruise me
(Ps. cxxxix, 11): shall he of whom it was written, He shall
bruise thy head (Gen. in, 15), now come to attack me!
What did the Lord do for him? He made him find two
flints which he struck against each other; light came forth
and he uttered a blessing over it; hence it is written, But
the night was light about me — ba'adeni (Ps. loc. cit.), i.e.
the night was light in my Eden (be'edni). 1 This agrees with
Samuel, for Samuel said : Why do we recite a blessing over
a lamp [fire] at the termination of the Sabbath ? Because
it was then created for the first time.

FOOTNOTES:
1 Through Adam's sin it was decreed that the primeval light should be
hidden. Var. lee: cursed.

2 More correctly: R. Jose.

3 I.e. the primeval light, which was smitten immediately he sinned,
before the Sabbath.

4 E.V. 'But man abideth not in honour .

5 By hiding the primeval light. Others : He deprived Adam's countenance
of its lustre. 6 At night — this primeval light is meant.

12. And the Lord God made for Adam and
his wife garments of skin, and clothed
them (in, 21). In R. Meir's Torah it was found written,
' Garments of light (there is a pun here on the word “ ’OR” with an Ayin meaning skin and “OR” with an Aleph meaning light) ' 2 : this refers to Adam's garments,
which were like a torch [shedding radiance], broad at the
bottom (of the beam of light) and narrow at the top. Isaac the Elder said : They
were as smooth as a finger-nail and as beautiful as a jewel.

The classical commentators interpret the phrase “kotnot or” by utilizing rabbinic extrapolations. The Aramaic translation (targum) of Onkelos explains: "garments of glory on their skin." Rashi, based on midrashic sources, remarks that these clothes were smooth like a fingernail or scale, and shone like a jewel. That explains kotnot. Or is explained by Rashi as something that derives from skin, like the fur of rabbits, which is warm and soft. The skin for these garments is variously understood as coming from the skin shed by the sly serpent who seduced Eve (Aramaic Targum of Yonatan Ben Uziel), or from the Leviathan that God slaughtered, salted, and left for the righteous in the World to Come (Hizkuni). Ibn Ezra has an interesting formulation that blends several ideas. He writes that some explain that in the beginning man was made of bone and flesh, and now God made for them a covering of skin.
(Jewish Quarterly)

There is another complication. There is a midrashic source which claims that Adam was not created naked. "What was the clothing of Adam: scaly skin and the Cloud of Glory covering him. When he [Adam] ate from the fruits of the Tree [of Knowledge], the scaly skin came off and he saw himself naked, and the Cloud of Glory disappeared." So the verse: And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked (Gen. 3:7), means that they were denuded of the clothing that was already upon them.

So it seems to me that the viewing the light reflected in the fingernails of the hand at Havdallah reminds us of the “scaly skin” Adam and Eve were clothed in before they sinned and ate the forbidden fruit. Perhaps the midrash is suggesting we have a little of that scaly skin left in our finger and toe nails?
Or another way to view it might be that before they sinned they were clothed in scaly stuff and light – then after the sin the light departed and so God clothed them in a clothing of skin (not animal skins, as often read, but literally in our skin) but the fingernails poke through the skin and that again is a reminder of the expulsion from the Garden of Eden which took place at the going out of the first Shabbat.

Or that the original skin of Adam and Eve was, as the quote from Targum Yerushalmi has it, “a bright garment, shining like his nails” – so by looking at the light of the fire of the Havdallah candle reflected in our finger nails, we remember that first covering, now lost, of Adam HaRishon – and link it with the creation of fire at the first Havdallah after the first Shabbat.

It seems that Havdallah is intimately connected through the Midrashic understanding of the text to the moment of expulsion from the Garden of Eden.

Pirkei d’Rabbi Eliezer a very old Midrashic commentary attributed to the teacher of Rabbi Akiva mentions:
• The blessing "Bore me'ore ha-esh" (Praised be the Creator of the fire) recited during the Havdalah (ch. xx.; comp. Pes 59a).
• Contemplation of the finger-nails during this blessing (ch. xx.).
• After the Havdalah, pouring of the wine upon the table, extinguishing the candle in it, dipping the hands in it, and rubbing the eyes (ch. xx.)

At twilight on Saturday (evening), Adam was meditating in his heart
and saying : Perhaps the serpent, which
deceived me, will come in the evening, and he will bruise
me in the heel. A pillar of fire was sent to him to give
illumination about him and to guard him from all evil."
Adam saw the pillar of fire and rejoiced in his heart, and
he put forth his hands to the light of the fire, and said :
Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe,
who creates the flames of fire.

The symbolic connection of Havdallah to the Midrashim about the Garden of Eden are brought out by the following halachot:

Rabbi Mana said : How must a man say the Habdalah blessing ?
(He does this) over the cup of wine,
with the light of fire, and he says : Blessed art Thou, O
Lord our God, King of the universe, who creates the various
flames of fire ; and when he removes his hand from the fire
(flame) he says : Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who divides
the holy from the profane.

If he have no wine he puts forth his hands towards the
light of the lamp and looks at his nails, which are whiter
than his body, and he says : Blessed art Thou, O Lord our
God, King of the universe, who creates various flames of fire ;
and when he has removed his hands from the fire, he says :
“Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who divides the holy from the profane.”
If he be on a journey, he puts forth his hand - to the
light of the stars, which are also fire, and says : Blessed
art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who creates
the various flames of fire. If the heavens be darkened,*
he lifts up a stone outside, and says : Blessed art Thou,
O Lord our God, who creates the various flames of fire."


Chapter 14 of Pirke d’Rabbi Eliezer

עשרה ירידות ירד הב"ה על הארץ ואלו הן אחת בגן עדן ואחת בדור הפלגה ואחת בסדום ואחת בסנה ואחת במצרים ואחת בסיני ואחת בנקרת הצור ושנים באהל מועד ואחת לעתיד לבא אחת בגן עדן מניין שנ' וישמעו את קול ה' אלהים מתהלך בגן וכתיב דודי ירד לגנו לערוגת הבושם ישב בדין ושפט בדין אמר לו מפני מה את ברחת מלפני אמר את קולך שמעתי בגן ואירא כי ערום אנכי ואחבא מה היה לבושו של אדם הראשון עור צפורן וענן כבוד המכסה עליו וכיון שאכל מפירות האילן נפשט עורו וצפורן מעליו ונסתלקה ענן כבוד מעליו וראה עצמו ערום שנ' ויאמר מי הגיד לך כי ערום אתה אמר אדם לפני הב"ה רבון כל העולמים כשהייתי לבדי לא חטאתי לך אלא שהאשה שהבאת אצלי היא הדיחה אותי מדרכיך שנ' האשה אשר נתת עמדי וכו' קרא הב"ה לאשה ואמ' לה לא דייך שחטאת את עצמך אלא שחטאת את אדם אמרה לפניו רבון כל העולמים הנחש הסיח דעתי לחטא לפניך שנ' הנחש השיאני ואוכל והביא שלשתן ונתן עליהם גזר דין מתשעה קללות ומות והפיל את סמאל ואת כת שלו ממקום קדושתן מן השמים וקצץ רגליו של נחש ופקד עליו להיות מפשיט את עורו ומצטער אחת לשבעה שנים בעצבון גדול ואררו שיהיה שואף במיעיו ומזונו נתהפך במיעיו לעפר ומרורת פתנים מות בפיהו תתן שנאה בינו לבין בני האשה שהיו רוצצין את ראשו ואחר ממנו המות ונתן לאשה מתשע קללות ומות ענוי לידה וענוי דם בתולים וענוי הריון וענוי גדול בנים ומכסה את ראשה כאבל ואינה מגלחת אותה כי אם בזנות ורצע את אזנה כעבד עולם וכשפחה משרתת בעלה ואינה נאמנת בעדות ואחר כל אלו מות והוציא דומיס לאדם מט' קללות ומות וקצר כחו וקצר קומתו טומאת הזב טומאת הקרי טומאת תשמיש המטה זורע חטים וקוצר קוצים ומאכלו בעשב הארץ כבהמה לחמו בדאבה מזונותיו בזיע ואחר כל אלו מות אם אדם חטא מה חטא ארץ שנאררה אלא על שלא הגיד את מעשיה לפיכך נאררה ובשעה שבני אדם חוטאין בעבירות הקלות הוא מכה פירותיה של ארץ בעבור בני אדם שנ' ארורה האדמה בעבורך:
2
מהדורה אחרת: פרק ארבעה עשר מהדורת ונציה 1544 עשר ירידות ירד הקב"ה על הארץ ואלו הן אחת בגן עדן. ואחת בדור הפלגה ואחת בסדום ואחת בסנה ואחת בסיני ושתים בנקרת הצור ושתים באהל מועד ואחת לעתיד לבא. אחת בגן עדן מנין שנ' וישמעו את קול יי' אלהים מתהלך בגן לרוח היום וכתוב אחד אומר דודי ירד לגנו. ישב לו בדין אמת שופט צדק ואמת קרא לאדם ואמר לו למה ברחת מפני אמר לפניו שמעך שמעתי ורעדו עצמותי שנ' את קולך שמעתי בגן ואירא כי ערום אנכי. מה היה לבושו של אדם הראשון עור של צפורן וענן כבוד מכוסה עליו כיון שאכל מפירות האילן נפשט עור צפורן מעליו וראה עצמו ערום ונסתלק ענן הכבוד מעליו שנאמר ויאמר מי הגיד לך כי ערום אתה המן העץ אשר צויתיך וגו' אמר אדם לפני הקב"ה רבון כל העולמי' כשהייתי לבדי שמא חטאתי לך אלא האשה שהבאת אצלי היא הדיחה אותי מדבריך שנ' האשה אשר נתת עמדי היא נתנה לי מן העץ ואוכל.
Chapter 20 of Pirke d’Rabbi Eliezer
ויגרש את האדם גורש ויצא מגן עדן וישב לו בהר המוריה ששער גן עדן סמוך להר המוריה משם לקחו ולשם החזירו במקום שנלקח שנאמ' ויקח אלהים את האדם מאי זה מקום לקחו ממקום בית המקדש שנאמר לעבוד את האדמה אשר לוּקח משם. רבי יהודה אומ' הקב"ה שמר שבת ראשון ואדם שמר אותו תחילה בתחתונים והיה יום השבת משמרו מכל רע ומנחמו מכל סרעפי לבו שנאמר ברב סרעפי בקרבי תנחומיך וגו'. רבי יהושע בן קרחה אומר מן האילן שנחבאו שם תחתיו לקחו עלים ותפרו שנאמר ויתפרו עלי תאנה. רבי אליעזר אומ' מן העור שהפשיט הנחש עשה הקב"ה כתונת כבוד לאדם ולעזרו שנאמר ויעש יי' אלהים לאדם ולאשתו כתנות עור וילבישם. בין השמשות של שבת היה אדם ויושב ומהרהר בלבו ואומר אוי לי שמא יבא הנחש שהטעה אותי בערב שבת וישופני עקב נשתלח לו עמוד של אש להאיר לו ולשמרו מכל רע. ראה אדם לעמוד של אש ושמח בלבו ואמר עכשיו אני יודע שהמקום עמי ופשט ידיו לאור האש וברך מאורי האש. וכשהרחיק ידיו מהאש אמר אדם עכשיו אני יודע שנבדל יום הק' מיום החול שאין לבער אש בשבת אמר ברוך המבדיל בין קודש לחול. רבי מנא אומר כיצד חייב אדם לברך על כוס של יין לאור האש ואומר ברוך מאורי האש, וכשמחזיר ידו מן האש אומר ברוך המבדיל בין קודש לחול ואם אין לו יין פושט את ידיו לאור האש ומסתכל בצפרניו שהן לבנות מן הגוף ואומר ברוך המבדיל בין קודש לחול.וכיון שמרחיק ידו מן האש אומר ברוך המבדיל בין קודש לחול ואם אין לו אש פושט ידו לאור הכוכבים שהן של אש ויסתכל בצפרניו שהן לבנות מן הגוף ואומר ברוך מאורי האש ואם נתקדרו השמים תולה אבן מן הארץ ומבדיל ואומר ברוך המבדיל בין קודש לחול. רבי אליעזר אומר לאחר ששותה אד' כוס של הבדלה מצו' להטיל מעט מים בכוס של הבדלה ושותה כדי לחבב את המצווה ומה שישמר מן בכוס מן המים מעבירו על גבי עיניו למה משום שאמרו חכמים שיורי מצוה מעכבין את הפורענות. רבי צדוק אומר כל מי שאינו מבדיל על היין במוצאי שבתות או אינו שומע מן המבדילי' אינו רואה סימן ברכה לעולם וכל מי שהוא שומע מן המבדילי' או מבדיל על היין, הקדוש ברוך הוא קונה אותו לסגולתו שנאמר ואבדיל אתכם מן העמי' והייתם לי סגולה. באחד בשבת נכנס אדם במי גיחון העליון עד שהגיעו מים עד צוארו ונתענה שבעה שבתות ימי' עד שנעשה גופו כמן כברה. אמר אדם לפני הקב"ה רבון כל העולמים העבר נא חטאתי מעלי וקבל את תשובתי וילמדו כל הדורות שיש תשובה ואתה מקבל תשובת השבים. מה עשה הקב"ה פשט יד ימינו והעביר את חטאתו מעליו וקבל את תשובתו שנאמ' חטאתי אודיעך ועוני לא כסיתי סלה מן העולם הזה וסלה מן העולם הבא. ישב ודרש בלבו ואם כי אמרתי מות תשיבני ובית מועד לכל חי אמר אדם עד שאני בעולם אבנה לי בית מלון לרבצי חוץ להר המוריה וחצב ובנה לו מלון לרבצו. אמר אדם מה הלוחות שהן עתידין להכתב באצבעו של הקדוש ברוך הוא ועתידין מימי הירדן לברוח מפניהם וגופי שנבל בשתי ידיו ורוח נשמת פיו נפח באפי ואחר מותי יקחו אותי ואת עצמותי ויעשו להם עבודה זרה אלא אעמיק אני ארוני למטה מן המערה ולפנים מן המערה לפיכך נקראת מערת המכפלה שהיא כפולה ושם הוא נתון אדם וחוה* אברהם ושרה* יצחק ורבקה* יעקב ולאה* ולפיכך נקראת קרית ארבע שנקברו בה ארבע זוגות ועליהם הכתוב אומר יבא שלום ינוחו על משכבותם הולך נכחו.

Finally what was the fruit that Adam and Eve ate from in the Garden of Eden?
Many answers are suggeste: Fig, Apple, Tomato, the Etrog.
But one Midrashic answer is that it was a Grape vine. Eve ate of the fruit and pressed the grapes and made wine and gave of it to Adam.
This might provide a reason why we use wine to make Havdallah – another link to the Garden of Eden. It also explains the folk superstition that women should not drink the Havdallah wine as it could be a reminder of Eve’s “sin” and therefore unlucky, with dire consequences threatened such as growing a beard or, worse, infertility. (This practice is not necessarily the halachah - there are Rabbis who say or suggest that women may or should drink Havdallah wine. And it makes no rational sense either, since if that were the case a Man should not drink it either! Nevertheless it is interesting to note the possible origin of the custom).

Conclusion

What do we conclude from all this?

1. Havdallah is connected to the explusion from the Garden of Eden
2. The wine is connected to the tree Adam and Eve ate from.
3. Placing a few drops of wine on the eyes (some have this custom still) is perhaps symbolic of the fruit of the tree opening their eyes (a hint that this “sin” is not seen entirely negatively)
4. The fire is connected to the act of kindness by God to Adam when it got dark after the first Shabbat and to a reassurance that God is still with us as we leave Shabbat and enter the week.
5. Holding up the finger nails to the candle reminds us of Adam and Eve’s first shining clothing in the Garden of Eden and of how God lovingly clothed them on leaving that tropical paradise.
6. It is also a reminder of the First primordial Light of creation, now put away for the World to Come
7. Holding up the finger nails is also a halachic necessity to only make a blessing when we have a demonstrable benefit.
8. And the spices? They were added to the ceremony later
But I think there may be more:

Our use of wine on Friday night at Kiddush may be a remembrance of the eating of the fruit of the tree (here taken to be the vine).

The idea that a man and his wife should be together on Fri night may also be associated with the recollection of the “sin” of the Garden of Eden, which in Jewish tradition may not be such “sin” at all.

The lighting of Shabbat candles (often attributed to the religious sectarian strife with the Karaites) may actually be a recollection of the Midrash describing the continuation of the primordial Light of creation through Friday night and then Shabbat.

Light is the particular “blessing” of Shabbat which in turn is associated with the Garden of Eden... and with the World to Come.

--

“Shabbat has ended, like the first Shabbat,
Flame newly kindled, flying up higher
Remember the kindness of the first clothing
Fingernails glint in the lights of the fire.”

Jonathan Samuel, after Eleanor Farjeon

The Hebrew prayer:
 “Modeh ani lefanecha melech chai v’kayam”

can be translated:

“I give thanks before you, king who is alive and exists” 

“I give thanks before You eternal and living King who returns my soul within me with mercy. Great is Your faithfulness.”	מוֹדֶה אֲנִי לְפָנֶיךָ | מֶלֶךְ חַי וְקַיָּם | שֶׁהֶחֱזַרְתָּ בִּי נִשְׁמָתִי | בְּחֶמְלָה. | רַבָּה אֱמוּנָתֶךָ: |
Modeh ani lifanecha melech chai v’kayam shehechezarta bee nishmahti b’chemlah. Rabah emunatecha.

For the above text I acknowledge the excellent blog "Hardcore Mesorah" at https://hardcoremesorah.wordpress.com/2011/08/20/modeh-ani-i-give-thanks-before-you/

A woman says it using the feminine verb form “modah” thank (f.):

“Modah ani lefanecha melech chai v’kayam”

with the same meaning as above.(Though there is a halachic view that women should say it in the masculine as this is an established reading.)

 My wife when she is feeling like it modifies it further to :

“Modah ani lefanayich malka chaya v’kayamet”

i.e. I give thanks before you, queen who is alive and exists

 Some today are uncomfortable with the metaphor of God as a monarch, so “ruach” (spirit / wind / breath) is substituted ie -

“Modeh ani lefanecha ruach chai v’kayam” (said by a man)

OR

“Modah ani lefanecha ruach chai v’kayam” (said by a woman)

ie “I give thanks before you, spirit who is alive and exists.”

 

“Ruach” is a classical Hebrew word for an aspect or name of God that occurs in the phrases “Ruach HaKodesh” (The holy Spirit), Ruach El (The spirit of God)  Ruach Elohim (The spirit of God) and Ruach YHVH (The Spirit of YHVH).

Personally, I do not have a problem with substituting the word “ruach” for “melech” or “malka”in the Modeh ani prayer (though I don’t really have a problem with the metaphor of God as King or Queen, I accept that others do).

 However I am not entirely comfortable with the wording people are using above, because “Ruach” is (almost always, but not quite always) a feminine word in Hebrew and so, I feel, the pronouns adjectives and verbs that relate to it should ideally agree and be in the feminine too.

 

For example in Genesis chapter 1 verse 2

“...Ruach Elohim merachephet al penei hamayim”

“...A wind of God hovered over the face of the waters”

Ruach (Spirit / wind) is feminine so the verb, merachefet (hovered), that follows it is in the feminine too.

 

So I prefer for the adapted “Modeh/Modah Ani” prayer to be in agreement with the feminine ie:

“Modeh ani lefanayich ruach chaya v’kayamet” (said by a man)

OR

“Modah ani lefanayich ruach chaya v’kayamet” (said by a woman)

i.e.

I give thanks before you (f.), spirit(f.) who is alive(f.) and exists(f.)

 The prayer then concludes “...shehechezart bi nishmati, b’chemla raba emunatayich”

“who has returned (f.) to me my soul, in pity, great is your (f.) faithfulness.”

My friends in the Jewish Renewal movement tell me that this is too complicated for the masses - so I suppose they can rely on the rare masculine form of Ruach also found in the Tenach. See the entry for Ruach in Brown-Driver-Briggs dictionary
http://biblehub.com/hebrew/7307.htm
where Exodus 10:13 is cited as an example of the rare masculine form:
 יג  וַיֵּט מֹשֶׁה אֶת-מַטֵּהוּ, עַל-אֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם, וַיהוָה נִהַג רוּחַ-קָדִים בָּאָרֶץ, כָּל-הַיּוֹם הַהוּא וְכָל-הַלָּיְלָה; הַבֹּקֶר הָיָה--וְרוּחַ הַקָּדִים, נָשָׂא אֶת-הָאַרְבֶּה..

Another friend informs me that in Yiddish there was a strong tendency to simplify Hebrew words and assume that any word ending in a feminine-sounding Heh was feminine and any word ending in a consonant was masculine.  I think this is what Wikipedia is describing here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yiddish_grammar#Gender

Perhaps this explains why "Tallesim" are worn in Ashkenasi shuls whereas the more Hebraically correct Sephardim wear Tallitot?

"The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind... the answer is blowing in the wind"
 

Some part-formed ideas about Miriam the sister of Moses

Mir-yam
may mean “bitter sea” - connected with bitter water of Marah. Perhaps also a connection to the Sea that drowned the Egyptians.

At Mara:
Like the “Sotah” ritual http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordeal_of_the_bitter_water, God is jealous of Israel who has been in Egypt (“consorting” perhaps, as it were with another man – not her husband). The bitter waters of Marah are made sweet (peace between husband and wife is achieved) by dissolving the “Etz” – Etz chayim = torah in the waters, Bene Yisrael drink and all is well again. This is a parallelism to the dissolving of a scroll with the Name of G-d written on it in water and the wife of the jealous husband has to drink it. “There he tested them”.

Healing comes out of it – Miryam connected with God healing as in Moses’ prayer “El na refah lah” – God is first seen as a healer here at Mara. “I am the Lord who heals you”.
Miryam is also associated with bringing husband and wife back together again (as with the Sotah ritual in which allows his name to be erased for the sake of reuniting Husband and Wife):

1st with her parents in Egypt (The Midrash has it that they had separated after the cruel decree of the Pharaoh and Miryam chided them – “Pharaoh only wanted to destroy the boys – you would destroy the girls as well!” upon which they got back together again and Moses was born.)

2nd in her criticism of Moshe because she saw he had separated from Tzipporah.
In Talmudic tradition the sudden disappearance of Hur from the narrative of Exodus is explained by the claim that Hur was killed when he tried to prevent the making of the Golden Calf.

Dvar acher (Another idea): Hur is the grandfather of Betzalel and the wife or son of Miryam (and father, or maybe son, of Caleb). The murder of Hur might also be a cause of bitterness for Miryam. (Think of connection to Naomi who says call me not Naomi but Mara, after losing her men folk). Rashi quoting Misrash identifies Puah, one of the midwives of the Hebrews who saves the boy children from Pharoah's evil decree, with Miryam. Puah means "Splendid". God rewards them with "Houses" understood by tradition to be Dynasties of Kings (for Miriam) and Priests (for Yocheved).
If so Miriam is ancestress of King David (also a creative singer/songwriter). Possibly Ephrata is a synonym for Miryam (Targum). Like Shirat haYam, David’s psalms often do not come across as “universalistic and left-wing” but more as a man with enemies who has faith in God to destroy them. Also this makes another link with Naomi.
The name Ephrata and the association of Ephrata the place with Bethlehem is also a connection to Naomi, Ruth and David.

“Miryam’s well“

There was, according to the Midrash, a well that was associated with Miriam, that wandered around everywhere the Children of Israel went in the Wilderness.

Then God bade him go with some elders to the rock on Horeb, and fetch water out of it. The elders were to accompany him there, that they might be convinced that he was not bringing water from a well, but smiting it from a rock. To accomplish this miracle, God bade him smite the rock with his rod, as the people labored under the impression that this rod could only bring destruction, for through its agency Moses had brought the ten plagues upon the Egyptians in Egypt, and at the Red Sea; now they were to see that it could work good also. Upon God's bidding, Moses told the people to choose from which rock they wished water to flow, and hardly had Moses touched with his sapphire rod the rock which they had chosen, when plenteous water flowed from it. The spot where this occurred, God called Massah, and Meribah, because Israel had there tried their God, saying, "If God is Lord over all, as over us; if He satisfies our needs, and will further show us that He knows our thoughts, then will we serve Him, but not otherwise."

The water that flowed for them on this spot served not only as a relief for their present need, but on this occasion there was revealed to them a well of water, which did not abandon them in all their forty years' wandering, but accompanied them on all their marches. God wrought this great miracle for the merits of the prophetess Miriam, wherefore also it was called"Miriam's Well." But his well dates back to the beginning of the world, for God created it on the second day of the creation, and at one time it was in the possession of Abraham. It was this same well that Abraham demanded back from Abimelech, king of the Philistines, after the king's servants had violently taken it away. But when Abimelech pretended not to know anything about it, saying, "I wot not who hath done this thing," Abraham said: "Thou and I will send sheep to the well, and he shall be declared the rightful owner of the well, for whose sheep the water will spout forth to water them. And," continued Abraham, "from that same well shall the seventh generation after me, the wanderers in the desert, draw their supply."

(from Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews)

Numbers Chapter 20 verses 21 – 22
In v.21 Miryam died
In v.22 there was no water...Moses again has to do the striking the rock thing (told to “speak to it”...)
I fancy that he was going through bereavement anger following the death of Miryam.
--
There is also a connection to Rachel (Ephrata is first mentioned in connection with the death of Rachel – hence the pilgrimage site of the tomb of Rachel in Bethlehem.

The following is from a Chabad article:

The image of the young woman standing watch in the thicket of rushes at the edge of the Nile, the hope of redemption persevering against the bitterness of galut (exile) in her heart, evokes the image of another watching matriarch -- Rachel. As the prophet Jeremiah describes it, it is Rachel who, in her lonely grave on the road from Bethlehem to Jerusalem, weeps over her children's suffering in galut. It is she, more than the male patriarchs or leaders of Israel, who feels the depth of our pain; it is her intervention before G-d, after theirs has failed, which brings the redemption.

The Book of Bamidbar (Numbers) and our portion this week which begins the book starts with :

“
1 And the LORD spoke unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tent of meeting, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt, saying:
ב שְׂאוּ, אֶת-רֹאשׁ כָּל-עֲדַת בְּנֵי-יִשְׂרָאֵל, לְמִשְׁפְּחֹתָם, לְבֵית אֲבֹתָם--בְּמִסְפַּר שֵׁמוֹת, כָּל-זָכָר לְגֻלְגְּלֹתָם. 2 'Take ye the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, by their families, by their fathers' houses, according to the number of names, every male, by their polls;
”
So it is about numbers and counting (– Rashi says “God loves us, so he counts us often” ).

At this time of year some of us are fulfilling the Mitzvah of “Sefirat Ha-Omer” – the command to count the 49 days (or 7 weeks) between Pesach and Shavuot. It is a seemingly very boring mitzvah, hard to see as meaningful and exceedingly difficult to do without missing a day and messing up somewhere along the line. [Some people inject meaning by connecting each day/week to a Kabbalistic “Sephira” or sphere – hmm.. [Sphere though similar in sound is probably an unrelated Greek word - my OED suggested that it comes from a word meaning the sphere of the heavens. Leo pointed out that the Kabbalists (who may have got it from the Greeks) thought of there being a series of concentric spheres - the 7 heavens. But I suspect the idea and connection to the Omer came later.]
In itself, “counting” appears at first sight mechanical and rather meaningless. Stories on the other hand can be very meaningful to us.

So my starter question is: What is the connection between counting “Lispor” and telling a story: “Le Saper” since both have the same root letters סְפַּר (S P R)?

It is interesting that the same co-incidence of meaning occurs in English. The verb “to tell” meaning to tell a story has the older meaning “to tell” ie to count or tally. Then there is the English verb “to recount” which also means to tell a story and is connected with “to count” and “to account”. What is going on here?
(…and why are we specifically commanded to count the days between Pesach and Shavuot?)

One answer is that in all story-telling there is a sequence: “I went to the shop and I bought: some cream cheese, a bottle of vanilla essence, a bag of sugar, a pint of sour cream, and a packet of graham’s crackers….” (You can see where I am going with this…it all leads to cheese cake, of course!  ). At Pesach we tell the story of our liberation from slavery in Egypt – and perhaps it is no co-incidence that this service is called a “Seder” (an order, a sequence) – indeed I speculate S P R (Saper) and S D R (Seder) may perhaps be connected.

One aspect of counting is also sequence – we align the items being counted to a meaningless ordered list of words “One, Two, Three…etc”. So there is a connection between counting and story-telling.

However there is another aspect to counting which is one-to-one correspondence. I imaging the first counting being done by shepherds as their flock passed through a gate into a paddock. They might have moved pebbles from one pile to another as a way of checking they still had the right number of sheep. [Indeed this most basic of counting methods is used to this day by Cricket umpires who move 6 stones from one pocket to the other as they count the balls bowled in an “over”]. Afterwards you can do things like arranging the pebbles into patterns – e.g. rows of ten, or of seven – or you can assign word rhymes to them like “one two three..” or “yan tyan tethera methera pimp…”. In England, perhaps, after every twenty our shepherd would probably “score” a mark on a stick – hence the old term “a score” for twenty.

The days and weeks between Pesach and Shavuot can be counted by a similar method. I move 49 pegs from one peg-board to another.

Counting people, in ancient Israel was a bit different – unlike with sheep you can ask everyone to be counted to bring a coin, a half-shekel. Then count or weight the result. And we are thus elevating the people at the same time.
There is a negative view in Jewish tradition of counting people (King David counted the people and a plague ensued) Perhaps this was because by counting them he was assessing his own power as king (maybe for military or tax purposes) and that showed a power-hungry attitude or a lack of trust in God – Or are we reducing human beings to “a number” as was done in the concentration camps – stripping them of their humanity and personhood? In traditional Jewish circles counting people is done indirectly and to count 10 for a Minyan one is meant to use a ten word Torah verse - The verse usually used is from Psalm 28 : "Hoshiah et amecha u'varech et nachalatecha ur'em venas'em ad ha'olam." "Save Your people and bless Your inheritance, and tend them and elevate them forever." This is maybe better than using “meaningless” numbers or words – we are connecting ourselves to something Holy.

It is worth noticing that in the verse “Take ye the sum…” at the start of Bamidbar (above), the literal wording is “Lift up the heads of the Children of Israel” – Moses was commanded to elevate them as he counted them. I imagine him lifting each person’s head by the chin and looking into their eye and somehow (maybe with a well-chosen word or two) raising each of them to a higher purpose.

We are not merely to count each person, we are to make “each person count”.

Turning now to the counting of the days between Pesach and Shavuot, there is a similar idea that can be extracted, I think.
Counting the days has a second significance beyond the aspects of counting (sequencing and quantifying) seen so far. It connects the two festivals and it gives added significance to the start and end points of our counting. Rabbi Shlomo Riskin writing from Efrat in Eretz Yisrael (inside the separation barrier but in the territories occupied by Israel in 1967) writes interestingly about this in “The Omer Count a purely agricultural festival” http://www.neot-kedumim.org.il/?CategoryID=321&ArticleID=306 .
He says we make the important link of freedom (Pesach - liberation from Egypt) to responsibility (Shavuot - receiving the Torah)
But also that in ancient times this count linked and spanned the very start of the Harvest season (bringing an Omer of Barley at the start of the Barley Harvest) with the end of the harvest (end of the wheat harvest) – something Jewish people living and farming in the land of Israel are again conscious of. This means that it was a time when people in Israel were receiving Blessings in the form of Barley Wheat Oats Rye Spelt Dates, Olives, Grapes, Figs and Pomegranates (the produce for which the land of Israel was famous) – which on Shavuot they would then put in a basket and bring “to God” (to the temple in Jerusalem).

I imagine they would have been “working their socks off” (ok I know they didn’t wear socks!) over this period – so I think that the counting is saying to them/ to us…to count the days of our blessings – as well as thanking God for them. (ie to value them).

Also, as with people, to make every one of those days count:

“So, teach us to number our days, that we may get us a heart of wisdom.” - from Psalm 90
(appropriately described as – “A Prayer of Moses, the man of God”)
Shabbat shalom,