New answers tagged kabbalat-hatorah
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Following the path set by R' Yehuda Halevi, Rambam and more:
Our tradition is completely oral. Very few things were (initially) let to be written (תנ"ך), the rest kept alive by oral tradition.
As R' Yehuda Halevi writes in Kuzari - the Torah doesn't prove itself. The basis of Torah isn't the Torah. The very fact that is was passed down through the ages by ...
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I would like to build off of SethJ's answer. The idea is not that the milachas are based on the construction of the Mishkan. Rather, the construction of the mishkan is how we know what the milachas are. What is forbidden on Shabbat is constructive labor (independent of anything having to do with the Mishkan).
Now, to answer your question about the golden ...
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I once heard a tape by Rabbi Uziel Milvsky of ohr somayach entitle "the Sabbath". There he brings down that there is holiness in space (temple) and there is holiness in time (shabbat). The Sabbath is the temple in time. This is why there is so much parallels between the two. He didn't get into it much more than that, because it is probably heavily mystical ...
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the purpose of creation is to give man an opportunity to follow virtue of his own free will (See beginning of Derech Hashem). God does not like to do PUBLIC miracles unless it is absolutely necessary as it interferes with His plan. (source Tov Halevanon commentary to shaar bitachon ch.4 on the part where Shmuel asked G-d "How shall I go? For, if Saul hears, ...
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See Hosea 14:10
מִי חָכָם וְיָבֵן אֵלֶּה נָבוֹן וְיֵדָעֵם כִּי יְשָׁרִים דַּרְכֵי ה' וְצַדִּקִים יֵלְכוּ בָם וּפֹשְׁעִים יִכָּשְׁלוּ בָם:
Who is wise and will understand these, discerning and will know them; for the ways of the Lord are straight, and the righteous shall walk in them, and the rebellious shall stumble on them.
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I think I understand your question to be leaning more towards philosophy, however the question works in a broader sense as well, so I'll answer the basic question as worded in the heading, "Why are Melochos based on the construction of the Mishkan?"
The simplest answer to this question is that the Mishkan needed to be constructed almost entirely from ...
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Spinoza in his Theological-Political Treatise argued that the legislation of Judaism was political legislation, necessary for the conduct of a state. According to Spinoza, the end of Jewish sovereignty made the law of Judaism irrelevant. The Torah was given before the people entered the land because Spinoza is wrong--the Jewish people are bound by the Torah ...
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Additionally, it was given in the desert (no-man's land) so that no people would be able to claim that they have no share in the Torah.
(See English comments in the Stone Chumash; I can't give a more specific reference because I don't have the book on my lap ATM, sorry).
edit:
Mekhilta De-Rabbi Ishmael (Exodus 19:2).
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Mechilta Drav Yishmael - Yisro - Parsha 5 says that it was not given in Eretz Yisroel in order that the non Jews would not to be able to say that they did not accept it since it was given in the Jewish land. Another reason was to avoid a dispute between the Shevatim.
ומפני מה לא ניתנה תורה בארץ ישראל? שלא ליתן פתחון פה לאומות העולם, לומר: לפי שנתנה תורה ...
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In this article, Rabbi Michoel Gourarie answers [I believe based on the Lubavitcher Rebbe's explanation in Likkutei Sichos vol. 1 pg. 276]:
Humility is often erroneously associated with feelings of nothingness, self-negation, inferiority, unworthiness and being undeserving. However in truth, the consequence of these attitudes is not humility. On the ...
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There's a widespread vision of God as "up there" and some evil opposite as "down there". Up is good and down is bad in the world of vertical corollaries. You have to work to go up but going downward is oh so easy, like sin. So it follows that the torah would "come down from the mountain". Judaism has no literal recognition of God as a material being such as ...
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They say in the name of the Kotzker, that even though being haughty is disgusting in the eyes of Hashem, there is still a need for a minimal amount of haughtiness. (Shemini SheBshminis) The purpose of this minimal amount of haughtiness is in order not to be embarrassed from those who make fun of his good deeds and to realize his value in heaven. Therefore it ...
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