איתיביה אביי פר ושעיר של יום הכפורים שאבדו והפריש אחרים תחתיהם
Nevertheless, the question remains<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Both in the case of incense and the daily offerings; why should they be redeemable if bodily holy?');"><sup>18</sup></span> [since the incense is bodily holy]: whither has the holiness in them departed? - Rabbah said: The Beth din make a mental stipulation that if they are required, they are required [i.e., utilised]; but if not, they shall be holy only for their value.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' The authorities, when buying animals for the daily offerings, or when having the incense compounded, decide that only that which is necessary for that year shall become bodily holy; and that the rest shall become holy only for their value, and therefore be redeemable.');"><sup>19</sup></span> Said Abaye to him: But you, Sir, yourself said, if one consecrates a male [ram] to be holy only for its valu it nevertheless becomes bodily holy?<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' And cannot be redeemed, because it is itself fit for a sacrifice. Accordingly, even granted that the Beth din do make the stipulation that they shall be holy only for their value, the daily offerings and incense ought still to retain their bodily holiness, and the question. 'Whither has the holiness in them departed?' remains.');"><sup>20</sup></span> This is no question: [I said it becomes bodily holy] in the case where he said it should be holy for its value to buy a burnt offering;<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' And since the ram is itself fit for a burnt offering, it cannot be sold in order that for its money another ram may be bought.');"><sup>21</sup></span> but if he said it should be holy for its value to buy libations [it does not become bodily holy].<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Similarly, the Beth din have the power to stipulate at the outset that the daily offerings or incense not required shall become holy only for their value to provide gold plates for the floor and walls of the Holy of Holies.');"><sup>22</sup></span> - Abaye asked him, [It was taught:]<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Tosaf. Yom Hakkip. IV.');"><sup>23</sup></span> The bullock and [inner] goat of the Day of Atonement which were lost, others being set apart in their stead,
Sha'ar HaEmunah VeYesod HaChasidut
In the Mishnah Torah, in the second chapter of Hilchot Yesodei HaTorah, the Rambam writes that there are ten different names of angels, corresponding to ten different levels of angels. His words are well suited to the view of the Zohar on this matter, (Bo, 43a), with the exception that he replaces Elim with Keruvim. A study of the Zohar in Parshat Pinchas (235a-b) will show that it is really the same thing. And in the Zohar Hadash (Bereshit, 6b), the enumeration of the order of angels is precisely as is found in the Rambam, mentioning Keruvim in the place of Elim. That which he wrote concerning the tenth and lowest level of angels called Ishim, who speak to the prophets for their stature is close to the status of man’s consciousness, is also the view of the Zohar (Lekh, 81a): (The Zohar is discussing how the new soul is drawn into the desire at the time of intercourse.) Through the desire, and together with the soul (nefesh) that is drawn there, another force is also drawn below. This force comes from the level of angels called Eeshim, and all enters from the drawing of the seed. The body of the newborn is built from them. This is the first and most primal level of soul, called nefesh. The Zohar Hadash (Bereshit, Midrash haNe’elam, 6b) enumerates the ten classes of angels from below to above. Here the Zohar Hadash also says that the lowest of the ten level is Eeshim. Rav Tordos haLevi, the author of the Otsar haKavod, argues against the Rambam on his treatment of the angels. However, he admits that the Rambam had true intentions in general, yet wonders how he could have said this. Also we find many other places in the Rambam that hint both in particular and in general that he possessed a true tradition of the mysteries of the Torah. In the tenth chapter of section two of the Guide, the Rambam makes reference to the special usage of the words brass (nehoshet) with regard to the angels; in Zecharia (6:1), “and the four chariots came out from between the two mountains, which mountains were mountains of brass.” And in Yehezkel (1:7), “burnished brass (nehoshet kalal).” There is no explanation of these phrases in pshat (the plain meaning). Here the Rambam is making an explicit reference to the treatment of this phrase in the Zohar (Teruma, 139a), “In the book of Shlomo HaMelech there are lofty secrets surrounding the brass altar. With the altar, we find it said, ‘make me an altar of earth.’ This secret is well and good. Yet brass is mentioned when other mountains rule, and she (malkhut) must nourish them. This is when she colors herself in the color of brass in order to sustain them, and she is called the mountains of brass.” There are many other examples such as which attest to the Rambam’s knowledge of Kabbalah which I do not have time to add.
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