Talmud Bavli
Talmud Bavli

Kabbalah for Bava Metzia 172:3

ואמר ר' יצחק אלף נשים היו לשלמה כל אחת ואחת עשתה לו בביתה כך מאי טעמא זו סבורה שמא אצלי סועד היום וזו סבורה [שמא] אצלי סועד היום ואילו גבי אברהם כתיב (בראשית יח, ז) ואל הבקר רץ אברהם ויקח בן בקר רך וטוב ואמר רב יהודה אמר רב בן בקר אחד רך שנים וטוב שלשה

and R. Isaac said: These [animals] were but for the [mincemeat] puddings. Moreover, said R. Isaac, Solomon had a thousand wives, and each prepared this quantity in her own house. Why? Each reasoned, 'He may dine in my house to-day.' Whereas of Abraham it is said, <i>And Abraham ran unto the herd, and fetched a calf tender and good</i>:<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Gen. XVIII, 7. ');"><sup>4</sup></span> whereon Rab observed: <i>'A calf</i>,' means one; <i>'tender'</i> — two; <i>and 'good'</i> — three!<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' I.e., each adjective denotes another. Hence the two passages prove that Solomon's meals were infinitely larger than Abraham's. ');"><sup>5</sup></span>

Da'at Tevunoth

159 The fourth level, when the body will control in all its details, and you find man in himself all the physical matters. But like the souls is presently in this world like a stranger in the land, it it needs to travel in the ways of the body, similarly the body will be like a stranger in the land, and the soul will be the ruler, and the body will need to travel in its ways, like the matter (Shemot Rabbah 47:5) "You came to the city go according to the custom of the place". What is this like? Like Moshe our teacher, peace upon him, when he went to receive the Torah for Israel, he did not lose his body and did not change, but since his body was like a guest in the place of the souls he changed his style to act like the actions of the souls, like the Rabbis explained, may their memory be for a blessing (Bava Metzia 86b), "A person should never deviate from the local" etc., (see there). And you find, that his change at that time does not follow as a consequence of himself but rather a consequence of his place, and it is not a complete change. And here consequences still do not emerge from these matters of the body, for it is still like a stranger, and like we explained, that it needs to go in the ways of the soul; but rather in this fourth level - all the matters of the body are differentiated and known, but they are not in their place, and need to nullify their matters because of the soul. And from this level and up we shall not differentiate all the details of the body, and all the more so that they don't have consequence, since they need to go in the ways of the soul.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Previous VerseFull ChapterNext Verse