Mesorat%20hashas for Shabbat 59:9

ודקאמר שלמה כי לכלב חי הוא טוב מן האריה המת כדרב יהודה אמר רב דאמר רב יהודה אמר רב מאי דכתיב (תהלים לט, ה) הודיעני ה' קצי ומדת ימי מה היא אדעה מה חדל אני אמר דוד לפני הקדוש ברוך הוא רבונו של עולם הודיעני ה' קצי אמר לו גזרה היא מלפני שאין מודיעין קצו של בשר ודם ומדת ימי מה היא גזרה היא מלפני שאין מודיעין מדת ימיו של אדם ואדעה מה חדל אני אמר לו בשבת תמות אמות באחד בשבת אמר לו כבר הגיע מלכות שלמה בנך ואין מלכות נוגעת בחברתה אפי' כמלא נימא אמות בערב שבת אמר לו (תהלים פד, יא) כי טוב יום בחצריך מאלף טוב לי יום אחד שאתה יושב ועוסק בתורה מאלף עולות שעתיד שלמה בנך להקריב לפני על גבי המזבח

answered he. Then he repeated, 'Lift up your heads, O ye gates; Yea, lift them up, ye everlasting doors: and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, He is the King of glory. Selah';<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' lbid. 9f. ');">¹⁷</span> yet he was not answered. But as soon as he prayed, 'O Lord God, turn not away the face of thine anointed remember the good deeds of David thy servant,'<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' 11 Chron. VI, 42. ');">¹⁸</span> he was immediately answered. In that hour the faces of all David's enemies turned [black] like the bottom of a pot, and all Israel knew that the Holy One, blessed be He, had forgiven him that sin. Did then not Solomon well say, wherefore I praised the dead which are already dead'? And thus it is written, On the eighth day he sent the people away, and they blessed the king, and went into their tents joyful and glad of heart for all the goodness that the Lord had shewed unto David his servant, and to Israel his people.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' I Kings VIII, 66. ');">¹⁹</span> 'And they went unto their tents' [means] that they found their wives clean; 'joyful', because they had enjoyed the lustre of the Divine Presence; 'and glad of heart', because their wives conceived and each one bore a male child; 'for all the goodness that the Lord had shewed unto David his servant', that He had forgiven him that sin; and to Israel his people', for He had forgiven them the sin of the Day of Atonement.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Which they had kept as a Feast instead of a Fast. V. vv. 2 and 65: the fourteen days must have included the tenth of the seventh month, which is the Day of Atonement; v. M.K. 9a. ');">²⁰</span> And as to what Solomon said, 'for a living dog is better than a dead lion', — that is as Rab Judah said in Rab's name, viz.; what is meant by the verse, Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; let me know how frail I am.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Ps. XXXIX, 5 (E.V. 4). ');">²¹</span> David said before the Holy One, blessed be He, 'Sovereign of the Universe! Lord, make me to know mine end.' 'It is a decree before Me,' replied He, 'that the end of a mortal<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Lit., 'flesh and blood'. ');">²²</span> is not made known.' 'And the measure of my days, what it is'-'it is a decree before Me that a person's span [of life] is not made known.' 'Let me know how frail [hadel] I am.'<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Translating: Let me know when I will cease (to be), fr. hadal, to cease. ');">²³</span> Said He to him. 'Thou wilt die on the Sabbath.' 'Let me die on the first day of the week!'<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' The following day, so that the usual offices for the dead may be performed, some of which are forbidden on the Sabbath. ');">²⁴</span> 'The reign of thy son Solomon shall already have become due, and one reign may not overlap another even by a hairbreadth.' 'Then let me die on the eve of the Sabbath!' Said He, 'For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand':<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Ps. LXXXIV, 11 (E.V. 10). ');">²⁵</span> better is to Me the one day that thou sittest and engagest in learning than the thousand burnt-offerings which thy son Solomon is destined to sacrifice before Me on the altar.'<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Thus your life is too precious for a single day to be renounced.-Study itself is regarded in Judaism as an act of worship — indeed, the greatest, though only when it leads to piety; cf. Pe'ah I, 1. ');">²⁶</span>

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