<big><strong>מתני׳</strong></big> (יוסי) בן יועזר אומר שלא לסמוך יוסף בן יוחנן אומר לסמוך יהושע בן פרחיה אומר שלא לסמוך ניתאי הארבלי אומר לסמוך יהודה בן טבאי אומר שלא לסמוך שמעון בן שטח אומר לסמוך שמעיה אומר לסמוך אבטליון אומר שלא לסמוך הלל ומנחם לא נחלקו יצא מנחם נכנס שמאי שמאי אומר שלא לסמוך הלל אומר לסמוך
Mishnah: [Yossi] the son of Yoezer says not to lean [on the <em>chagigah</em> offering]; Yosef the son of Yochanan says to lean. Yehoshua the son of Perachia says not to lean; Nitai the Arbelite says to lean. Yehudah the son of Tabbai says not to lean; Shimon the son of Shetach says to lean. Shemai'ah says to lean; Avtaliyon says not to lean. Hillel and Menachem did not argue. Menachem exited, Shammai entered. Shammai says not to lean, Hillel says to lean.
Shenei Luchot HaBerit
Adam ruined this state of affairs by interfering with the סוד היין, the mystical properties of the grapes. [I suppose that this is based on the tree of knowledge having been a grape bearing tree. Ed.] He followed an evil path by squeezing a cluster of grapes (and consuming its juice). Had he not done so, that "wine" would have remained in the state of what our sages call the יין המשומר בענביו, "the wine that remained preserved within its grapes (compare Berachot 34).” In that event he would have been like "the cistern that does not lose a single drop” [hyperbole for total recall, see Avot 2,11. Ed.]. He would have retained all the holiness that had been his when he was created. When Adam sinned, he did not only lose some of his former glory, fall from a "high roof" (to the ground), but he fell into a "very deep pit" (below the ground). This was a בור רק, an empty pit [allusion to the pit Joseph had been thrown in. Genesis 37,24], since it did not even contain the ingredients for the survival of the species. The species was wiped out at the time of the deluge as a direct consequence of Adam having polluted that "drop of sacred semen," and made it "evil smelling." Due to G–d's personal intervention, Noach was saved seeing he was righteous, and the righteous are the foundation of the universe. The present universe was founded by him as a result.
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