Musar for Chullin 120:3

This is alluded to in 26,19: ולתתך עליון על כל הגוים אשר עשה לתהלה לשם ולתפארת, "and He will set you supreme over all the nations He has made, to be for fame renown and glory, etc." The word תפארת refers to the emanation of that name, the level at which original man of the dual face emanated. The word תהילה, on the other hand, refers to the still higher emanation בינה, as Pardes Rimonim explains under the heading תהלה in the section ערכי הכנויים. Though there seems to be some doubt whether this expression refers to the emanation כתר or בינה, we may consider that all three emanations i.e. כתר, חכמה, בינה are meant. They represent the origin of בנין. Keeping this in mind we understand why the term עליה, ascent, is used not only in connection with the blessing, such as in 26,19, but also in connection with the warning or curse in 28,43 where the stranger in the land of Israel is described as ascending, whereas we will descend. That verse even repeats the expression מעלה מעלה "higher and higher," describing the progress made by the alien. How are we to understand this? Do we not have a tradition that the מדה טובה, the positive, is always in 500 times greater supply than the negative? (Sotah 11; Sanhedrin 100, Yuma 76 et al.) We therefore must not understand the words מעלה מעלה to mean that the alien will climb much higher than Israel but rather that he will only ascend two steps. The repetition acts as a limitation, (מיעוט), a common occurrence in Bible exegesis. The reference to the ascent of the Jewish people in 26,19, ולתתך עליון, however, is a comprehensive term.

Women observe the New Moon more than their husbands, since, symbolically speaking, the moon (as the lesser of the luminaries) remains on the wane for no more than seven days before it begins to shine again. Similarly, a menstruating woman becomes pure again after seven days. The normal menstrual cycle of a woman is thirty days, similar to the cycle of the moon. We find in the Midrash Ha-nee-elam of the Zohar Chadash that whereas the Gentile nations arrange their calendar according to the orbit of the sun, the Jewish people count according to the orbit of the moon. At first glance we would have thought that the opposite should be true. When G–d told the moon to diminish itself, the moon was not placated until told that Israel would use it for its calendar calculations (Chulin 60). The moon was also promised that the צדיקים would bear its name.