אזל הוא ובריה טשו בי מדרשא כל יומא הוה מייתי להו דביתהו ריפתא וכוזא דמיא וכרכי כי תקיף גזירתא א"ל לבריה נשים דעתן קלה עליהן דילמא מצערי לה ומגליא לן אזלו טשו במערתא איתרחיש ניסא איברי להו חרובא ועינא דמיא והוו משלחי מנייהו והוו יתבי עד צוארייהו בחלא כולי יומא גרסי בעידן צלויי לבשו מיכסו ומצלו והדר משלחי מנייהו כי היכי דלא ליבלו איתבו תריסר שני במערתא אתא אליהו וקם אפיתחא דמערתא אמר מאן לודעיה לבר יוחי דמית קיסר ובטיל גזירתיה
Simeon, who censured, let him be executed. He and his son went and hid themselves in the <i>Beth Hamidrash</i>, [and] his wife brought him bread and a mug of water and they dined.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Lit., 'they wrapped (bread)'; a term derived from the custom of eating bread with a relish wrapped in it.
');"><sup>20</sup></span> [But] when the decree became more severe he said to his son, Women are of unstable temperament: she<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' His wife.
');"><sup>21</sup></span> may be put to the torture and expose us.'<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' The context shows that he was not censuring women for constitutional instability, but feared their weakness.
');"><sup>22</sup></span>
Tomer Devorah
The third: One who becomes haughty from his Torah upon the people of the land - which is the general people of God - causes Splendor to become haughty over Kingship and not to flow upon it. Rather, his disposition [should] be pleasant with the creatures and all the people of the settlement be important in front of him - as they are below in the secret of the Land. And God forbid, if he calls them donkeys, he lowers them to the husks. Hence he will not merit to have a son that will have the light of the Torah in him, as it is [found] in the Gemara (Nedarim 81a). Rather, he should behave with them gently, according to their way, similar to Splendor that flows to Kingship and guides Her according to the poverty of Her mind - as the 'minds of women are weak" (Shabbat 33b). And included in this is that he not become haughty over the weak of mind that are included in the 'dust of the earth.' And because of this, the ancient ones would not become haughty from their Torah, like [in] that occurrence of Rav Hamnuna in [the Zohar,] Parshat Bereishit and like the occurrence of Rabbi Chagai (Zohar, Part I, p. 158a), and in the Tikkunim (the end of Tikkun 26, p. 72b) of that elder who fled when they wanted to kiss him, as he did not want to become haughty with words of Torah.
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Shenei Luchot HaBerit
As a result of benefitting from all those miracles, the ערב רב were required to celebrate the Passover and to observe all the prohibitions connected with the leavened bread. You have already been made aware that the ערב רב do have a mystical bond with the emanation דעת עליון, or בינה. The mystical dimension of the מלכות של בינה contains the secret of the significance of המצה השמורה העליונה which is symbolised by the enlarged letter ד in the word אחד of Deuteronomy 6,4, as I have explained when discussing the deeper meaning of that מצוה. This is why the Jewish people were commanded to eat unleavened bread. This is also where you find the secret of why the Talmud (Shabbat 33) considers נשים דעתן קלה עליהן, "the minds of women are shallow." The numerical value of the word מצה is 135, the same as of the word קלה. Moses said to the ערב רב: "You are leaving Egypt this day," היום אתם יוצאים ממצרים. The reason Moses added these apparently superfluous words was to make them understand that there is one commandment which will be addressed only to the children of Israel and not to them. They should not be surprised at this, since they did not need this commandment; G–d did not select them as His people. They had already been given the commandment of מצה because that commandment had a significance which related to them. The reason that the original Jewish people needed the commandment of sanctifying their first-born was that G–d saved the first-born of the Jewish people when He slew the first-born of the Egyptians. An expression of eternal gratitude by those who were spared was indicated as a result. The ערב רב had not been spared; those surviving had joined the Jewish people only on the morrow at the time of their departure, i.e. היום!
