תלמוד בבלי
תלמוד בבלי

Musar על מנחות 58:7

Shemirat HaLashon

And know that guarding the tongue from evil includes guarding it from all aspects of speech that are intended to do harm or to antagonize his friend, such as lashon hara, rechiluth, machloketh, cursing, "whitening of the face" [in shame], and wronging with words. One who wishes to merit guarding his tongue must strengthen himself greatly in the trait of trust, as explained in the beginning of Chapter X, so that he not come to harm one who [adversely] affects his affairs, and not come to speak demeaningly of him or quarrel with him or curse him or whiten his face or antagonize him, but trust in the L-rd that He will make up in some other way for the loss that the other causes him. And Chazal have said (Menachoth 29b): "All who place their trust in the Holy One Blessed be He — He is a haven for them both in this world and in the world to come." "All who place their trust" includes even [an instance] where the "needs of Heaven" are not affected; how much more so when one restrains himself from quarreling with his friend who affected his affairs [adversely], for the sake of Heaven, fearing that he would not be able to hold back, when angry, from speaking things that are improper according to the din, wherefore he "overlooks his traits and trusts in the L-rd" and beseeches Him to provide for him in some other way, in which instance the Holy One Blessed be He will certainly be a haven for him in this world, too.
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Shenei Luchot HaBerit

כי בי-ה ה' צור עולמים . This means that the universe, i.e. the עולם הבא, was created with the letter י, whereas the עולם הזה, the material world, was created with the letter ה. The Mishnah in Avot 5,1 already told us that G–d created the universe with ten מאמרות, directives. The first of these was אחדות, Unity, as we will explain later. The term דביקות, attachment, refers to something that is ongoing, everlasting, as we know from Deut.4,4, ואתם הדבקים בה' אלוקיכם, חיים כולכם היום, "you who have been cleaving to the Lord your G–d are all alive this day." The material world was created by five מאמרות, i.e. the letter ה. Our sages in Rosh Hashanah 21b, say that 50 שערי בינה, "gates of understanding," were created, and that Moses was given all of them except one. We know this because it says of Moses "ותחסרהו מעט מאלוקים," that You have made him only a little less than divine" (Psalms 8,6). In the introduction on his commentary on the Torah Nachmanides (Chavell edition page 3) describes this statement as meaning that all parts of creation such as the minerals, the various categories of vegetation, animal life and even human life, each required a special שער בינה by means of which they were brought into existence. This process continued until possession of an advanced שער בינה would enable a person to understand the psyche of fellow human beings, enable him to divine if his counterpart was a thief, an adulterer, etc. and even enable him to know if someone else who was suspected of disobeying the laws of ritual impurity concerning sexual relations with a menstruant woman was in fact guilty of such misconduct. Beyond that, a still higher שער בינה would give such a person access to knowledge about the motions and functions of the stars and planets. The total number of such שערי בינה is fifty, the fiftieth being reserved for the Creator alone, who had not revealed that potential to any creature. The wording in the Talmud, נבראו, "they have been created," suggesting that they had not remained only in the realm of G–d Himself, need not be understood literally, as the Talmud was concerned with describing what happened to the majority of these שערי בינה. So far Nachmanides. I personally, feel that the 50th שער בינה, an all embracing potential called hiyuli, primordial is the creative potential which has been withheld from any human being. Nachmanides possibly has this in mind when he refers to the verse in Psalms 33,9: “הוא אמר ויהי,” He said and it came into being."
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