Musar על תמיד 51:25

The author of these two parables dealt with a difficult question which I have already raised, namely that the angels possess one sanctity while Israel possesses two sanctities; this is derived from Psalms 103,20: ברכו ה' מלאכי, גבורי כח עשי דברי לשמוע בקול דברו, "Bless the Lord, O His angels, mighty creatures who do His bidding, ever obedient to His bidding." Based on this verse the angels are perceived as possessing one level of sanctity whereas Israel is perceived of possessing two levels of sanctity. Israel's first level of sanctity is acquired by "being obedient and doing G–d's bidding," whereas the second level is achieved through observing Rabbinic "fences" erected around basic Sinaitic laws to make it more difficult for the individual Jew to transgress such Biblical injunctions (cf. Avot 1,1). The reason for all this is alluded to in the parable about the wine cellar. We know about the יין המשומר, the wine preserved in its grapes since the time of גן עדן. There is some wine which does not contain any sediment apt to cause the wine to go sour under certain conditions. The wine, i.e. grapes of the tree of knowledge which Eve squeezed out and drank and gave Adam to drink, had not been guarded by a fence around the prohibition not to eat from the tree of knowledge. It thus was able to form sediments, which clouded its appearance, thereby preventing the detection of the pollutant emanating from the original serpent which was concealed therein. When Rabbi Avin speaks about guarding the wine cellar, he refers to the unpolluted remnant of the wine from גן עדן. Another word for such sediment or dross is סיג, and this is why the "fence" around Biblical laws is called סייג. This is also the deeper meaning of 18,30: ושמרתם את משמרתי, which is interpreted in Moed Katan 5 as עשו משמרת למשמרת, "construct a strainer for the strainer!" The Torah suggests that extra precautions should be taken to ensure against violations of its commandments. The function of the second strainer is similar to what is discussed in Shabbat 137 where the question is debated whether it is permissible to suspend such a strainer above the cup on a festival.