Mizpah

“ Going to Asshur refers rather to Menahem than to Zechariah (comp. 2Ki 15:19-20) . In the figures employed, the bird-trap (pach) and the net spread for catching birds, it can only be the rulers of the nation who are represented as a trap and net, and the birds must denote the people generally who are enticed into the net of destruction and caught (cf. Hos 9:8) . [12] Mizpah, as a parallel to Tabor, can only be the lofty Mizpah of Gilead (Jdg 10:17; Jdg 11:29) or Ramah-Mizpah, which probably stood upon the site of the modern es-Salt (see at Deu 4:43) ”

“ Chapter 20 1 Then all the children of Israel went out, and the congregation was assembled as one man, from Dan even to Beersheba, with the land of Gilead, to Yahweh at Mizpah. 2 The chiefs of all the people, even of all the tribes of Israel, presented themselves in the assembly of the people of God, four hundred thousand footmen who drew sword. 3 (Now the children of Benjamin heard that the children of Israel had gone up to Mizpah.) The children of Israel said, "Tell us, how did this wickedness happen?" ”

“ It is a remarkable coincidence that, nine hundred years before, the prophet Samuel had, on a similar occasion, assembled the people in the same place, in order to select a leader against the enemy who was then planning the destruction of Israel. Judas chose Mizpah, because it had been a central meeting-place for those Judæans who had survived the destruction of the Temple under Gedaliah, when there had been a small temple there. The assembly was deeply moved ”

“ The Levite went with the corpse to his home at Ephraim, cut it into twelve pieces with a knife, and sent a piece to each tribe. Every one who saw it said, "The like was never heard since Israel came out of Egypt." And the chiefs of the nation assembled and pronounced a curse upon him who did not come to Mizpah (in the land of Benjamin) that he should be put to death. Then all the tribes assembled at Mizpah, it is said about 400,000 men; [192] only from Jabesh in Gilead and the tribe of Benjamin no one came. ”

“ Mizpah,
24:040:014 And said unto him, Dost thou certainly know that Baalis the king of the Ammonites hath sent Ishmael the son of Nethaniah to slay thee? But Gedaliah the son of Ahikam believed them not.
24:040:015 Then Johanan the son of Kareah spake to Gedaliah in Mizpah secretly saying, Let me go, I pray thee, and I will slay Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and no man shall know it: wherefore should he slay thee, that all the Jews which are gathered unto thee should be scattered, and the remnant in Judah perish? ”

“ Gedaliah had governed in Mizpah seven months when he was pleased to welcome back to his fatherland, Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, a Judean chieftain of the royal family, who had been driven to Ammon during the guerrilla warfare with Babylonia, under Jehoiakim. ”

“ Possibly this occasion gave Ishmael a pretext for visiting Mizpah. He came thither with ten nobles who, like himself, were connected with the royal family and probably were among the princes who persecuted Jeremiah. This small and distinguished company could not be suspected of intending to use violence. Ishmael seemed to be reciprocating Gedaliah's confidence by putting himself in the governor's power. [Pg 183] Gedaliah feasted his guests. Johanan and the other captains were not present ”

“ Asa was thus saved at the expense of Judah's sister nation; and Baasha was forced to abandon his desire for conquest, and to relinquish Ramah.
Asa now summoned all the men capable of bearing arms to assist in the destruction of the fortifications of Ramah. The death of Baasha, which occurred soon after this (in 933) , and a revolution which ensued in Tirzah, left Asa free from menace on that side. Mizpah, a town having a very high and favourable situation, was made an important citadel by Asa. ”

“ Mishnah 2
Rabbi Chanina, the Deputy High Priest, said:
Pray for the welfare of the government,
For were it not for the fear of it,
One person would eat the other alive.
Rabbi Chanania ben Tradyon said:
[When] two sit together and there are no words of Torah [spoken] between them,
This is a session of scorners,
As it is said (in Psalm 1:1) :
“ [Happy is the man who has] not . . . sat in the seat of the scornful.” ”

“ Let us raise up the ruin of our people
And let us fight for our people and the sanctuary;
So they gathered together and came to Mizpeh, opposite Jerusalem; for in Mizpeh there was a place of prayer for Israel. And they fasted that day, and put sackcloth and ashes on their heads and tore their clothes, and spread out the book of the law—one of those in which the heathen had been painting images of their idols. And they brought the priests' garments with the first-fruits, and the tithes, and they cut the hair of the Nazirites who had accomplished their days. ”

“ Anyone who increases conversation with the woman — He causes evil to himself, and neglects the words of Torah, And in his end he inherits Gehenna. Mishnah 6
Yehoshua ben Perachiah and Nittai of Arbel received the transmission from them. Yehoshua ben Perachia said, Make for yourself a rabbi, acquire for yourself a friend; and judge every person in their favor. Mishnah 7
Nittai of Arbel said, Distance yourself from a bad neighbor, Do not befriend a wicked person, And do not despair of punishment. ”

“ A baal keri should think about the Shema in his heart [i.e., instead of saying it out loud] and should not recite the blessings, either before or after. On food, he makes the blessing after, but not the blessing before. Rabbi Yehudah says: He blesses before and after. Mishnah 5
If one stands in prayer and remembers that he is a baal keri, He does not stop praying, but abridges the prayer. If he went down to immerse in a mikvah, If he is able to come up, cover himself and do it before he sees the sun blossom – He comes up, covers himself and recites the Shema. ”

“ And this is the book called The Mishnah, which book was forthwith received by the Jews with great veneration throughout all their dispersions, and has ever since been held in high estimation among them; for their opinion of it is, that all the particulars therein contained were dictated by God himself to Moses from Mount Sinai, as well as the written word itself, and consequently must be of the same Divine authority with it, and ought to be as sacredly observed. And therefore, as soon as it was published, it became the subject of the studies of all their learned men ”

“ The early Christians placed Mizpeh in quite another direction, and Nob at Beit Nûba, which is famous in the history of Richard Lion-Heart. Their site for Mizpeh was near Sôba, west of Jerusalem, and here we found a ruin with the title Shûfa, which in meaning is equivalent to the Hebrew Mizpeh, but this place cannot be described as “over against Jerusalem,” and its recovery is thus a matter of minor interest. ”

“ Translator's Introduction The Talmud (teaching) comprises the Mishna and the Gemara. The Mishna (“learning” or “second law”) was, according to Jewish tradition, delivered to Moses on Mount Sinai. “Rabbi Levi, the son of Chama, says, Rabbi Simon, the son of Lakish, says, what is that which is written, ‘I will give thee tables of stone, and a law and commandments which I have written, that thou mayest teach them’?1 The Tables are the ten commandments; the Law is the written law; and the commandment is the Mishna; ‘which I have written’ means the prophets and sacred writings ”

“ The Peah of the field, the first-fruits, the appearance [at the Temple in Jerusalem on Pilgrimage Festivals] , acts of kindness, and the study of the Torah. These are things the fruits of which a man enjoys in this world, while the principle remains for him in the World to Come: Honoring father and mother, acts of kindness, and bringing peace between a man and his fellow. But the study of Torah is equal to them all. Mishnah 2
One should not make the Peah less than one-sixtieth of the entire crop, And though there no definite amount is given for Peah. ”

“ The Mishnah, which deals with things great and small, with everything that concerns men, is the literary expression of this view of life. Its language is the new-Hebrew, a simple, nervous idiom suited to practical life, but lacking the power and poetry of the Biblical Hebrew. It is a more useful but less polished instrument than the older language. The subject-matter of the Mishnah includes both law and morality, the affairs of the body, of the soul, and of the mind. Business, religion, social duties, ritual, are all dealt with in one and the same code. ”

“ Mishnah 1
Rabbi Meir says: Anyone who involves himself in Torah for its own sake merits many things, and moreover the entire world is worthwhile for his sake; He is called "friend," "beloved," "lover of the Ominpresent," "lover of [all] creatures," "delighter of the Ominpresent," "delighter of [all] creatures;" He is clothed in humility and reverence, and it prepares him to be righteous, devout, upright and trustworthy, and it distances him from sin, and draws him near to merit ”

“ Some of the bolder spirits among the Jews came from the synagogue, exchanging pious ejaculations of thanks to God for their deliverance. They slunk furtively by us; though one venerable-looking old man paused and invoked what sounded like a blessing on us,—in Hebrew, I think.
“You can keep all that for the gracious lady,” growled Mishka. “It is to her you owe your present deliverance.”
“It is, indeed,” he answered in Russian. “The God of our fathers will bless her,—yea, and she shall be blessed. ”

“ In direct opposition to the tendency of the Alexandrian and Gnostic schools to give especial prominence to the view that God's love was the characteristic feature of Judaism, the Mishna, the first positive code of Judaism, cautions its readers against this opinion, and orders silence to be imposed on one who desired to express this view in prayer: "Thy love extendeth even to the nest of the bird." ”

“ He said to them: They may be offered. They said to him: Since their atonements are not equivalent, how can they be offered [one for the other] ? He said to them: They all come to atone for the impurity of the Temple and its sacred objects. Mishnah 5
Rabbi Shimon ben Yehudah says in his own name: The he-goats of the New Months atone for a pure person who ate an impure [food] item; Those of the Pilgrimage Festivals include more than them, for they atone for a pure person who ate an impure [food] item, and for [a sin while impure] that has no recognition either at the beginning or at the end ”

“ Each and every day a heavenly echo goes out from Mount Horeb, and announces and says: "Woe to the creatures for disparaging the Torah;" for anyone who does not involve himself in the Torah is called "rebuked," as it is said (Proverbs 11:22) : "A ring of gold in a swine's snout is a beautiful woman who turns from discretion," and it says (Exodus 32:16) : "And the tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tablets," do not read "graven" (harut) but rather "freedom" (herut) , for there is no free man except one that involves himself in Torah learning ”

“ Each of these is made up of two parts—the Mishna, or repetition,—it being, as it were, a reissue of the Mosaic law,—and the Gemara, or complement, the critical expansion of the Mishna. The Mishna of both Talmuds is the same, the Gemaras different: that of the Babylonian being the larger as well as the more diversified. They are encyclopædias of the Jewish knowledge of their day, and deal with civil and criminal, as well as moral and religious questions, law, science, metaphysics, history, and general literature. ”

“ The Mishna regarded as the greatest virtue the study of the doctrines of Judaism and the knowledge of the Law or of the Halachas (Talmud Torah) .474 Occupation in these subjects possessed peculiar merit or justification (Zechut Torah) ; it protected and advanced a person here and hereafter. "He who is acquainted with the Bible and tradition, and is careful of his behavior, will not easily fall into sin." ”

“ Explanation In the Babylonian Talmud, the discussion of Mishnah Tamid 5:1 begins on Babylonian Talmud Tamid 32b.
The three passages — “Hear, [O Israel . . .] ” (Deuteronomy 6:4–9) , “And it shall come to pass, if you hearken . . .” (Deuteronomy 11:13–21) , “And the Lord spoke . . .” (Numbers 15:37–41) — are often referred to collectively as “the Shema,” a prayer that observant Jews recite twice daily. ”

“ Rabbi Yehoshua’s view is that “when you arise” means “when everyone is awake,” and since there are some people (namely, princes) who sleep in until one-quarter of the day has passed, the time until they wake up can still be considered “when you arise.” [The halachah follows Rabbi Yehoshua’s opinion, although it is preferable to act according to Rabbi Eliezer and to recite the Shema starting a few minutes before sunrise — Maimonides, in his Code (Laws of Reciting the Shema 1:11) , gives a figure of about six minutes — so that one completes it exactly at sunrise.] ”

“ Who is a minor? Anyone who cannot ride on his father's shoulders and go up from Jerusalem to the Temple Mount, according to the House of Shammai; The House of Hillel say: Anyone who cannot hold his father's hand and go up from Jerusalem to the Temple Mount, for it says, "Three regalim" (Exodus 23:14) Mishnah 2
The House of Shammai say: The appearance-offering is two silver [ma'ah] , and the festival-offering is a silver ma'ah. The House of Hillel say: The appearance-offering is a silver ma'ah, and the festival-offering is two silver [ma'ah] . ”