Pe’at ha-shulhan (Edge of the Table)

Author’s Introduction

I cannot refrain from relating an amazing, true story that I heard from that mouth of sanctity, the most outstanding disciple of our Holy Master, the rebbe, my dear friend—may the soul of the righteous one repose in peace—the most illustrious and saintly Master, the great Kabbalist, renowned throughout the world, His Honor, our Teacher, Rabbi Menachem Mendel—may his memory be for the life of the world to come—of the holy city of Jerusalem, may it be rebuilt and established, author of ten sacred works in connection with mystical themes that are in print. Now it once happened, during the time when he was serving as assistant to our most illustrious Master—may his soul repose in Paradise—when he was in the holy community of Serhaya, at the time when he had completed his commentary to the Song of Songs which he received from him, and his demeanor was very merry, rejoicing in the joy of his sacred Torah study, that he summoned the father of his son-in-law, the most illustrious Rabbi of Serhaya, of blessed memory, and his eldest son, our renowned Teacher R— of blessed memory—and ordered that his room be closed off; and the windows were shut in the daytime and they lit many candles; and when he had concluded his commentary, he raised his eyes toward Heaven with immense spiritual attachment, offering blessings and thanks to the great Name of the Almighty, blessed be His Name, for having made him worthy of being able to grasp the light of the entire Torah, both in its internal and its external aspects. This is what he said: “All types of wisdom are required for understanding our holy Torah and are included within it,” and that he knew them all to perfection, duly listing them: the science of algebra and that of triangles and geometry, and the art of music, the latter of which he praised greatly. He would then say that the major portion of the logic of the Torah, and of the mysteries underlying the chants of the Levites in the Temple, and the mysteries of the Tikune zohar, were impossible to fathom without it, and that through its power, people are even capable of dying, by virtue of their souls being consumed by its melodies, and of reviving the dead by dint of its mysteries, which lie concealed within the Torah. He stated that our Teacher Moses—peace be upon him—had brought down a number of melodies and musical rules from Mount Sinai, and the rest of the tunes we possess are merely grafted blends; he explained the qualities of all the sciences, and said that he had mastered them to perfection, except insofar as the science of medicine was concerned. Although he was acquainted with the science of anatomy and whatever was related to it, he had desired to learn the make-up of pharmaceutical prescriptions and their practical operation from the contemporary medical practitioners, but his father, that righteous man, had ordered him not to study this, so that he would not be wasting time from his study of Torah at times when he needed to go and save lives once he had completed such studies. Likewise, he was acquainted with the art of magic, with which the members of the Sanhedrin and the tana’im had been familiar, and which they taught that one is required to study, as is mentioned in the Talmud in connection with R. Eliezer and R. Joshua concerning the planting of cucumbers and uprooting them—save that he was lacking in knowledge of herbal remedies and how they all work, as these are the province of non-Jewish villagers. Accordingly, he had been unable to study the subject in its entirety due to its many details. In regard to the science of philosophy, he said that he had studied it to perfection, but that he had extracted only two worthwhile things from it, these being the seventy powers of the human being, as is written in the commentary of our Teacher to Isaiah on the verse: “There shall come forth a shoot out of the stock of Jesse,” etc., and one further matter; as to the rest, it ought to be discarded. Later, he said that—blessed be the Lord—he had mastered to perfection the entire Torah that had been given at Sinai, and how the Prophetical Writings and the Hagiographa and the Mishnah and the Oral Torah were concealed within it, and that he had not remained doubtful as to any point relating to any halakhah or theme throughout the entire Torah.