Divre Neḥemiah (The Words of Nehemiah)

Author’s Introduction

Thus said the author, Nehemiah Ḥiya, son of my master, my father, Moses Ḥayun: I myself know that all who see this book will be greatly astonished, and they will say, “Look at the new ideas expressed by this old man! Herein lies all his wisdom, for he spent every one of his days laboring to get it published in this slim volume.” But I maintain that one should not look at the vessel but at what it contains [m. Avot 4:20]: there are books with many pages and much ink, and yet their fruit does not taste good, whereas there are books with small boughs but their words are as sweet as pomegranate juice. Furthermore, I call upon my witnesses to testify from up high that I composed this book in the great and beautiful city of Prague in a three-month period, and its entire contents are completely new. For regarding all that I possessed in earlier times and previous years, in the hour of my departure from my place to traverse in wastelands, I was in the midst of the sea, oppressed by the boats, and they took from me my books that were built with turrets [see Song of Songs 4:4], full of revealed and esoteric wisdom and the secret meanings of the letters, and I was stripped bare like the rams of Nebaioth [see Isaiah 60:7]. Only the Torah stood by me, she who calls at the head of the noisy streets [see Proverbs 1:21].

Let us give praise to the wonderful rabbi, who supports the Torah and those who study it, our master and teacher, R. Joseph Oppenheim, son of the great, renowned genius, that one-in-a-generation, head of the court and leader of the academy, our master and teacher, R. David Oppenheim, may his Rock preserve and sustain him. For he brought me into his home, and gave me a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp (2 Kings 4:10). I would sit at his table and dine on fatty meat and the bread of the mighty (Psalms 78:25), as well as wine and strong drinks, with good, hearty cheer, and a smiling, pleasant countenance. Thanks to this, I was able to prepare my books and organize my ideas.

I will now request from the Lord most high, the God of Abraham, my master: may He grant him sons knowledgeable in the Torah that is my light, who will be experts in the six orders [of the Mishnah]. May He cover him all the day [see Deuteronomy 33:12], cause his light to shine forth, build his dwelling place, and satiate him with the goodness that is prepared for the righteous among all His treasures. May this blessing be for him and for all the generous of heart, those who have the strength to provide support others with their handfuls and coins; these are our officials, leaders, and treasurers, and all those who watch over and have compassion for broken vessels. May the Holy One, blessed be He, watch over them and guard them forever, and for generations on end. Amen, so may it be His will. [ . . . ]

The Book of Leviticus

And He called [va-yikra’] to Moses, and the Lord spoke to him from the tent of meeting, saying (Leviticus 1:1).

We must clarify why the letter alef in the word va-yikra’ is written small. It is already well known that this verse serves as a paradigm for the entire Torah, as it teaches that He would call to him for each and every command. Now, it is the nature of the world that the voice that calls out must be louder than the voice of speech, since one calls out from a distance and one who calls out to another from afar must raise his voice higher than when he talks to him, so the latter will hear him and approach him so that he can talk to him. Accordingly, it would seem that the voice that called out to Moses should have been louder than the voice of the speech directed to him. However, this is not the case. For the people say in the portion of Yitro: but let God not speak with us, lest we die (Exodus 20:16), and if the sound of the calling were louder than the speech, as it naturally should have been, how did they not die when they heard Him calling to Moses? This is alluded to in the verse by the small alef of va-yikra’, as it comes to teach that the sound of the calling was softer than the sound of the speech. Therefore, the Israelites were able to bear the sound of the calling and not the sound of the speech, and this is why the phrase: “and He called [va-yikra’] to Moses” is written with a small alef.

The sages, of blessed memory, said that before each and every letter which our teacher Moses would write, he would dip the quill in ink. When the Holy One, blessed be He, told him to write, now the man Moses was very humble [anav, ending with the letter vav], he wrote ani [“poor,” which ends instead with the letter yod]. He then smeared onto his beard the slight difference in ink between the letters vav and yod, and this is why the light of his face shone [see Exodus 34:29]. Now this is puzzling—why did they say that the light of his face shone due to the remainder of ink from the vav? Perhaps it shone on account of the small alef of va-yikra’. For when the Holy One, blessed be He, instructed him to write va-yikra’, in his humility he instead wrote the word va-yikar [“and he happened upon”; see Numbers 23:4], until God told him to add the alef. However, out of modesty he still wrote it small. Thus, he should have written it with a standard alef and yet he inscribed a small letter. If so, perhaps the skin of Moses’ face shone because of the ink in the quill that remained after writing the small alef?

It can be suggested in response that all things shrink only in a place that is similar to them. This is like the statement that man’s soul was initially clothed in a small body, and yet when the body grew, his soul did not lack anything nor did it have a surplus [see Exodus 16:18]; rather, it remained just as it was before. This shows that something encompassed in a large body can also be clothed in a small body, as it shrinks itself for the purpose. However, this is true on the condition that the two items are of the same type, but when they are not of the same type, one thing cannot be clothed by something of a different type. This is as the sages, of blessed memory, stated: “any extra limb is considered like a removed limb” [b. ḥullin 58b],¹ since the soul cannot be clothed by that limb.

Consequently, regarding the alef of va-yikra’, even though it is small, when one dips the ink in order to write an alef, that ink is incorporated into the small alef, despite the fact that there was enough ink to write a large alef, since they are both of the same type. By contrast, when Moses dipped the quill with the intention of writing the vav of anav and then wrote a yod, the leftover ink for the vav could not be incorporated into the yod, as it does not take the same form. Therefore, some ink was left in the quill, which he smeared onto the hair of his beard, and thus the light of his face shone. This is why the sages, of blessed memory, said that the light of his face shone from the ink that remained after the change of ani which replaced the anav.