📖 SATURDAY PRAYER: NETZACH-YESHIVAT HAVERIM יְשִׁיבָה חברים – BABYLONIAN TALMUD p166

READING: BETWEEN MIDNIGHT AND DAWN OF SATURDAY

and the sea saith, She is not with me.” [Ibid. 22]: “Perdition and death say: With our ears have
we heard a report of her.” Satan then ascended before the Holy One, blessed be He, and said:
“Lord of the Universe! I have looked for the Torah on the whole earth and could not find it.”
Then said the Lord unto him: “Go unto the son of Amram.” And Satan went to Moses and said
to him: “Where is the Torah which the Holy One, blessed be He, gave unto thee?” And Moses
answered: “Who am I, that the Holy One, blessed be He, should give me the Torah?” Said the
Lord unto Moses: “Moses, art thou a liar?” Said Moses before the Lord: “Lord of the Universe!
Shall I claim that Thou hast given unto me a precious thing which Thou didst fondle every
day?” Said the Holy One, blessed be He, unto Moses: “Because thou hast humbled thyself, the
Torah shall bear thy name,” as it is written [Malachi, iii. 22]: “Remember ye the law of Moses
my servant.”
The same rabbi said again: When Moses ascended unto Heaven (and he was silent), the Lord
said unto him: “Moses, is there no peace in thy city?” And Moses answered: “Is it then proper
that a slave should salute his Master?” Said the Lord: “Still thou shouldst have wished me well.”
Then said Moses before the Lord [Numbers, xiv. 17]: “And now, I beseech thee, let the
greatness of the power of the Lord be made manifest as thou hast spoken.”
“A string of crimson wool,” etc. Did not the passage say (Kashanim) 1 “like years” and not like
crimson, for were it like crimson it would read Kashani? Said R. Itz’hak: “The passage is thus to
be explained: The Lord said unto Israel: If your sins all lie before me as the years that have
passed since the creation, they shall nevertheless become white as snow.”
Rabha lectured: It is written [Isaiah, i. 18]: “Go now, 2 and let us reason together, said the Lord.”
It should not read “go now” but “come now,” and not “saith the Lord” but “said the Lord.” The
passage should be explained: In the future the Lord will say unto Israel: Go to your ancestors
and they shall rebuke you; and Israel will say before the Lord: Lord of the
[paragraph continues] Universe, to whom shall we go? Shall we go to Abraham, to whom Thou hast
said: “Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land which is not theirs, and they
will make them serve,” and he did not pray for us? Shall we go to Isaac, who, when blessing
Esau, said [Gen. xxvii. 40]: “And it shall come to pass that when thou shalt have the dominion
thou canst break his yoke from off thy neck,” and he also did not pray for us? Shall we go to
Jacob, to whom Thou didst say [Gen. xlvi. 4]: “I will go down with thee into Egypt,” and not
even he prayed for us? To whom shall we go now? Then the Lord will say unto Israel: