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What is Torah?

בראשית רבה (תיאודור-אלבק) פרשת בראשית פרשה א א (א) בראשית ברא אלהים וגו’. ר’ אושעיא פתח ואהיה אצלו אמון ואהיה שעשועים (משלי ח ל)… [ד”א] אמון אומן התורה אומרת אני הייתי כלי אומנתו של הקב”ה, בנוהג שבעולם מלך בשר ודם בונה פלטין ואינו בונה אותה מדעת עצמו אלא מדעת אומן, והאומן אינו בונה אותה מדעתו אלא דיפטראות ופינקסות יש לו לידע היאך הוא עושה חדרים ופשפשים, כך היה הקב”ה מביט בתורה ובורא העולם, והתורה א’ בראשית ברא אלהים ואין ראשית אלא תורה היך מה דאת אמר י”י קנני ראשית דרכו וגו’ (משלי ח כב).

1] Genesis Rabbah Parashat Bereishit, Parasha א “With ראשית (Beginning=Wisdom) God created…” (Genesis 1:1) T. Oshaya opened: “[Wisdom says:] And I will be by Him amon and I will be a delight…”(Proverbs 8:30)….  Amon is a craftsman.  Torah says: I was the crafting tool of the Holy One Blessed be He.  In the way of the world, a flesh and blood king builds a palace not from his own knowledge but from the knowledge of a craftsman, and the craftsman builds it according to blueprints which he has to know where to make the rooms and the small passageways.  Likewise the Holy One Blessed Be He looked in the Torah and Created the world.  Torah says: “With Reishit God created…” and Reishit  is none other than Torah, as Scripture states: “The Lord acquired/created me (=Wisdom = Torah) at the beginning (reishit( of his path….(Proverbs 8:22)

 

 

שמות רבה (וילנא) פרשת כי תשא פרשה מא סימן ו ו ד”א ויתן אל משה, אמר ר’ אבהו כל מ’ יום שעשה משה למעלה היה למד תורה ושוכח, א”ל רבון העולם יש לי מ’ יום ואיני יודע דבר, מה עשה הקב”ה משהשלים מ’ יום נתן לו הקב”ה את התורה מתנה שנאמר ויתן אל משה, וכי כל התורה למד משה כתיב בתורה (איוב יא) ארוכה מארץ מדה ורחבה מני ים ולארבעים יום למדה משה אלא כללים למדהו הקב”ה למשה, הוי ככלותו לדבר אתו

2] Exodus Rabbah Parashat Ki Tissa Parashah 41:6   “And God gave to Moses when he finished speaking with him two tablets … of stone written with the finger of God.” (Exodus 31:18) R. Abbahu says: “All forty days that Moses was up there, he was learning Torah and forgetting.  He said, ‘Master of the Universe, I have been here for forty days and I don’t know anything.’  What did the Holy One Blessed Be He do?  When forty days were completed, He Gave the Torah to Moses as a gift, as it is stated, ‘He gave to Moses.’ Did Moses learn the entire Torah? It is Written in Scripture (Job 11:9): “It (Wisdom) is longer in measure than the earth and wider than the sea” and Moses learned it in forty days?!  Rather, God taught Moses the general principles (kelalim).  That’s what the verse means to say with the words kikhaloto ledaber ito (=speaking with him in general principles)

 

אמר רב חסדא דריש מרי בר מר מאי דכתיב לכל תכלה ראיתי קץ רחבה מצותך מאד דבר זה אמרו דוד ולא פירשו אמרו איוב ולא פירשו אמרו יחזקאל ולא פירשו עד שבא זכריה בן עדו ופירשו אמרו דוד ולא פירשו דכתיב לכל תכלה ראיתי קץ רחבה מצותך מאד אמרו איוב ולא פירשו דכתיב ארוכה מארץ מדה ורחבה מני ים אמרו יחזקאל ולא פירשו דכתיב ויפרש אותה לפני והיא כתובה פנים ואחור וכתוב אליה קינים והגה והי קינים זו פורענותן של צדיקים בעולם הזה וכן הוא אומר קינה היא וקוננוה והגה זו מתן שכרן של צדיקים לעתיד לבא וכן הוא אומר עלי הגיון בכנור והי זו היא פורענותן של רשעים לעתיד לבא וכן הוא אומר הוה על הוה תבא עד שבא זכריה בן עדו ופירשו דכתיב ויאמר אלי מה אתה רואה ואומר אני רואה מגילה עפה ארכה עשרים באמה ורחבה עשר באמה וכי פשטת לה הויא לה עשרין בעשרין וכתיב היא כתובה פנים ואחור וכי קלפת לה כמה הויא לה ארבעין בעשרין וכתיב מי מדד בשעלו מים ושמים בזרת תכן וגו׳ נמצא כל העולם כולו אחד משלשת אלפים ומאתים בתורה

3]Eruvin 21a: Rav Ḥisda said: Mari bar Mar interpreted homiletically: What is the meaning of that which is written: “I have seen a limit to every purpose; but Your commandment is exceedingly broad” (Psalms 119:96)? This idea with regard to the breadth of the Torah was stated by David, but he did not explain it; it was stated by Job, but he too did not explain it; it was stated by Ezekiel, but he also did not explain it, until Zechariah, son of Berechiah, son of Iddo, came and explained it. Rav Ḥisda explains: This idea was stated by David, but he did not explain it, as it is written: “I have seen a limit to every purpose; but Your commandment is exceedingly broad,” i.e., he stated that the Torah is exceedingly broad, but he did not explain how broad. And likewise this idea was stated by Job, but he too did not explain it, as it is written: “Its measure is longer than the earth and broader than the sea” (Job 11:9). And similarly, it was stated by Ezekiel, but he also did not explain it, as it is written: “And He spread it,” the scroll, “before me, and it was written inside and outside; and in it was written lamentations, and melody [hegeh], and woe [vahi]” (Ezekiel 2:10)… But nonetheless, Ezekiel did not explain the extent of the Torah, until Zechariah, son of Berechiah, son of Iddo, came and explained it, as it is written: “And he said to me: What do you see? And I said: I see a flying [afa] scroll; the length of it is twenty cubits, and the breadth of it is ten cubits” (Zechariah 5:2). Since the scroll was flying, the implication is that it had two equal sides, so that when you open it, it is twenty by twenty cubits. And it is written: “And it was written inside and outside,” i.e., on both sides. And when you peel them apart and separate the two sides, how much is it? Its entire area amounts to forty by twenty cubits, or eight hundred of God’s cubits. In order to determine the measure of God’s cubit, the Gemara cites a verse that describes the size of the span between God’s thumb and little finger, in a manner of speaking. And it is written: “Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure” (Isaiah 40:12). If the entire world measures one square span, which is a quarter of one square cubit, we find according to this calculation that the entire world is one part in three thousand and two hundred of the Torah.

 

 

How might the description of Torah in the sources above be related to the hypothesis suggested in the following discussion of a few contemporary physicists?

4] Brian Greene, Professor of Physics, Columbia University (on Nova, “Fabric of the Cosmos,” aired 11/9/2012, at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/physics/fabric-of-cosmos.html#fabric-space):

 

As we examine the fabric of the cosmos ever more closely, we may well find far more surprises than anyone ever imagined. Take me, for example. I seem real enough, don’t I?

Well, yes. But surprising new clues are emerging that everything, you and I, and even space, itself, may actually be a kind of hologram.

That is: everything we see and experience, everything we call our familiar three-dimensional reality, may be a projection of information that’s stored on a thin, distant two-dimensional surface, sort of the way the information for this hologram is stored on this thin piece of plastic.

Now, holograms are something we’re all familiar with from the security symbol you find on most credit cards, but the universe as a hologram? That’s one of the most drastic revisions to our picture of space and reality ever proposed. And the evidence for it comes from some of the strangest realms of space: black holes.

LEONARD SUSSKIND: This is a real disconnect, and it’s very hard to get your head around: modern ideas, coming from black holes, tell us that reality is two-dimensional, that the three-dimensional world, the full-bodied three-dimensional world, is a kind of image of a hologram on the boundary on the region of space.

1. JAMES GATES, JR.:This is a very strange thing. When I was a younger physicist I would have thought any physicist who said that was absolutely crazy.

BRIAN GREENE: Here’s a way to think about this. Imagine I took my wallet and threw it into a black hole. What would happen? We used to think that since nothing, not even light, can escape the immense gravity of a black hole, my wallet would be lost forever, but it now seems that may not be the whole story.

Recently, scientists exploring the math describing black holes made a curious discovery. Even as my wallet disappears into the black hole, a copy of all the information it contains seems to get smeared out and stored on the surface of the black hole, in much the same way that information is stored in a computer.

So in the end, my wallet exists in two places: there’s a three-dimensional version that’s lost forever inside the hole black and a two-dimensional version that remains on the surface as information.

CLIFFORD JOHNSON (University of Southern California): The information content of all the stuff that fell into that black hole can be expressed entirely in terms of just the outside of the black hole. The idea, then, is that you can capture what’s going on inside the black hole by referring only to the outside.

BRIAN GREENE: And, in theory, I could use the information on the outside of the black hole to reconstruct my wallet.

And here’s the truly mind-blowing part: space within a black hole plays by same rules as space outside a black hole or anywhere else. So if an object inside a black hole can be described by information on the black hole’s surface, then it might be that everything in the universe, from galaxies and stars, to you and me, even space itself, is just a projection of information stored on some distant two-dimensional surface that surrounds us.

In other words, what we experience as reality may be something like a hologram.

LEONARD SUSSKIND: Is the three-dimensional world an illusion, in the same sense that a hologram is an illusion? Perhaps. I think I’m inclined to think yes, that the three-dimensional world is a kind of illusion and that the ultimate precise reality is the two-dimensional reality at the surface of the universe.

This idea is so new that physicists are still struggling to understand it. But if it’s right, just as Newton and Einstein completely changed our picture of space, we may be on the verge of an even more dramatic revolution.

 

What did Moshe receive at Mt. Sinai?

שמות פרק לא:יח וַיִּתֵּן אֶל מֹשֶׁה כְּכַלֹּתוֹ לְדַבֵּר אִתּוֹ בְּהַר סִינַי שְׁנֵי לֻחֹת הָעֵדֻת לֻחֹת אֶבֶן כְּתֻבִים בְּאֶצְבַּע אֱלֹהִים:

5]Ex. 31:18 When [God] finished speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai, He gave him two tablets of the Testimony. They were stone tablets, written with God’s finger.

 

Now reread source 2] above, particularly the last half.
Why do you think the tablets are referred to as tablets of Testimony?

How is the Testimony Moshe received at Sinai connected with God’s supernal Torah?

6] Rambam (Maimonides), Introduction to the Commentary on the Mishna

Know that every commandment which God revealed to Moshe, it was revealed with its interpretation. God would say the wording (of the Scriptural commandment), then He would say its interpretation and explanation and everything which was implied in the precise wording….

And when Moshe died, peace be upon him, after he had charged Joshua with the explanations which had been revealed to him, Joshua and his contemporaries devoted themselves to thoroughly studying and understanding and applying [these laws with their revealed explanations].  But there was no question about whatever he or any of the Elders had heard explicitly from Moshe, and there was no debate over it.  The ramifications [of these statements] which were not explicitly heard from the Prophet’s lips, peace be upon him, they derived through legal analysis using the thirteen methods of Torah interpretation given on Mt. Sinai.  Some of those laws so derived had evoked no controversy upon their proposal and were unanimously agreed upon.  But some of them were subject to a difference of opinion: One authority would analyze one way, come to a certain conclusion, and be convinced of it, and another would analyze differently, as is liable to occur in application of logical rules of deduction [to the revealed laws and interpretations].  When such a controversy would arise among the authorities, they would follow the majority opinion, as the Torah prescribes for such a situation: “… you shall decide according to the majority” (Exodus 23:2 – אחרי רבים להטות).

And know that prophecy is not effective when it comes to legal analysis of the interpretation of Torah and deriving its ramifications through the thirteen methods [of interpretation]. Rather Joshua and Phinehas did the same type of legal analysis that Ravina and Rav Ashi (the editors of the Talmud) did….

And when Joshua died, peace be upon him, he had charged what had been related to him (by Moshe) of the interpretation [of Torah], as well as what was derived in his time –both matters over which there was no disagreement and matters over which there had been a disagreement but which he decided according to the opinion of the majority – to the Elders (זקנים). These Elders are mentioned in Joshua 24:31: “And Israel served Hashem all the days of Joshua and all the days of the Elders who outlived Joshua, and who knew first-hand all of what Hashem did for Israel.” Afterwards, those Elders charged the Prophets, peace be upon them, with all they heard from Joshua, and each prophet instructed the next – but there was never a time in which there was an absence of either analysis of the given laws or of deriving new laws from prior ones.

The Sages of each generation treated the statements of the preceding ones as the foundation: they would derive new rulings and inferences from them, but they would not disagree with the foundational sources which were related to them through the time of the Men of the Great Assembly (אנשי כנסת הגדולה)… They also analyzed the statements of their predecessors as the prior sages did, and issue decrees (גזירות) and enacted [Rabbinic] enactments (תקנות). The last of this pristine group was the earliest of the Sages first mentioned in the Mishnah – Shimon the Righteous….

What role does legal analysis and disagreement between authorities over the results of that analysis play in connecting what Moshe received (both Oral and Written Torah) with God’s supernal Torah?

7]

תוספתא מסכת סוטה (ליברמן) פרק ז

Tosefta Massekhet Sota ch. 7

הלכה ט מעשה בר’ יוחנן בן ברוקה ור’ לעזר חסמא שבאו מיבנה ללוד והקבילו פני ר’ יהוש’ בפקיעין אמ’ להם ר’ יהושע מה חידוש היה בבית המדרש היום אמרו לו תלמידיך אנו ומימיך אנו שותין אמ’ להם אי אפשר שלא יהא חידוש בבית המדרש שבת של מי היתה אמרו לו של ר’ לעזר בן עזריה היתה…

9. An incident with R. Yohanan ben Beroqa and R. [E]liezer Hisma who came from Yavne to Lod and greeted R. Yehoshua in Peqi’in. R Yehoshua said to them, “What chidush (innovatation) was there in the Beit Midrash (House of Study) today?” They said to him, “We are you disciples and your waters (Torah) we drink.”  [R. Yehoshua] said to them, “It is impossible that there would not be any chidush  (novel interpretation) in the Beit Midrash.  Whose Shabbat was it [to deliver the drasha]?” They said to him, “It was the Shabbat of [E]lazar ben Azaria….

 

הלכה יא ועוד אחרת דרש דברי חכמים כדרבונות וכמסמרות נטועים מה דורבן זה מכוין את הפרה להביא חיים בעולם אף דברי תורה אינן אלא חיין לעולם שנ’ עץ חיים היא וגו’ או מה דורבן זה מיטלטל יכול אף כך דברי תורה ת”ל וכמסמרות נטועים [או אינן חסירין ולא יתירין תלמוד לומר נטועים] מה נטיעה פרה ורבה אף דברי תורה פרין ורבין בעלי אסופות אילו שנכנסין ויושבין אסופות אסופות ואומ’ על טמא טמא ועל טהור טהור על טמא במקומו ועל טהור במקומו

11. And yet another matter he (Elazar ben Azaria) expounded: “The Words of the Sages are like cattle prods and like planted nails [masters of the assembled, given by one shepherd].” (Kohelet 12:11)  Just as this cattle prod directs the cow (in its plowing) to bring life to the world, so words of Torah are only life for the world, as it is stated: “It is a tree of life….” (Proverbs 3:18)  Or you might think that just as a cattle prod is moveable, so also words of Torah?  The verse specifically teaches, “and like planted nails” – just as a plant is fruitful and multiplies, so also words of Torah are fruitful and multiply. “Masters of the assembled,”  – these are the ones who enter and sit assembled and say about the impure that it is impure and about the pure that it is pure, about the impure in its place, and about the pure in its place.

הלכה יב שמא יאמר אדם בדעתו הואיל ובית שמיי מטמין ובית הלל מטהרין איש פל’ אוסר ואיש פל’ מתיר למה אני למד תורה מעתה ת”ל דברים הדברים אלה הדברים כל הדברים נתנו מרועה אחד אל אחד בראן פרנס אחד נתנן רבון כל המעשים ברוך הוא אמרו אף אתה עשה לבך חדרי חדרים והכניס בה דברי בית שמיי ודברי בית הלל דברי המטמאין ודברי המטהרין אמ’ להם אין דור יתום שר’ ליעזר שרוי בתוכו

12. Lest one say to himself, “since Beit Shammai say it is impure and Beit Hillel say it is pure, so-and-so prohibits and so-and-so permits, why should I learn Torah from now on?  Torah teaches: [and God spoke all of] these words (Ex. 20:1). All of the words were “given by one shepherd.”  One God created them, one Sustainer gave them: The Master of all Creations, Blessed Be He said them.  So you should make your heart rooms of rooms and enter into them the words of Beit Shammai and the words of Beit Hillel, the words of the ones who impurify and the words of the ones who purify. He (R. Yehoshua) said to them: “The generation that R. (E)liezer lives in is not an orphan generation.”

 8]

מדרש תהלים (בובר) מזמור יב	Midrash Tehillim, Chapter 12
אמר ר’ ינאי לא ניתנה דברי תורה חתיכין, אלא על כל דבור שהיה אומר הקב”ה למשה היה אומר מ”ט פנים טהור, ומ”ט פנים טמא,	R. Yannai said: The Torah was not given as clear-cut decisions.  Rather, for every commandment that God stated to Moses, He also stated 49 reasons for it to be pure and 49 reasons for it to be impure
אמר לפניו “רבונו של עולם עד מתי נעמוד על בירורו של דבר?”	[Moses] said before Him: “Master of the Universe, how long will the matter be unclear?”
אמר ליה “אחרי רבים להטות, רבו המטמאין טמא, רבו המטהרין טהור”.	[God] replied: “Follow the majority.  When the majority impurify, it is impure.  When the majority purify, it is pure.”

When and why is it necessary for disputes to be decided?

9]

דברים פרק יז	Deuteronomy 17:8-12
(ח) כִּי יִפָּלֵא מִמְּךָ דָבָר לַמִּשְׁפָּט בֵּין דָּם לְדָם בֵּין דִּין לְדִין וּבֵין נֶגַע לָנֶגַע דִּבְרֵי רִיבֹת בִּשְׁעָרֶיךָ וְקַמְתָּ וְעָלִיתָ אֶל הַמָּקוֹם אֲשֶׁר יִבְחַר יְקֹוָק אֱלֹהֶיךָ בּוֹ:	17:8 If you are unable to reach a decision in a case involving capital punishment, litigation, leprous marks, [or any other case] where there is a dispute in your territorial courts, then you must set out and go up to the place that God your Lord shall choose
(ט) וּבָאתָ אֶל הַכֹּהֲנִים הַלְוִיִּם וְאֶל הַשֹּׁפֵט אֲשֶׁר יִהְיֶה בַּיָּמִים הָהֵם וְדָרַשְׁתָּ וְהִגִּידוּ לְךָ אֵת דְּבַר הַמִּשְׁפָּט:	17:9 You must approach the Levitical priests [and other members of] the supreme court that exists at the time. When you make inquiry, they will declare to you a legal decision.
(י) וְעָשִׂיתָ עַל פִּי הַדָּבָר אֲשֶׁר יַגִּידוּ לְךָ מִן הַמָּקוֹם הַהוּא אֲשֶׁר יִבְחַר יְקֹוָק וְשָׁמַרְתָּ לַעֲשׂוֹת כְּכֹל אֲשֶׁר יוֹרוּךָ:	17:10 Since this decision comes from the place that God shall choose, you must do as they tell you, carefully following their every decision.
(יא) עַל פִּי הַתּוֹרָה אֲשֶׁר יוֹרוּךָ וְעַל הַמִּשְׁפָּט אֲשֶׁר יֹאמְרוּ לְךָ תַּעֲשֶׂה לֹא תָסוּר מִן הַדָּבָר אֲשֶׁר יַגִּידוּ לְךָ יָמִין וּשְׂמֹאל:	17:11 [Besides this, in general,] you must keep the Torah as they interpret it for you, and follow the laws that they legislate for you. Do not stray to the right or left from the word that they declare to you.
(יב) וְהָאִישׁ אֲשֶׁר יַעֲשֶׂה בְזָדוֹן לְבִלְתִּי שְׁמֹעַ אֶל הַכֹּהֵן הָעֹמֵד לְשָׁרֶת שָׁם אֶת יְקֹוָק אֱלֹהֶיךָ אוֹ אֶל הַשֹּׁפֵט וּמֵת הָאִישׁ הַהוּא וּבִעַרְתָּ הָרָע מִיִּשְׂרָאֵל:	17:12 If there is any man who rebels and refuses to listen to the priest or other judge who is in charge of serving God your Lord there [as leader of the supreme court], then that man must be put to death, thus ridding yourselves of evil in Israel.

 

10]

רש”י דברים פרק יז פסוק יא	Rashi on Deuteronomy 17:11 (based on Shir HaShirim Rabbah 1:2)
(יא) ימין ושמאל – אפילו אומר לך על ימין שהוא שמאל ועל שמאל שהוא ימין, וכל שכן שאומר לך על ימין ימין ועל שמאל שמאל:	Right or Left – Even if he tells you about the right that it is left and about the left that it is right, and all the moreso when he tells you about the right that it is right and the left that it is left.

 

How are Science and Torah (Oral and Written) related?

How do we deal with cases where Oral Torah appears to contradict Science/Reason?

When should Torah be reinterpreted (chiddush) to align with scientific opinion?  When should Torah NOT be reinterpreted to align with scientific opinion?
What do these questions have to do with connecting what Moshe received at Sinai with God’s supernal Torah?

 

 

11] Maimonides (Rambam) Commentary on the Mishnah, Introduction of Pereq HaCheleq (Sanhedrin ch. 10) – two pages which follow. (Note: this is from the translation by Lampel, who translated from a Hebrew translation of Rambam’s Judeo-Arabic original.  I have corrected a major error which resulted from this method on the second page by the notation *1.  The mistranslation I put in (parenthesis). The correct translation from the Judeo-Arabic original for that bracketed segment is typed in below.

 

See the pdf licked at the top of this page for this source.

 

12] Maimonides, Guide for the Perplexed, Part II, Chapter 25. [Translated from the Judeo-Arabic original by Shlomo Pines] – the final two pages.

See the pdf licked at the top of this page for this source.

What can we learn from the following Psalm about the connection between what Moshe received at Sinai and God’s supernal Torah?

13]

תהלים פרק יט   (א) לַמְנַצֵּחַ מִזְמוֹר לְדָוִד: (ב) הַשָּׁמַיִם מְסַפְּרִים כְּבוֹד אֵל וּמַעֲשֵׂה יָדָיו מַגִּיד הָרָקִיעַ: (ג) יוֹם לְיוֹם יַבִּיעַ אֹמֶר וְלַיְלָה לְּלַיְלָה יְחַוֶּה דָּעַת: (ד) אֵין אֹמֶר וְאֵין דְּבָרִים בְּלִי נִשְׁמָע קוֹלָם: (ה) בְּכָל הָאָרֶץ יָצָא קַוָּם וּבִקְצֵה תֵבֵל מִלֵּיהֶם לַשֶּׁמֶשׁ שָׂם אֹהֶל בָּהֶם: (ו) וְהוּא כְּחָתָן יֹצֵא מֵחֻפָּתוֹ יָשִׂישׂ כְּגִבּוֹר לָרוּץ אֹרַח: (ז) מִקְצֵה הַשָּׁמַיִם מוֹצָאוֹ וּתְקוּפָתוֹ עַל קְצוֹתָם וְאֵין נִסְתָּר מֵחַמָּתוֹ: (ח) תּוֹרַת יְקֹוָק תְּמִימָה מְשִׁיבַת נָפֶשׁ עֵדוּת יְקֹוָק נֶאֱמָנָה מַחְכִּימַת פֶּתִי: (ט) פִּקּוּדֵי יְקֹוָק יְשָׁרִים מְשַׂמְּחֵי לֵב מִצְוַת יְקֹוָק בָּרָה מְאִירַת עֵינָיִם: (י) יִרְאַת יְקֹוָק טְהוֹרָה עוֹמֶדֶת לָעַד מִשְׁפְּטֵי יְקֹוָק אֱמֶת צָדְקוּ יַחְדָּו: (יא) הַנֶּחֱמָדִים מִזָּהָב וּמִפַּז רָב וּמְתוּקִים מִדְּבַשׁ וְנֹפֶת צוּפִים: (יב) גַּם עַבְדְּךָ נִזְהָר בָּהֶם בְּשָׁמְרָם עֵקֶב רָב: (יג) שְׁגִיאוֹת מִי יָבִין מִנִּסְתָּרוֹת נַקֵּנִי: (יד) גַּם מִזֵּדִים חֲשֹׂךְ עַבְדֶּךָ אַל יִמְשְׁלוּ בִי אָז אֵיתָם וְנִקֵּיתִי מִפֶּשַׁע רָב: (טו) יִהְיוּ לְרָצוֹן אִמְרֵי פִי וְהֶגְיוֹן לִבִּי לְפָנֶיךָ יְקֹוָק צוּרִי וְגֹאֲלִי:

Psalms 19 (1) For the leader. A psalm of David. (2) The heavens declare the glory of God, the sky proclaims His handiwork. (3) Day to day makes utterance, night to night speaks out. (4) There is no utterance, there are no words, whose sound goes unheard. (5) Their voice carries throughout the earth, their words to the end of the world. He placed in them a tent for the sun, (6) who is like a groom coming forth from the chamber, like a hero, eager to run his course. (7) His rising-place is at one end of heaven, and his circuit reaches the other; nothing escapes his heat. (8) The Torah of the Hashem is perfect, refreshing the soul; the Testimony of the Hashem is faithful, making the simple wise; (9) The precepts of the Hashem are just, rejoicing the heart; the instruction of the Hashem is lucid, making the eyes light up. (10) The fear of the Hashem is pure, abiding forever; the judgments of the Hasjem are true, righteous altogether, (11) more desirable than gold, than much fine gold; sweeter than honey, than drippings of the comb. (12) Your servant pays them heed; in obeying them there is much reward. (13) Who can be aware of errors? Clear me of unperceived guilt, (14) and from willful sins keep Your servant; let them not dominate me; then shall I be blameless and clear of grave offense. (15) May the words of my mouth and the prayer of my heart be acceptable to You, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.