Who Chose Israel from Among the Seventy Nations of the World

"These are the generations of Noah, Noah." Blessed be the name of the King of kings of kings, the Holy One, blessed be He, who chose Israel from among the seventy nations, as it is written, "For the LORD's portion is His people, Jacob the lot of His inheritance" (Deuteronomy 32:9), and gave us the Written Torah, its inscription by way of hint, hidden and concealed things, and explained them in the Oral Torah, and revealed them to Israel. And not only that, but the Written Torah is the general, and the Oral Torah is the particular. And the Oral Torah is much, and the Written Torah is little. And concerning the Oral it is said, "Its measure is longer than the earth and broader than the sea" (Job 11:9). And it is written, "But it is not found in the land of the living" (Job 28:13). And what is "it is not found in the land of the living"? Is it then found in the land of the dead? Rather, the Oral Torah is not found with one who seeks the pleasure of the world, desire and honor and greatness in this world, but only with one who puts himself to death over it, as it is said, "This is the Torah: when a man dies in a tent" (Numbers 19:14). And such is the way of Torah: bread with salt you shall eat, and water by measure you shall drink, and on the ground you shall sleep, and a life of hardship you shall live, and in Torah you shall labor. For the Holy One, blessed be He, made a covenant with Israel only over the Oral Torah, as it is said, "For according to the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with you" (Exodus 34:27). And our Sages, may their memory be a blessing, said: The Holy One, blessed be He, did not write in the Torah "for the sake of these words," nor "on account of these words," nor "because of these words," but "according to the mouth of these words" [that is, by oral utterance]; and this is the Oral Torah, which is hard to learn and has great hardship in it, for it is likened to darkness, as it is said, "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light" (Isaiah 9:1). These are the masters of the Talmud who have seen a great light, for the Holy One, blessed be He, lights up their eyes in matters of the forbidden and the permitted, the impure and the pure. And in the time to come, "those who love Him shall be as the sun going forth in its might" (Judges 5:31). And Israel did not accept the Torah until the Holy One, blessed be He, held the mountain over them like a tub, as it is said, "And they stood at the foot of the mountain" (Exodus 19:17). And Rav Dimi bar Chama said: The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Israel: If you accept the Torah, good; and if not, there shall be your burial. And if you should say, He held the mountain over them for the Written Torah, but from the moment He said to them, "Will you accept the Torah?" they all answered and said, "We will do and we will obey," because there is no toil or hardship in it and it is little. Rather, He said it to them concerning the Oral Torah, in which there are fine points of commandments, light and weighty, and which is "as strong as death, and its zeal as hard as the grave" (cf. Song of Songs 8:6), for none learns it except one who loves the Holy One, blessed be He, with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, as it is said, "And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might" (Deuteronomy 6:5). And from where do you learn that this love is none other than an expression of Talmud? See what is written after it: "And these words which I command you this day shall be upon your heart" (Deuteronomy 6:6). And which is this? This is Talmud, which is upon the heart. That is to say: "And you shall teach them diligently to your children" (Deuteronomy 6:7); this is Talmud, which requires sharpening. This teaches you that the first paragraph of the Shema does not have in it an explicit statement of the reward for it in this world, as is written in the second paragraph, "And it shall be, if you obey... then I will give the rain of your land" (Deuteronomy 11:13-14); this is the reward of those who occupy themselves with the commandments of the Written Torah, who do not occupy themselves with Talmud. And in the second paragraph it is written, "with all your heart and with all your soul" (Deuteronomy 11:13), and it does not write "with all your might," to teach you that anyone who loves wealth and pleasure cannot learn the Oral Torah, because there is great hardship in it and loss of sleep, and there is one who wears himself out and degrades himself over it; therefore its reward is in the world to come, as it is said, "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light" (Isaiah 9:1). "A great light": the light that was created on the first day, which the Holy One, blessed be He, stored away for those who labor in the Oral Torah by day and by night, by whose merit the world stands, as it is said, "Thus says the LORD: If not for My covenant of day and night, I would not have set the statutes of heaven and earth" (Jeremiah 33:25). Which is the covenant that operates by day and by night? This is Talmud. And thus it says, "Thus says the LORD: If you can break My covenant of the day and My covenant of the night... then also My covenant with David My servant may be broken" (Jeremiah 33:20-21). And it says, "But his delight is in the Torah of the LORD, and on His Torah he meditates day and night" (Psalms 1:2). And the Holy One, blessed be He, also made a covenant with Israel that the Oral Torah would not be forgotten from their mouths and from the mouths of their seed until the end of all the generations, as it is said, "And as for Me, this is My covenant with them, says the LORD: My spirit that is upon you, and My words that I have put in your mouth, shall not depart..." (Isaiah 59:21). And it does not write "from you," but "from your mouth and from the mouth of your seed and from the mouth of your seed's seed" (Isaiah 59:21). And therefore the Holy One, blessed be He, established two academies for Israel, that they should study the Torah day and night and gather twice a year, in Adar and in Elul, from all the places, and engage in give-and-take in the warfare of Torah until they establish a matter on its proper footing and a law according to its truth, and bring proof from Scripture and from Mishnah and from Talmud, so that Israel should not stumble in matters of Torah, as it is said, "Great peace have those who love Your Torah, and nothing makes them stumble" (Psalms 119:165). "The LORD will give strength to His people; the LORD will bless His people with peace" (Psalms 29:11). And those two academies saw neither captivity nor persecution nor plunder, and the Holy One, blessed be He, brought them out twelve years before the destruction of Jerusalem, with their Torah and their Talmud, for thus it is written, "And he carried away all Jerusalem, and all the officials and all the mighty men of valor, ten thousand exiles, and all the craftsmen and the smiths; none remained except the poorest people of the land" (2 Kings 24:14). And what might is there in the people who go into exile? Rather, these are the mighty men of Torah, for thus it is said of it, "Therefore it is said in the Book of the Wars of the LORD" (Numbers 21:14). And among them, "the craftsman and the smith." "Craftsman" (charash): for when one of them speaks, all become as deaf men (cheirshin). "Smith" (masger): for when one of them shuts (soger) matters of impurity and purity or the forbidden and the permitted, there is none in the world who can open to declare pure or to permit, to fulfill what is said, "And I will lay the key of the house of David on his shoulder; he shall open and none shall shut, and he shall shut and none shall open" (Isaiah 22:22). "And the leaders of the land he took" (Ezekiel 17:13): these are the nobles of Judah and Benjamin, of whom it is said, "Thus says the LORD... Like these good figs, so will I regard for good the exiles of Judah whom I sent away from this place to the land of the Chaldeans" (Jeremiah 24:5). And it is written, "So the LORD kept watch over the evil and brought it upon us, for the LORD our God is righteous" (Daniel 9:14). And is it because He is righteous that "the LORD kept watch over the evil and brought the evil"? Rather, the Holy One, blessed be He, did a kindness with Israel in that He sent the exile of Jeconiah into exile before the exile of Zedekiah, so that the Oral Torah would not be forgotten by them; and they sat with their Torah in Babylon from that hour until this day, and neither Edom nor Greece ruled over them, nor did they decree persecution against them. And even in the days of the Messiah they will not see the birth pangs of the Messiah, as it is said, "Ho, Zion, escape" (Zechariah 2:11), from Edom and from Greece and from their decrees. And it is written, "Writhe and groan, daughter of Zion, like a woman in labor, for now you shall go forth from the city and dwell in the field" (Micah 4:10); "and I will dwell" is written. "In the field": for even though a person is exiled in the field, My Presence does not move from you. "And you shall come even to Babylon; there you shall be rescued; there the LORD will redeem you from the hand of your enemies" (Micah 4:10). "There": to teach you that from there the redemption begins, and from there they go up to Jerusalem, as it is said, "And saviors shall go up on Mount Zion..." (Obadiah 1:21). At that hour, "and the kingdom shall be the LORD's" (Obadiah 1:21). And so may it be His will.