Numbers 6:24-26
May the Lord bless you and protect you; may the Lord countenance you and be gracious to you; may the Lord favor you and grant you peace.
Mishnah Peah 1:1; Talmud Shabbath 127a
These are the things for which no limit is prescribed: the corner of the field,[1] the first-fruits,[2] the pilgrimage offerings,[3] the practice of kindness,[4] and the study of the Torah.[5] These are the things of which a man enjoys the fruits in this world, while the principal remains for him in the hereafter, namely: honoring father and mother, practice of kindness, early attendance at the schoolhouse morning and evening, hospitality to strangers, visiting the sick, dowering the bride, attending the dead to the grave, devotion in prayer, and making peace between fellow men; but the study of the Torah excels them all.
Talmud Berakhoth 60b
My God, the soul which thou hast placed within me is pure. Thou hast created it; thou hast formed it; thou hast breathed it into me. Thou preservest it within me; thou wilt take it from me, and restore it to me in the hereafter. So long as the soul is within me, I offer thanks before thee, Lord my God and God of my fathers, Master of all creatures, Lord of all souls. Blessed art thou, O Lord, who restorest the souls to the dead.
Blessed art thou, Lord our God, King of the universe, who hast given the cock intelligence to distinguish between day and night.[6]
- ↑ פאה part of the crop which the owner was required to leave for the benefit of the poor (Leviticus 23:22). According to tradition, the minimum was one-sixtieth of the harvest (Mishnah Peah 1:2)
- ↑ בכורים the earliest gathered fruits of the season brought to the Temple.
- ↑ ראיון The nature and value of the offering which all male Israelites were required to present at the Temple is not defined in Deuteronomy 16:16-17.
- ↑ גמילות חסדים There is no fixed limit to personal service and charity to all men. Gemiluth ḥasadim includes every kind of help.
- ↑ תלמוד תורה is one of the duties to which there is no prescribed limit. We are to engage in Torah study at all times. The readings from the Bible and the Talmud which form part of the morning service are meant to enable every Jew to have a daily share in the study of the Torah.
- ↑ לשכוי בינה is taken from Job 38:36, where שכוי is derived from שכה (“to see”). According to Berakhoth 60b and Rosh Hashanah 26a, שכוי signifies “cock”, that is, the bird which foresees the approaching day. The worshiper expresses his appreciation of nature’s super-senses and the exact timing of animals, for there are many kinds of “knowingness” in which animals far surpass us by means of their exquisite ability to “feel” things.
