Human Beings In The Presence Of God Assertion vs. Submission

(17) And the LORD said: ‘Shall I hide from Abraham that which I am doing; (18) seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? (19) For I have known him, to the end that he may command his children and his household after him, that they may keep the way of the LORD, to do righteousness and justice; to the end that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which He hath spoken of him.’

Rabbi Yehudah said, "Rav said, "When Moshe ascended to the heavens, he found the Holy One, Blessed be He, sitting and attaching crowns to the letters. He said before Him, "Master of the Universe! Who is staying your hand?" He said to him, "There is one man man who will exist after many generations, and Akiva the son of Yosef is his name, who will in the future expound on every crown and crown piles and piles of laws." He said before Him, "Master of the Universe! Show him to me." He said to him, "Turn backwards." He went and sat at the end of eight rows [of students in Rabbi Akiva's Beit Midrash], and he did not know what they were talking [about]. He got upset. As soon as he got to one [other] thing, his students said to him, "Our teacher, from where do you learn this?" He said to them, "It is a law [that was taught] to Moshe at Sinai." He calmed down.

This is the “oven of Achnai.” What is Achnai? Said Rabbi Yehudah in the name of Shmuel: That they surrounded it with words [of debate] like an Achnai snake, and declared it impure. It was taught: On that day R. Eliezer answered all the answers on earth and they did not accept it from him. He said, “If the law is like me, the carob tree will prove it”; the carob tree was uprooted from its place one hundred Amah, some say four hundred Amah. They said: “We do not bring proof from a carob tree.”... He went and said “If the law is like me the water channel will prove it”; the water channel flowed in reverse direction. They said: “We do not bring proof from a water channel.” He went and said “If the law is as I say the walls of the House of Study will prove it”; the walls of the House of Study inclined to fall. R. Yehoshua protested at them, saying to them “If scholars defeat each other in the law, how does it better you?” They did not fall because of the honor of R.Yehoshua and they did not straighten, because of the honor of R. Eliezer, and they still incline and stand.... [R. Eliezer] went and said, “If the law is like me, from Heaven they will prove it”; a heavenly voice came out and said, “What have you with R. Eliezer, who the law is like him in every place?” R. Yehoshua stood on his feet and said “[The Torah] is not in heaven,” (Deuteronomy 30:12). What does "[The Torah] is not in heaven" mean? R. Yirmiyah said: “That the Torah was already given at Sinai, we do not pay attention to a heavenly voice, since You already wrote at Sinai in the Torah, “After the majority to incline,” (Exodus 23:2). R. Natan met the prophet Elijah and said to him, “What did the Holy One Blessed be He do in that hour?” He said to him: “He smiled and said, “My sons have defeated Me, My sons have defeated Me.” They said: On that day they burned all the pure things R. Eliezer had declared pure; they voted upon him and excommunicated him. They asked “Who will go and inform him?” R. Akiva said, “I will go, lest an improper person inform him and all the earth will be destroyed.” What did R. Akiva do? He dressed in black and sat before him at a distance of four Amot. R. Eliezer said: “Akiva, what is today from all days?” He said, “My master, it appears to me your friends distanced themselves from you.” R. Eliezer too tore his clothes, removed his shoes and sat on the ground his eyes flowed tears. The earth was stricken, a third in olives, a third in wheat, a third in barley. Some say: even dough in a woman’s hand spoiled.... It was taught: Great was that day that every place R. Eliezer put his eyes was burned.... And even R. Gamliel was on a ship; a wave stood upon him to drown him. He said: It appears to me this is only because of R.Eliezer b. Hyrkanos. He stood on his feet and said, “Master of the world, it is revealed and known before You that not for my honor I did nor for the honor of my father’s house but for Your honor that controversies not multiply in Israel.” The sea rested from its anger. Ima Shalom, wife of R. Eliezer, was R. Gamliel’s sister; from then she did not allow R. Eliezer to fall on his face in prayer. One day the New Moon became miscalculated for her between a twenty-nine or thirty day month. Some say: a poor man came and stood at the gate, she brought out bread to him. She found R. Eliezer fallen in prayer and said, “Get up, you have killed my brother.” Meanwhile a ram’s horn blast went out from R. Gamliel’s house [to announce] that he died. [R. Eliezer] asked, “How did you know?” She said, “So I have received a tradition from the house of my father’s father: “All gates are closed but the gates of oppression.”

(15) A man who transgressed a sin whose punishmnet is karet [punishment by premaure death] but received lashes, is absolved from karet, as the verse states "And your brother will be demeaned before you, (Deuteronomy 25:3)" once he has been demeaned he becomes like your brother, so says Rabbi Chanania ben Gamliel.

Said R. Joseph: Who has gone up [to Heaven] and come [back with this information]?16 — Said Abaye to him: But then, in regard to what R. Joshua b. Levi said: ‘Three things were enacted by the [mundane] Tribunal below, and the Celestial Tribunal on high have given assent to their action’; [we might also exclaim,] who has gone up [to Heaven] and come [back with this information]? Only, we [obtain these points by] interpreting certain texts; and, in this instance too, we so interpret the texts.

(4) because they have forsaken Me, and have estranged this place, and have offered in it unto other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah; and have filled this place with the blood of innocents; (5) and have built the high places of Baal, to burn their sons in the fire for burnt-offerings unto Baal; which I commanded not, nor spoke it, neither came it into My mind.

Which I had not commanded, nor spoken, and which had not come into my mind," which implies, "I had not commanded" refers to the sacrificing of the son of Mesha the King of Moab by his father [II Kings, iii. 27]: "now spoken," refers to the daughter of Jephthah; and "which had not come into my mind," refers to Isaac, whom his father Abraham was willing to sacrifice.

(1) It is obvious, and also explained by the Torah, that the commandments were established forever and ever. They are not to be changed, and should not be added to or diminished, as it says "All this word which I command you, that shall ye observe to do; thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it." (Deut 13:1); and it says "What is revealed is for us and our children forever, to carry out all the words of this Torah." This teaches that we are commanded to fulfill all the Torah's directives forever. It is also said: "It is an everlasting statute for all your generations," and [Deuteronomy 30:12] states: "It is not in the heavens." This teaches that a prophet can no longer add a new precept [to the Torah]. Therefore, if a person will arise, either from Israel or from the nations, and perform a sign or wonder and say that God sent him to: add a mitzvah, withdraw a mitzvah, explain a mitzvah in a manner which different than explained by Moses, or if he says that the mitzvot commanded to the Jews are not forever, but rather were given for only that time, he is a false prophet. He comes to oppose the Moses' prophesy and should be executed by strangling, because he intentionally spoke in God's name what God didn't command. The One Whose Name is Blessed commanded Moses that "this commandment is for us and our children forever", and, "[God] is not man that He lies".

(1) [One] should not stand up to pray unless he is in a serious frame of mind {lit. "heavy of head"}. The original pious ones used to wait one hour and then pray, in order to direct their hearts towards the Omnipresent. [While one is reciting Shemoneh Esrei,] even if the king greets him {lit. "asks about his welfare"}, he should not respond to him, and even if a snake wraps around his heel, he should not interrupt.

Thus spake Hannah before the Holy One, blessed be He, "Lord of the universe ! If Thou wilt look, well and good ; but if Thou wilt not look, I will go and seclude myself [with another man][4] before Elkanah my husband ; and having done so, they will administer to me the waters of the woman suspected of adultery, and Thou wilt surely not make Thy Torah a fraud ; for it is said, 'Then she shall be cleared, and shall conceive seed'" (Num. v. 28).

O my God, before I was formed I had no worth, and now that I have been formed I am but as though I had not been formed. Dust am I in my life ; how much more so in my death. Behold I am before Thee like a vessel filled with shame and confusion. O may it be Thy will, O Lord my God, that I may sin no more; and as to the sins I have committed, purge them away in Thine abounding compassion though not by means of affliction and sore diseases.

Said the angels before G-d, Lord of the Universe, why does Israel fail to utter song before you during Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur? He replied, When the King sits on the throne of judgment and the books of life and death are before him, can Israel utter song?"