Keys

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§ The Gemara cites related statements concerning the idea that rainfall provides evidence of God’s might. Rabbi Yoḥanan said: There are three keys maintained in the hand of the Holy One, Blessed be He, which were not transmitted to an intermediary, i.e., God tends to these matters Himself. And they are: The key of rain, the key of birthing, and the key of the resurrection of the dead.

Rabbi Akiva says: Just as there is a key to a house, so too, there is a key to a woman, as it is stated: “And He opened her womb” (Genesis 30:22). The Gemara challenges: The incident involving the students of Rabbi Yishmael, who found that the woman had only four additional limbs rather than five, i.e., there was no key, poses a difficulty for Rabbi Akiva. The Gemara responds: Perhaps since it is small, it dissolved in the water when they boiled the corpse.

Bekhorot 45a:19

MISHNA: One who sells a house has, as part of the sale, sold also the door, but not the key. He has sold the mortar that is fixed in the ground, but not the portable one. He has sold the immovable lower millstone [ha’itzterobil], but not the portable upper stone [hakelet], the funnel into which one pours the grain to be ground. And he has sold neither the oven nor the double stove, as they are deemed movable…

Bava Batra 65a:11-65b:3

Rav Yehuda says that Shmuel says: They asked Rabbi Eliezer: How far must one go to fulfill the mitzva of honoring one’s father and mother? Rabbi Eliezer said to them: Go and see what one gentile did for his father in Ashkelon, and the name of the son was Dama ben Netina. Once the Sages wished to purchase precious stones from him for the ephod of the High Priest for six hundred thousand gold dinars’ profit, and Rav Kahana taught that it was eight hundred thousand gold dinars’ profit…

Kiddushin 31a:9

A knee-shaped key that was broken off at the knee is clean. Rabbi Judah says that it is unclean because one can open with it from within. A gamma-shaped key that was broken off at its shorter arm is clean. If it retained the teeth and the gaps it remains unclean. If the teeth were missing it is still unclean on account of the gaps; if the gaps were blocked up it is unclean on account of the teeth. If the teeth were missing and the gaps were blocked up, or if they were merged into one another, it is clean…

Mishnah Kelim 14:8

MISHNA: At some time near dawn the appointed priest took the key that was kept beneath a marble tablet set in the floor of the Chamber of the Hearth and opened with it the wicket [hapishpesh] in the gate of the Chamber of the Hearth. And he entered through the wicket from the Chamber of the Hearth to the Temple courtyard; and the priests of the patrilineal family entered after him, and two torches of fire were in their hands, to light the way.

With regard to Korah’s wealth, the Gemara cites the verse: “Riches kept by his owner to his hurt” (Ecclesiastes 5:12). Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish said: This is the wealth of Korah, which caused him to grow arrogant and lead to his destruction. As it is stated: “And what He did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, son of Reuben; how the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up, and their households, and their tents, and all the sustenance that was at their feet” (Deuteronomy 11:6)…

Pesachim 119a:12

Rabba bar Rav Huna said: Any person who has Torah in him but does not have

The Rabbis said to him: There was an incident at the poultry dealers’ market in Jerusalem, where they would fatten fowl for slaughter (Rabbeinu Ḥananel), and they would lock the doors to their shops and place the key in the window that was over the door, which was more than ten handbreadths off the ground, and nobody was concerned about the possible violation of any prohibition. Rabbi Yosei says: That place was a market of wool dealers.

There was a place there [in the fire chamber] one cubit square on which was a slab of marble. In this was fixed a ring and a chain on which the keys were hung. When closing time came, the priest would raise the slab by the ring and take the keys from the chain. Then the priest would lock up within while the Levite was sleeping outside. When he had finished locking up, he would replace the keys on the chain and the slab in its place and put his garment on it and sleep there. If one of them had a seminal emission, he would go out by the winding stair which went under the Birah…

Mishnah Middot 1:9

Job said: “He will dwell in desolate cities, in houses in which one would not live, which are destined to become heaps. He will not become rich, and his wealth will not endure; nothing of his will extend over the earth. He will not turn away from darkness; the flame will dry his shoots, and they will pass away from the breath of his mouth. Let him not trust in futility that misleads, for futility will be his compensation. He will wither before his time, and his treetop will not be green. He will shed his unripe grapes like a vine, and he will cast off his blossoms like an olive tree…

Bamidbar Rabbah 18:15

You are finding that when Nebuchadnezzar campaigned here, he came and sat in Daphne of Antiochia. The Great Synhedrion went to him and said to him, did the time come that this House be destroyed? He said to them, give me the one which I made king over you and I will depart. They came and said to Jehoiachin, the king of Judea, Nebuchadnezzar wants you. When he heard this from them, he took the keys of the Temple and climbed to the roof of the Temple. He said before Him: Master of the world! In the past we were trustworthy for You and Your keys were handed to us…

Jerusalem Talmud Shekalim 6:2:7

“God remembered Rachel.” What remembrance did he remember for her? It was her silence for her sister, when they were giving him [Jacob] Leah. She knew, and she was silent.
“God remembered Rachel.” Thus it should be, as she introduced her rival wife into her house. Rav Huna and Rav Aḥa said in the name of Rabbi Simon: “Dan, Joseph, and Benjamin” (I Chronicles 2:2). By the merit of Dan, [Bilha’s son], Rachel was remembered; by the merit of Dan, Joseph and Benjamin were produced.
“He opened her womb” – Rabbi Tanḥuma said in the name of Rabbi Beivai: There are three keys in the hand of…

Bereshit Rabbah 73:4

“And I return to my father’s house in peace” – Rabbi Yehoshua of Sikhnin in the name of Rabbi Levi: The Holy One blessed be He took the conversations of the patriarchs and rendered them the key to the redemption of the descendants. The Holy One blessed be He said to him [Jacob]: ‘You said: “[The Lord] will be [vehaya] my God,” as you live, all the goodness, blessings, and consolations that I give to your children, I give it to them only in this language,’ as it is stated: “It will be [vehaya] on that day that spring water will emerge from Jerusalem” (Zechariah 14:8)…

Bereshit Rabbah 70:6

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