Introduction by the Author

And regarding what we explained in the commentary of Chamar metaphorical discourse, because two other matters are required for the protection of the continuing purpose: the study of the mitzvot commandments of the assembly of Israel regarding the sections of the Torah; and the appointment of a specific place on Earth for all sefarim sacred books to be prepared by his hand and to serve the Hashem the Name/God among us. If it were only prayer, the designation of a known place would cause the servant—as he brings us to haflagah the act of traveling a distance—to strengthen the Name at the time of his appointment to go toward every [direction] a journey of three days or more. And he says: "Our service shall stand in the place that He chooses," and he says: "The Lord will see," when it is said today: "On the mountain of the Lord, He will be seen." And just as the King referring to King Solomon, peace be upon him, said in his prayer at the time of the dedication of the Holy Temple: "For will God truly dwell on the earth? The heavens and the highest heavens cannot contain You, how much less this house that I have built! Yet, turn to the prayer of Your servant, etc." And the literalists explained the meaning of the place: "It cannot contain You, how much less this house," but my heart does not establish a place for Your glory to judge it relative to Yourself, but only relative to the soul, because it is necessary to go to an established place to be constantly drawn from it and go to an established place to serve the Lord. And for this he said: "And turn to the prayer of Your servant, etc." And regarding this, the sages concentrated in their prayer and said: "And they shall pray to You by way of the land" referring to 1 Kings 8:48, meaning that they shall stand during a time when they cannot come to pray in this house because they will be exiles, poor and lowly among the nations, and they will pray by way of the land and direct their hearts toward this place and to strengthen the act of his prayer. And all of this is in relation to ourselves; according to the nature of physical service, it is necessary to establish a fixed place for the servant to serve the Master. And specifically in this they explained the verse "And You will be established," and there are those who explain "on the earth" referring to a midrashic reading of the verse with tranquility, and his intention is to say that with wisdom and understanding, God established man on the earth, meaning His providence is on the earth. And if so, he explained his words and said: "Behold, the heavens, etc.," meaning he did not say that He sits on the earth because He is limited in space, for that would be a denial of the soul, God forbid, regarding the majesty of His honor, but he meant: "Behold, the heavens and the highest heavens," meaning the spheres and the highest sphere that encompasses everything, "cannot contain You, how much less this house." Rather, his intention in saying "God established man on the earth" is in relation to ourselves, for he needs an established and fixed place, and this is the meaning of "And turn to the prayer of Your servant, and do not hear, etc." And this is the explanation: he has real assistance in the Book of Chronicles, "For the heavens, God established man on the earth; behold, the heavens, etc." But in Kings it does not say that, except for "For truly God will dwell on the earth," and I revere man. And that which is said in the Yosif Josephus/historical commentaries teaches that the verse in Kings is spoken in the way of a question, meaning: Does the Holy One, blessed be He, sit on the earth? "Behold, the heavens, etc." But the verse in Chronicles that says "God established man on the earth" is a settled phrase. But by saying, since the Scripture hinted at the creation of man and said: "Let us make man in our image," etc., then it is fitting and obligatory that His providence be attached to him on the earth, and if so, he explained his words and said: "Behold, the heavens, etc." As we wrote above, it is necessary from all this that it is fitting and obligatory, according to human necessity, that there be an established place on earth for His prayer, and that is in the Bet HaMikdash the Holy Temple of the tribes in the holy of holies, for there was the binding of Isaac and the service of generations in the choosing of the place. And since the Holy One, blessed be He, came to teach Israel to fear Him, He chose a specific place for His service on earth, and that is in the Bet HaMikdash. And we learn from this that which is said: "Heavens are His throne," He fixed His glory in the heavens above, corresponding to the Bet HaMikdash below, just as the prophet said: "The heavens are My throne, and the earth is My footstool," for this is an indication of His providence, may He be blessed, in the lowly world, like a great king sitting on his royal throne to oversee the extent of his kingdom. And for this they said: "His throne and the Holy Temple," as it is in the ancient books, "He, blessed be He, in the creation of the world, because there is a great thought directed toward the people of Israel." And because we did not deserve the days of the Temple, for in our sins it was destroyed twice, it should have said: "The throne is still existing in another, in His thought, and it is the coming of the Messiah, and he will rebuild the Bet HaMikdash to its antiquity, and it will be permanently established forever." And the matter that he said: "And it is said: God," and there it says: "Messiah," it is the intention of the author without agreeing to the midrash of the verse that he brings from it to its antiquity, which says: "Before the sun, His name will be established." And the Rashba Rabbi Shlomo ben Aderet wrote that because the creation is one of the thoughts of the Blessed One for the world, because of this he said "the name of the Messiah," to hint that the Temple itself did not precede, only His thought in its creation. And it is possible that he intended to say that He will reign in the whole world and all nations will serve Him, according to the way the Scripture says: "And I will pray to Him," and I will say to the nations for His benefit, and not to his prayer. And the rest of the explanation said: "My days are in accordance with our time," and it is for his completeness, for not only did the thought of the Blessed One precede in the coming of the Messiah as a foundation, but also before his being, like in our generations and the previous generations, for we are all unique teachers, and this support is the goal of our troubles, and all the prayers we mentioned in the sages, for salvation, etc. Because of this, he said "the name of the Messiah" to hint that even in these days when we have nothing but the merit of His name and His dwelling, the Holy One, blessed be He, provides for us as if we had the Bet HaMikdash and the Messiah. The end of the matter is the intention of the Baraita: "And these seven things preceded the world," the thought exists and these things exist in action. And one should not raise a difficulty against this from the Talmudic passage in Pesachim, where they brought this Baraita to raise a difficulty against what they said there: "Gehenna was created on the eve of the Sabbath between the suns," and they raised a difficulty against it: "How can you say Gehenna was created on the eve of the Sabbath?" And they answered: "Seven things were included before the world was created," and he answers: "It is for Gehenna on the eve of the Sabbath and Gehenna is for the wicked." And its light is seen from this answer that the intention of the masters of the Talmud in the explanation of this Baraita is that the light of Gehenna was actually created before the world was created. And this Baraita is complex in the reason of the intention of the masters of the Talmud, but the questioner and the answerer both know the truth in the explanation of the Baraita. And on this the intention of the questioner who asked said that it is impossible to say that the light of Gehenna was created on the eve of the Sabbath between the suns, since it is one of the things that preceded the world in the thought of the Creator, to say that its actual creation was exactly with all the things that were created in the seven days, and it was not created on the eve of the Sabbath between the suns. And on this intention, the answerer answered and said: "Before the world was created," meaning: "True, it is a thought, but before the world was created, and the object was created in the six days, and the light of Gehenna its creation was on the eve of the Sabbath between the suns." And also in the Masekhet Bereshit this Baraita is found, and they distanced and removed the intention of... [gap/text obscured] ...to explain it today, and they hinted to us here the masters of the Talmud, the intention in prayer in the intention on a true foundation, and it is our true faith, and it is that even though He is satisfied with the little in his generation, as in the Mishnah of the prophet, peace be upon him, "Who makes peace and creates evil," not only in the creation of evil on the first intention, but the essence of His intention, blessed be He, in its creation is relative to the majority of the good to draw from it, and so it is not that the Holy One, blessed be He,

in the creation of Gehenna, according to what we said, was not His first intention in its creation, to destroy the forces... [gap/text obscured] ...therefore the sages found the Gehenna of the wicked that was created on the eve of the Sabbath between the suns, for the intention includes in it to say that they were created, but the study will be the solution from the beginning in the creation of the world, but every world in the time of the days of creation, not relative to the time between the suns alone, for he is intended by the world, and primarily:

And this teaching of the Baraita and its explanation is known before everyone who merits to walk according to the way of the Talmud after knowing the things the world stands on, in the midst of every generation, like a structure of three strong pillars, foundations of the building, and upon them it stands. So the Holy One, blessed be He, set three pillars for the building of the world, and without them it is impossible to stand. The first pillar: The Torah, meaning the knowledge of the essence of the Torah. The second pillar: Service, the meaning is the existence of the world for it is the service of sacrifices in the Bet HaMikdash, and with the existence of the ken nest/place, it includes in it prayer, as the sages explained to say: "And he will pray to Him in His Torah," it is your support, and is there service in Babylon? If not, this is prayer, as it is written: "And he opened toward his chamber," etc. And it is not fitting to pray... [gap/text obscured] ...the righteous in the building of the world divided it on the service of sacrifices alone, since he did not explain more, only to say "on the service," for prayer is called service of the heart, as they said in the Sifrei in the chapter "And you shall serve with all your heart." And it is necessary to rely on all the standing... [gap/text obscured] ...and in my Malkhot kingdoms/reign in all parts of the order. And this is the name:

Ben Zoma says: from his removal of the end he remembers, and he will say: "And all the people of Israel," etc. Thus, in the construction to say from his removal of the general principle and he is "And love your neighbor" as the primary, like Shimon ben Zoma, from the more general verse, and it is: "And the lamb that you shall offer in the morning," etc. The third pillar: Gemilut Hasadim acts of loving-kindness, as he walked in the way of his mouth, as it is written: "According to all that I show you, the pattern of the Tabernacle," etc. And it is fitting to mention the foundation of the kindness of the heavens, and as they said, meaning all the spheres. And it seems according to the literal meaning that the choice of Ben Zoma is a great principle in the Torah more than the kindness of the heavens, and this is the elevation of the spiritual worlds, as in the blessings in the verse "Hear O Israel." And the choice of Ben Zoma, because relative to the whole general principle, it is a greater principle, including service of [God] because of the reason and the [reason] that he did not mention "the King" referring to the title of the work or a specific figure and not "the negative commandment" and the reason to say "the King" because this preceded the general principle of the action, even to a pagan, and said to him: "Convert me on condition that you teach me the Torah on one foot," and he said to him: "And love your neighbor as yourself." And so his mouth to draw [the student] closer, and it seems that the few are good, they are choked in two types: one is in the singular like "And love your neighbor as yourself." Second, between him and the Place a name for God, like the act of the sacrifices. And for this the verse founded: "The lamb that you shall offer," for it is the act of sacrifices for His service, may He be blessed. Because of this, the people walked in the way that he opened his mouth because this gathers the holy physical virtues and the virtue of the good deed, and it is fitting for this the verse "According to all that I show you, the pattern of the Tabernacle," for the act of the Tabernacle is its intention to explain the essence of its being a day, and so you shall do, the act and the matter will be connected to the foundation, and the intention of the act was to teach that from the pillars of the world are the Torah, the wisdom, and the work, and between these seven things are these three. The Torah is the pillar of the establishment, the service is the essence of the sacrifices, and it is prayer that is included in the essence and the act, and Gemilut Hasadim is a simple act between a man and his fellow.

Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel is many days after Shimon HaTzadik, and in his days the Temple was already destroyed, therefore he could not say "The existence of the world is the service of the sacrifices," and also it was not the foundation of the world: the study of Torah and its secrets to perfection as in the days of Shimon HaTzadik, for he was the High Priest. For in the generation of Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel, the Torah scholars were few and lowly, according to the value of the generation of Shimon HaTzadik. Because of this, he established in his time three strong pillars, and they are the peace on the judgment, and the truth, and the peace of the words of the Scripture, and it is "truth and truth and peace," peace in the gate. Judgment is the act of judgment between a man and his brother. Truth is as each is obligated to his fellow in the way of truth, he has no [right] to pass it at all, since each one of them is truth, and also there are [those] who need to obligate peace and this is the mediator who is the one who makes peace between them. Peace is not, God forbid, that he is a rebel against the truth, he is a man and he is forced to go to court and to quarrel one with the other, he has no [recourse] afterward, he will make peace between them. And the man tells that it is better than peace, what the prophet said: if so, it was fitting not to have for him a claim when he said to write in it, not these, the truth said all that matter was between them peace, and they do not need any judge for him who will pass the truth between them, for the peace is from the world, and it is obligated to complete it. The Sages explained: The act of the existence of the judgment and it is for the settlement, and he said: "In judgment He will establish the earth," not with this, for sometimes the judge will be drawn to incline to the truth, and for this he will judge in a final judgment, as he teaches from his fellow upon him the witnesses, but sometimes to obligate the possessor to bring [evidence], as the answer of Mar bar Huna a specific Sage brought [evidence] from the city, etc., and similar to this, the things to the strong, he had in the house of Rav Chisda. And because permission was not given to do so, and other than if the judge is a great and wise man and established, therefore he loved the peace, which is to make a compromise. And since I have mentioned, it is explained the reason of the general principle of the language between standing and existence, each one of the [three] pillars according to his generation. Shimon HaTzadik was one of the Great Assembly and he saw to the Sanhedrin, and in his days the Torah and service were in order, and it is fitting to say upon them the existence and the perfection of acts of kindness, and Hillel the elder [spoke of] the three pillars of the world, he mentioned on the eve of its creation to be the pillars of the world, and this is the intention of the building in a part, and it is fitting that the pillars are the greatness of the building, and it stands upon them, as it is written in the building of the house of Solomon: "And he arranged the House of the Forest of Lebanon on four rows of pillars," and he adheres to it in the language of standing. But when Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel came, many creations were already destroyed, and because of this, they were not masters of the world, the perfect in Torah as in the days of Shimon HaTzadik, and also the Temple was destroyed and the service ceased, so he mentioned three strong pillars upon which the world exists and they fulfilled this, meaning the pillars of the building and its existence and its peace and its existence, and it is not a helper and a wise man afterward to him the strong pillars, the five [pillars] of the building to stand, and the establishment and the [gap/text obscured] will fall and there is no establishment. But the three pillars, they are the building existing and existing, and it is the statement. So it happened in the time of the generation of Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel, for even though they were students and learners in it, but the merit, God forbid, even so they were not perfect in the studies of the [Torah], as requested, for the controversy of the purpose multiplied, and also in all this, they were not expert enough to judge between truth and [falsehood] and between his brother, and at least between them peace in the way of compromise, therefore he said that on three pillars, peace.