Words of the Master Levi ibn Habib, Son of the Author, may the memory of the righteous be for a blessing

House of Jacob, hear now these words. Dedicate yourselves and enter the gates. The gates of tears are etched upon my face, a reference to the mourning for his father and fixed upon my head; the gray hair of age is scattered. And if, to the sight of the eyes, the waters have run dry, my heart within me rumbles and is anxious. Fear ripples out, sprouting the tree of sorrow upon the chest of faith—planted and rooted, it shall not move nor rest in its deep-set place.

The waves of grief have engulfed me; I have sunk into the miry depths of sorrowful thoughts. My seat is a seat of sighs, between the furnace and the hearth, poured out in ash. Even at night, at the side of the bed of sorrows and the resting place of sickness, I am asleep. My beloved thoughts do not flee; my bitter spirit does not rest for me. Then they were like dreamers, seeing the voices—the voice is the voice of Jacob, and the hands are the hands an allusion to Genesis 27:22; the author laments his father's passing. Of all my limbs, no soul remains; the light of my eyes is not with me as I remember the day I was left behind, the vessel of the crown of my head and the wreath of my splendor.

A day of anger and visitation, for the Lord chose Jacob for Himself, and the heifer was not redeemed. Time rose against him, turning round about with its stratagems, and he set darkness round about him. That day, the lights of his wisdom grew dim, and the earth shook from its darkness. The people were clothed in trembling; they were desolate; they rejoiced at this, and the hair of their flesh stood up. Then they said in their hearts, "As the Lord lives, Jacob has indeed departed from before Him."

For days he bore the burden of grain and the bread of mighty men—the bread of Torah. These are the words, clear, true, and pure from the waters of life, not doubted by "maybe" or "perhaps." In the dialectic of understanding the ways of the Talmud, his hand was strong. He learned and taught much Torah; he crouched in the shadow of wisdom and loved it, to grant merit to the public. Companions attentive to his voice—the voice of the Lord in strength and might, the lion of the company.

And also in his tending the flock, the holy flock, to bring men and women into the tradition of the covenant. The leader of the leaders, to teach wisdom and knowledge, and to plant the root of truth and faith in their hearts. Like a warrior, he stood ready to fight their battles. Jacob, a simple man, dwelling in tents, and the tent of Sarah a reference to the divine presence—for in the ears of Sarah, the truths are the personal and the Torah-based ones. What is the nature of his tents? The tents of the hidden and the revealed.

Justice was the girdle of his loins in matters of Heaven, to rebuke the faces of the insolent, those with evil deeds. He would honor and empower those who fear the Lord, and break the wicked and the sinners. He judged the case of the poor and the destitute and held fast to the fortress; horns were in his hand, and there was the hiding place of his strength. He saved the poor from one stronger than he—in the midst of the congregation I will praise him.

And in the place where they said to extend, I come to shorten, for the matter that the Master chose, I do not believe it right for me to stand and recount it. For with the abundance of his perfection, all his days his humility and lowliness answered for him. And for what he did not attain, it was an error to him. Like a lion, he closed his ear to hearing praise and special titles. He stood on his firm foundation, despised in his own eyes, crouching like a brother sitting at my right hand, as if he were his son, the son of Jacob.

And Jacob shepherded the flock of the people of God with knowledge and understanding. All the days he lived, his days of old age approached; his strength weakened like a woman's. His eye turned toward Heaven, and the layer of dew went up—the dew of lights was his dew. Happy is he who labored in Torah. He finished his word to prepare a portion and light, and provisions for the journey. He said, "It is time to act for the day when my days and years approach, to see the face of God."

May lights shine toward my face; may they lead me in paths of righteousness and brighten my eyes. When the sun comes—the sun has risen and descended. I shall exchange strength and awaken, and dwell securely, alone. Ein Yaakov Well of Jacob the title of the work—let it go beyond, to the tents of Shem and Eber, the students of Aaron, in the traveling of the Ark, to the valley of the Baron a location often associated with mourning or deep valley, the students of Hillel and Shammai. Everything is to include what? And as they are fitting in the luminaries—the Lord is my salvation and my light. He will distance from me every sin, and clothe my soul in garments of salvation—garments of desire, royal apparel, changes of robes. She is not afraid of the snow, for her household is clothed in years—the fruit of the lips of the sleepers the sages of the past.

He gathered and collected all the midrashim homiletical interpretations of our Rabbis of blessed memory in our holy Talmud, with the commentary of Rashi and the Tosafot, and other commentaries from the masters of insights, as the hand found. And he further added to some of them new things, rooted by people according to the faith of our holy Rabbis. And to bring near the work, the work of Heaven, the four cubits of the halakha Jewish law, and especially for a blessing, he commanded to write it on the tablet of the pages to grant merit to the public. If they are whole, and also many, righteous and good.

And in this, he was spending his days and nights, and he stripped the garments of the world's desires from him. He would not slumber nor sleep until they came forth as a brightness. Which he swore to the Lord, Jacob made a vow saying: "Remember and keep, begin and finish." It was pleasing to the Master, but not to the way of man. And the primordial serpent, coiled at the heel of every creature, stopped him. And the sun was setting, and Jacob had angels before him to return my spirit to its Master, for there is no panim favoritism/face-turning before Him.

And the witness is the man Moses, the humble one, for the Lord commanded, and who can distort? There is no power on the day of death. And so the King established, over every master and walker, to the King's house, when called to come, and the angels of peace he brought before him. And now I, the young, bitter and sighing, have come, and my thoughts are amazed and astonished at the bitterness, and my soul is like the roaring of the deep sea. I apologize before the greatness of the high ones, bowing before them, and saying: "Listen to me, and God will listen to you."

At the beginning, when the Rabbi, my teacher and father of blessed memory, agreed to collect all the midrashim of our Rabbis of blessed memory and to quiet the lilies, the pearls of their secret hints, as stated—his intention was only to reap by collecting them alone, and to command to write them with the commentaries of the early masters of blessed memory, not to write anything of what appeared before him as his own in explaining their intent. However, afterwards, another spirit was with him, because the men of his peace opened and finished for him—those who speak, our teacher, and those who eat his bread. Every day he would innovate and write what was recorded in the books of the earlier sermons that had already been printed.

However, in the remaining orders, there is nothing new. And I knew that I did not know how to saturate and cleanse the wheat from the chaff, and certainly not to innovate anything. Therefore, I will strive in the proofreading according to my strength and according to the nature of the work—the work of printing. I will also strive to copy everything that is found from the commentaries of the masters of the insights of blessed memory in this city, each man in his place, if his Torah was written before his Torah. For even in this, I did not find the book complete. And for this, the hands of the buyers, the types, the mixtures, or the wise and understanding men shall not slacken, for the worth of the book and its contents are known in the gates, and the glory of the God of Israel is in it.

To Him, may they return in heaven. I will lift my heart and hands. Jacob is whole, a city and a holy one, upon his shoulder He shall carry him, and before the throne of His glory, He will have mercy on him. He will ascend and appear on the mount of the Lord, which He foresaw for our day—this mount our hand has purchased. He will enter by way of the gate of the hall, the corner of the dawn of Eden, to life eternal, and with the pure souls, amidst the myriads of thousands of the holy ones, his soul shall come to bow to the King, the Lord of Hosts. As they come, the seraphim and angels will give him passage among them to come before the Most High, and under His feet he shall sit in the height of the hiding place.

The angel who brings near will bring his soul to bow to Him, to behold the pleasantness of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple. And his mouth—its mouth shall be holy for us, a mouth to intercede for good on our behalf, to justify us and to pray for us. That which remains after him is Torah for us and for our children, to be a blessing to our houses. And in it we shall delight, and in its love we shall constantly be ravished, until our righteous Messiah comes, speedily in our days. And our ears shall hear, from the mouth of the nations round about us, the saying of the prophet which he designated for Israel, "All that is crooked, come and let us ascend to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of the God of Jacob." And He will fulfill in us, "House of Jacob, come and let us walk in the light of the Lord," speedily in our days, Amen, and may it be so.

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The Preface of the Gaon Rabbi Maharsha, of blessed memory

Samuel Eliezer, son of the Rabbi and scholar Judah, of blessed memory, said: I heard in the preface to the Halakhot laws of the Tractate Menachot... The text here is fragmented and highly abbreviated in the source; it discusses the Maharsha's intention to provide a comprehensive commentary on the Aggadic portions of the Ein Yaakov, cross-referencing them with the Talmud and Rashi/Tosafot to clarify difficult passages for the reader.

The Preface of the Rabbi and Master, the Rif, of blessed memory

This section contains an apologetic preface by the author regarding the limitations of his work and his humble request for the reader's patience, acknowledging the difficulty of his task and his reliance on God's grace to complete it.