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“lifnim mishurat hadin”, which means “beyond the letter of the law”

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  • “lifnim mishurat hadin”, which means “beyond the letter of the law”

    In Hebrew, literally the meaning states: inside the line of law. Most of the website that I've looked at for the meaning or how it's used, have stated this commentary - and passage: "In a bold statement of this idea, the 13th-century commentator Nachmanides writing about Deuteronomy 6:18, You shall do what is right and good in the eyes of God teaches that the laws of the Torah cannot legislate for more than a fraction of the ethical dilemmas we will face in life. However, through keeping the Torah we can fine-tune our moral sensibilities so that we will be able to intuit whats the right thing to do in cases that are not legislated and to do more than the Torah requires in situations that are. The Talmud even considers the paradoxical possibility that going beyond the letter of halachah is itself what the halachah requires of us (Baba Metzia 83a)."

    The main base, I felt, was seen as in the Lord's prayer or even seen in Sirach 23, 28 and 29, more in part on chapter 29.

    "The teachings contained in the Ethics are described as “matters of piety” (mili d’chassiduta), or behavior that’s “beyond the line of the law” (lifnim mishurat hadin). For example: In the other tractates, you’ll find the details of the Torah’s laws forbidding one to slander, insult or curse one’s fellow, but you won’t find a law that commands you to smile at a neighbor and wish him good morning; the Ethics, however, enjoins, “Receive every man with a pleasant countenance.” Torah law obligates us to lend material support to the needy; the Ethics instructs that “the poor should be members of your household.” The strict letter of the law states that “one who says, ‘I am giving this sela coin to charity so that my son shall live,’ is a perfectly righteous person.” The Ethics, however, admonishes: “Do not be as slaves who serve their master for the sake of reward.” The Torah commands us to obey G‑d’s will; the Ethics wants us to “make that your will should be as His will.” Ethics of the Fathers

    So with this being said, when we say the "Spirit of the law" or "Beyond the letter of the law" - the words of
    Micah's passage had pressed, “What does God demand of us?” So wasn't this the same words that the people said to Jesus? John 6:28 Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”

    29Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” 30 So they asked him, “What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? 31 Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat. 32 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

    34“Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.”

    35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. 36 But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. 37 All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. 38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. 40For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”

  • #2
    There is a legend (from Midrash Tanhuma) that the Torah was written with letters of "black fire on white fire"

    Article reads, as such, "Black fire is the "Oral Torah" (she-b'al peh) however, the white fire is described as the spaces in between. The white fire gives man the wisdom and truth of the Torah or the Spirit of where emotion, truth, and wisdom can take root ...or so, the space in between of man's knowledge of God's Word. In 1Kings 3:1-15 God asks Solomon what he wants and Solomon answers that he desires a “discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong.” Solomon is an inexperienced king (he was about 20 years old at the time) and he is expected to govern an enormous number of people. More in line with the apostles who had asked Jesus to, "Increase our faith!" Again, Knowledge is of one thing but receiving the "Spirit" is the breath that guides one to life - it is the white fire. In Genesis 2, scripture points out that God breathed into man nostrils the breath of life and man became a living being - The breath that gives "life" into man as with the bread of Life - "manna", knowledge and wisdom of God, The "word" of God. (See John 6:51)

    As noted, in an article, flaming fire is better translated as "fiery truth" from esh, meaning "fire" and dat, meaning "decree," or "knowledge". The idea of fiery truth is related to the concept of the divine logos, or the "word of God" the underlying creative reason for all things in the universe (the hellenistic idea of the logos, dating from the time of Heraclitus (6th cent. BC), perhaps later influenced the personification of the Word of God called the "memra" that appeared later in the Aramaic Onkelos). Some have interpreted the phrase as "fiery faith", since the revelation of the truth (i.e.,Torah) was always meant to serve that greater end...In the Torha scroll, esh and dat are joined together, appearing as one word (i.e., eshdat), a word that otherwise is translated "foundation." In other words, the foundation of God's kingdom is revealed in the passion to do his will, to honor the Lord as King by exercising a "fiery faith."

    The Torah is written black fire on white fire, "which is interpreted to mean that both the letters and spaces between them constitute the "whole of the Torah." Another way to say this is that the "white fire" represents God's Spirit, who give the black fire its foundation and breath." The fiery faith

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