Integral Torah Perspectives

ב''ה Ruven, Shimon, Levi and Yehuda correspond to the 4 legs of the Merkava just as Avraham, Yitzchok, Yakov and David do. David, of course corresponds with Yehuda. This is why it says after Yehuda was born, (על כן קראה שמו יהודה ותעמוד מלדת. (בראשית כט:לה – That Leah "stood" from birthing. Once all the legs of the Merkava were there, it was able to stand. -From Eishel Avraham

ב''ה Just a shameless plug for some Chassidic thought. Buy it and rejoice in the goodness of the creator!

ב''ה Concerning the Gemara in Sanhedrin 98A that is floating around in reference to the BP oil spill. Yichezkel 32:14 O.K., first of all lets translate the Gemara properly: “The descendant of king David will not come until they will search for a fish for the sick and they won’t find…” “…as it is stated in the scriptures: Then I will sink their waters and will make their rivers flow like oil.” Rashi: That they will all be congealed, and since they are congealed the fish will not be found on the hook. This is a drasha in the Gemara and is not the pshat of the pasuk. Perhaps an obvious symptom of this is quoting a later pasuk (in p. 32) before an earlier pasuk (p. 29  - which also talks about mitzrayim) and saying that the earlier one applies later. In addition the perek is referring to Mitzrayim while the drasha is referring to a general state of being “without fish for the sick” without stating who this is happening to (presumably everyone.) I wonder, why would a sick man...