tefilla - Prayer inclusion because of fear?

In the Mishnah of Rabbi Eliezer, the son of Rabbi Yosi HaG'lili, the Sages said, "What is the biblical source to include prayer among the mitzvos? From the verse, 'You shall fear G‑d, your L‑rd, and you shall serve Him.' " Why is it from the verse to fear or have awe for HaShem?

I would like to know how he came to this conclusion, why is prayer included in the mitzvot because it's said that one should fear (have awe for) HaShem?

(I know that Ahavah and Yirah are two big pilars in faith, and that it's also said that prayer is Avodat Shebalev - Ta'anis 2a).

sources mekorot - Seventy approaches to Torah

It is often said that there are seventy approaches to Torah. What is the earliest known source that says this?

(This related question merely quotes "Bamidbar Rabbah," and I assume he refers to 13:15 16. Is that the earliest source?)

Answer

This exact expression is found in the Vilna ed. of Bamidbar Rabbah (13:5) as you note.

It is also found in B'reshit Rabbati (Parashat Vay'chi p. 141) which probably dates back to roughly the same time and place:

שידרוש בתורה בע' פנים מנין יין

An older source is the Midrash Otiot D'Rabbi Akiva (Version A) as found in the Battei Midrashot compilation (vol. II) which states:

מפני שכל גנזי החכמה מסורין בידו וכולן נפתחו למשה בסיני עד שלמדו לו בארבעים ימים כשהיה עומד בהר, התורה בשבעים פנים

This states that all the vaults of knowledge were possessed by [a particular angel] who transmitted them to Moshe who then learned the Torah with 70 faces.

According to Wikipedia Version B dates from at least the first half of the tenth century, and version A is even older.

A similar idea is found in the Talmud (Sanhedrin 34a, cf. Shabat 88b):

מקרא אחד יוצא לכמה טעמים ואין טעם אחד יוצא מכמה מקראות דבי ר' ישמעאל תנא (ירמיהו כג, כט) וכפטיש יפוצץ סלע מה פטיש זה מתחלק לכמה ניצוצות אף מקרא אחד יוצא לכמה טעמים

One verse is stated by God and from it emerge several explanations, but one explanation does not emerge from several verses. Alternatively, the school of Rabbi Yishmael taught that the verse states: “Is not My word like as fire? says the Lord; and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces” (Jeremiah 23:29). Just as this hammer breaks a stone into several fragments, so too, one verse is stated by God and from it emerge several explanations.

history - Vilna Gaon on Sefer Devarim

Where does the Gra mention the idea that Sefer Devarim is split up into parshiot representing the centuries going into the 6000 millennium? There is another idea that Ki Tavo fits into the years of the holocaust,where is this idea from?

signal analysis - Why NRZ-L and NRZ-I line coding have DC component?

I can find the effect of having a DC component in the Internet which is "When the AC waveform has a DC component, the average voltage would be equal to the DC voltage instead".

But in my text book, it says NRZ-L and NRZ-I both have a DC component although NRZ-L and NRZ-I can have the average voltage $0$.

Why is it?

Answer

Assuming bi-polar encoding, and assuming that the number of transmitted 1's is equal to the number of 0's, then over very long time intervals the positive pulses "cancel out" the negative pulses and the average voltage is zero.

However, over smaller time intervals, there's likely to be more 1's than 0's, or vice versa. This is what introduces a DC component to the signal.

Intuitively, you may think about it this way: if you filter the line-encoded signal with a very narrow low-pass filter, you'll see a non-zero, varying output. The DC value is the expected value of the filter's output.

In order to reduce or eliminate DC you need a line encoding that forces the number of positive and negative pulses to be the same, even over very short time spans. One example is the Alternate Mark Inversion (AMI) encoding.

tzedakah charity - Maaser for money received as a gift from Parents

As a child I received birthday money every year (I don't remember if I gave maaser at the time), my Parents put it in an interest bearing bond and when I turned 18 it matured and I was given $13,000. My Parents said the purpose of this money was to save it and help support myself and my husband when I get married. Do I have to give maaser on it now? Thank you!

Answer

See the 2nd paragraph, here, based on primarily sources from Choshen Mishpat:

Money that is given as a gift by parents or friends for a specific purpose, e.g. to purchase a car or go on a vacation, is not considered income, and Maaser need not be separated from it. (based on Choshen Mishpat 241:5)

Your parents saved it for a specific purpose, and when they gave it to you, they stipulated that same purpose. This is different than if they gave you $13,000 and said that you may do what you wish with it.

It is unclear to me if you have to give ma'aser post-fact, if you end up using it not for the purpose that it was given to go on a one-time pleasure cruise.

Also, within this caveat, I infer that you can't even touch the money until you get married! What happens if you remain single?

BTW - if you are single, I may have some nice boys that you may be interested to meet, if you are "in the parsha" :-)

tanach - Help me find a source for glossing "sefer" (in Shabbat 14a) as "Torah, Nevi'im, and Ketuvim"

In Shabbat 14a we find a discussion about the Rabbinic enactment that a book (sefer) renders one's hands unclean (which is itself discussed in the Mishnah Yadayim 3:5). Long ago I found a source (which I wrote down) that on 14a Rashi glosses "sefer" as referring to "all kitvei ha-kodesh -- Torah, Nevi'im and Ketuvim". But I just checked that daf and I don't see anything like that in the Rashi, which means I must have gotten that gloss from somewhere else (or it is there and I am just not seeing it for some reason).

Can anybody help me track down the source for that gloss?

To be clear, I am aware that there are extensive discussions elsewhere about the status of individual books (Esther, Kohelet, Shir ha-Shirim) and whether or not they are m'tamei et hayadayim. I am not looking for that.

Answer

It's a רש"י in שבת on Daf :י"ג that says:

והספר. כל כתבי הקודש תורה נביאים וכתובים פוסלין תרומה במגען

repentance teshuvah - Does teshuva remove punishment?

In Bamidbar 15, the text speaks of someone who commits an intentional sin (mentioning idolatry and blasphemy) and says that kareit is the punishment (if there was no warning) etc. Then the story of the man who was found gathering stick on Shabbat is related and his punishment is a death penalty.

The Stone chumash notes that in the first cases, one cannot atone through an offering (and no other method of atonement is discussed) but in pasuk 31, the phrase "עֲו‍ֹנָה בָהּ" is understood by Rashi to mean that excision from the community lasts until the person does teshuva - so there must be an atonement process (also cited in Sanhedrin 90b). So it seems that doing teshuva can stop kareit which has already started.

But is repentance an effect of having received a punishment or is it separate from that? Can I repent sincerely and avoid punishment in the first place? If the man gathering wood on Shabbat, after having been warned and in the presence of witnesses, hears his death sentence and then truly repents (not out of fear but maybe out of a realization that he did wrong on a grand scale and a wish to be a better person), must the death penalty be carried out because it is a required consequence or is the penalty eliminated because of teshuva? Can the intentional idolater change the divine decree of kareit before it takes place (if, for example,one understands Kareit to be "dying young")?

[One cannot repent after having been killed but if one does repent before his execution then he can still have his share in olam haba (as per the Sifre on pasuk 31, cited in the Stone).]