parsha bit: Nitzavim-Vayeilech

[cellio]

Our parsha tells us "this mitzvah is not far away from you [...] it is very close to you, in your mouths and hearts to fulfill". To what mitzvah does the passage refer? Rashi says it refers to torah study. A lazy person, he says, claims that the torah is far away, beyond reach, and thus does not try to study. However, Rashi says, it is close by and thus easily available.

(I don't know where this comes from, but there is a tradition that says that an angel teaches the child in the womb all of torah, but it is forgotten at birth until later re-learned.)

Comments

[baron-steffan.livejournal.com]

That's Raziel. He's supposed to visit unborn children, teaching them all the secrets of the Universe, but he erases it just before birth. The rationale for that is, I suppose, an exercise for the student %^). I don't know the origin of the legend, since I came by it via Hermetic rather than Jewish studies. There is at least one supposed "book of all ancient wisdom" attributed to Raziel.

[cellio]

Thanks.

(No search results in talmud, but that doesn't mean a lot.)