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Last night, I was thinking about this piece of Talmud that compared Shabbat to a sixtieth (1/60) of the World-to-Come.
There are five matters which are one-sixtieth of something else. They are: Fire, honey, Shabbat, sleep, and a dream.
Fire is one-sixtieth of the fire of Gehenna;
honey is one-sixtieth of manna;
Shabbat is one-sixtieth of the World-to-Come;
sleep is one-sixtieth of death;
and a dream is one-sixtieth of prophecy.
As human beings, we begin to understand the universe by way of comparisons. We reflect on what we don’t understand with what we do, marking differences and making estimations.
This process is important. It helps us make challenging decisions and navigate the unknowns in life.
So why these comparisons? If we break each one down, we understand them like this:
Fire is hot, powerful, and a bit scary. It is a barely controlled force of nature. Similarly, we understand Gehenna to be a fire realm that we might inhabit to encourage our atonement.
Honey is sweet, sugary, and delicious. It is a perfect addition to a cup of chamomile tea. Manna, as understood by the rabbis, was a perfect food. Edible to all, met everyone’s needs (until they got bored of it). There are midrashim that express that it could taste like any food. In the Talmud, it was the food that angels ate.
Shabbat is incomparable in our human existence. It is restful, healing, and whole-making. While there are many ways to make Shabbat, I have found over the years it is a respite from the busyness of life. We are led to compare it to the World-to-Come, which too might be healing and restful.
Sleep is mysterious and scary. We lose our consciousness for some unknown period of time and reawaken rested (hopefully). It is an essential part of our human experience. The rabbis compare this to death in the sense that we do not really understand it and we are vacant from our bodies, solely in God’s hands.
Dreams are complex, curious, and a bit mystical. Our minds breakdown and recombine what we experience with our imagination and our subconscious. The rabbis understood this to be a fraction of the experience of prophecy, access to an understanding we do not have in our daily conscious lives.
This comparison, a sixtieth, is a bit of a paradox.
From this bit of Talmud, we learn that these material experiences are a taste of something greater, beyond our understanding.
However, this fraction is used elsewhere:
In the Shulkhan Arukh, we learn that a droplet of milk that accidentally falls in a meat dish, if it is one-sixtieth or less, the prohibited mixture (of meat and milk) is nullified in the whole. (This is a simplification of more complex examples.)
So, this same fraction is effectively non-existent in this example while also being a taste of something greater in the previous examples.
We learn from this that while we might understand these things like eating honey and taking a snooze, we also know deep down that it barely scratches the surface of a truer, deeper understanding.
We know, but we also have no idea.
This got me thinking.
What other comparisons might we make using this framework?
Here are a few ideas of my own:
Coffee is a sixtieth of Torah.
True friendship is a sixtieth of our relationship with the Divine.
Kindness is a sixtieth of self-awareness.
Breakfast burritos are a sixtieth of dining with the Holy One.
What would you add to this list?
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