Sefer HaMiddot, Original Torah; Sights/ספר המדות·חדושין דאוריתא

1The radiance that a person receives from the holiness of the Land of Israel is commensurate with the insights he originates in the Torah.

2Supportive proofs from the Torah for Rabbinical enactments bring abundant prosperity to the world. This is because there are a number of things for which we find no explicit verse in the Torah on which to base them, and the Sages labored to find some supportive reference [as proof for their enactment].

3Original Torah insights increase the revelation of Divine providence in the world.

4When a Jew is taken captive, his aspect of the wellsprings of wisdom becomes sealed from the sages of the generation. The reverse happens when a person is freed from captivity.

5Original Torah insights bring an increase of converts.

6When a person wants to gain deeper insight into the Torah, great opposition is aroused against him and he is in grave danger. He must clothe himself in the image of the patriarch Abraham [the exemplar of lovingkindness], and so will be saved from the opposition.

7Those who would reveal original Torah insights must study the Codifiers beforehand and then again afterwards. This study of Torah law will protect their insights from foreign influences. This same procedure should also be followed when a person wants to perform some act of charity.

8Originating Torah insights arouses the giving of charity, and vice versa.

9Insights are gained into the mysteries of Creation in proportion to the insights into the Torah that are originated.

10Not all the Torah insights that a person originates may be written down. There are certain insights that are meant to be given over only verbally. One who knows which insights are to be written down and which are not also has the ability to detect the lone Jew from among a thousand gentiles.

11A person should refrain from teaching Torah at a time or in a place where it will not be appreciated. And even at a time or in a place that his words will draw the proper attention, he must be careful to say only as much as is appropriate—unlike “The fool [who] speaks everything” (Proverbs 29:11). When one says everything on his mind, his body becomes swollen with an excess of liquid in the blood. [The need for restraint can be derived from the verse,] “He makes a weight for the wind and weighs the waters by measure” (Job 28:25).

12Through his Torah insights a person merits having a beautiful talit.

13There are times when the Tzaddik strives to achieve something, or struggles to comprehend a certain aspect of the Torah, only to later find that it has come to someone less righteous than himself, without that person having to work to achieve it. This is only because the door had already been opened [through the Tzaddik’s efforts].

14Whenever a wicked person prospers, it becomes difficult to develop new logical arguments in disputed matters of Halakhah. Judges’ verdicts also become unacceptable to the litigants.

15People approve of a person who has satisfactorily revealed some aspect of the Torah’s reasoning.

16A person of little faith finds it difficult to attain Torah insights.