1. Regarding morning shacharit starting from a time when you can notice the difference between tcheilet and white tzitzit, I noticed something curious at Maariv last motzei shabbat which I think is very relevant. Before the sky became absolutely dark, the ambient atmospheric light was in fact 'blue'. This led to an interesting phenomenon where, for example, the white shutters on the buildings across the road from the Bet Knesset were in fact a blue color at this twilight time. The same ambient atmospheric blue light would also hold true for a time just after dawn. Thus, my understanding for the mishna noting the difference between tcheilet and white is very important, not simply because it is light enough to now see the colors of the strings, but in fact during dawn there is a time when all the strings look all the same color! i.e. the white strings (like the white shutters) would actually look blue. This is important because the time for noticing a difference in color between the tcheilet string to white strings is actually a LATER time than if you were comparing, say, orange to white. Hypothetically, if you had an orange shamash on your tzitzit (instead of tcheilet) then you would notice the difference in colors earlier(!) because the white strings would look blue (from the ambient atmospheric blue light) and you would see the orange string as an orange string. Photographers actually refer to this twilight period as "blue hour". As you will note in this picture everything that is white appears as a tcheilet color, just like the white strings would on a tzitzit.
A further thought on this… for the past 150 years Jews have been trying to re-establish tcheilet back into our tzitzit. I have seen various colors of tcheilet from purple to light blue. But there is no doubt in my mind that it is possible (based on this mishna) to deduce the exact tone of blue that the tcheilet shamash string on your tzitzit should be, i.e. the same color as a white string at this 'blue hour'.
… I hope that is understandable.
2. אם בחקתי תלכו
There is a word that perhaps we forgot to have a look at today? אם = ima = mother? perhaps this is significant in terms of the sphirot/midot and the ima that we have been referring to in previous discussions?
There is a word that perhaps we forgot to have a look at today? אם = ima = mother? perhaps this is significant in terms of the sphirot/midot and the ima that we have been referring to in previous discussions?
3. Letters carved into the tablets. The letters were not just carved but they were also hollowed out, in order to let the light (fire?) through. The tablets were the worldly machine/filter/decoder that allowed the Gd's light to be channeled and seen.
4. Written Torah Ink & Parchment came from living briyot as opposed to the stones which are inanimate.
Parchment is from cow hide and the ink is from gall nut juice & gum.
5. The keterim on the Torah's letters symbolically represent the fire of Hashem that created the Torah.
6. Tikun leil shavuot is the breaking of the Jew to be ready for chidush of receiving a new level of Torah. (Can't happen to angels, because they can only stand in 1 place)
7. R'Akiva also died with the fire (like a keter) on his chest. R'akiva was getting the fire raked into his basar. His life ended as fire.
