Ki távo / dáát rábo

Yet to this day יהוה has not given you a mind to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear.

ולא נתן ה' לכם לב לדעת YET THE LORD HATH NOT GIVEN YOU A HEART TO KNOW — i.e. to understand the loving-kindnesses of the Omnipresent and to cleave unto Him.

עד היום הזה UNTO THIS DAY — I have heard that on the day when Moses gave the Book of the Law to the sons of Levi, as it is written, (Deuteronomy 31:9) “And he gave it to the priests the sons of Levi”, all Israel came before Moses and said to him: Teacher Moses, we, too, stood at Sinai and accepted the Torah, and it was given to us; why, then, do you give the people of your tribe control over it, that they may tomorrow say to us, “Not to you was it given, but to us was it given”? Moses rejoiced at this matter and in reference to this he said to them, (Deuteronomy 27:9) “This day have you become the people [of the Lord thy God]”, meaning, Only this day have I come to understand that you are attached to and have a desire for the Omnipresent.

Among [the 24] are five deeds which cause the paths of Teshuvah to be locked before those who commit them. They are:
a) One who separates himself from the community; when they repent, he will not be together with them and he will not merit to share in their merit.
b) One who contradicts the words of the Sages; the controversy he provokes will cause him to cut himself off from them and, thus, he will never know the ways of repentance.
c) One who scoffs at the mitzvoth; since he considers them as degrading, he will not pursue them or fulfill them. If he does not fulfill mitzvot, how can he merit [to repent]?
d) One who demeans his teachers; this will cause them to reject and dismiss him as [Elishah did to] Gechazi. In this period of rejection, he will not find a teacher or guide to show him the path of truth.
e) One who hates admonishment; this will not leave him a path for repentance. Admonishment leads to Teshuvah. When a person is informed about his sins and shamed because of them, he will repent. Accordingly, [rebukes are] included in the Torah, [for example]:
”Remember, do not forget, that you provoked [God, your Lord, in the desert. From the day you left Egypt until here,] you have been rebelling....”(Deuteronomy 9:7 .
”[Until this day,] God did not give you a heart to know....” (Deuteronomy 29:3 .
”[Is this the way you repay God,] you ungrateful, unwise nation” (Deuteronomy 2:6 .
Similarly, Isaiah rebuked Israel, declaring: “Woe, sinful nation, [people laden with iniquity...]” (Isaiah 1:4 ,
”The ox knows its owner, [and the ass, his master's crib. Israel does not know...]” (ibid.: 1:3),
I know you are obstinate... (ibid. 48:4).
God also commanded him to admonish the transgressors as [ibid. 58:1] states: "Call out from your throat, do not spare it." Similarly, all the prophets rebuked Israel until she repented. Therefore, it is proper for each and every congregation in Israel to appoint a great sage of venerable age, with [a reputation of] fear of heaven from his youth, beloved by the community, to admonish the masses and motivate them to Teshuvah.
This person who hates admonishment will not come to the preacher's [lecture] or hear his words. Accordingly, he will continue his sinful [paths], which he regards as good.

Yet even Moses our teacher, who said this to the Jewish people, did not allude to the Jewish people until after forty years that they should have stated this request, as it is stated: “And I have led you forty years in the wilderness” (Deuteronomy 29:4), which shows that Moses was speaking forty years after the revelation at Sinai. And at that point it is written: “But the Lord has not given you a heart to know, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, until this day” (Deuteronomy 29:3). Rabba said: Conclude from here that a person does not understand the opinion of his teacher until after forty years, as Moses said this to the Jewish people only after forty years of learning Torah.

If one of the letters got cut off Rema: the [letters that extend] such as "ו" or "ז" or the leg was cut off [of the "א"] (of the "ן"), or similar to it (Mordechai ה''ק ד' צ''ב)... if a child that is neither a genius nor a simpleton knows how to read it, it is valid... and if not, it is invalid. And there is no need to cover other [adjacent] letters (ie. so that the child should be able to read the letter without knowing it from the context of the rest of the word) like the prevailing custom. Rema: However, if we see that there doesn't remain the proper shape of the letter, it is invalid, even if a child can read it properly (Mordechai and Maharik root 69, and the Rivash). That which we said was valid when a letter gets cut off, that's precisely if it was written [originally] in a valid way and afterward it became cut off. But if from the beginning when it was written there was a hole and it was cut off, or if the leg of an extended "ךּ" or similar [letter] reaches to the end of the parchment without [the letter] being surrounded by parchment from the beginning, it is invalid.

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