Chasidut zu Bereschit 3:19
בְּזֵעַ֤ת אַפֶּ֙יךָ֙ תֹּ֣אכַל לֶ֔חֶם עַ֤ד שֽׁוּבְךָ֙ אֶל־הָ֣אֲדָמָ֔ה כִּ֥י מִמֶּ֖נָּה לֻקָּ֑חְתָּ כִּֽי־עָפָ֣ר אַ֔תָּה וְאֶל־עָפָ֖ר תָּשֽׁוּב׃
Im Schweiße deines Angesichtes sollst du Brot essen, bis du zur Erde zurückkehrst, von der du genommen worden; denn Staub bist du und zu Staub sollst du wieder werden.
Flames of Faith
For you are dust and to dust you shall return (Gen. 3:19).
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Kedushat Levi
This is a good opportunity to explain the question of Eliezer, Avraham’s foremost servant, and the answer he received from Avraham. Prior to the battle against the mightiest kings of the Orient and Occident undertaken in order to rescue Avraham’s nephew Lot from captivity, the sages quote Eliezer as having been asked how he killed the soldiers of all these kings. He told the questioners that Avraham told him to take clods of earth and to throw them in their direction. If he would do this, the earth clods would turn into arrows. [While the story in Bereshit rabbah 43,3 is similar, the common feature is that earth would turn into either swords or arrows. Ed.]
The question we must ask is why this miracle had to be performed by means of clods of earth. Why could some other vehicle in nature not have served G’d for the same purpose? We hope to explain this by referring to how David conquered the nations against whom he went to war.
Let us remember that when David found himself in need of vanquishing his enemies, he himself was attached closely to the attribute known as אין, [the eyn sof, essence of G’d. Ed.] He was conscious of the fact that all parts of his life, including his body, i.e. the ability of the living to move at will, were a part of Divinity. [Compare Tikkuney Hazohar Tikkun 1) This means that there is no single spot in the universe that is not permeated by some aspect of Divinity. In fact, if one were to find any part of the universe devoid of a spark of Divinity, such a part would be totally devoid of “Life.” be it human, animal vegetable or even the kind of life with which inert bodies such as the planets are equipped. Ed.] The author refers to his commentary on Deuteronomy 32,39 on the words כי אני אני הוא, “that I, I am He,” where G’d makes the point that neither man nor any of the various categories of angels, such as שרפים, חיות, אופנים are able to say of themselves that אני הוא, “it is I,” when speaking to one another.
The word אני, when used by a person, suggests that he is a person of substance, [in the sense of a physical presence, an independent personality, Ed.] In other words, by using that word when referring to himself, the speaker invites the person whom he addresses to regard him as someone of substance, of importance.
When we consider such a statement and reflect upon it, we realize that such a person wishes to convey to those opposite him that his very existence, חיות, his being alive, is something that he is in control of. What greater lie could he possibly convey than this false impression, seeing that not only does he not control other people’s lives, but he is not even in control of the next minute of his own life! Seeing that his own life is in the hands of his Creator, how could he arrogate to himself the right to speak of himself in terms of being an אני? We now understand why Moses quoted G’d in Deuteronomy 32,39 as saying ראו עתה כי אני אני הוא ואין אלוקים עמדי, “See then that I, I am He; there is no god beside Me.” What G’d is saying there is nothing other than that no-one but He is entitled to refer to himself as אני “I.” If a human being were (mistakenly) to describe himself as אני, he would in fact credit a “nothing” with such a grandiose title.
When we described this word as alluding to the Divine attribute of אין, the absolute disembodied essence of G’d, we also refer indirectly to the essentially disembodied nature of our real self, i.e. our immortal soul. The soul is immortal precisely because it can function without our bodies. This very fact is testimony to the fact that it is part of the Creator Himself, as He is the only Existence in the universe that functions without a body.
When we now consider the statement of our sages in Avot 6,12 [last Mishnah, Ed.] that everything the Creator created He created only for the sake of His greater glory, it is easy to understand that when one or more of His creatures no longer contribute to the purpose for which he or they have been given “life,” they have forfeited their claim to existence and deserve to die. Considering this basic truth, when David had to secure victory over his various enemies, he first had to “garb” himself with this attribute אין i.e. [אני, spelled in a manner that avoided that he really compared himself to his Creator. Ed.] When he would be confronted by uncircumcised pagans, he therefore felt entitled to put an end to their lives.
When Avraham confronted the four kings, symbolizing the anti-god from all four corners of the globe, who had taken Lot, who also shared that attribute, captive, he acted on behalf of G’d [although he had not consulted Him. Ed.]
When Avraham confronted the four kings, symbolizing the anti-god from all four corners of the globe, who had taken Lot, who also shared that attribute, captive, he acted on behalf of G’d [although he had not consulted Him. Ed.]
[This editor is troubled by the fact that at that time Avraham himself had not been circumcised, had not even been told that circumcision was an essential part of becoming Jewish. I am also troubled by the fact that Lot’s eventual escape from Sodom is not credited to his merit, but to G’d’s “pity” (Genesis 19,16. Ed.]
It is well known that the attribute אין also occurs in connection with Moses, at the time when he and Aaron were the victims of the Israelites’ complaints for their suffering from thirst. (Exodus 16,7) They replied with the words: ונחמו מה, “and what do we amount to?” [The reader will notice that Moses and Aaron spelled the word אנחנו without the letter א signifying the pronoun “I.” We also find David referring to himself in such derogatory fashion when he said: ואנכי תולעה “and all that I amount to is worms.” (Psalms 22,7) Avraham referred to himself as dust and ashes when he said: אנכי עפר ואפר. (Genesis 18,27) This is what the sages in the Midrash had in mind when they spoke about Avraham killing the mightiest armies in the world at that time by means of “earth, or dust.” By allying oneself with the Divine attribute of אין, Avraham was able to turn these pagans back into the raw-material they had been made of, i.e.עפר, as when G’d had said to Adam after his sin in Genesis 3,19, עפר אתה ואל עפר אתה תשוב, “you are dust and to dust you will have to return.” Seeing that Avraham was aware of his entire “life” being dependent on the אין סוף, “never ending (nor beginning) Creator,” so that the essential part of what he perceived as his “life” was bound up with this source of eternal life, he could function as the messenger that would terminate useless lives, lives that had not and would not contribute to the glory of the Creator on earth.Ed.]
The question we must ask is why this miracle had to be performed by means of clods of earth. Why could some other vehicle in nature not have served G’d for the same purpose? We hope to explain this by referring to how David conquered the nations against whom he went to war.
Let us remember that when David found himself in need of vanquishing his enemies, he himself was attached closely to the attribute known as אין, [the eyn sof, essence of G’d. Ed.] He was conscious of the fact that all parts of his life, including his body, i.e. the ability of the living to move at will, were a part of Divinity. [Compare Tikkuney Hazohar Tikkun 1) This means that there is no single spot in the universe that is not permeated by some aspect of Divinity. In fact, if one were to find any part of the universe devoid of a spark of Divinity, such a part would be totally devoid of “Life.” be it human, animal vegetable or even the kind of life with which inert bodies such as the planets are equipped. Ed.] The author refers to his commentary on Deuteronomy 32,39 on the words כי אני אני הוא, “that I, I am He,” where G’d makes the point that neither man nor any of the various categories of angels, such as שרפים, חיות, אופנים are able to say of themselves that אני הוא, “it is I,” when speaking to one another.
The word אני, when used by a person, suggests that he is a person of substance, [in the sense of a physical presence, an independent personality, Ed.] In other words, by using that word when referring to himself, the speaker invites the person whom he addresses to regard him as someone of substance, of importance.
When we consider such a statement and reflect upon it, we realize that such a person wishes to convey to those opposite him that his very existence, חיות, his being alive, is something that he is in control of. What greater lie could he possibly convey than this false impression, seeing that not only does he not control other people’s lives, but he is not even in control of the next minute of his own life! Seeing that his own life is in the hands of his Creator, how could he arrogate to himself the right to speak of himself in terms of being an אני? We now understand why Moses quoted G’d in Deuteronomy 32,39 as saying ראו עתה כי אני אני הוא ואין אלוקים עמדי, “See then that I, I am He; there is no god beside Me.” What G’d is saying there is nothing other than that no-one but He is entitled to refer to himself as אני “I.” If a human being were (mistakenly) to describe himself as אני, he would in fact credit a “nothing” with such a grandiose title.
When we described this word as alluding to the Divine attribute of אין, the absolute disembodied essence of G’d, we also refer indirectly to the essentially disembodied nature of our real self, i.e. our immortal soul. The soul is immortal precisely because it can function without our bodies. This very fact is testimony to the fact that it is part of the Creator Himself, as He is the only Existence in the universe that functions without a body.
When we now consider the statement of our sages in Avot 6,12 [last Mishnah, Ed.] that everything the Creator created He created only for the sake of His greater glory, it is easy to understand that when one or more of His creatures no longer contribute to the purpose for which he or they have been given “life,” they have forfeited their claim to existence and deserve to die. Considering this basic truth, when David had to secure victory over his various enemies, he first had to “garb” himself with this attribute אין i.e. [אני, spelled in a manner that avoided that he really compared himself to his Creator. Ed.] When he would be confronted by uncircumcised pagans, he therefore felt entitled to put an end to their lives.
When Avraham confronted the four kings, symbolizing the anti-god from all four corners of the globe, who had taken Lot, who also shared that attribute, captive, he acted on behalf of G’d [although he had not consulted Him. Ed.]
When Avraham confronted the four kings, symbolizing the anti-god from all four corners of the globe, who had taken Lot, who also shared that attribute, captive, he acted on behalf of G’d [although he had not consulted Him. Ed.]
[This editor is troubled by the fact that at that time Avraham himself had not been circumcised, had not even been told that circumcision was an essential part of becoming Jewish. I am also troubled by the fact that Lot’s eventual escape from Sodom is not credited to his merit, but to G’d’s “pity” (Genesis 19,16. Ed.]
It is well known that the attribute אין also occurs in connection with Moses, at the time when he and Aaron were the victims of the Israelites’ complaints for their suffering from thirst. (Exodus 16,7) They replied with the words: ונחמו מה, “and what do we amount to?” [The reader will notice that Moses and Aaron spelled the word אנחנו without the letter א signifying the pronoun “I.” We also find David referring to himself in such derogatory fashion when he said: ואנכי תולעה “and all that I amount to is worms.” (Psalms 22,7) Avraham referred to himself as dust and ashes when he said: אנכי עפר ואפר. (Genesis 18,27) This is what the sages in the Midrash had in mind when they spoke about Avraham killing the mightiest armies in the world at that time by means of “earth, or dust.” By allying oneself with the Divine attribute of אין, Avraham was able to turn these pagans back into the raw-material they had been made of, i.e.עפר, as when G’d had said to Adam after his sin in Genesis 3,19, עפר אתה ואל עפר אתה תשוב, “you are dust and to dust you will have to return.” Seeing that Avraham was aware of his entire “life” being dependent on the אין סוף, “never ending (nor beginning) Creator,” so that the essential part of what he perceived as his “life” was bound up with this source of eternal life, he could function as the messenger that would terminate useless lives, lives that had not and would not contribute to the glory of the Creator on earth.Ed.]
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