Musar sobre Génesis 9:6

His table and his bed shall be clean and all things that pertain to him shall be clean. His own body or person shall be clean not loathesome and he should be careful to wash his face, hands and feet and all his body at frequent times. As we find that "When Hillel the elder took leave of his disciples they said to him, 'Whither you go?' And he said to them, 'To fulfill a precept!' Then they asked him. 'Which precept is Hillel about to fulfill?' He said to them, 'To bathe in the bathhouse.' They asked, 'Is this a precept?' He said to them, 'Yes! If you consider that the statues of kings which are set up in theatres and circuses are scrubbed and cleaned by the one delegated to this task, and this man receives sustenance for this and is among the honored men of the kingdom, should we who are created in the image of God (Gen. 9:6) have less regard for our bodies?' " (Leviticus Rabbah 34:3).

We now need to explain why both the blessing and the commandment to be fruitful and multiply had to be recorded twice, both to Adam and to Noach. I will endeavour to explain this as best as I can, and in the process I hope to deal with several puzzling aspects of the deluge, the rainbow and the building of the Tower. I also hope to clarify what is meant by the statement that failure to procreate diminishes G–d's image in the world. I will explain the apparent inaccuracy of Rabbi Yaakov in Yevamot 63 when he speaks about diminishing G–d's דמות, whereas the verse cited in support of his observation mentions צלם, not דמות. The fact is that the Torah's report when describing man's creation mentions both צלם, and דמות.

If one understands the deeper meaning of this commandment, one also gains an insight into the mysteries of Creation. We find a statement by Rabbi Eliezer in Yevamot 63 that anyone who neglects to fulfill the commandment to be fruitful is considered as having the sin of spilling innocent blood on his hands, the reason being that the Torah says in Genesis 9,6: "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed." Since the Torah goes on to say : "Be fertile, increase, etc.," it is clear that failure to do so is considered a mortal sin. Rabbi Yaakov says: "Failure to try and have issue is a way of diminishing G–d's image in this world, since the Torah (still in verse 6 of this chapter) adds: 'For in His image did G–d make man.' Immediately afterwards follows the commandment to be fruitful." The Rabbis taught in Yevamot 64 that Numbers 10,36 ובנחה יאמר: שובה ה' רבבות אלפי ישראל, "When the ark came to rest, Moses would say 'return O Lord, You who are Israel's myriads of thousands,'" teaches that G–d's Presence is not found when Israel numbers fewer than 22000 souls." If Israel would number 21999 at any time and one of those Israelites failed to perform the מצוה of פרו ורבו, that person would be responsible for preventing the whole people from enjoying the Presence of the שכינה in their midst. We have now had three separate statements on the seriousness of failing to comply with the commandment to be fruitful. A) Failure to try and reproduce is equivalent to committing bloodshed; B) Failure to try and produce issue diminishes G–d's image in the world; C) Failure to fulfil this injunction prevents Israel from enjoying the Divine Presence in its midst. Prior to the statement quoted in the name of Rabbi Eliezer, the same Rabbi Eliezer is on record saying that a person who fails to marry is not an אדם, seeing that the Torah says of man (אדם) that "G–d created him male and female. He called their name Adam." (Genesis 5,2). You should appreciate that the statement of Rabbi Eliezer is to be understood as a general rule, whereas the subsequent statements are פרטים details, i.e. applications of the כלל. We must first understand Rabbi Eliezer.