Musar sobre Génesis 3:21

I have previously referred to an allusion contained in the words: אדם כי יהיה בעור בשרו וכו'. The vestments for the priests were to be לכבוד ולתפארת, "for dignity and adornment." These were to symbolize the כתנות אור, garments of light, which Adam and Eve wore before they had to exchange them for כתנות עור garments of skin, after the sin. Onkelos translates כתנות עור as לבושין דיקר, "precious garments" (Genesis 3,21). At first glance it seems that Onkelos equates כתנות אור with כתנות עור and בגדי כהונה. There is a mystical dimension to this comparison which is rooted in Kohelet 2,13: כיתרון אור מן החושך, "as the advantage of light over darkness." The message there is that G–d makes purity emerge even out of impurity. I have dealt with this at length in one of my addresses on שבת הגדול, the Sabbath preceding the festival of Passover. You will find it in my tractate Pesachim.

This is the way the סמ"ג describes the commandment as number seven in his list of positive commandments. "One must walk in His good straightforward paths, seeing that the Torah says והלכת בדרכיו, as well as אחרי ה' אלוקיכם תלכו (Deut 13,5), which is interpreted in the Talmud Sotah 14a as a reference to G–d's virtues. Just as G–d provides clothing for the naked, since the Torah says: 'G–d made leather aprons for Adam and his wife and He clothed them,' G–d also visits the sick, as we know from the beginning of this פרשה. G–d comforts the mourners as we know from Genesis 25,11: 'After the death of Abraham G–d blessed Isaac.' G–d also buries the dead, as we know from Deut. 34,6: 'He buried him (Moses) in the valley in the land of Moab.' This is the way I explained the contents of this paragraph to the scholars of Spain. You should know the G–d of your fathers, and serve Him, for just as He is gracious and merciful, so you should be gracious and merciful. Just as He performs acts of kindness, justice and charity on earth, so should you. You have two examples. In Jeremiah 22,15 it is reported of King Josiah that 'he ate, drank and performed justice and righteousness, whereupon all was well with him. Then he judged the poor and the needy, and all was well with him. That is truly heeding Me, says the Lord.' We have another verse in Jeremiah 9,22: 'Thus said the Lord: Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom; let not the strong man glory in his strength…but only in this should one glory; in his earnest devotion to Me, For I the Lord act with kindness, justice and equity in the world; for in these I delight, says the Lord." Thus far the סמ"ג.

The original "jewelry" had been taken from Man due to the powerful impact of Adam's sin. At that time Man's original vestments were exchanged from כתנות אור, garments made of light, for כתנות עור, garments made of hide (Genesis 3,21). The Torah, in our portion, orders that כתנות, tunics, be made for Aaron's sons (28,40) who had to be dressed in sacred vestments. They put on שמן משחת קודש, holy anointing oil, on their bodies before they dressed in the sacred vestments. By following this procedure, the priests ceased being זרים, strangers or "outsiders," before putting on garments which could not be worn by non-priests. When Adam became a זר, outsider, this was due to the pollutant with which the serpent had infected him. It was this pollutant from which he had to be purified. Aaron was the human being through whom this rehabilitation of Man was achieved. He had to be separate to sanctify his body. He thereafter dressed in the sacred vestments which conferred upon him כבוד ותפארת, the very kind of visible distinction that Adam enjoyed while dressed in garments made of light. The pollutant present in Man because of the serpent's infection was converted into something positive by means of the breastplate Aaron wore on his heart. The Ineffable name of G–d was engraved on the stones of the breastplate The names of the 12 tribes as well as the names of the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were engraved between the 12 gemstones set in it. The latter represented the מרכבה, whereas the former represented the twelve possible ways of arranging the letters of the Ineffable Name.

The fact that the same word is also used in connection with the tunic, כתונת, i.e. a garment worn on the body and not on the head, may be understood as a reference to the Zohar which says that "here on earth the תפילין are made of hide, skin, i.e. עור. However, in their ultimate place, i.e. מקומם העליון, they are made of light, אור." These are the תפילין, concerning which our sages say that G–d Himself lays them, since the emanation of תפארת acts as a crown, an adornment in the Celestial Regions. If Adam had not sinned, or, if Israel had not sinned subsequently with the golden calf, they could have laid תפילין made of אור, light. After the sin, however Israel could qualify only for תפילין של עור, phylacteries made of hide. This meant that the original light created by G–d at the very outset of creation underwent a process of contraction, i.e. lost most of its power. The Zohar expands on this theme in connection with ויעש אלוקים לאדם ולאשתו כתנות עור, that G–d made cloaks of hide for Adam and his wife and clothed them (Genesis 3,21). It follows that כתנות עור-כתונת שש, and the תפילין, are the instruments which enable man to rehabilitate himself after he had committed the sin in the garden of Eden. משכן, similarly, is the means by which Israel rehabilitates itself after the sin of the golden calf. These concepts need further clarification.

To get back to the meaning of “אחד” in the prayer known as קריאת שמע. The first letter א in that word symbolizes both Jacob and Joseph, each of whom were unique. That letter is not just the first letter of the alphabet, but it symbolizes the Aleph= Eleph of the first man, who commenced human history. Adam's uniqueness is joined by Jacob's uniqueness, seeing Jacob's beauty has been described as similar to Adam's. In turn, Joseph, the בן זקונים, was the זיו איקונין, the spitting image of his father. Moreover, the א of Adam is an allusion to the garments of אור, light, that Adam wore before his sin and which were exchanged for garments of עור, skin or leather, after he had sinned. G–d Himself had made these garments for Adam and his wife as recorded in Genesis 3, 21. When we read in Job 10, 11 “עור ובשר תלבישני,” You have clothed me with skin and flesh, this is an admission that Adam's, i.e. man's "Oneness" the fusion of body and soul, was torn asunder as a result of his sin. Ever since that time man became a dichotomy of גוף ונפש, body and soul. The ascent of the one meant the automatic descent of the other. Before the sin, whenever the soul shone, the body lit up also. Body and soul worked in tandem. At that time the soul radiated a major amount of light, the body a smaller amount; the important thing was that both radiated light. We have elaborated on these concepts repeatedly.

So no matter what a person undertakes to do, let him begin with the Creator’s service. For example, when he builds a house let him consider first where he will place his books and where he will study. Similarly, if he sets about fashioning clothing for himself or his wife let him have in mind when he first begins working and also at the time of the sewing that it should be for the sake of Heaven. For the Holy One Blessed is He has indicated to us in His holy Torah that a human being must be clothed, as it is written, “Hashem made tunics of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them” (Bereishis 3:21).

The Sages relate in Bereishis Rabbah (Parashas Bereishis 20:12) regarding the verse, “And God made tunics of leather [ohr, spelled with an ayin (עור)] for Adam and his wife” (Bereishis 3:21): “In the Torah scroll of Rabbi Meir it was stated, ‘tunics of light’ [or, spelled with an alef (אור)].” This Midrash is very perplexing. Why did the spelling, “tunics of light,” appear specifically in Rabbi Meir’s Torah rather in any other? [See what my illustrious father Rabbi Shmuel Kaidenover writes about this matter in Birkas Shmuel, Parashas Bereishis, 6c, in the name of the illustrious Rabbi Leib Zunz, z”l.]

From all the above it is clear that the skin of Leviathan is a very great light indeed. I have found a statement in the commentary of Tziyoni on this portion, based on a Midrash that the skins used to make the כתנות עור for Adam and Eve were taken from the female of the original Leviathan, whom G–d reportedly slew, salting and preserving its "meat" for the righteous in the future (Baba Batra 74). This seems very plausible; G–d surely did not create that skin without assigning a purpose to it.