Comentario citado sobre Isaías 40:18

The third principle Denial of His physicality and that is that we believe that this Unity that we mentioned is not a body and not the power of a body and that actions of a body do not relate to Him, not in His essence and not in His doings. And hence the sages, may their memory be blessed, denied [the possibility of] His composition and dissolution and said (Chagigah 15a), "Above there is no sitting or standing, no backside (aoref) and no weariness (aipui)," which is to say say no dissolution, and that is aoref, and no composition, and that is aipui, as per the usage (Isaiah 11:14), "And they aifu on the shoulder of the Philistines," which is to say they pushed themselves onto [their] shoulder to connect to them. And the prophet said (Isaiah 40:25), "'And to whom do you compare Me and I be equated,' says the Holy."[But] were He a body, He would be comparable to [other] bodies. And everything that comes in the holy Scriptures that describes Him in physical ways, such as walking or standing or sitting or speaking, or similar to it, it is all by way of metaphor. And so did the rabbis say (Berakhot 31b), "The Torah speaks in the language of people." And the sages already spoke much about this matter. And this third principle is indicated by that which is stated (Deuteronomy 4:15), "for you did not see any image" - which is to say, you did not perceive Him as something with an image, because He is - as we mentioned - not a body and not the power of a body.

The wise child, what does he say (Mah hu omer)? The wise child’s question could have been Mah omer; the word hu is unnecessary. The statement could have simply been, “the wise child says...” The expression, then, is both a question and an answer. The Haggadah says “The wise child is saying Mah.” The first three children each phrase their ‘question’ and ‘answer’ with the word, Mah. In each case the word Mah has a different connotation.
For the wise child, the opening statement is, “The wise child says mah!” The word Mah implies fear and love of God, as in “And now O Israel WHAT (Mah) does the Lord demand of you? Only this to fear the Lord your God and to walk only in His paths and to love Him,”⁸⁹Deuteronomy 10:12 and “He who suspends the earth over nothingness (b’li –mah)”⁹⁰Job 26:7 The word MAH is associated with the Sephirah of Chokhmah, wisdom. Because it is among the first of the Sephirot (the Ten Sephirot are divided into two groups: the first three: Keter, Chokhmah, and Binah and then the seven lower Sephirot. Keter is beyond human knowledge, so Chokhmah is the first Sephirah through which we even begin to understanding the unfolding of the divine. It is existence, undifferentiated, the primal dot – the very beginning of existence. It is so unknowable that we call it Mah, what. But it is also divine wisdom. Sephirot are the ten enumerations or emanations in the inner life of God through which we can understand the universe. Each of them is connected with a complex series of symbols and terms so that language, knowledge, and all existence are connected to them. When the wise child asks Mah, he is acknowledging the divine source of all existence. The one who worships God faithfully begins with this word. The statement of the wise child then is both a question and an affirmation. “Mah includes the testimonies and the statutes and the laws which the Lord has commanded you.” We are called on to fulfill the commandments out of love and reverence which is called Mah, what! The wise child says, “Which the Lord commanded YOU,” out of a sense of humility. When we see how beloved the commandments are to him we should teach him all the commandments down to the law of the afikomen, so that the taste and the love of the commandments should remain in his mouth.
The wicked child, on the other hand, mocks and ridicules the commandments. He also says, Mah. But for him the word ‘Mah/What’ implies something small and inconsequential. “He says Mah/what’s (the big deal about this service?” His statement is also not a question but a rhetorical question since he has no interest in observing God’s commandments. He says, “what is this ritual lakhem/to you,” in order to remove himself from the community.
The simple child sees the deep thoughts and analysis of the wise child as well as the sarcasm of the wicked child. Both of them use the word Mah, and so he formulates his question with this word: “Mah/what is this?” What is the meaning of the word Mah? He says, “I don’t understand all the discussion in which you are engaging or why you are debating with one another on this particular night!” To him we answer, “It is with a strong hand…” that is, it is the things that happened on this night that have caused us to worship the Lord with reverence and love.
The word Mah can be used to express a question (as in Mah she’eilatekh, “What is your request?”⁹¹Esther 5:6) or a general statement (as in, Mah tovu ohalekha Yaakov, “How Good are your tents O Jacob”⁹²Psalm 133:1) It can also be used as an expression of surprise (as in Mah ta’arkhu lo, “What form can compare to God!”⁹³Isaiah 40:18 Or Mah enosh ki tizk’renu, “What is man that you should be mindful of him!”⁹⁴Psalm 8:5) The wise child uses the word Mah in the sense of a general statement (Mah tov - how good are these statutes and judgments!); he is asking out of a desire to fulfill the commandments. The wicked uses Mah as an introduction to a rhetorical question (mah ha’avodah – what’s the point of this ritual?) and the simple child asks as a sincere question (mah zot – what exactly is this all about?)

V. 2. איש כי יפליא נדר. Siehe zu Kap. 22, 21. בערכך נפשת. Siehe zu Kap. 5, 15. ערך, seiner Grundbedeutung nach: Zusammengehöriges nebeneinander stellen, ordnen (lautverwandt mit ארג, weben, Verbindung parallel laufender Fäden), heißt auch: in der Beurteilung neben einander stellen, אין ערוך אליך: man kann dir nichts zur Seite stellen (Psalm 40, 6), ומה דמות תערכו לו (Jes. 40, 18). Daher auch: den Wert und die Bedeutung eines Gegenstandes vergegenwärtigen, das vergegenwärtigen, was dem andern zur Seite gestellt werden kann. לא יערכנה ,לא יערכנה זהב פטרת כוש, nicht Gold, nicht Edelstein vergegenwärtigen den Wert der Weisheit (Job, 28, 17 u. 19). ערך, die Vergegenwärtigung der Bedeutung, der Wertausdruck, לא ירע אנש ערכה (daselbst 13). ערך נפשות sind somit der Wertausdruck, die Vergegenwärtigung der Bedeutung von Personen. ערך נפשות לד׳: der Ausdruck des Wertes von Personen für Gott, d. i. für das Heiligtum, der Ausdruck der Bedeutung, die eine Person für das Heiligtum hat. Und ערכך נפשות: ein solcher nationaler, allgemeiner für die Nation feststehender Wertausdruck. Es ist dies עֵרֶך, wohl zu unterscheiden von כסף ישיב ,כסף (Schmot 21, 34). וחצו את כספו (daselbst 21, 35). כסף ist der Geldes wert, und so lange Sklavenhandel existiert, kann es auch einen Geldwert eines Menschen geben, es kann nach einem solchen Maßstab der Wert eines Menschen als Arbeitskraft für Menschen ebenso wie der Nutzwert eines andern Gegenstandes beurteilt werden. Ein solcher Geldeswert heißt in der jüdischen Gesetzessprache: דמים, und wäre, wenn jemand דמי פלוני עלי oder: דמי עלי ausspricht, von Fall zu Fall zu ermitteln. Ein solcher Geldwert ist ערך nicht. ערך und insbesondere ערכך, ist ein ideeller Wertausdruck, der Ausdruck des ideellen Wertes, den ein Mensch für Gott und sein Heiligtum hat. Dieser Wertausdruck ist ein allgemein feststehender, er sieht völlig ab von physischer, geistiger, sittlicher, sozialer Besonderheit und steigt und fällt nur nach Geschlecht und Alter. Diese Allgemeinheit findet schon ihre Andeutung in dem Ausdruck: ערכך נפשות, es kommen eben nur die נפשות als solche in Betracht, und jeder lebende Mensch ist ein נפש (siehe Arachin 2a u.f.).