Comentario citado sobre Jeremías 29:5

By – This song was laid down in the first year after Cyrus conquered Babylon. By the rivers of Babylon – In Babylon we were not weeping and mourning Zion for the sake of the material goods we had lost, the wealth and possessions, fields and vineyards, because also ‘by the rivers of Babylon, there we sat’ meaning we had an established settlement. We also had there fields and vineyards, as it is written “build houses and live in them, plant vineyards and eat their fruits” (Jeremiah 29:5) Nevertheless, we also wept when we remembered Zion because we recalled the holiness of Zion, where the there was the Holy Temple, the service and the Divine Presence. For this we wept, for the spiritual joy which was lost to us.

AND THE ETERNAL G-D PLANTED A GARDEN ‘MIKEDEM’ (EASTWARD) IN EDEN. Rashi explained that “in the east of Eden He planted the garden.” But Onkelos translated mikedem to mean “previously,” [that is, before man was created]. And so have the Rabbis said in Bereshith Rabbah,³¹⁰15:4. and this is the correct explanation.
The meaning of vayita (and He planted) is not that He brought the trees from another place and planted them here for it was from that place that He caused them to grow, just as it is said, And out of the ground the Eternal G-d caused to grow every tree.³¹¹Verse 9. But the purport of the expression, and the Eternal G-d planted, is to state that it was the planting of the Eternal,³¹²Isaiah 61:3. for before He decreed upon the earth, Let the earth put forth grass,³¹³Above, 1:11. He had already decreed that in that place there be a garden, and He further said: “Here shall be this tree, and here that tree,” like the rows of planters. It was unlike the rest of the places on the earth concerning which He said, Let the earth put forth grass… and fruit-tree,³¹³Above, 1:11. and it then grew without order. Now concerning the trees of the garden of Eden He decreed that they grow branches and bear fruit forever, the root thereof was never to wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof was never to die in the ground.³¹⁴See Job 14:8. These trees were not to need any one to tend and prune them. For if they were in need of cultivation, who tended them after man was driven therefrom? This also is the meaning of the expression, And the Eternal G-d planted, that they were His plantings, the work of His hands,³¹⁵See Isaiah 60:21. and existing forever, even as it is said, Its leaf shall not wither, neither shall the fruit thereof fail … because the waters thereof issue out of the sanctuary.³¹⁶Ezekiel 47:12. If so, what then is the meaning of the verse: And He put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and to keep it?³¹⁷Further, Verse 15. He put him [man] there so that he should sow for himself wheat and all kinds of produce, and every herb bearing seed, and rows of spices, reaping and plucking and eating at his will. This also is the meaning of to cultivate it and to keep it³¹⁷Further, Verse 15. — to cultivate the ground of the garden by the rows he [man] would make there, for the part of the garden where the trees were was not to be cultivated.
It is possible that [in the words le’ovdah uleshomrah — literally, to cultivate her and to keep her,] He refers to the garden in the feminine gender, just as in the verses: And as the garden causeth the things that are sown in her to spring forth;³¹⁸Isaiah 61:11. And plant gardens.³¹⁹Jeremiah 29:5. Ganoth (gardens) is here in the feminine gender. Our Rabbis noted this use of the feminine gender, saying in Bereshith Rabbah:³²⁰16:8. “Le’ovdah uleshomrah (to cultivate her and to keep her) — these words refer to the sacrifices, as it is said, ‘Ta’avdun’ (Ye shall serve) G-d upon this mountain.³²¹Exodus 3:12. It is this which Scripture says, ‘Tishm’ru’ (Ye shall keep) to offer unto Me in its appointed season.”³²²Numbers 28:2. The intent of the Rabbis in this interpretation is that plants and all living beings are in need of primary forces from which they derive the power of growth and that through the sacrifices there is an extension of the blessing to the higher powers. From them it flows to the plants of the garden of Eden, and from them it comes and exists in the world in the form of “rain of goodwill and blessing,”³²³Taanith 19a. through which they will grow. This conforms to what the Rabbis have said:³²⁴Bereshith Rabbah 15:1. “The trees of the Eternal have their fill, the cedars of Lebanon, which He hath planted.³²⁵Psalms 104:16. Rabbi Chanina said: Their life shall have its fill; their waters shall have their fill; their plantings shall have their fill.” “Their life” refers to their higher foundations; “their waters” refer to His good treasure³²⁶Deuteronomy 28:12. which brings down the rain; and “their plantings” refer to their force in heaven, just as the Rabbis have said:³²⁷Bereshith Rabbah 10:7. This text is also quoted above 1:11 (Notes 135-6). “There is not a single blade of grass below that does not have a constellation in heaven that smites it and says to it, ‘Grow.’ It is this which Scripture says, Knowest thou the ordinances of the heavens? Canst thou establish ‘mishtara’ (the dominion thereof) in the earth — [mishtara being derived from the root] shoter (executive officer).”