Halakhah sur La Genèse 2:7

(Aleph)⁶Starting from here, each paragraph begins with a letter from an acrostic that sequentially includes all of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, followed by the author’s name. The Rabbis said (Bereishit Rabbah 8:5), “At the time that the Holy One, blessed be He, wanted to create man, He created a group of angels, etc. And they said (Ps. 8:5), ‘What is man that you should consider him’ [and so, they opposed his creation].” At first glance, [we would wonder] why the angels would care about man’s creation. [To answer this, we must understand the nature of man:] As the essence of man’s creation is [that he be] upon the earth. Even though the [human] soul benefits from the radiance of the glory from [the One from] which it has been hewn, and there is nothing lacking in the house of the King; [nevertheless] the Divine Wisdom, may His name be blessed, decreed that [the human soul] should be brought down [to the world], in order to test it with the performance of His commandments and the keeping of His Torah. And when ‘it is very righteous,’ ‘so will it multiply and so will it expand’ and ‘grow upwards,’ until ‘it returns to God who gave it’ ‘with great strength’ and ‘with abundance of power.’ And it is written in the Zohar 1:60a [to explain the verse in Prov. 5:15], “Drink water from your own cistern, running water from your own well”; [that] when the soul is above, it only has the aspect of a cistern, which does not [produce its own water], but is rather filled from others. In of itself, however, it is empty. But when it comes down to this lowly world and achieves what it is supposed to achieve – like the wisdom of His decree, may His name be blessed – then it has the aspect of a well, which is an overflowing spring and is emanating from itself. And in this way it will not [acquire] the bread of shame.⁷The roots of this this idea – that unearned reward is a source of shame – are from several places in the Zohar. See, for example Zohar 1:4a. The basis for the metaphor, however is found in Talmud Yerushalmi Orlah 1:3, 61b. And the first well-known use of the actual phrase is only found later in R. Yosef Karo’s Maggid Mesharim 2:8, which was written in the 1500’s. As the essence of the matter is that anyone who has nothing from himself is a poor person that is considered as if dead.⁸Zohar 2:119a, Nedarim 64b. This is as is written in Gur Aryeh,⁹Maharal, Gur Aryeh on Exod. 4:19:2. that the water of a well is called living waters because it [produces water] from itself (meaning, its underground spring) – which is not the case with the water of a cistern. And so this is why a poor person is considered as if dead. [Hence (as in Prov. 15:27)], “and the one who hates gifts, lives.” See there. And if so, the whole time that the soul is in its source, it has the aspect of a cistern that has no life; as it is empty from itself, besides from what is given to it. [This is] until it descends here and emanates from itself with the aspect of a well and has life. And this is why it states (Gen. 2:7), “He blew into his nostrils a living soul.” That is because the main aspect of the creation of man on the earth was so that the soul could have the aspect of “a living soul.” And this is [the meaning of], these are the commandments, “that a man should do and live through them” (Lev. 18:8).

(Gimmel) On the day that He created him, the Holy One, blessed be He, also gave over to man all of the forces of all of the creatures that He created previously. The ones below, the ones above and the ones above the above were all given over into his hand. [Henceforth man] could move [these forces] to wherever he desired. If he was righteous and went to the right, then all of the creatures, big and small, would also merit to rise in their levels. But if he went to the left and made his actions evil – God forbid – then they would also descend down the slope that he prepared for them. And so we find with the generation of the flood that the sin and calumny of man brought down all the forces of the creatures. And those that dwelled above and those that dwelled below – “all flesh had corrupted its ways on the earth” (Gen. 6:12), even the beasts and the animals. It is like the statement of the Sages, may their memory be blessed, [that] some of the angels fell to earth and their glory descended to the dirt because of their sins.¹⁴See Zohar 1:37a:11 and in other places. See also Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 572:5; Yoma 67b and Rashi ad loc. With this, the beginning of our statement in Paragraph Aleph is elucidated: “At the time that the Holy One, blessed be He, told the angels, ‘let us make man,’ etc.,” He said to them ‘that He mixed up all’ the powers of the creatures [in man], and ‘from there they would be scattered’ to all of the worlds and the creations. And according to how man’s spirit sought his way, [the angels would follow]. They would rise according to [man’s] will and they would descend according to his will. [God] also told them how He added a portion of His essence to them, as per their statement,¹⁵It is not clear to which statement the author is referring. See Louis Jacobs, “Rabbi Aryeh Laib Heller's Theological Introduction to His ‘Shev Shema'tata,’" Modern Judaism 1:2 (September 1981), Note 12. may their memory be blessed, on the verse (Gen. 2:7), “And He blew”; “Anyone who blows, blows from his self.” And it is elucidated in the writings of Ari¹⁶R. Yitschak Luria (Israel, Egypt, 16th century), the pioneer of Lurianic mysticism. that when a man compromises the commandments of God with his sins, the divine portion that he has returns to its original source, and He does not give of [this part of] His glory to another, and ‘His [protective] shade is removed from him.’ And so when the Holy One, blessed be He, said to the angels, “Let us make man” – meaning, that they should all give their portion [to man] to be raised when he is raised – they said to Him, “What are his ways?” He [then] said to them, such and such – meaning, his ascent and decline will be the cause [of what happens] to all the forces, and the ‘angels will climb and descend because of him.’ [So] they answered him (Ps. 8:5), “‘What is man that you should consider him and the mortal that you should remember him,’ – which is to say, his sins. As then ‘You will remove him a little from God,’ which is to say, the divine portion that He blew into his nostrils will return to You. It is only us that remain trapped in his net because of his evil. You have given him power over the works of Your hands, to move us according to his evil will and to do to us that which is in accordance with his will and his desire – like a person acts with that which is his.” Therefore they did not agree to his creation, as they said, “Let him not do good or evil to us.” [But] His wisdom, may He be blessed, decreed the creation of man, ‘to make many people live as today’; [both] ‘the many above,’ ‘and those dwelling below’, so as to move [the angels] to an independent life. [This is] because every action of man will be considered like their action, since all of the creatures mentioned above are combined into man. And so they too are in [the category of] the giving of a well. And this is the essence of creation.

Because of these reasons things have come to such a pass that one says whatever enters his mouth to say, without first considering that it might enter the category of rechiluth and lashon hara. (In our many sins), we have become so habituated to this sin that in the eyes of many men it is not considered a sin at all — even if he would say something which is apparent to everyone as absolute lashon hara and rechiluth, as when he would speak of his friend and demean him to the very ends of degradation. And if one asked him: "Why did you speak lashon hara and rechiluth?" he would think in his heart that he [his chastiser] thought to make him a ["fanatic"] tzaddik or chasid, and he would not accept his words at all, regarding this [(lashon hara and rechiluth)], in our many sins, as completely insignificant.

And it is possible for us to stay - according to the paucity of our intelligence - that since the speaking soul in man is the elevated part, and as it is written (Genesis 2:7), "He blew into his nostrils the breath of life," and it is translated (by Onkelos) as "a speaking spirit"; He gave it great power to impact even on that which is external to it. And hence we have known and it is always seen that to the extent of the importance of a man's soul and its clinging to the elevated things - like [is the case with] the souls of the righteous and the pious - will their words be quick to impact upon all that they speak about. And this is something well-known and famous among those that know knowledge and understand science. And it possible to say also that the matter is to stifle a quarrel between people and that there be peace between them; since the birds of the sky make the voice travel, and maybe the words of the one that cursed will come to the ears of the one that he cursed. And Rambam, may his memory be blessed, said (Sefer HaMitzvot LaRambam, Mitzvot Lo Taase 317) as the reason of the commandment [that is is] in order that the soul of the one that curses not be moved to vengeance and that he not become used to anger. And he wrote at further length about this in his book. And it appears to me from his words that, in his opinion, he does not see any injury to the one cursed from the curse, but rather that the Torah is distancing the matter from the perspective of the one that curses - that he not accustom himself to vengeance and anger and to lowly traits. And we shall accept all the words of our rabbis, though our hearts hold more of what we have written.

It is from the roots of the commandment [that it is] since a person only belongs to the higher [realm] through speech, and this is the entire esteemed part in him. And it is what called the "living soul" (Genesis 2:7) of a man - as Onkelos' translates [this phrase as] "and there was a speaking spirit in man" - since the rest of the parts of the body die. And if a man lose this good part, the body remains dead and like an undesirable vessel. Therefore he is obligated to [at least] fulfill his speech in whatever he uses it for matters of the Heavens, such as consecrations and with all matters of charity. And regarding all other matters of the world - even though there is no particular positive or negative commandment specified for them - the Sages commanded and warned with several warnings that a person should never change his words. And they also ordained to curse one who changes his words so long as an act is done with the matter. And that is the matter of [the curse of] "He who repaid" that is mentioned about them in many places, about which they said (Bava Metzia 44a), "Words and money [do not] acquire, but they said, etc." as it appears in the chapter [entitled] HaZahav. And I have already written at much length about the roots of oaths and vows in the Order of Vayishma Yitro in the commandment of "You shall not bear" (Sefer HaChinukh 30).

From the root of the commandment, I have already written an introduction at the beginning of the book that there being something in the world of the Holy One, blessed be He, that combines physicality and intellect - and that is Man - was something fitting and necessary for His praise, blessed be He, to come up properly from His creatures; that with this creature, there would not be lacking any possibilities, which we have in our minds to grasp, from His world, etc., as I wrote there. And there is no doubt that without this reason that obligates our intellect to dwell within the physical, [which is involved with] desire and sin, it would have been fitting for our intellect to stand and serve in front of our Creator and to recognize His honor like one of the 'sons of God' that are stationed with Him. However, because of this obligation, it is subjugated to live in physical houses. And since it is subjugated to this, it must occasionally veer from the service of its Creator to tend to the needs of its home where it lives. For a home's structure and its lumber and its stones cannot stand without a person minding it. If so, as the intention of man's creation was according to what we have said, whenever the intellect can minimize physical work and focus on the service of its Master, that is good for it; so long as it does not completely ignore the work of the house and destroy it. As this would also be considered a sin for him, as the King wished to have a creature like this. It is like the saying of Rabbi Yose, (Taanit 22b) that a person may not afflict himself on a fast day, which Rav Yehudah explained in the name of Rav as stemming from the verse "and man was a living thing" (Genesis 2:7), [which implies that the soul should be allowed to live]. On the [same basis] the wise king stated (Ecclesiastes 7:15), "Do not be overly righteous; do not be overly wise. Why should you be desolate?" And this is the holiness of the nazirite and his loftiness, as he departs from the physical. [About this] Shimon the Righteous said (Nazir 4b), "In all my days [as a priest], I never ate the guilt-offering of an impure nazirite, apart from one man who came to me from the South, who had beautiful eyes and a fine countenance, and his locks were arranged in curls. I said to him, 'My son, what did you see to destroy this [beautiful] hair?' He said to me, 'I was a shepherd for my father in my town, and I went to draw water from the spring, and I looked at my reflection. And my evil inclination quickly rose against me and sought to drive me from the world. I said to my evil inclination, "Wicked one! For what reason are you proud in a world that is not yours, about one who in the future will be maggots and worms. [I swear by] the Temple service that I will shave you for the [sake of] Heaven.' Immediately, I arose and kissed him on his head, and said to him, 'My son, may there be more nazirites like you in Israel. With regard to you the verse states (Numbers 6:2), "When either a man or a woman shall clearly utter a vow, the vow of a nazirite, to consecrate himself to the Lord."'" Therefore, in order to suppress the [evil] inclination, he is commanded to shave his head at the end of the days of his [term]. And he is not permitted to fix it up and to take a little of them, so that his [evil] impulse does not come back against him as [it did] at first. Rather, he has become obligated to shave it all, for there is no doubt that both very long hair and completely shaven heads destroy the appearance of a person.

Our Rabbis also taught us that in our time, we do the redemption of the first-born in an order like this: They bring a cup of wine and a myrtle branch to the home of the father of the son or to [some] other place, and the priest to whom the father chooses to give the redemption of his son blesses first over the wine and over the myrtle and then recites this blessing - "Blessed are You, our Lord, King of the Universe, Who sanctified the fetus in his mother's innards, and at forty days individuated his limbs into two hundred and forty-eight limbs, and then breathed in the spirit of life, as it is written (Genesis 2:7), 'and He breathed in his nostrils ...'; He clothed him with skin and flesh, and covered him with bones and ligaments, as it is written (Job 10:11), 'He clothed me with flesh and skin and covered me with bones and ligaments.' He appointed food and drink for him, honey and milk to bring him joy, and appointed two ministering angels to guard him in his mother's womb, as it is written (Job 10:12), 'with life and kindness, etc.'" His mother says, "This is my firstborn son, with which God opened the doors of my belly." His father says, "This is my first-born and I am warned about redeeming him, as it is stated (Exodus 13:13), 'and all the first-born of man, your sons shall you redeem.' May it be the will in front of You, Lord, my God, that as You have allowed his father to merit to redeem him, so too should you allow him to merit Torah, marriage and good deeds. Blessed are You, Lord, who sanctified the first born of Israel to be redeemed." The father of the son then recites two blessings: 'on the redemption of the first born'; and 'Who has allowed us to live.' He gives the well-known redemption to the priest, which is five sela, as specified in the Torah. This is equal to sixty argents of refined silver in our land. And after the redemption, the priest recites these three blessings that we wrote.