Pensée juive sur Isaïe 48:13

Bar Kapparah, in Ketuvot 5, explained that the deeds of the righteous are greater than the creation of heaven and Earth. It is written, "Also My hand set the foundations of the earth, and My right hand spanned the heavens.” Concerning the deeds of the righteous however, it is written, "The sanctuary of G-d which Your hands (pl) have established"(Exodus 15,17). A Babylonian by the name of Rabbi Chiyah objected, saying that it is written in Psalms 95,5, "His hands have fashioned the land masses." Rabbi Nachman explained that this refers to His fingers, since it says "When I behold the heavens, the work of Your fingers" (Psalms 8,4). Another objection was raised; it says, "The heavens proclaim the glory of G-d and the expanse of the sky, the work of His hands (Psalms 19,2). The passage means, "What tells the important work of the righteous? the skies. By what means? By means of the rainfall."

The first explananation obviously refers to our parable of the cave and the sea. Moses became filled with the sea of wisdom. Combined with Moses’s own accomplishments, he emerges as a partner of the Lord. The second explanation reveals another aspect of the man/G-d partnership. It deals with the nature of the second set of tablets. Their composition consisted of three components, (a) the natural element, granite. (b) they acquired a finished appearance by means of work, polishing. (c) the Divine element, i.e. the inscription, as the Torah states "and the writing was the writing by the Lord." Each of the above items can be further subdivided into two, making the tablets have six facets. This is what the sages hinted at when they described the tablets as having the dimension of six tefachim. The word tefach is used in Isaiah 48, 13, as describing G-d’s workmanship. So we have the following: 1- A, a piece of granite, primeval matter. B, this primeval matter was condensed into a certain density. 2- A, the finished appearance, preceded by the tools needed to treat that raw material. B, correct size and shape. 3- A, writing material. B, the message, text. Moses, exclusively, provided the shaping of the tablets and the tools for the work. G-d, exclusively, contributed the writing material and the text. There remained therefore two tefachim that allowed for partnership. Those two tefachim became subject to combined influences. When Moses perceived the nature of the partnership with G-d, implied by the fact that both tablets had equal dimensions, he became happy, his face radiated his happiness that such is the nature of the partnership with the Creator. This is the meaning of the verse "and Moses went up to G-d," (Exodus 19,3) or the parallel statement in Psalms 68,19, "you went up to the heights." The author continues with an attack on Maimonides who restricts philosophic disagreements with Aristotele to the area of creation ex nihilo. Finally, the third view expressed in the Midrash, that of Rabbi Yehudah who ascribes the rays that emanated from Moses’s forehead as due to ink spilled inadvertently when G-d wrote on the tablets. This means that the leftover of the great mass of sea i.e. "ink" that entered the cave and receded, was to teach that once watered by G-d, irrigated so to speak, such inspiration does not evaporate but is reflected in the appearance of the recipient. All three Rabbis then comment on the interrelationship between man and G-d, and how same is illustrated by the rays of Divinity illuminating the face of Moses on his return from his summit meeting with G-d on Mount Sinai. The author questions the view of Maimonides that would have Moses pose two separate questions, and which if answered positively would have made a kind of deity out of Moses. He prefers to treat what appears as Moses’s two questions ( 33, 13 and 33, 18) as parts of a single question, meaning "let me know Your ways so that I will know more about You."

From the following verse,²⁶Tehillim 8:4. “When I see Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,” another interpretation can be reached. Thus, Tractate Kesubos relates:²⁷Kesubos 5a. Bar Kappara expounded: The work of the righteous is greater than the work of heaven and earth, for regarding the creation of heaven and earth it is written,²⁸Yeshayahu 48:13. “Behold, My hand laid the foundation of the earth and My right hand spread out the heavens,” while regarding the work of the hands of the righteous it is written,²⁹Shmos 15:17. This verse states that the building of the Beis HaMikdash, which is the handiwork of the righteous, motivates God to join in its construction and invest Himself in it with both hands, as it were. In contrast, the verse cited previously states that God made heaven and earth with only with one hand, a lesser degree of involvement, as it were. “The place that You, O God, founded for Your dwelling, the Sanctuary that Your hands, O God, established.” One Babylonian, Rabbi Chiyya was his name, challenged [that statement, noting: It is written:³⁰Tehillim 95:5.] “And His hands formed the dry land.” [In support of bar Kappara, it was said: “Although the term “His hand” is pronounced in the plural,] it is written in the singular.”³¹The difference between the word yado, “his hand” and yadav, “his hands” is the letter yud. Those supporting bar Kappara were explaining that the verse in Psalm 95 is written yado, as the singular “His hand”, but it is read yadav, “His hands”.
As Minchas Shai notes in his commentary to the verse, the Mesorah (“tradition”) does not reflect a difference between the ksiv, the written text of the Tanach, and the kri, the manner in which the verse is read, concerning this matter. Indeed, in our version of Tehillim, the word in question is written ידיו, “His hands”, with the yud denoting the plural.
The Shita Mekubetzes suggests that the Gemara informs us that R. Chiyya is a Babylonian to explain the context of the Talmud’s discussion, for the Babylonians did not have accurate knowledge of the exact mesorah regarding when words are spelled one way, but read a slightly different way. [In response, it was said, “The verb,] ‘formed’³²Although the English verb “formed” is both singular and plural, in Hebrew verbs are conjugated differently to denote whether they are singular or plural. Psalm 95:5 uses the plural form of the verb “formed”. is plural!” Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak said: “His fingers ‘formed,’ as it is written,³³Tehillim 8:4. “When I see Your heavens, the work of Your fingers.” [Since His fingers “formed” a plural form of the verb is used].