Commentaire de citation sur La Genèse 1:22

ירפס vergleicht diesen Eingang der Rede Mosches mit dem שמעו שמים והאזיני ארץ des Jesaias (Kap. 1, 2), und bemerkt: לפי שהיה משה קרוב לשמים לפיכך אמר האזינו השמים ולפי שהיה רחוק מן הארץ אמר ותשמע הארץ אמרי פי בא ישעי׳ וסמך לדבר ואמר שמעו שמים והאזיני ארץ, שמעו שמים שהיה רחק מן השמים, והאזיני ארץ שהיה קרוב לארץ.. Mosche stand dem Himmel nahe und der Erde fern, und darum forderte er den Himmel zu האזנה auf, die Erde aber zur שמיעה. Jesaias war aber dem Himmel fern und der Erde nahe, darum sprach er שמעו zum Himmel und האזיני zur Erde. Das zuvor bemerkte Verhältnis des Himmels und der Erde dürfte auch diesen Sätzen des ספרי zu Grunde liegen. Im Dienste der göttlichen Waltungszwecke ist der "Himmel" das Aktive, Spendende, die Erde aber mehr das passiv Empfangende. Mosche durfte sich in seiner Sendung den aktiven, spendenden Wirkungen der Himmel nahe verwandt begreifen. War er ja gesandt, die Saaten des Lichts und der Wärme, der Wahrheit und des Lebens dem Entwicklungsacker der Menschheit zu bringen. Vergleicht doch sofort V. 2 die von seiner Lehre und seinen Verheißungen zu erwartenden Wirkungen mit den die Fruchtbarkeit und das Gedeihen der Erde bewirkenden Himmelsspenden. Mosche durfte sich daher קרוב לשמים fühlen und spricht sein Wort unmittelbar zu den Ohren des Himmels. בא ישעי׳ וסמך לדבר. Jesaias, an diese Ausdrucksweise des so hoch über ihm stehenden Meisters anlehnend, fühlte sich in seiner Sendung nur der passiven Erde nahe – spricht er ja auch nicht: כי א׳ דברה, sondern כי ד׳ דבר daher nur שמעו שמים und והאזיני ארץ. Ohnehin war als Mosche das Wort seiner Sendung zu sprechen hatte, daßelbe als Bestimmung noch erst dem Himmel nahe, fern aber noch der Erde, auf welcher es seine Verwirklichung finden sollte. Jesaias aber stand in der Zeit der Verwirklichung und war ganz eigentlich ein vermittelnder Bote derselben. Sein Wort war daher in der Erdnähe. Daher auch hier an den Himmel gerichtet ואדברה, sind es noch erst דברים, ausgesprochene Bestimmungen, deren Verwirklichung immerhin noch in der Ferne liegen mochte, erst wenn sie die Erde berühren, werden sie im Vollzug begriffene אמרים. (vergl. Bereschit 1, 22-23)

“God created the great sea-monsters” [Gen. 1:21]: These are the four camps outside the shekhinah of the blessed Holy One, glorifying and exalting Him with words of song and praise. Of this it says “You created him to delight in him” [Ps. 104:26].
“And all the living creatures who creep” [Gen. 1:21]: This is the being with four faces, those of man, lion, ox, and cherub. Each of those faces itself has four faces and four wings, the wings spread out above the faces. Their appearance and their deeds have the appearance of fire. Within the red fire there is a black fire. This is the one spoken of in the [prophetic] tradition, where it says: “That is the being I saw beneath the God of Israel on the River Chebar, and I knew that they were cherubs” [Ezek. 10:22]. That is why the verse says: “which the waters caused to swarm forth after their kind” [Gen. 1:21]: They are [collectively] called “beast” [or “being”], for their bodies are joined but the faces are separate.¹⁸⁵The author plays on the inconsistency of number in these texts. Therefore it says: “which the waters caused to swarm forth after their kind.”
“And each winged bird after its kind”:This refers to those angels created on the fifth day, for there are various rungs, some lower than others and some higher than others. There is a fire that pushes out fire and a fire that consumes fire. Some of them are from water, still others from air. The mission of each is in accord with its essence: the one sent on an errand of mercy is from water; the one who goes as an emissary of justice is derived from fire. Therefore no one angel is sent for both justice and mercy.
“God blessed them, saying: ‘Be fruitful and multiply, filling the land and the waters of the seas’” [Gen. 1:22]. As Scripture says, “Like entities in the full belly” [Eccles. 11:5], since water did not flow forth from wisdom until the sixth day, of which Scripture says “Let earth bring forth a living being after its kind” [Gen. 1:24]. The angels that were created on the fifth day are negated, just as the spark is reabsorbed into the coal, once they have sung their song. The reason [for their existence] is external to them and they are not sufficiently strong to stand before their Creator. They are incarnated a second time, sing their song, and then they disappear. Of this matter it has been said: “New each morning, great is Your faith!” [Lam. 3:23]. Here our Psalm continues: “All of them look to You to give them their food in its due time” [Ps. 104:27]. This refers to their flowing forth.

We observe in history that the blessing has a way of being transferred from generation to generation. We find the first basic blessing of mankind being given to Adam and Chavah in Genesis 1,27. When, due to the curse which rested on the world at the time of the deluge this blessing had to be renewed, we read in Genesis 9,1 that G’d bestowed this blessing again on Noach and his sons. When the generation of the Tower had become guilty of a collective sin, the blessing which had been in a state of suspended animation was given to Avraham in Genesis 12,2 and he was given the power to direct it as he saw fit. Avraham was entitled to pass on this blessing to Ishmael, his oldest son as was the custom in those days. However, Avraham refrained from doing so as G’d had told him that his principal heir was Yitzchak. At the same time, since he did not want to cause rivalry and feuding between his sons Ishmael and Yitzchak, he decided not to allocate this power to bless to either one of this sons and to leave it to G’d to decide when and to whom to grant this power. G’d intervened and gave this blessing to Yitzchak (25,11). Yitzchak was entitled to give the blessing to Esau, seeing he was the firstborn. This is why Yaakov agreed to trick his father as he had become the legal firstborn. As a result of Esau selling his birthright he had lost both it and the power to receive or bestow the blessing. When Yaakov founded a family of twelve sons each of whom became the head of one of the twelve tribes making up the Jewish nation, he would have been entitled to transfer this blessing and the powers associated with it to his own firstborn Reuven. He did not do so, however, seeing Reuven had been guilty of a serious trespass as a result of which his father transferred the birthright to Joseph (Chronicles I 5,1). When these blessings were fulfilled for Yaakov the third of the patriarchs, this serves as an assurance to us in this our third exile that they will also be fulfilled at the time of the redemption from this exile.