Commentaire de citation sur Les Psaumes 104:16

Our sages have likewise referred to the emanation of the sefirot and their revelation as an act of displacement [‘akirah]. It states in Genesis Rabbah [15:1]: “‘The Lord God planted a garden in Eden’ [Gen. 2:8]. As it is written: ‘Let the trees of the Lord be sated, the cedars of Lebanon, his own planting’ [Ps. 104:16]. R. Hanina said: ‘They were like the antennae of locusts [karnei hagavim]. The Holy One uprooted them and replanted them in the Garden of Eden.’” Comprehend this wondrous statement. The planter must have in his hands a plantling. Similarly, the emanation and manifestation of the divine entities [havayot] was like an act of “displacement” while their creation and nurturance in their respective places was an act of planting. Those who plant “seedlings lovingly attended”¹⁵⁹Neta sha ‘ashuim, after Isa. 5:7. need to water them regularly. This is the meaning of R. Haninah’s statement. It states further in the Midrash: “Let the trees of the Lord drink and be sated” [Ps. 104:16]: “May their lives be sated; may their waters be sated; may their planting be sated.” The meaning here is that each sefirotic power receives its energy from the power above it, life drawing from the source of life, water from life, and the plantlings drawing from water. All this is intimated here. And it is also germane to the next verse which states:

[Ps. 104:15]: “Grass for man’s labors … wine to make man’s heart glad, and food to satisfy the heart”: The rain and the grasses that grow because of it are human food, and drinks bring us joy. So too: “May the trees of the Lord be sated, the cedars of Lebanon He has planted, there where the birds make their nests” [Ps. 104:16–17]. The mountain goats and rabbits up on the boulders and the high mountains, all sensate beings, need those primal entities which are the first source of the entire birth process. How “may the trees of the Lord¹⁷⁹Here “trees” and “cedars” are taken as symbols of the sefirot. be sated”? They are sated first from the Source of Life, giving of the overflow of their water to living creatures, both feeling and unfeeling. “The cedars of Lebanon that He planted” [Ps. 104:16] are those delicate entities, as we have explained. This is the meaning of “where the birds make their nests” [Ps. 104:17]. “The high mountains are for the mountain-goats; the boulders are hiding-places for rabbits” [Ps. 104:18]. Here it has been explained that everything draws life from those primal entities, nursing from those that emerged and appeared on the third day.¹⁸⁰The seven lower sefirot are born of binah, the third sefirah, or possibly referring to tiferet, the third of the seven upper “days.” This was fixed in their nature as a primal and eternal desire. He placed their rule over the earth, that all creatures be attached to them and sustained by them, and in the end that all return to them. Of this it says here [on the third day] “And it was good.”

[Ps. 104:15]: “Grass for man’s labors … wine to make man’s heart glad, and food to satisfy the heart”: The rain and the grasses that grow because of it are human food, and drinks bring us joy. So too: “May the trees of the Lord be sated, the cedars of Lebanon He has planted, there where the birds make their nests” [Ps. 104:16–17]. The mountain goats and rabbits up on the boulders and the high mountains, all sensate beings, need those primal entities which are the first source of the entire birth process. How “may the trees of the Lord¹⁷⁹Here “trees” and “cedars” are taken as symbols of the sefirot. be sated”? They are sated first from the Source of Life, giving of the overflow of their water to living creatures, both feeling and unfeeling. “The cedars of Lebanon that He planted” [Ps. 104:16] are those delicate entities, as we have explained. This is the meaning of “where the birds make their nests” [Ps. 104:17]. “The high mountains are for the mountain-goats; the boulders are hiding-places for rabbits” [Ps. 104:18]. Here it has been explained that everything draws life from those primal entities, nursing from those that emerged and appeared on the third day.¹⁸⁰The seven lower sefirot are born of binah, the third sefirah, or possibly referring to tiferet, the third of the seven upper “days.” This was fixed in their nature as a primal and eternal desire. He placed their rule over the earth, that all creatures be attached to them and sustained by them, and in the end that all return to them. Of this it says here [on the third day] “And it was good.”