בַּיּ֨וֹם הַה֜וּא נְאֻם־יְהוָ֗ה אֹֽסְפָה֙ הַצֹּ֣לֵעָ֔ה וְהַנִּדָּחָ֖ה אֲקַבֵּ֑צָה וַאֲשֶׁ֖ר הֲרֵעֹֽתִי׃
Pada hari itu, demikianlah firman Yang Mahakekal, Aku akan mengumpulkan yang pincang, dan yang tercerai-berai akan Kuhimpunkan, juga mereka yang telah Kutimpa dengan malapetaka.
Noam Elimelekh
(4) And this is the explanation of the verse "And Hashem saw that the evil of the humans on earth was great" (Genesis 6:5), that is to say, at all times that one is on earth and one's evil is great, ["and all the humans' impulse of thought in their heart"] through that, also the one who wants to serve the Holy Blessed Name and does not do evil, even though one's thought reins that person in "only evil all day", "and Hashem נחם nacham [had pity/regretted/consoled]" meaning, there was a consolation for the Blessed One in that a human could exert effort in front of the Blessed One, "that he made the humans", meaning, like the saying of our sages of blessed memory: "were it not for three verses etc" (Sukkah 52b and Berakhot 31a) and one of them is "that I made evil" (Micah 4:6) their hearts - that I gave them the impulse to evil. "And God was sad עצב in his heart" - meaning, that the Holy Blessed name was sad due to the heart of the human, that God had given the human a heart of stone like that. "And Noach found favor" (Genesis 6:8) - meaning, that Noach נח was a tzadik and switched himself from the nature that makes humans likely to separate themselves from clinging to the Exalted Creator and strengthen oneself to cling to the Creator, and so [Noach] found favor, Noach נח with switching the letters becomes חן Chen, favor/grace, which is him becoming a favor/grace in the Blessed Name's eyes.
Kedushat Levi
Applied to the situation described here in the Torah, granted that the Jewish people are anxious to be under the protective umbrella of the Creator, but He is even more anxious to extend this protection to us than we are in seeking it.
One of our liturgical poets paraphrases this concept by stipulating that although everybody is willing to serve the Lord with reverence and awe, how come reality does not reflect this? He blames what he calls the “leavening in the dough”, i.e. the evil urge within us. In other words, if only G’d were to remove the evil urge from this universe we would all serve the Creator in the manner we should, as, after all, He is the reigning King in His universe.
We have an interesting statement in the Talmud Sukkah 52 in which G’d is quoted as having four “regrets” concerning four of the phenomena which He had created, one of which is the evil urge. The sage making this statement bases himself on a verse in Michah 4,6 where we read: ביום נאום ה' אספה הצלעה והנדחה אקבץ ואשר הרעותי, “on that day I will assemble the lame and will gather the outcast and those I have treated harshly.”
When we appear before the Lord for judgment we use this verse in our defense, saying: “how can we be guilty of sins if You have not liberated us from the evil urge with which we have been born?” If only we had been free from the impediments put in our path by the evil urge, Your creature, we would have served You in the manner that befits You.
When the merciful G’d hears these complaints of His creatures, our verse from Michah 7,18 elaborates by saying that G’d’s attribute of Mercy is aroused so that He “lifts” the burden of our iniquities from us by providing us with a powerful counsel of defense, by removing the burden of our sins without offsetting this against our accumulated merits. G’d “makes up” for having saddled us with the evil urge by relating to us at judgment time primarily in the guise of the attributes mentioned by the prophet in the verses quoted at the beginning of this paragraph (top of page 785). The prophet Michah there concludes with describing our sins as being consigned to the depths of the ocean.
One of our liturgical poets paraphrases this concept by stipulating that although everybody is willing to serve the Lord with reverence and awe, how come reality does not reflect this? He blames what he calls the “leavening in the dough”, i.e. the evil urge within us. In other words, if only G’d were to remove the evil urge from this universe we would all serve the Creator in the manner we should, as, after all, He is the reigning King in His universe.
We have an interesting statement in the Talmud Sukkah 52 in which G’d is quoted as having four “regrets” concerning four of the phenomena which He had created, one of which is the evil urge. The sage making this statement bases himself on a verse in Michah 4,6 where we read: ביום נאום ה' אספה הצלעה והנדחה אקבץ ואשר הרעותי, “on that day I will assemble the lame and will gather the outcast and those I have treated harshly.”
When we appear before the Lord for judgment we use this verse in our defense, saying: “how can we be guilty of sins if You have not liberated us from the evil urge with which we have been born?” If only we had been free from the impediments put in our path by the evil urge, Your creature, we would have served You in the manner that befits You.
When the merciful G’d hears these complaints of His creatures, our verse from Michah 7,18 elaborates by saying that G’d’s attribute of Mercy is aroused so that He “lifts” the burden of our iniquities from us by providing us with a powerful counsel of defense, by removing the burden of our sins without offsetting this against our accumulated merits. G’d “makes up” for having saddled us with the evil urge by relating to us at judgment time primarily in the guise of the attributes mentioned by the prophet in the verses quoted at the beginning of this paragraph (top of page 785). The prophet Michah there concludes with describing our sins as being consigned to the depths of the ocean.