Midras Mazmur 104:29: Otzar Midrashim, Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer, Midrash Tanchuma Buber & Midrash Tehillim

Chapter 1. Rabbi Yishmael says: How great is the strength of Job, who said this verse: "Oh that I had one to hear me! Here is my signature! Let the Almighty answer me!" (Job 31:35) But what can I do, for "Behold my desire is the decree of the Almighty should answer me" (Job ibid.). Job said: What does it matter to me if I die and my spirit is taken away? The Holy One Blessed Be He said: Behold, it is written in the Book of the Dead. "Behold my desire is the decree of the Almighty should answer me" - and this is what it says "and you shall place a mark on the foreheads of the people" (Ezekiel 9:4). "And a book was written: 'Each man's grievance'" (Job ibid) - this is the Book of the Generations of Adam, sealed with all the generations of man. "One fate comes to the righteous and the wicked" (Ecclesiastes 9:2). All the generations of man go just as words go from the mouth, and just as Adam went - what are the generations of Adam the Second, missing the vav, and the First is full - so the generations do not go to die whole until their body loses the kings (four elements) that are in their body. With His great power, the Omnipresent created the entire world in pairs, pairs. This corresponding to this, and this opposite that, in order to contemplate His wisdom, and to make known to them that everything has a partner and everything has a substitute. Without this, that would not be; why are life called "life" and death called "death"? Without death, life would not be called "life" and it would not be known that it is life. And so too death - without life, death would not exist and death would not be known, and how is this death? Rabbi Yishmael said: In this body there are kings - blood, white phlegm, red bile and black bile. And when a person grows up, his strength weakens, and his blood changes, and his face turns pale, and one of the kings overpowers or weakens. "You hide Your face, they vanish" (Psalms 104:29) - to what is this comparable? To an inflated waterskin. When the waterskin is whole, the air remains inside it. When it is punctured or torn, the air departs. So too the body - when the kings remain empowered, the spirit remains inside it like the air in the waterskin. And why is the body compared to a king who has armies and four officers over them, and in his kingdom four states, and the lords of the states are evil. If an officer averts his eyes from them, from his territory or his place, they revolt against him and his entire kingdom becomes confused. So too the body is the king, and the sinews are the armies, and the bones are the states, and the four officers are the four elements of the body, and they are: blood, white phlegm, red bile and black bile. And when one of the officers averts his eyes a little, immediately the body becomes confused and the person becomes ill, and if one of the officers is lacking, the spirit departs and the body expires. Rabbi Akiva said to him: How is it that some people die young, some die old, and some die elderly? He said to him: That's how it is - when one of the elements is lacking, the body dies. And so it corresponds to the four elements in the body - the four kingdoms corresponding to the four directions of the world. White corresponds to the east, where light comes from, and easterners are white. Blood corresponds to the north, and just as the north is open, so too the body is open to the blood, as wherever you make an incision in the body, blood comes out, unlike the other three which don't come out wherever you make an incision. And northerners are all red. Red bile corresponds to the west, as the sun reddens at the western edge, and the faces of the west redden at its setting. Black bile corresponds to the south, which is born from coolness, like shadows. And corresponding to them, the four elements of the world: Black bile corresponds to earth, which is born from coolness and dryness, like the earth. Red bile corresponds to fire, its nature being hot and dry. White corresponds to water, its nature being cold and wet like water. Blood corresponds to air.

Rabbi Yishmael says, the One has no opposite or second corresponding to Him. This is the way of counting, one after one, so too the Holy One Blessed Be He has no second, one that has no second. But the Holy One Blessed Be He is One that has no second, and man does not know where His place is. The living creatures do not know where His place is, nor do the angels who praise His Name know where His place is, as it says "Blessed be the glory of God from His place", and neither the heavens nor the earth praise from the place where He is there. For the men of the Chamber of Hewn Stone call Him "the place of the world" and not the world His place. But we do not find that the wind is dependent except on the Holy One Blessed Be He, as it says "and the wind of God hovered", "The spirit of God has made me" (Job 33:4), "By the breath of God they perish" (Job 37:10), "And now the Lord God has sent me and His spirit" (Isaiah 48:16), "The spirit of God spoke in me" (2 Samuel 23:2), "You send forth Your spirit, they are created" (Psalms 104:30). "Give to the wise, and he will become wiser" (Proverbs 9:9). Every mention of "gathering" in the Torah is an expression of gathering, except for two: "You hide Your face, they vanish" (Psalms 104:29) - if it was an expression of gathering, why does it say "they vanish"? Rather, it is an expression of dispersal - He dispersed them and afterwards "they vanish and return to dust." "I will surely gather all of you" (Zephaniah 1:3) - and how do we know this is an expression of destruction? From what Solomon said, "A time to give birth and a time to die." Solomon enumerated 28 opposites corresponding to the 28 verses of the Great Hallel, with 2 opposites remaining corresponding to the 2 Tablets of the Covenant.

He brought forth from the earth all kinds of abominations and creeping things, all of them are unclean. Such (creatures) which have been created from the earth, their life (or soul) and body are from the earth, and when they return they touch their dust at the place whence they were created, as it is said, "Thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust" (Ps. 104:29); and it is written, "And the spirit of the beast goes downward to the earth" (Eccles. 3:21).