Tafsiran yang Mengutip untuk Mazmur 139:11

ויאר את הלילה, “it lit up the night.” Rashi understands the word ויאר as being derived from אור, light, in the transitive mode of the verb. If you were to ask how it is that Rashi’s commentary on Psalms 139,11: ולילה אור בעדני, “night will provide me with cover” understands the word אור as meaning darkness, the correct interpretation of these verses therefore must be that the word חשך, darkness, refers to the Egyptian side of the pillar of cloud, whereas the reference to light refers to the Israelites’ side of that pillar of cloud. The Targum’s translation confirms this interpretation. ויאר את הלילה, the pillar of fire that had been travelling ahead of the marching Israelites did not change its function, for if it had positioned itself behind the Israelites it would have provided light for the Egyptians. However, the pillar of cloud which had up until then disappeared at dusk every day, instead took up a position behind the Israelites. This prevented the Egyptians from coming closer to the Israelites. A different interpretation: the meaning of the words: ולא קרב זה אל זה, “the one did not come closer to the other one,” does not refer to the camps of the Israelites and the Egyptians, but to the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire. (during the night) Once morning dawned, they merged with one another, however, as we will explain shortly.

“And darkness was removed/touched [vayamesh].” This is a term of removal, because it is the nature of creation that every person has both day and night. What did the Holy One, Blessed be He, do? He removed the ordinary darkness of night from the territory of Israel and placed it upon the land of Egypt. Therefore, the Egyptians had double darkness, and for this reason the wicked are silenced in darkness (1 Samuel 2:9) even during the day, because the sun had no time to shine except during the day, since the night was already dark anyway. And for this reason, the children of Israel had light in their dwellings even at night. A hint to this is that [the verse] and for all the children of Israel there was — these four words end with the letters that spell “lailah” [night]. And afterward it is written light in their dwellings, as if to say that even the night was light for Israel, as it is written and the night is light around me (Psalms 139:11). And this is what Rashi meant when he said that the darkness was doubled, that is, the measure of both day and night.

אשר מצא את הימים, our sages explain the word as meaning “mules,” i.e. just as he had been a bastard he now bread bastards, i.e. animals which resulted from crossbreeding horses and donkeys. This is the meaning of the words that follow ברעותו את החמורים “while he was engaged in tending the donkeys.” It occurred to him that it might be a good idea to see what would happen if he allowed or persuaded a horse to mount an ass. He found to his astonishment that the ass gave birth to a mule as well as a female mule. Our sages have said in Bereshit Rabbah 82,14 that any mule, i.e. an animal resembling it traces its ancestry by means of the size of its ears. If the ears are short it has been sired by a donkey and born by a horse, whereas if it has long ears it has been sired by a horse having been born by an ass. Tzivon had violated G’d’s law according to which the species are not to be crossbred, whether humans or animals or plants. As a reminder of this legislation the Torah subsequently forbade products of crossbreeding, a prohibition which extends to our having any beneficial use of the result of such crossbreeding. According to Bereshit Rabbah in the section just quoted, neither fire nor kilayim, i.e. the product of crossbreeding different species of animals, were created during the 6 days of creation. Mules, i.e. the result of crossbreeding was not created until the days of Anah (whose father had made the experiment). There is a discussion as to when fire was created. According to Levi the original light created on the first day served man for 36 hours, i.e. during the 12 hours before the onset of the first Sabbath, i.e. the first 12 hours after his creation, and the 24 hours of the Sabbath. When the world sank into darkness as a result of G’d withdrawing the original light, as part of Adam’s punishment for having violated His commandment not to eat from the tree of knowledge, Adam was disconsolate and exclaimed (Psalms 139,11) “is darkness to conceal me permanently?” G’d responded to his cry of anguish by replacing the original light with fire, sparks, by teaching him how to produce fire by striking two flints against each other. Having been successful in this, Adam blessed the fire. This corresponds to the view of Shemuel who taught us that the reason we pronounce a benediction over fire on the evening following the Sabbath is that this was the time that fire was created. Rabbi Avuhu added in the name of Rabbi Yochanan that we also bless fire on the evening after Yom Kippur because the fire had to observe “Sabbath” during that whole day, i.e. handling it was out of bounds to us. [Of course, fire is also prohibited for use (handling) on the Sabbath, but Yom Kippur is also called Sabbath even when it does not occur on the day we would normally observe the Sabbath. Ed.]