דָּבָ֛ר שָׁלַ֥ח אֲדֹנָ֖י בְּיַעֲקֹ֑ב וְנָפַ֖ל בְּיִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃
Tuhan telah mengirimkan suatu firman kepada Yakub, dan firman itu menimpa Israel.
Rabbeinu Bahya
You must appreciate that the first seven days (including the Sabbath) of creation are intended to acquaint us both with what happened once and with what will happen again. They are symbolic of the six thousand years the universe will endure in its present form and the one thousand years during which it will undergo a total transformation. Bereshit Rabbah 8,2 states that in G-d’s calendar one day is equivalent to a thousand years in our calendar. This insight is based on Psalms 90,4 כי אלף שנים בעיניך כיום אתמול, “for one thousand years in Your eyes are like yesterday.”
It is clear that there is an allusion to something which will occur in the future in the millennium corresponding to the report of every single day of the creation as portrayed by the Torah. The first day on which light was created alludes to the first millennium during which Adam was alive. Adam was considered the light of the terrestrial world. When you consider that in the report of the first day the Torah mentions light five times and darkness only three times, you can understand that during this millennium light, i.e. goodness and peace, gradually asserted itself over darkness and the evil which darkness symbolises. The second day of creation, on the other hand, symbolises the second millennium during which the deluge occurred. This is the reason that the word טוב does not occur in the report of that day of the creative process.This is also why we do not find the words ויהי כן, “it remained thus,” until the end of verse seven instead of immediately after the directive in verse six that a heaven should become manifest. Our sages considered the absence of the mention ”it was good” on the second day as so serious that they discouraged people from commencing major undertakings on Mondays, the second day of the week. It is not appropriate for man to commence an enterprise on a day when G-d “lost” His world to the deluge.
If you have been under the impression that our sages discouraged new undertakings on Mondays because they considered this a bad omen, please reconsider. The fact is that the evening of the second day (Sunday night) commences under the aegis of the horoscope צדק (Jupiter), whereas by day the second day of the week is under the aegis of the לבנה, the moon, both of which constellations are positive; these planets symbolise light and uprightness. It would therefore be appropriate to commence undertakings on such a day which seems to augur well for people. How then could the sages have forbidden such a thing except for man to commemorate G-d’s dismay at the need to have destroyed so many of His creatures? The third day corresponded to the third millennium; on that day the word כי טוב occurred twice. The first time the words occur they symbolise the cancellation of the decree to destroy the earth by means of a deluge; the second time these words refer to what occurred in the year 2448 when G-d revealed Himself to His people and gave them the Torah Just as G-d had given permission to earth on the third day to produce vegetation and that vegetation had remained hidden at the threshold of earth waiting to reveal itself until Adam the crown jewel of creation came into existence, so the third millennium was reserved for the Jewish people who are reported in Exodus 1,7 to have been fruitful and to have been multiplying in Egypt during that millennium. The sanctity and spiritual superiority of the Jewish people had remained hidden from the world until they received the Torah at Mount Sinai. The fourth day of creation corresponds to the fourth millennium, the period during which the Jewish people accumulated more wisdom than any other nation. The two great luminaries allude to the written and the oral Torah respectively. The “great luminary” symbolises the written Torah, whereas the “small(er) luminary”, the moon, symbolises the oral Torah. The stars which are always considered as part of the moon’s domain, represent those parts of the oral Torah which, though not necessarily the last word in halachah, nonetheless provide great moral lessons for the Jewish people. The fifth day symbolises the period during which the Jewish people were in exile amongst the nations of the world who have been compared to נפש החיה הרומשת על הארץ, ”the living creatures which crawl on earth.” This is the reason that the words ויהי כן, “it remained thus,” are absent at the conclusion of the Torah’s report of what transpired on that day. It is a hint that our exile will not go on forever, but that in the end we will experience redemption. The sixth day corresponds to the sixth millennium (which at the time of writing by our author was barely 50 years old). Just as the Torah reports at the beginning of its report of that day that the earth brought forth all manner of animals including those that creep, so the sixth millennium finds us in exile at its beginning. The various beasts were created before the “sun” shone on earth, a period when they reigned supreme on earth. This is the meaning of Psalms 104,22 תזרח השמש יאספון, “once the sun shines they will be gathered in.(to their dens). ”Adam was created after the sun had begun to shine as this was the time when he would rule. The psalmist in Psalms 104,23 again refers to this when he says יצא אדם לפעלו, “Adam will set out to do his work.” Just as Adam took control on the sixth day of creation, something alluded to in the words “let us make Adam,” so the Messiah will arrive and take control of the earth during the sixth millennium after a tenth of that millennium has passed, corresponding to the hour at which the sun rises in the morning. The reference is to the משיח בן דוד, the Messiah who is the descendant of David, the final Messiah. It has been written of this Messiah וכסאו כשמש נגדי, “and his throne is as the sun before Me.”(Psalms 89,37). It is he who is meant when the Torah spoke of Man as being made in the image of the Lord. Daniel 7,13 describes him as ארו עם ענני שמיא כבר אנש אתי הוה , “and behold! With the clouds of heaven, one like a man came.” This is presumed to occur 118 years into the sixth millennium if Daniel’s prediction in chapter 12 ,17 will prove accurate... [Seeing that the commentators obviously misunderstood Daniel’s calculation of when the Messiah would come, as the time has long passed, I have omitted explaining how our author believes that Daniel arrived at his calculation. Ed.]
It is clear that there is an allusion to something which will occur in the future in the millennium corresponding to the report of every single day of the creation as portrayed by the Torah. The first day on which light was created alludes to the first millennium during which Adam was alive. Adam was considered the light of the terrestrial world. When you consider that in the report of the first day the Torah mentions light five times and darkness only three times, you can understand that during this millennium light, i.e. goodness and peace, gradually asserted itself over darkness and the evil which darkness symbolises. The second day of creation, on the other hand, symbolises the second millennium during which the deluge occurred. This is the reason that the word טוב does not occur in the report of that day of the creative process.This is also why we do not find the words ויהי כן, “it remained thus,” until the end of verse seven instead of immediately after the directive in verse six that a heaven should become manifest. Our sages considered the absence of the mention ”it was good” on the second day as so serious that they discouraged people from commencing major undertakings on Mondays, the second day of the week. It is not appropriate for man to commence an enterprise on a day when G-d “lost” His world to the deluge.
If you have been under the impression that our sages discouraged new undertakings on Mondays because they considered this a bad omen, please reconsider. The fact is that the evening of the second day (Sunday night) commences under the aegis of the horoscope צדק (Jupiter), whereas by day the second day of the week is under the aegis of the לבנה, the moon, both of which constellations are positive; these planets symbolise light and uprightness. It would therefore be appropriate to commence undertakings on such a day which seems to augur well for people. How then could the sages have forbidden such a thing except for man to commemorate G-d’s dismay at the need to have destroyed so many of His creatures? The third day corresponded to the third millennium; on that day the word כי טוב occurred twice. The first time the words occur they symbolise the cancellation of the decree to destroy the earth by means of a deluge; the second time these words refer to what occurred in the year 2448 when G-d revealed Himself to His people and gave them the Torah Just as G-d had given permission to earth on the third day to produce vegetation and that vegetation had remained hidden at the threshold of earth waiting to reveal itself until Adam the crown jewel of creation came into existence, so the third millennium was reserved for the Jewish people who are reported in Exodus 1,7 to have been fruitful and to have been multiplying in Egypt during that millennium. The sanctity and spiritual superiority of the Jewish people had remained hidden from the world until they received the Torah at Mount Sinai. The fourth day of creation corresponds to the fourth millennium, the period during which the Jewish people accumulated more wisdom than any other nation. The two great luminaries allude to the written and the oral Torah respectively. The “great luminary” symbolises the written Torah, whereas the “small(er) luminary”, the moon, symbolises the oral Torah. The stars which are always considered as part of the moon’s domain, represent those parts of the oral Torah which, though not necessarily the last word in halachah, nonetheless provide great moral lessons for the Jewish people. The fifth day symbolises the period during which the Jewish people were in exile amongst the nations of the world who have been compared to נפש החיה הרומשת על הארץ, ”the living creatures which crawl on earth.” This is the reason that the words ויהי כן, “it remained thus,” are absent at the conclusion of the Torah’s report of what transpired on that day. It is a hint that our exile will not go on forever, but that in the end we will experience redemption. The sixth day corresponds to the sixth millennium (which at the time of writing by our author was barely 50 years old). Just as the Torah reports at the beginning of its report of that day that the earth brought forth all manner of animals including those that creep, so the sixth millennium finds us in exile at its beginning. The various beasts were created before the “sun” shone on earth, a period when they reigned supreme on earth. This is the meaning of Psalms 104,22 תזרח השמש יאספון, “once the sun shines they will be gathered in.(to their dens). ”Adam was created after the sun had begun to shine as this was the time when he would rule. The psalmist in Psalms 104,23 again refers to this when he says יצא אדם לפעלו, “Adam will set out to do his work.” Just as Adam took control on the sixth day of creation, something alluded to in the words “let us make Adam,” so the Messiah will arrive and take control of the earth during the sixth millennium after a tenth of that millennium has passed, corresponding to the hour at which the sun rises in the morning. The reference is to the משיח בן דוד, the Messiah who is the descendant of David, the final Messiah. It has been written of this Messiah וכסאו כשמש נגדי, “and his throne is as the sun before Me.”(Psalms 89,37). It is he who is meant when the Torah spoke of Man as being made in the image of the Lord. Daniel 7,13 describes him as ארו עם ענני שמיא כבר אנש אתי הוה , “and behold! With the clouds of heaven, one like a man came.” This is presumed to occur 118 years into the sixth millennium if Daniel’s prediction in chapter 12 ,17 will prove accurate... [Seeing that the commentators obviously misunderstood Daniel’s calculation of when the Messiah would come, as the time has long passed, I have omitted explaining how our author believes that Daniel arrived at his calculation. Ed.]
Rav Hirsch
In einer solchen Bedeutsamkeit haben auch die Weisen dieses Verbot aufgefasst, indem sie die Stelle: Jesaias 9, 7 f.: דבר שלח אדני ביעקב ונפל בישראל וידעו העם םימקש הנבנ תיזגו ולפנ םינבל רמאל בבל לדגבו הואגב ןורמש בשויו םירפא ולכ גדעו וארזים נחליף וישגב ד׳ וגוי והעם לא שב עד המכהו ואת ד׳ צבאו׳ לא דרשו. "Ein Wort hat Gott einst an Jakob gesendet und es hat in Israel seine Stelle gefunden, das soll das Volk ganz kennen lernen, Ephraim und Samariens Bewohner, die so stolz und hochmütig sind zu sprechen: (eigentlich: in ihrem Stolz und Hochmut zu sprechen): Ziegel sind gefallen, Quadern bauen wir auf, Sykomoren sind gefällt, mit Zedern ersetzen wir. Und während Gott Rezins Feinde usw. kehrt das Volk doch nicht zurück zu dem, der es in Wahrheit schlägt, und Gott Zebaoth haben sie in allem dem nicht gesucht", — also erläutern: דבר שלח ד׳ ביעקב זה גיד הנשה ונפל בישראל שפשט איסורו בכל ישראל (Chulin 91a.). Das Wort, das Gott an Jakob gesandt, auf welches der Prophet hier hinweist, ist das Spannaderverbot (es war dies ein tatsächlich an Jakob gesendetes Wort), es hat in Israel seine Stätte gefunden, d. h. das Verbot in Israel Platz gegriffen.