Bibbia Ebraica
Bibbia Ebraica

Chasidut su Levitico 11:15

אֵ֥ת כָּל־עֹרֵ֖ב לְמִינֽוֹ׃

ogni corvo secondo la sua specie;

Kedushat Levi

‎Genesis 25,22. she said: “if so (that the children already quarrel ‎within my womb) ,what is the purpose of my existence?” We ‎can understand this complaint of Rivkah on the basis of a ‎comment by the Ari’zal that righteous women are spared ‎the pain and discomfort of pregnancy. Rivkah, while experiencing ‎even more than the normal amount of pain and discomfort ‎during her pregnancy, had concluded that this was proof that G’d ‎had not considered her righteous. Moreover, it is a tenet of our ‎faith that if someone is not a “good” person, such a person will ‎not serve as a receptacle for anything holy or potentially holy. ‎Our sages have based this insight on Leviticus 11,15 ‎את כל עורב ‏למינו‎, “and every subspecies of raven each according to its ‎species” (is forbidden to eat). [The word ‎כל‎ in that verse means ‎that even close association with something ritually unclean, i.e. a ‎raven, is an obstacle to such a person hosting holy spirit, etc. Ed.]‎ According to Bereshit Rabbah 63,6 whenever Rivkah ‎passed a Torah academy Yaakov would make an effort to leave her ‎womb, whereas when she passed a pagan temple Esau would try ‎to leave her womb. Thereupon she went to ask G’d about this ‎strange phenomenon. The Midrash states further that the ‎word ‎זה‎ in our verse refers to the fact that originally, -if not for ‎her complaint- Rivkah was slated to become the mother of all the ‎twelve tribes; seeing that she appeared to find fault with G’d’s ‎arrangement, she was told that she would become the mother of ‎only two sons, one of whom would be Esau. One of the sages in ‎the Midrash takes issue with the literal meaning of Yaakov ‎and Esau respectively having shown awareness of when their ‎mother passed a Torah academy or a pagan temple, and states ‎that, of course, this is merely a simile, and that Rivkah consulted ‎with the heads of the academy founded by Shem and ‎subsequently headed by his great grandson Ever. According to ‎another opinion offered, Rivkah knew that the source of holiness ‎is the One known as ‎אנכי‎, and when she exclaimed ‎למה זה אנכי‎, she ‎expressed her confusion how she could be the receptacle of a son ‎who clearly strived for holiness if she was not worthy. On the ‎other hand, if she were worthy, why did she experience such a ‎difficult pregnancy? G’d put her mind at rest, telling her that her ‎difficulties did not mean that she was not worthy, but that the ‎other son who would be unworthy was the one that caused her ‎present problems.‎
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