Halakhah su Salmi 8:78

There is no disagreement among astronomers that there are two great circles (the celestial equator and the ecliptic).¹⁰ In the geocentric system of Ibn Ezra there are seven spheres that encompass the earth, each containing a planet; an eighth sphere, the “zodiacal sphere,” containing the zodiac and the fixed stars; and a ninth sphere, the “diurnal sphere,” which rotates all of the lower spheres from east to west in 24 hours. The ecliptic is a path through the zodiac and it is the projection of the sun’s path on the zodiacal sphere. The celestial equator is the projection of the earth’s equator on the diurnal sphere and lies midway between the celestial poles. These are the outer circles, of which one is concentric with the earth.¹¹ The diurnal sphere has as its center the center of the earth. The ecliptic is the projection of the sun’s path upon the zodiacal sphere, and, although the zodiacal sphere is concentric with the earth, however the sun’s sphere is eccentric with its center some distance from the earth’s center. (It seems to me that there is a scribe’s error here, and the text should read “the center of the earth is the center for each,” referring to both the zodiacal sphere and the diurnal sphere.) They intersect at two points (the equinoctial points), and from there they diverge, one (the ecliptic) bending south and also north approximately two fifths of one sixth of the sphere.¹² 2⁄5 ׳ 1⁄6 ׳ 360÷ = 24÷. This angle, called the “obliquity of the ecliptic,” is defined as the angle between the plane of the ecliptic and the plane of the equator. The modern value for the obliquity of the ecliptic is approximately 23÷26ʹ.

(Aleph)⁶Starting from here, each paragraph begins with a letter from an acrostic that sequentially includes all of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, followed by the author’s name. The Rabbis said (Bereishit Rabbah 8:5), “At the time that the Holy One, blessed be He, wanted to create man, He created a group of angels, etc. And they said (Ps. 8:5), ‘What is man that you should consider him’ [and so, they opposed his creation].” At first glance, [we would wonder] why the angels would care about man’s creation. [To answer this, we must understand the nature of man:] As the essence of man’s creation is [that he be] upon the earth. Even though the [human] soul benefits from the radiance of the glory from [the One from] which it has been hewn, and there is nothing lacking in the house of the King; [nevertheless] the Divine Wisdom, may His name be blessed, decreed that [the human soul] should be brought down [to the world], in order to test it with the performance of His commandments and the keeping of His Torah. And when ‘it is very righteous,’ ‘so will it multiply and so will it expand’ and ‘grow upwards,’ until ‘it returns to God who gave it’ ‘with great strength’ and ‘with abundance of power.’ And it is written in the Zohar 1:60a [to explain the verse in Prov. 5:15], “Drink water from your own cistern, running water from your own well”; [that] when the soul is above, it only has the aspect of a cistern, which does not [produce its own water], but is rather filled from others. In of itself, however, it is empty. But when it comes down to this lowly world and achieves what it is supposed to achieve – like the wisdom of His decree, may His name be blessed – then it has the aspect of a well, which is an overflowing spring and is emanating from itself. And in this way it will not [acquire] the bread of shame.⁷The roots of this this idea – that unearned reward is a source of shame – are from several places in the Zohar. See, for example Zohar 1:4a. The basis for the metaphor, however is found in Talmud Yerushalmi Orlah 1:3, 61b. And the first well-known use of the actual phrase is only found later in R. Yosef Karo’s Maggid Mesharim 2:8, which was written in the 1500’s. As the essence of the matter is that anyone who has nothing from himself is a poor person that is considered as if dead.⁸Zohar 2:119a, Nedarim 64b. This is as is written in Gur Aryeh,⁹Maharal, Gur Aryeh on Exod. 4:19:2. that the water of a well is called living waters because it [produces water] from itself (meaning, its underground spring) – which is not the case with the water of a cistern. And so this is why a poor person is considered as if dead. [Hence (as in Prov. 15:27)], “and the one who hates gifts, lives.” See there. And if so, the whole time that the soul is in its source, it has the aspect of a cistern that has no life; as it is empty from itself, besides from what is given to it. [This is] until it descends here and emanates from itself with the aspect of a well and has life. And this is why it states (Gen. 2:7), “He blew into his nostrils a living soul.” That is because the main aspect of the creation of man on the earth was so that the soul could have the aspect of “a living soul.” And this is [the meaning of], these are the commandments, “that a man should do and live through them” (Lev. 18:8).

(Gimmel) On the day that He created him, the Holy One, blessed be He, also gave over to man all of the forces of all of the creatures that He created previously. The ones below, the ones above and the ones above the above were all given over into his hand. [Henceforth man] could move [these forces] to wherever he desired. If he was righteous and went to the right, then all of the creatures, big and small, would also merit to rise in their levels. But if he went to the left and made his actions evil – God forbid – then they would also descend down the slope that he prepared for them. And so we find with the generation of the flood that the sin and calumny of man brought down all the forces of the creatures. And those that dwelled above and those that dwelled below – “all flesh had corrupted its ways on the earth” (Gen. 6:12), even the beasts and the animals. It is like the statement of the Sages, may their memory be blessed, [that] some of the angels fell to earth and their glory descended to the dirt because of their sins.¹⁴See Zohar 1:37a:11 and in other places. See also Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 572:5; Yoma 67b and Rashi ad loc. With this, the beginning of our statement in Paragraph Aleph is elucidated: “At the time that the Holy One, blessed be He, told the angels, ‘let us make man,’ etc.,” He said to them ‘that He mixed up all’ the powers of the creatures [in man], and ‘from there they would be scattered’ to all of the worlds and the creations. And according to how man’s spirit sought his way, [the angels would follow]. They would rise according to [man’s] will and they would descend according to his will. [God] also told them how He added a portion of His essence to them, as per their statement,¹⁵It is not clear to which statement the author is referring. See Louis Jacobs, “Rabbi Aryeh Laib Heller's Theological Introduction to His ‘Shev Shema'tata,’" Modern Judaism 1:2 (September 1981), Note 12. may their memory be blessed, on the verse (Gen. 2:7), “And He blew”; “Anyone who blows, blows from his self.” And it is elucidated in the writings of Ari¹⁶R. Yitschak Luria (Israel, Egypt, 16th century), the pioneer of Lurianic mysticism. that when a man compromises the commandments of God with his sins, the divine portion that he has returns to its original source, and He does not give of [this part of] His glory to another, and ‘His [protective] shade is removed from him.’ And so when the Holy One, blessed be He, said to the angels, “Let us make man” – meaning, that they should all give their portion [to man] to be raised when he is raised – they said to Him, “What are his ways?” He [then] said to them, such and such – meaning, his ascent and decline will be the cause [of what happens] to all the forces, and the ‘angels will climb and descend because of him.’ [So] they answered him (Ps. 8:5), “‘What is man that you should consider him and the mortal that you should remember him,’ – which is to say, his sins. As then ‘You will remove him a little from God,’ which is to say, the divine portion that He blew into his nostrils will return to You. It is only us that remain trapped in his net because of his evil. You have given him power over the works of Your hands, to move us according to his evil will and to do to us that which is in accordance with his will and his desire – like a person acts with that which is his.” Therefore they did not agree to his creation, as they said, “Let him not do good or evil to us.” [But] His wisdom, may He be blessed, decreed the creation of man, ‘to make many people live as today’; [both] ‘the many above,’ ‘and those dwelling below’, so as to move [the angels] to an independent life. [This is] because every action of man will be considered like their action, since all of the creatures mentioned above are combined into man. And so they too are in [the category of] the giving of a well. And this is the essence of creation.

Terumat ha-Deshen, Pesakim u-Ketavim, no. 105, regards the permissibility of causing suffering to animals for the benefit of mankind to be inherent in the biblical dispensation granting man the right to use animals for his needs.⁴⁰This concept is echoed in Psalms 8:7-9 which says of man: “Thou hast made him to have dominion over the works of Thy hands; Thou hast put all things under his feet. Sheep and oxen, all of them, yea, and the beasts of the field. The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea; whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.”
As evidenced by numerous biblical verses, it is clear that man is granted license to utilize animals as beasts of burden, for agricultural purposes, as a means of transportation and the like. Judaism also accepts the view that animals were created for the benefit of mankind. Thus, the Gemara, Berakhot 6b, reports: R. Eleazar said, “The Holy One, blessed be He, declared, ‘The whole world in its entirety was not created other than on behalf of this [human species].’ ” Even more explicit is the statement of R. Simeon ben Eleazar, Kiddushin 82b, declaring, “… they [animals] were not created other than to serve me.” This view is not contradicted by the position espoused by Rambam in a celebrated dispute with Sa‘adia Ga’on in which Rambam denies the homocentric nature of the universe. The Book of Beliefs and Opinions, Treatise IV, introduction, asserts that man is the intended and ultimate purpose of creation; Rambam, Guide, Book III, chapter 13, challenges this view, pointing out that the human species has no need for a great part of the cosmos. Rambam maintains that all parts of the world are equally intended by the divine will but acknowledges that certain beings were created for the service of others. Thus, in Rambam’s view, there is no contradiction in acknowledging that service to other species is the instrumental purpose of some creatures while yet affirming their own existence as the final cause of those creatures. R. Moses Sofer, Hagahot Hatam Sofer, Baba Mezi'a 32b,⁴¹See also Teshuvot Ḥatam Sofer, Ḥoshen Mishpat, no. 185, s.v. ma she-katavata me-Rabad; cf., however, Teshuvot Ḥatam Sofer, Yoreh De‘ah, no. 314 s.v. omnam; and Teshuvot Imrei Shefer, no. 34, sec. 2. cites the divine declaration to Adam and Eve, "… and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that creepeth upon the earth" (Genesis 1:28),⁴²Terumat ha-Deshen rules that, as a matter of law, it is permissible to cause pain to animals even for the esthetic pleasure of man, and, accordingly, permits clipping the ears and tail of a dog “in order to beautify it.” Cf., however, Sefer Ḥasidim (ed. Mekiẓei Nirdamim), no. 589, who forbids any attempt to effect a “change” in correcting a congenital anomaly in a limb or organ of an animal on grounds that such a procedure constitutes a violation of the prohibition against ẓa‘ar ba‘alei ḥayyim. In an even more general statement, Da‘at Kedoshim, Yoreh De‘ah 24:12, declares that acts which cause discomfort to animals are permissible in order to satisfy “any desire of man even if his desire in this regard is not in accordance with the weighing of need or benefit but only a desire without a proper reason.” The same authority permits such procedures even if there is only the mere possibility that the need or desire may be satisfied thereby. See also Da‘at Kedoshim, Yoreh De‘ah 23:28. A similar view is expressed by Ezer mi-Kodesh, Even ha-Ezer 5:14. Cf., however, below, note 67. as establishing man's absolute and unlimited mastery over the animal kingdom.⁴³Cf., however, Sefer Ḥasidim (ed. Reuben Margulies), no. 666, who applies Genesis 1:28 in a radically different manner. Sefer Ḥasidim remarks that Adam was forbidden to eat the flesh of animals but was granted dominion over them, whereas the sons of Noah were permitted to eat the flesh of animals but were not granted dominion over them. According to Sefer Ḥasidim, it is because the sons of Noah were not granted dominion over animals that the angel chastised Balaam in demanding, “Wherefore has thou smitten thine ass these three times?” (Numbers 22:32). As pointed out by R. Reuben Margulies in his commentary on Sefer Ḥasidim, Mekor Ḥesed 666:7, Sefer Ḥasidim obviously maintains that Noachides are forbidden to engage in acts involving ẓa‘ar ba‘alei ḥayyim. As indicated earlier, Rambam also cites Numbers 22:32 as the source of the prohibition against ẓa‘ar ba‘alei ḥayyim. Hence there is some reason to assume that Rambam also maintains that ẓa‘ar ba‘alei ḥayyim is prohibited to Noachides. Teshuvot Imrei Shefer, no. 34, sec. 2 and sec. 8, also suggests that Noachides may be bound by strictures concerning ẓa‘ar ba‘alei ḥayyim which, in his opinion, may be encompassed in the prohibition contained in the Noachide Code concerning the eating of a limb torn from a living animal. See, however, Pri Megadim, Oraḥ Ḥayyim, Mishbeẓot Zahav 467:2 and R. Shalom Mordecai Schwadron, Teshuvot Maharsham, II, no. 364, who apparently maintain that non-Jews are not bound by strictures concerning ẓa‘ar ba‘alei ḥayyim. See also Toldot Ya‘akov, Yoreh De‘ah, no. 33. R. Judah Leib Graubart, Havalim ba-Ne'imim, I, no. 43, sec. 3, advances an identical argument on the basis of Genesis 9:1-2: "And God blessed Noah and his sons…. And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, and upon all wherewith the ground teemeth, and upon all the fishes of the sea: into your hand are they delivered."