Musar su Genesi 3:9

The Levites' cities absorbed those forced to go into exile because of their having committed involuntary manslaughter. When disaster struck the nation, the Levites too were sent into exile as we know from Psalm 137,3 which tells of the Levites being asked to sing the songs they used to sing in Zion. They responded by refusing, claiming they could not possibly do so on foreign soil. Our sages (Midrash Tehillim 137,5) say that they amputated the tops of their fingers so as to be unable to play their instruments. Israel without a rebuilt Temple is compared to כאדם עברו ברית, "just as Adam who had violated the covenant with G–d," in the words of Hoseah 6,7. Midrash Eichah Rabbah elaborates on this, Rabbi Abahu saying that G–d describes how he had placed Adam into Gan Eden, commanded him a single commandment, which he transgressed. G–d consequently punished him with expulsion and personally elegized him with the word איכ-ה, Ayekkoh, (Genesis 3,9), which can be read as Eychah, an expression of mourning as in Lamentations, and also as used by Moses in Deut. 1,12 in the same sense, until He was able to bring the Jewish people into the Holy Land. Jeremiah 2,7 describes this in the words ואביא אתכם אל ארץ הכרמל לאכול את פריה. "I have brought you to the land of the Carmel to eat its fruit." Proof that G–d commanded Israel to observe commandments in the Holy Land is derived from Numbers 34,2: "Command the children of Israel, say to them…when you enter the land of Canaan, etc." Israel transgressed these commandments as described in Daniel 9, 9-11. Daniel includes the whole people as having violated G–d's teachings, as a result of which the curses in the Torah were poured out over them. Our exile, too, was a result of such conduct as is stated in Hoseah 9,9: "I will expel them from My House." The expulsion was not only to a country adjoining their homeland, but also to far off places as is indicated by Jeremiah 15,1: שלח מעל פני ויצאו, "Dismiss them from My Presence; let them go forth!" In His elegy, G–d refers to the lonely and isolated situation Zion finds itself in as a result; cf. Lamentations 1,1. Thus the introduction of Midrash Eicha.

When we look at certain individuals who lived prior to the time the Tabernacle was erected, we find that נח, אדם and אברהם respectively personified the concept of עשן, i.e. שנה,עולם , and נפש. Adam represented עולם, seeing he was the product for whose sake G–d had undertaken to create the universe. Noach personified the concept of שנה, seeing that during his lifetime the world underwent cataclysmic changes. He witnessed a world which functioned; he then witnessed a world that was destroyed; finally he witnessed a world rebuilt. Our patriarch Abraham, inasmuch as he personified absolute faith in G–d, comprised within himself all the spiritual powers connected with the soul. The Torah testifies that while still in Charan he and Sarah "made" souls, created people who possessed spiritual values, i.e. a soul (Genesis 12,5). Vayikra Rabbah 1,9 comments on Leviticus 1,1 ויקרא אל משה, "He called upon Moses," that whereas G–d called upon Moses, He did not call upon Adam. This seems peculiar in view of ויקרא ה' אלוקים אל האדם, in Genesis 3, 9! Obviously G–d did call upon Adam! We must answer by stating that it is not a disgrace for the king to speak to his tenant. The Midrash goes on: G–d spoke to Moses, i.e. וידבר ה' אליו, whereas he did not speak to Noach. How are we to understand this in view of Genesis 8,15: וידבר אלוקים אל נח! We must answer that it is no disgrace for a king to speak to his herder.

Concerning the first manifestation of fondness for Moses, where the Midrash had asked why G–d did not use the term ויקר, we may answer that it is a word connected with קרי, impurity contracted through the emission of seminal fluid. If the word ויקרא reflects an added degree of fondness compared to ויקר, why did G–d employ it when speaking to Adam at a time when He asked him איכה i.e. accused him of disobedience. Surely, at a time when Adam had absorbed the pollutant of the serpent which is equivalent to טומאת קרי, such an expression of fondness would hardly have been in place!