Musar su Salmi 104:31

Furthermore, we see that the heavens are in motion, and every moving thing has a beginning to its motion⁷Our author seems to presuppose here Maimonides’ rejection of the Aristotelian theory that the heavenly motions are without beginning. (Guide 2, Introduction, Proposition 26). On the 26th Proposition or "Premise" see Moses Maimonides, The Guide to the Perplexed translated by Shlomo Pines, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1963), pp. 240-241. . Since there was a beginning to its motion, we know that it has a beginning and that it is created, for the beginning of its motion is in fact its genesis. Since we know that it has a beginning, we know that before its creation the Creator had no need of it. Just as He had no need of it before its creation, so did He have no need of it after its creation. For the same power which the Creator had before its creation remained with Him after its creation; there was nothing lacking in it, there was nothing added to it, nor did it change it. Inasmuch as this is so, we know that just as He did not need it before its creation, so did He not need it after its creation. But if you should say that the motivation which obligated the Creator to create the world was His need for the world, we will say that the power of an obligation bends the one obligated to do the thing. With regard to the Creator, however, there is no power that can bend Him to do any act, but it was His own power that compelled the created objects to go forth from nothingness into existence. If you should ask why he obligated the created things thus, it was in order to make His divinity known and to show the glory of His greatness and to rejoice in His acts. For when the Creator creates a pious man, He rejoices in him, just as a father rejoices when he begets an intelligent and wise son, who recognizes the glory of his father and honors his father properly. [In such a case] the father rejoices and glories in him, and thus it is said (Psalms 104:31), “Let the Lord rejoice in His works!”

[What had happened to Noach was similar to what happened to the colleague of Rabbi Akiva who investigated the mysteries of the link between G–d and man only to emerge with his mind deranged (Chagigah 14). One must not overestimate one's spiritual capacity, just as one must not underestimate it. Ed.]. In spite of all this, G–d swore not to cause the extinction of the human race again, as had occurred during the deluge. When G–d promised this, He alluded to His previous statement of קץ כל בשר, in Genesis 6,13; this suggests that the present condition of immortality of the species only will continue during the length of mankind's natural history. Only after the arrival of the Messiah will there be a change, and when "G–d will rejoice in His handiwork again" (Psalms 104,31), the state of the universe will revert to what it had been at the time Adam was created. We will return to this later. The "descendants" which are the true descendants G–d had wished to see will not occur till the Messiah; this is indicated in Ruth 4,12 ואלה תולדות פרץ, where we find the word תולדות, descendants, spelled with two letters ו, to indicate that such descendants will correspond to all that G–d has hoped for from mankind. Peretz, of course, is another name for the Messiah.

Every addition of holiness to our status has a mystical connection with the Additional Sacrifices and furthermore contains allusions to a future time. The Torah says in connection with ראש חודש: "This month shall be to you the first (head) of the months" (Exodus 12,2). It means that the Jewish people's calendar is patterned after the lunar cycle. Shemot Rabbah 15,26, comments on this that the great achievements of the Jewish people from the time of Abraham to that of King Solomon spanned 15 generations during which they rose to ever greater stature. At that point, when the light of the moon is at its most potent, "Solomon sat on the throne of the Lord" (Chronicles 1,29,23). Just as the light of the moon diminishes progressively from the fifteenth of the month onwards until it is totally extinct at the end of the month, so the generations of the Jewish people after Solomon progressively declined in greatness until, after another fifteen generations, the last Jewish King, Zedekiah was totally blinded, as stated in Kings II 25,7: "He blinded the eyes of Zedekiah." In the future, however, a new light will shine upon Zion, "and the brightness of the moon will match the brightness of the sun" (Isaiah 30, 26). The "light of the sun" referred to in that verse is the mystical dimension added by the offering of the מוסף-sacrifices on the days we celebrate the appearance of the New Moon. The mystical dimension provided by the Sabbath is the concept of a world which is constantly wrapped in the holiness represented by the concept of the Sabbath. The mystical dimension provided by the Passover sacrifice is that it is the anniversary of our original redemption from the bondage in Egypt, which is also the date of the month on which the redemption of the future will occur. (Rosh Hashanah 11) The scriptural source for this opinion is found in Michah 7,15: "I will show miracles as in the days when you departed from the land of Egypt." Israel will then become endowed with an additional level of רוח הקודש, Holy Spirit, and the earth will be filled with the knowledge of G–d. The festival of Tabernacles, devoted to our reposing in "shade" i.e. the shade offered by the covering of the huts being the spiritual equivalent of sitting under G–d's direct protection- will provide an even greater amount of the Holy Spirit. New Year's Day, of which it says in our מוסף prayer: "This day is the day that recalls the beginning of Your handiwork, a reminder of the first day of Creation," will become the date on which the work of Creation will be renewed once it will resume the direction envisioned by G–d originally. At that time G–d will truly enjoy His works (Psalms 104,31). יום כפור, of course, represents the day in the future when all sins will have been atoned for, and the time of which the prophet Jeremiah 50,20, says: "The sins of Israel shall be sought and there shall be none; the sins of Yehudah, and none shall be found; for I shall forgive those I allow to survive." In the future then these are "My holidays." As long as Israel was steeped in sin, however, we are told in Isaiah 1,16: "Your new moons and holidays fill Me with loathing; they have become a burden to Me." In contrast with this, they will be called: "Holy Convocations," proclaimed by a holy congregation, at a time when we shall have merited eternal life. At that time body and soul will have achieved the mystical union hinted at by the words אך אשר יאכל לכל נפש, in Exodus 12,16. "Eating" is a dimension of the body's needs. The word נפש in that verse describes a dimension of the soul. The "food" (nourishment) of that element of man then is "knowledge of the Lord," as we know from Isaiah 11,9. The verse in Exodus hints at a time when even the body, i.e. "secular" matter, will be filled with such knowledge of the Lord. At that time we will experience fulfilment of the promise or commandment "שאו את ראש," in Numbers 26,2, which is a moral imperative to the Jewish people to elevate themselves to the highest moral/ ethical level they are capable of. The people who were counted at that time were rightly described by our sages as דור דעה, a generation which possessed knowledge (of G–d). This count took place "after the plague," after all those involved in the sin of בעל פעור had died. The term "אחר המגפה" can be understood more broadly as also referring to that time in the future of which it is said in Isaiah 25,8: "He will destroy death forever." During the first count of the people in the desert, the attribute of Justice predominated over the Jewish people, seeing they were all going to die during their trek through the desert, and would not be found worthy to enter the Holy Land. [That count had taken place after the episode of the golden calf, Ed.] Of this latter count, however, it states: "To these (the people to be counted now) the land will be distributed as an inheritance" (26,53). The prophet Isaiah (60,21), has already said of this future ועמך כולם צדיקים, לעולם יירשו ארץ "And your people, all of them righteous, shall possess the land for all time." The story of Pinchas is an allusion to this point in the future.