창세기 2:14의 Chasidut

The Gaon of Vilna²⁰²Rabbi Elijah of Vilna was one of the greatest geniuses of the modern era. He was born in 1720 and he passed away in 1797. Due to his brilliance, he is called, the “Gaon,” literally, the “genius.” uses the Talmud’s explanation Barchi nafshi to explain the two instances where the letter heh in the traditional Torah text appears in unusual form. In Gen. 2:14 a small letter heh appears in the word be-hibbaram, “when they [heaven and earth] were created,” and in Deut. 32:6 a large letter heh is written in the word ha-la-Hashem, “for God”:

The soul has qualities that resemble God’s attributes. However, relative to God the soul can never reach holiness that truly resembles Him, for who can be compared to God? That is why in Gen. 2:14 it says be-hibbaram ²⁰³The full verse reads, “These are the genealogies of Heaven and earth when they were created [be-hibbaram], on the day that God made earth and Heavens.” The section then proceeds to detail the story of the creation of the first man. There are two classical interpretations for the unusual word be-hibbaram. One is that God created this world with the letter heh, the other is that He created the world for the sake of Abraham. with a small heh, for the five human qualities are miniscule relative to the Divine’s.²⁰⁴The gematria of the letter heh is five. This explanation corresponds to the interpretation that God created the world with the letter heh.²⁰⁵See further Menachos 29b. There is another explanation to the word be-hibbaram. Its letters spell be-Avraham, and it teaches that God created the world due to Abraham’s merit.²⁰⁶See further Bereishis Rabbah 12. These five qualities [of soul] only existed in Abraham [the small size of the letter reflects the rarity of its attainment]. However the heh in the verse ha-la-Hashem tigmalu zos, “Will you do so before God?” (Deut. 32:6) is enlarged. For the five qualities of God are great in a manner that we cannot fully comprehend.²⁰⁷Imrei Noam, Berachos 10a.