에스겔 31:9의 인용 해설

וישם, the choice of this word suggests that G’d appointed Adam as the gardener for this garden, to prevent wild beasts as well as domesticated beasts from entering there and from eating of its fruit. The fruit of the trees of that garden were reserved for man and his offspring, provided they would be found worthy to do so. אשר יצר, the reason why the Torah wrote these words, seeing we all know that G’d had formed man, is to tell us that man’s habitat, Gan Eden, had been a prime objective of G’d when He created man. (based on the Kabbalists) The letter ה which precedes the word אדם is necessary to help describe, define him, seeing he had no other individual name as yet. The word אדם is both an adjective, a derivative of the noun אדמה, describing a creature formed out of earth, as well as a noun in its own right. This noun has comprehensive meaning, similar to such nouns as חמה, sun, לבנה, moon, זכוכית, glass, etc. The fact is that most of man’s raw material has been directly derived from earth, even though he also contains material from the other three basic elements.
The bones making up man’s skeleton, supporting man’s body are formed out of earth, being cold and dry just as the earth itself. Seeing that they are an integral part of the earth they remain more or less intact for many years after the rest of man’s body has long rotted away and dissolved. The scholar Avraham Ibn Ezra wrote on verse 8 that the letter ה in the word האדם in our verse contains a hidden element. I believe that what he had in mind is that the letter ה indicates that the word אדם in this verse is a reference to “man” as the name of the human species. We find that among our sages (Bereshit Rabbah 15,2) there surface disagreements as to the meaning of the whole concept of Gan Eden. Rabbi Yehudah understands the meaning of the term as a great garden originating in a place called Eden. He quotes Ezekiel 31,9 in support of his view. We read there: ויקנאהו כל עצי עדן אשר בגן האלוקים, “all the trees in G’d’s garden envied it” (the cedar described by the prophet in the verses leading up to this one) In other words, Rabbi Yehudah understands the prophet Ezekiel as viewing this garden as having been located in a region known as Eden. His view is buttressed by Ezekiel 28,13 בעדן, גן האלוקים היית, “in Eden, the garden of G’d, you have been.”
Rabbi Yossi views עדן as something bigger than a גן, basing himself on the letter ב in the expression גן בעדן, i.e. “a garden within the area known as Eden.” Also, the verse (2,10) ונהר יצא מעדן להשקות את הגן, “a river originated in Eden in order to irrigate the garden, supports his view. [Actually, in the Yalkut another verse supporting the view of Rabbi Yehudah is quoted (בעדן גן האלוקים, in Eden the garden of G’d, which proves that the garden was bigger than the location described as Eden. Ezekiel 28,13) According to the view of Rabbi Yossi the amount of water squeezed from an area of 30 sa-ah בית כורת can adequately irrigate a half sa-ah. (Taaanit 10) The fountain of that river was within the garden, in the center, so that the vegetation all around it would be irrigated by its waters. According to Targum Yerushalmi, Exodus 15,27 which speaks of the 12 wells in an oasis encountered by the Israelites on their journey, the meaning of the expression מעיינות מים is פיגין דמיין, “springs of water.” At any rate Rabbi Yehudah has two verses supporting his view, whereas Rabbi Yossi could find only one verse supporting him. Rabbi Chanin of Tzippori had an inspiration supporting the view of Rabbi Yossi, and found another verse relevant to our subject in Isaiah 51,3 מדברה כעדן וערבתה כגן ה', “a desert like Eden, and a wilderness like a garden of the Lord.”