Myśl Żydowska do Psalmów 8:5

Bamidbar Rabbah 19 comments as follows: We read in Kings 1,4 concerning king Solomon that "he was wiser than any man." The comparison refers to Adam. What did Solomon's superior wisdom consist of? You find that at the time G-d contemplated making man, He consulted with the angels and said to them, "Let Us make man in Our image and in Our form." Thereupon the angels said before G-d, "Who is man that You should give serious thought to him?" (Psalms 8,5). G-d answered them, "The human being I intend to create will have wisdom superior to yours." What did G-d do to prove this? He assembled all the animals in front of the angels, and asked the angels to name them. The angels were unable to do so. When He created man, He asked him, "What are the names of these animals?" Adam called one "ox," the next one "horse" etc. as is written in the Torah, "Adam named all the beasts in the field and the birds of the sky." When G-d asked him, "What is your name?" he replied "Adam, for I have been created from the earth." G-d then asked him, "What is My name?" Adam replied, "My Lord." When G-d asked, "Why?" Adam replied, "Because You are the Lord of all creatures." This is the meaning of the verse in Isaiah 42,8 "I am the Lord, this is My name,” meaning that this is the name that Adam has called Me, the name I adopted among My creatures.

Some of our Jewish philosophers have accepted the premise of the importance of being close to the original Cause. Both Maimonides and Gersonides have adopted this basic point of view. They scoff at those who interpret the verse "They shall be as light bodies in the sky of the heavens, to give light to the earth" as meaning that heavenly bodies have been placed there for the convenience of lowly man. One must seek allegorical meaning in those details of the report of creation of the planetary system. After all, an inventor who would spend millions to create machinery capable of supplying almost worthless trinkets would hardly be regarded as a genius. Similarly, were G-d to have employed all His power to create instruments for the convenience of someone who is merely the last in a chain of creatures preceding him, He would not enhance His reputation amongst His creatures. This line of thought is supported by the fact that all things created more recently than others, are subject to death and oblivion, whereas the things created earlier are either abstract and as such not subject to death, or are made of such durable composition that they appear destined to endure forever. Our objection to the basic argument that creatures created more recently are by definition inferior to those created previously is based on the considerations listed below. To assume that man is inferior to the animals and that the animals are inferior to plants is ridiculous; this would have to be assumed, however, if the only criterion for determining one's relative importance is the "when" of its creation. Bereshit Rabbah in chapter 19 refutes this theory by saying that whosoever was created more recently exercises control over things created previously. The fact that G-d personally involved Himself and all other existing phenomena in the creation of man, i.e. "in Our image and Our form" (Genesis 1,26), indicates that the concept of "whatever is closer to the original source is more important" could be applied at best to the things created up to and including the planetary system (fourth day), and that from then on the system was reversed, an idea for which we cannot find any substantiation. Also, if true, it would require that we discover other functions of the objects created earlier than the ones we know about from our observation in the universe. Also, apart from the motion of the stars and planets, we have no evidence that any of those things possesses intelligence.

When an understanding man considers his significance relative to all of humanity, and the significance of humanity relative to the earth, and the earth relative to the lunar sphere, and the lunar sphere relative to the cosmos, and that everything relative to the greatness of the Creator is as nothing, he will be humbled in his soul and will lower himself before the Creator, as written "[when I contemplate Your sky, the moon and the stars..] What is man that You should be mindful of him?" (Tehilim 8:5).