Musar do Lamentacje Jeremiasza 4:2

In the Zohar (2:2b) it is taught: Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai said: If a person accustoms himself to identify with the suffering of the Shechinah, even if he encounters suffering he will bear the burden and not worry. But if he does not accustom himself to identify with the suffering of the Shechinah and of Israel, but spends all his days enjoying the pleasures and delights of this world, when some suffering does befall him it will cause him complete distress. Therefore every individual must weep while Israel suffers in the exile. Indeed, in Babylon the suffering was complete, because Israel had become accustomed to a life of pleasure. Thus it states, “The precious sons of Tziyon who were comparable to fine gold, etc.” (Eichah 4:2). But then they went into exile with a millstone upon their necks and their hands fastened behind them. And as they went into exile the Holy One Blessed is He called to all His hosts and said to them, “Why are My children in exile while you remain here? Set out and go down, all of you, and I will accompany you.” This is the meaning of the verse, “Thus said Hashem, for your sake I have sent you into Babylon and sent them all down in boats.” Who are those in the “boats”? They are the Heavenly chariots and encampments. And as they were on their way down the Heavens opened up and the spirit of prophecy settled upon the prophet Yechezkeil, who said to Israel, “Behold, your Master is here along with all the hosts and chariots of Heaven, who have come to sojourn with you!” But Israel did not believe it until Yechezkeil told them everything that he saw in his vision. Thus is it stated, “And I saw and behold there was a wind, etc.” (Yechezkeil 1:4)…. Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai said: At that moment Israel’s joy was total because they saw that the Holy One Blessed is He was with them.

The meaning behind this is that Adam was on a spiritual level that made him fit to wear garments of light, and even his heel radiated a light more brilliant than the sun. Had he not sinned, his facial skin would have radiated a blinding light. Light is also called קרן, as we know from Chabakuk 3,4: ונגה כאור תהיה, קרנים מידו לו, "It is a brilliant light which gives off rays on every side". When we look at the sun we observe that many lines emanate from it. These are what are called קרני החמה, the "horns," or rays, of the sun. Once Adam sinned and had to switch to leather garments, i.e. garments whose raw material came from the dust of the earth, he became clay, just like the clay in the hands of the potter. Adam's new status is best described in Lamentations 4,2, where the prophet Jeremiah speaks of המסולאים בפז, איכה נחשבו לנהבלי חרש מעשה ידי יוצר, "Those who used to be valued as fine gold are now accounted as earthen pots fashioned by a potter." Adam's decline is compared to the decline from being קרן-like, to becoming פך-like. The name אדם originally related to a superior kind of אדמה. Subsequently it related to the inferior material we know as אדמה, dust from the earth. From that latter material one constructs the cruses, clay פכים. As long as Adam was on his original spiritual level, he himself was the offering to G–d, as hinted in Leviticus 1,2, that in the first instance one should make an offering of oneself to G–d. At that time man was like the souls of the righteous; these are described as being offered to G–d by the angel Michael after they have departed this earth. When the Psalmist tells us that man did not even spend one single night in his original innocence and now has become likened to the beasts (Psalms 49,14), he thereby hints that man descended to the level of the ox. The deeper meaning of the Midrash which tells us that the ox sacrificed by Adam had only one קרן, horn, is proof that he retains a small vestige of the image of קרן, though on a much lower plane than before.