Cytowanie Komentarza do Psalmów 104:8

Because of that which the Lord did for me when I went forth from Egypt: The problem with this verse is the Hebrew word “Zeh, this.” What is it referring to? The verse seems to be circular in its reasoning. Why did God take me out of Egypt? Because of “this.” If “this” refers to the Seder, then the verse is saying that God commanded us to commemorate the Exodus because he took us out of Egypt so we could commemorate the Exodus! The commentary offers two different explanations: 1. This is one of many examples in the Bible and later literature of transposed words. It should read, “This (ceremony) was given because of the miracle which the Lord did for me when I went forth from Egypt.” 2. Another explanation is that the word “Zeh” should be read as it is read elsewhere in the Bible as “that which.” “It is because of that which the Lord did for me when I went forth from Egypt.” There are ample examples of the word being used in this way such as Psalms 104, Proverbs 27:22, and Isaiah 43:21.

[Ps. 104:8]: “They rise up to the mountains, flow down to the valleys, to that place You have assigned to them”: This refers to the ocean, as in “Let the waters be gathered to one place” [Gen. 1:9]. “God called the dry place ‘land’” [Gen 1:10] means that He drew forth the Will, which is the [upper] end of Thought, to the “dry place,” “dry” refers to that which does not bear fruit.¹⁷⁵He derives ‘erets from r-ts-h, meaning “will.” Keter is extended to meet malkhut. The circle of the sefirot is thus closed. He drew to her this end of Thought, which is the totality of all the entities. Thus Scripture says: “Let the land bring forth grass” [Gen 1:11] and “Let the waters be gathered,” making channels through which the river then proceeds from Eden, flowing on the fifth day to water the garden. But for now those channels appeared as raw form [golem]; there was as yet no drawing forth. The channels were only preparations for the flowing springs.¹⁷⁶The sefirot as kelim, or the ordering of the sefirotic structure, “precedes” (better “underlies”) the actual flow of divine energy into these channels. Therefore it says:

וחיתו ארץ, the construction is similar to Psalms 104,8 למעינו מים, or to Numbers 24,3 בנו בעור, the letter ו at the end of the word וחיתו is an addition.