Cytowanie Komentarza do Psalmów 144:4

AND SHE CONCEIVED AND BORE CAIN. The sense of it is that she gave birth to a son, and she called his name Cain [from the word kanah, acquisition], because she said, I have gotten a man with [the help of] the Eternal. In a similar sense is the verse, And she conceived and bore Enoch,⁴¹⁵Further, Verse 17. and many similar verses in this chapter and in other places.
“Eth Hashem (with the Eternal). When He created me and my husband He created us by Himself, but in the case of this one, we are co-partners with him.” Thus the words of Rashi.
The correct interpretation appears to me to be that she said: “This son will be for me an acquisition for the Eternal, for when we shall die he will exist in our stead to worship his Creator.” This is also the opinion of Onkelos who translated eth hashem to mean “before the Eternal.” [The word eth in the following verses is translated] in a similar sense: And it shall be shown ‘eth hakohen’ (the priest),⁴¹⁶Leviticus 13:49. meaning to the priest; And David came near ‘eth ha’am’ (the people),⁴¹⁷I Samuel 30:21. meaning to the people. Or it may be that eth hashem has the same interpretation as in the verses: And Enoch walked ‘eth ha’elokim’ (with G-d);⁴¹⁸Genesis 5:22. See following note. Noah walked ‘eth ha’elokim’ (with G-d).⁴¹⁹Ibid., 6:9. The sense here in the verse before us would thus be: I have acquired a man to walk with G-d.
Now she [Eve] called one son by a name indicating “acquisition,” and the second one she called Abel, denoting “vanity” because man’s acquisition is likened to vanity. But she did not wish to say so explicitly. Therefore, no reason is written for the name of the second son. The secret received by tradition concerning Abel is very profound.⁴²⁰See my Hebrew commentary, p. 43.

The reason for the repeated אמר יאמר is that if the slave adds another dimension of service to his service over and above the fact that G'd has made him His servant and he expresses his wish to also remain a slave to his terrestrial master, etc. then the Torah commands that such a person needs to have his ear pierced, etc. There is another dimension to this whole paragraph, a moral/ethical one. The Torah commands man to constantly have before his mental eye the implications of this wole legislation (even if he never contemplates buying a slave, etc.). The words כי תקנה עבד עברי introduce a reminder that a human being is composed of two major components, his soul i.e. his spiritual self, and his body. The spiritual part is his major component, the body having been provided only so that the spiritual part can fulfil the commandments that he is obligated to fulfil as a servant of his Master (G'd). G'd calls the body עבד, whereas He calls man's soul אדם. Baba Metzia 114, quoting Ezekiel 34,31, explains that only the Jewish people are called אדם, as only they have this kind of soul. This is why the Torah commands us that כי תקנה עבד עברי, meaning if you acquire עברי עובר, someone whose stay on earth is temporary seeing every human being is bound to die (Psalms 144,4), he shall be with you שש שנים. The Talmud Moed Katan 28 basing itself on Job 5,26, considers that man is entitled to expect to live 60 years. It says in Job: תבא בכלח אלי קבר, "you will come to the grave in a ripe old age." The numerical value of the word "in a ripe old age," בכלח =60. While it is true that the Torah here speaks about six years, not sixty, this may be understood as correponding to what is known as מספר קטן, i.e. ignoring the digit zero. The six years are in reality sixty years then. The same applies to when the Torah speaks about said עברי עובר going free in the seventh year. The seventh decade is considered the period during which man exits this life. The word חפשי is an allusion to death, man becoming truly free only in death as we know from Psalms 88,6, במתים חפשי, "freedom is found amongst the dead." The word חנם suggests that this freedom is actually attained via the the angel of death, through Samael. The Zohar second volume page 128 phrases it thus: "during life on earth the forces of Samael feed man with worthless things." [חנם, "for free," in the sense of "without value" Ed.] Leaving this earth then is an escape from false values. The only thing that Samael has no control over are the commandments a Jew performs at great expense to himself. This is not something חנם, without value. The message is that anything which comes for free is intrinsically something impure, rooted in the סטרא אחרא. The opposite is true of דבר שבקדושה; it possesses real value.

When the Torah continues with אם בגפו יבא, we must examine this expression more closely. Why did the Torah choose this expression instead of the word לבדו normally used to describe someone as being alone, such as when the Torah describes Jacob as remaining alone (Genesis 32,25)?

Which he spends. Those deeds, in the limited time that he lives, for this time is as short as the shadow of a passing bird,¹²Alternatively, “that he may do them [ויעשם] like a shadow,” i.e., while alive, a person should never rest, just as a shadow moves constantly as a result of the sun’s angle, so should a person constantly be on the move and be performing these good deeds constantly. (Metsudas Dovid) and although Shlomo said, “like a shadow,” in general, and did not specify whether the shadow of a palm tree, or the shadow of a wall, which are permanent, his father Dovid had already explained it, “his days are like a passing shadow,”¹³Tehillim 144:4. this is the shadow of a flying bird.¹⁴This is deduced in the following manner. A shadow has no permanency so when Scripture states “passing shadow,” it seems superfluous. Obviously, the “passing shadow” is a description of the object that is casting the shadow, e.g., a flying bird that passes [=flies] by. It is thus expounded in this manner in the Midrash.