Chasidut sobre Gênesis 1:1
בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹהִ֑ים אֵ֥ת הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וְאֵ֥ת הָאָֽרֶץ׃
No princípio <span class="x" onmousemove="Show('perush','Em hebraico, bará, significa trazer do nada à existência. Este verbo não existe nas línguas ocidentais, pelo que é traduzido como criar. Observe-se que o verbo encontra-se no singular, e o nome Elohim é plural majestático, não que signifique dois ou três, assim como a palavra bealim = dono, que sempre vem no plural, e indica pessoa singular. O verbo bará aqui testifica sobre a unicidade de Deus, por estar em forma singular.');" onmouseout="Hide('perush');">criou</span> Deus os céus e a terra. <span class="x" onmousemove="Show('perush','Segundo Rach”i (R. Chelomô Itsĥaqi - França - nasc.: 22 de fevereiro de 1040 - f.: 13 de julho de 1105): não é possível explanar este verso através do sistema literal de forma alguma, pelo que transforma a frase, dizendo “ao criar” no lugar de “criou”. Assim traduz a edição da Bíblia da Editora Sêfer, segundo a exegese, e não segundo o texto. Rav Sa’adia Gaon (n.:882 no Egito - falesc. 942 na Babilônia) explica que o sentido da expressão aqui é “no começo”, e não há motivo para ir-se às anedotas e explicações não literais. Ele reúne em sua exegese nove diferentes formas de teses acerca da criação, sendo a nona a do “Sêfer Ietsirá”, e critica-o. Sobre este livro e sua tese da criação das letras e números antes da Formação da Terra, mais tarde foi criada a cabalá no norte da Espanha. Em seguida, explana o verdadeiro sentido da Torá.');" onmouseout="Hide('perush');">(*)</span>
Kedushat Levi
Exodus 38,21. “These are the accounts of the Tabernacle of the Testimony that were rendered according to the commandment of Moses, etc.;” we have already written previously that the construction of the Tabernacle required holy spirit and the knowledge of how G’d used the aleph bet, i.e. the letters of the Torah and their respective combinations that G’d used when He created heaven and earth. (based on Yevamot 47). The subject has been elaborated on further in Bereshit Rabbah section 12,14 which quotes the school of Shammai saying that the idea to create the universe crystallized in G’d’s mind at night whereas the execution occurred by day, and that the letter ה written in smaller script in Genesis 2,4 in the word בהבראם is an allusion to the attribute א-ד-נ-י, one of G’d’s names, whereas afterwards in the same verse when the Torah writes ביום עשות ה' אלוקים ארץ ושמים, “on the day that <ihashem< i=""> made earth and heaven,” the apparent repetition is an allusion to the fact that G’d is unique and the exclusive Creator. [Our author must have had a different version of the Bereshit rabbah, as the second comment concerning the attribute א-ד-נ-י is not found in my updated version of that Midrash. Ed.]
The uniqueness of both Moses and Betzalel paralleled the description of unique attributes possessed by the Creator. Initially, the instructions given by Moses to Betzalel were similar to G’d’s formulating the thought of creating a universe, whereas the execution paralleled the words ביום עשות ה' אלוקים, G’d in His capacity as Hashem carrying out His plan to create the universe. The numerical value of the first letters of the opening words in our portion, אלה פקודי המשכן i.e. א'פ'ה' have a combined value of 86, equivalent to the letters in the name of G’d when it is spelled א-ל-ה-י-ם, i.e. His attribute of א-ד-נ-י, the word signifying the attribute of Justice. The respective last letters in the same sequence of words are ה'י'נ equaling 65, or the numerical value of the attribute א-ד-נ-י. When we examine the respective first and final letters in the second half of the introductory verse of our portion, i.e. משכן העדות, we find that the letters מ'ה correspond to the holy name of G’d consisting of 45 letters, whereas the final letters in these words, i.e. ת'נ or 450 i.e. ten times the value of the opening letters. This suggests that whereas Betzalel was indeed granted great insights, it was Moses, אשר פקד על פי משה who had the highest level of understanding how to manipulate all the letters in the names of G’d.
The uniqueness of both Moses and Betzalel paralleled the description of unique attributes possessed by the Creator. Initially, the instructions given by Moses to Betzalel were similar to G’d’s formulating the thought of creating a universe, whereas the execution paralleled the words ביום עשות ה' אלוקים, G’d in His capacity as Hashem carrying out His plan to create the universe. The numerical value of the first letters of the opening words in our portion, אלה פקודי המשכן i.e. א'פ'ה' have a combined value of 86, equivalent to the letters in the name of G’d when it is spelled א-ל-ה-י-ם, i.e. His attribute of א-ד-נ-י, the word signifying the attribute of Justice. The respective last letters in the same sequence of words are ה'י'נ equaling 65, or the numerical value of the attribute א-ד-נ-י. When we examine the respective first and final letters in the second half of the introductory verse of our portion, i.e. משכן העדות, we find that the letters מ'ה correspond to the holy name of G’d consisting of 45 letters, whereas the final letters in these words, i.e. ת'נ or 450 i.e. ten times the value of the opening letters. This suggests that whereas Betzalel was indeed granted great insights, it was Moses, אשר פקד על פי משה who had the highest level of understanding how to manipulate all the letters in the names of G’d.
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Kedushat Levi
The first thing G’d embarked on when creating the material universe was to create heaven and earth.”
It is an axiom, general principle, that G’d created the entire universe, and having done so, never withdraws from the universe for even a single moment, [unlike sculptors or painters who, once they have completed a sculpture or painting, move on to something else, having “finished” with their previous “creation.” Ed.] This axiom is true both of what He created in the heavens and what He created in the material, three-dimensional part of the universe. We pay tribute to this in our daily prayers when we say יוצר אור ובורא חושך, “He creates and fashions (present tense) light, and He creates darkness.” When speaking of any accomplishments of G’d’s creatures however, we speak of them in the past tense, i.e.יצר כסא, “he shaped a chair,” or עשה מזרון, “he made a mattress.” G’d’s creative activity is never completed, as the Torah testified in Genesis 2,3 אשר ברא אלוקים לעשות, “which the Lord has created in order to complete it.” This means that G’d is part of every creature He ever created, and once man realizes that he is nothing without G’d Who has created him and Who provides him with all the strength and creative stimuli that he possesses, he will be able to relate to Hashem as an ongoing creative Force in His universe. This is reflected every morning when we get up [after having used the washroom] and we refer to G’d with the words אשר יצר את האדם בחכמה, “Who has fashioned man with חכמה,” the word חכמה meaning the opposite of אין, “nothing.” It is appropriate therefore that in that prayer we refer to the creation of man in the past tense, as opposed to the line we quoted earlier, seeing that we refer to something or somebody who already exists, i.e. יש. This explains why the Ari z’al , Rabbi Yitzchak Luria, said that when we refer to G’d as ה' מלך, usually translated as “Hashem is King,” the reference is to the אין, “nothing,” i.e. G’d at any given moment gives us life, -by not withdrawing it from us.- The implied meaning of the expression is that man is “nothing” unless he continues to exist as part of G’d’s creative activity. The so-called אין, “nothing,” in terms of metaphysical beings, rules supreme in the regions beyond those that are part of the physical universe, the one that we conveniently refer to as “nature.” This so-called אין, is not really a “nothing,” in terms of the universe, its “nothingness” is such only vis a vis the physical part of the universe; in the celestial regions this “אין” rules supreme. [as opposed to the חכמה in our part of the universe. Ed. Although יש and אין are popularly perceived as absolute opposites, not having anything in common, this perception is built on a fallacy; the linkage between יש and אין are the mitzvot, Torah commandments, performed by the Jewish people. The commandments are performed in the section of the universe known as יש, as a result of which close contact is maintained between the aforementioned two domains of the universe. Ezekiel 1:14 refers to the “mitzvot” in their capacity as providing the link between the terrestrial and the celestial part of the universe with the words והחיות רצוא ושוב, “and the chayot ran to and fro”. According to the Zohar II 288, the mitzvot and the Torah respectively, are viewed as related to one another like the “hidden” is related to the “revealed,” both being part of the same whole. Torah and mitzvot provide the link between these two domains, so that each domain is not completely divorced from the other. This concept is contained in the letters of the word מצוה when we divide it up into מצ and וה. The letters מצ when we read the alphabet backwards, starting with the letter ת are equivalent to the letters יה, symbolising the totally abstract Divinity, whereas the letters וה symbolize the hidden parts of the universe, יש. The first half of the word מצוה being read with the two letters used in reverse order of the aleph bet, alludes to the “hidden” part of the universe, the domain exclusive to Divine, abstract forces. Let us explain something about what precisely is “hidden” and what is “revealed,” when it comes to the מצוה, “Torah commandment.” When we perform a מצוה, we cause G’d to become pleased with having created man, the choicest of His creatures. When we comply with requests made to us by a fellow human being, we can immediately gauge whether he is pleased by our actions or not, either by his face indicating this, or by words of approval, something that is not the case when we comply with G’d’s requests from us. Since He is invisible, and does not speak to us as He did to Moses, “mouth to mouth”, we have no way of knowing if our efforts to please Him have been successful. When we try to perform deeds that are for our (immediate) personal benefit, we are able to determine if our efforts have succeeded. This then is the “hidden” element present whenever we perform any of G’d’s commandments, מצות. This is what the Torah had in mind when it wrote (Deuteronomy 29,28) הנסתרות לה' אלוקינו, “the hidden aspects of mitzvah performance are reserved for the Lord our G’d;” on the other hand, והנגלות לנו ולבנינו עד עולם, “the benefits which the performance of the Torah confers upon us will be revealed forever.” This is also the meaning of the words בראשית ברא אלוקים, (addressed to us) “at the beginning of G’d’s creative activity G’d created the יש, a physical domain of the universe.” Through His creating יש, i.e. ראשית, a beginning, the creation of heaven and earth came into being, for prior to that there was only the אין, the abstract universe. This is the meaning of Targum Yerushalmi who renders this verse as 'בראשית בחוכמא ברא ה', “at the beginning G’d created by means of using intelligence found in the domain of the abstract regions.” חכמה, as we pointed out earlier, is a quality inherent in the terrestrial domain.
It is an axiom, general principle, that G’d created the entire universe, and having done so, never withdraws from the universe for even a single moment, [unlike sculptors or painters who, once they have completed a sculpture or painting, move on to something else, having “finished” with their previous “creation.” Ed.] This axiom is true both of what He created in the heavens and what He created in the material, three-dimensional part of the universe. We pay tribute to this in our daily prayers when we say יוצר אור ובורא חושך, “He creates and fashions (present tense) light, and He creates darkness.” When speaking of any accomplishments of G’d’s creatures however, we speak of them in the past tense, i.e.יצר כסא, “he shaped a chair,” or עשה מזרון, “he made a mattress.” G’d’s creative activity is never completed, as the Torah testified in Genesis 2,3 אשר ברא אלוקים לעשות, “which the Lord has created in order to complete it.” This means that G’d is part of every creature He ever created, and once man realizes that he is nothing without G’d Who has created him and Who provides him with all the strength and creative stimuli that he possesses, he will be able to relate to Hashem as an ongoing creative Force in His universe. This is reflected every morning when we get up [after having used the washroom] and we refer to G’d with the words אשר יצר את האדם בחכמה, “Who has fashioned man with חכמה,” the word חכמה meaning the opposite of אין, “nothing.” It is appropriate therefore that in that prayer we refer to the creation of man in the past tense, as opposed to the line we quoted earlier, seeing that we refer to something or somebody who already exists, i.e. יש. This explains why the Ari z’al , Rabbi Yitzchak Luria, said that when we refer to G’d as ה' מלך, usually translated as “Hashem is King,” the reference is to the אין, “nothing,” i.e. G’d at any given moment gives us life, -by not withdrawing it from us.- The implied meaning of the expression is that man is “nothing” unless he continues to exist as part of G’d’s creative activity. The so-called אין, “nothing,” in terms of metaphysical beings, rules supreme in the regions beyond those that are part of the physical universe, the one that we conveniently refer to as “nature.” This so-called אין, is not really a “nothing,” in terms of the universe, its “nothingness” is such only vis a vis the physical part of the universe; in the celestial regions this “אין” rules supreme. [as opposed to the חכמה in our part of the universe. Ed. Although יש and אין are popularly perceived as absolute opposites, not having anything in common, this perception is built on a fallacy; the linkage between יש and אין are the mitzvot, Torah commandments, performed by the Jewish people. The commandments are performed in the section of the universe known as יש, as a result of which close contact is maintained between the aforementioned two domains of the universe. Ezekiel 1:14 refers to the “mitzvot” in their capacity as providing the link between the terrestrial and the celestial part of the universe with the words והחיות רצוא ושוב, “and the chayot ran to and fro”. According to the Zohar II 288, the mitzvot and the Torah respectively, are viewed as related to one another like the “hidden” is related to the “revealed,” both being part of the same whole. Torah and mitzvot provide the link between these two domains, so that each domain is not completely divorced from the other. This concept is contained in the letters of the word מצוה when we divide it up into מצ and וה. The letters מצ when we read the alphabet backwards, starting with the letter ת are equivalent to the letters יה, symbolising the totally abstract Divinity, whereas the letters וה symbolize the hidden parts of the universe, יש. The first half of the word מצוה being read with the two letters used in reverse order of the aleph bet, alludes to the “hidden” part of the universe, the domain exclusive to Divine, abstract forces. Let us explain something about what precisely is “hidden” and what is “revealed,” when it comes to the מצוה, “Torah commandment.” When we perform a מצוה, we cause G’d to become pleased with having created man, the choicest of His creatures. When we comply with requests made to us by a fellow human being, we can immediately gauge whether he is pleased by our actions or not, either by his face indicating this, or by words of approval, something that is not the case when we comply with G’d’s requests from us. Since He is invisible, and does not speak to us as He did to Moses, “mouth to mouth”, we have no way of knowing if our efforts to please Him have been successful. When we try to perform deeds that are for our (immediate) personal benefit, we are able to determine if our efforts have succeeded. This then is the “hidden” element present whenever we perform any of G’d’s commandments, מצות. This is what the Torah had in mind when it wrote (Deuteronomy 29,28) הנסתרות לה' אלוקינו, “the hidden aspects of mitzvah performance are reserved for the Lord our G’d;” on the other hand, והנגלות לנו ולבנינו עד עולם, “the benefits which the performance of the Torah confers upon us will be revealed forever.” This is also the meaning of the words בראשית ברא אלוקים, (addressed to us) “at the beginning of G’d’s creative activity G’d created the יש, a physical domain of the universe.” Through His creating יש, i.e. ראשית, a beginning, the creation of heaven and earth came into being, for prior to that there was only the אין, the abstract universe. This is the meaning of Targum Yerushalmi who renders this verse as 'בראשית בחוכמא ברא ה', “at the beginning G’d created by means of using intelligence found in the domain of the abstract regions.” חכמה, as we pointed out earlier, is a quality inherent in the terrestrial domain.
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Me'or Einayim
This shall be the Torah concerning the one struck with skin blanch [metzora] on the day he becomes clean. He shall be brought to the priest (Lev. 14:2), and our Sages of Blessed Memory interpreted metzora as one who speaks evil [motzi ra], for afflictions come through the sin of evil speech. But the matter is according to what is written, When God began to create etc. (Gen. 1:1), and our Sages of Blessed Memory interpreted: “For the sake of Torah and for the sake of Israel” (cf. Rashi, ad. loc.); so we find that Israel is something very important to Blessed God, since for their sake all of the Worlds and all the Creations were created. And Blessed God takes pleasure from each one of Israel, even from a greatly wicked person: “Your temples [rakatekh] are like a pomegranate (Song of Songs 6:7) – even the empty ones [reykanim] among you are as full of mitzvot as a pomegranate” (Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 57a). And when a person speaks evil about one of Israel, even if he speaks truth, he nullifies the Blessed Creator’s pleasure (if it were possible) and causes Him sadness (if it were possible) as is stated, [And the Lord …] was saddened in to His heart (Gen. 6:6), and inverts the pleasure [oneg] into affliction [nega]; therefore his “wage” is measure for measure, affliction comes upon him. And our Sages of Blessed Memory said: “Evil speech is as great as idolatry, sexual immorality, and murder” (Babylonian Talmud, Arakhin 15b). But we must be precise: what connection does idolatry have to evil speech? But the matter is according to what is written, By the word of ADONAI were the heavens made (Psalm 33:6), that all of the Worlds and all of the Creations were created through speech comprised of the 22 letters of the Torah, which is called Heavenly Sovereignty. For when the Sovereign does not speak, no one knows how to do His Will; and when he speaks His Will is revealed, and that is Heavenly Sovereignty whose Sovereignty is in all jurisdictions. And we find in Sefer Yetzirah that [the letters] are established in the mouth, that Blessed God established the 22 letters: the World of Speech, Heavenly Sovereignty, the Attribute of ADONAI-ness, ADONAI, open my lips (Psalm 51:17), were established in the human mouth.
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