A terra era <span class="x" onmousemove="Show('perush','Como escrevera R. Sa’adia Gaon: comparava-se a um abismo. Ou seja: poder-se-ía dizer que havia a idéia da formação da Terra, mas ainda não havia ela vindo a existir no plano material. Assim, percebe-se que a água foi criada primeiramente, e somente depois a Terra. Mas, esta forma de pensar é enganosa, pois o uso dos verbos em hebraico neste caso não deixam esta possibilidade, e escreve sobre isto r. Sa’dia em sua exegese sobre o Sêfer Ietsirá, no prefácio. É uma forma de dizer que o ar e a água estavam relacionadas aos céus e à terra na criação, havendo sido criada com eles em conjunto, mas que não se ligavam completamente as partículas que compõm o planeta, estando envolvidos em água e ar. Quer dizer: tudo estava um no outro.');" onmouseout="Hide('perush');">sem forma e vazia</span>; e havia trevas sobre a face do abismo, mas o <span class="x" onmousemove="Show('perush','Mais propriamente: ventos da parte de Deus pairavam... Deus, sendo Incorpóreo e Ilimitado, não dispõe de espírito como os seres criados. Em determinados casos, o hebraico usa o termo em singular referindo-se a plural.');" onmouseout="Hide('perush');">Espírito de Deus</span> pairava sobre a face das águas.<span class="x" onmousemove="Show('perush','sobre as teses acerca da existência do mundo, e as razões pelas quais cremos nós os hebreus na criação a partir do nada (ex nihil).');" onmouseout="Hide('perush');">(*)</span>
Me'or Einayim
I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as El-Shaddai etc. (Ex. 6:3). Rashi explained, “Alas for those who are lost and not to be found!” etc. The meaning, as is known, is that the secret of Egyptian Exile is that the True Awareness was in Exile; they could not grasp the Awareness to serve the Blessed Creator, along the lines of what is stated, Know the God of your Ancestor and serve Him (1 Chron 28:9). For in truth, Awareness is the essence that brings one to complete Reverence and Love. For once a person knows and believes that the whole earth is full of [God’s] Glory (Isaiah 6:3) and no place is void of Him, and [God] is the pleasure of all pleasures, Blessed is He and Blessed His Name, Life of Lives – if so, for any of the pleasures if you imagine, God forbid, the absence of the influence of [God’s] Blessed Light and Life-Force among the created things, Creation would return to unformed and void (Gen. 1:2). And similarly for all the Upper and Lower Worlds, if you imagine, God forbid, the absence of [God’s] Life-Force, they would be as if they never were. And if that is the case, then [Awareness of God’s presence] is the essence in all things...
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Kedushat Levi
[The following is a short synopsis of a long paragraph, one that deals also with the apparent paradox of the statement in psalms 2,11 עבדו את ה' ביראה וגילו ברעדה, “serve the Lord in awe; rejoice greatly while trembling.” Ed.] While the description of the state of the universe before man, i.e. Jews, had been charged with the task of being a nation of priests and a holy nation, is meant to make us aware of our duty to live as servants of our Creator and to ensure that His handiwork will prove to be worthwhile, we face a dilemma, portrayed in the following parable.
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Kedushat Levi
A great and powerful king once invited one of his loyal servants to accompany him to his treasure chamber where he displayed a store of jewels and other valuable artifacts. The servant was overjoyed at the king having taken him into his confidence by showing him all his valuable treasures. He became proud to be a servant to such a powerful king. Upon reflecting on this however, he suddenly was overcome with trembling when thinking about what a great wrong it would be to disregard even a minor paragraph in the law books the king had issued to his subjects to live by. The psalmist’s words reflect a similar dilemma. How can one at one and the same time be in awe and full of joy? The Talmud B’rachot 30, tries to answer this apparent contradiction by understanding the latter half of the verse as: “when in a place where merriment is the rule, do not forget that it behooves you to be trembling, seeing that you are always in the presence of the Lord.” Abbaye, who, when in an extraordinarily happy frame of mind, was reminded of this by a colleague, responded that as long he was wearing the phylacteries on his head, this served him as a reminder not to forget this injunction.
