Chasidut sobre Gênesis 1:2
וְהָאָ֗רֶץ הָיְתָ֥ה תֹ֙הוּ֙ וָבֹ֔הוּ וְחֹ֖שֶׁךְ עַל־פְּנֵ֣י תְה֑וֹם וְר֣וּחַ אֱלֹהִ֔ים מְרַחֶ֖פֶת עַל־פְּנֵ֥י הַמָּֽיִם׃
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.
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.
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Hakhsharat HaAvrekhim
It is important to bear in mind that the body is not the main point, it is just that we don’t see the soul, but we see and feel the entire body, and for this reason our question is not yet answered. We are not only trying to identify the true nature of that which is hidden from our eyes and our other senses, but we are looking at the very body, that we sense and feel, wanting to know the true nature of its essence, and we find ourselves unable to identify it. How is it that it changes from substance to substance? How is it that the lump that was yesterday a plant, in form, taste, and nature, that was so diligent in drawing the elements from its surroundings and turning them into plant matter, has now changed into a piece of the animal’s stomach, and tomorrow will be the stomach or hand of a man, continuing to work with such diligence in maintaining the current form just as it did the previous form? The Eyts Chaiim,215Of Rav Yitchak Luria (1534-1572), Eytz Chaiim, Sha’ar 42, ch. 1. quotes the Ramban’s comment on Bereshit, (1:2), “and the earth was chaos (tohu) and void,” which identifies the substance of the chaos as hiyuli, or a nebulous energy that is ready to assume different possible forms. The Ari z”l tells us that the hiyuli is on the level of Keter (the Crown). In other words, the essential energy that takes form in the world is the aspect of Divinity called Keter (Crown) which has no form on its own, but rather assumes the form of the root elements and their composites in the world.216(The original text adds:) The Ramban does not understand the hiyuli as did his predecessors. They understood the substance of the hiyuli simply, where God created a physical substance in the world which happens to be lacking in form. Something like this can only be imagined but cannot exist in the same way outside of our minds. This is because a physical substance cannot exist without a form. This is because form is a variable which identifies the matter as well as its nature. For example, the form of snow defines its own characteristics (its whiteness – meaning its form, its softness and coldness, meaning its nature) and separates it from everything else in the world. And the form of fire is its redness, its heat, etc. The form of a house is its shape and structure, and its material is bricks. But the bricks, when they were on their own before they had been built into a house, or after they were taken from it, also have a form by which they are identified as bricks and which distinguishes them from everything else, such as their dimensions and their material, which is clay. The clay also has its own form before it is made into bricks, the form of clay. Even the seed when it is planted in the soil, appears at the time it disintegrates to be formless material, but then too it also has a form, which is its own particular description and nature. It is distinguished from any other disintegrated matter in that it is ready to sprout into a plant. Even while disintegrated, it is distinguished from any other disintegrated seed in the particular kind of plant that it will become, and none other. This is all in order to illustrate that a pure substance without form is something that cannot exist outside of the mind. The idea of hiyuli without any form whatsoever is possible in Divinity but not in the material world. That is why the Eyts Chaiim mentioned above calls it the aspect of Keter – Crown, which is a Godly illumination that God drew into the world before He dressed it in any form. It is the root essence of everything in the world and changes only in the garments that dress it. The idea of dressing form needs to be explained more, but not in the current book.
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Kedushat Levi
Our author, instead of using the phylacteries, which are not always worn, as a symbol of our duty never to forget our purpose on earth, uses the words of our verse describing the utter chaos that prevailed prior to G’d having embarked on His gigantic project of creating a universe inhabited by man equipped with a free will, as such a reminder.
Our author sees in the word והארץ in our verse a veiled hint at the various temptations that human beings are constantly exposed to by living in a physical world, temptations that are apt to interfere with his desire to serve G’d as a loyal servant.
Our author sees in the word והארץ in our verse a veiled hint at the various temptations that human beings are constantly exposed to by living in a physical world, temptations that are apt to interfere with his desire to serve G’d as a loyal servant.
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Kedushat Levi
[If I understand the author correctly, Rabbi Levi Yitzchok proceeds at this stage at quite some length and quoting many verses from Scripture, to explain why Malki Tzedek’s definition of G’d as (separately) owning heaven and earth may be misunderstood and has not been adopted by the sages in our daily prayers who opted instead for “owning everything.”
Malki Tzedek’s definition contributed to man believing that there were forces on earth, which though subordinate to G’d, the “Supreme G’d”, nonetheless deserved a measure of man’s fearful or grateful recognition, as the case may be. If G’d tolerated this prior to Avram’s becoming a factor on earth, He did so out of the goodness of His heart, realizing that these visible phenomena, as opposed to His invisibility, contributed to man’s errors in his perception of Who is Who in the universal hierarchy. Ed.]
Malki Tzedek’s definition contributed to man believing that there were forces on earth, which though subordinate to G’d, the “Supreme G’d”, nonetheless deserved a measure of man’s fearful or grateful recognition, as the case may be. If G’d tolerated this prior to Avram’s becoming a factor on earth, He did so out of the goodness of His heart, realizing that these visible phenomena, as opposed to His invisibility, contributed to man’s errors in his perception of Who is Who in the universal hierarchy. Ed.]
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