Comentários de Citação sobre Isaías 43:4

A Midrashic approach based on Tanchuma Bamidbar 19: the words “count them according to their hosts,” are reminiscent of Isaiah 43,4: “because you are precious to Me, and honoured, and I love you, I have given men in exchange for you and peoples in your stead.” G’d said to Yaakov: “you are so precious in My eyes that I have engraved your facial features on My throne, and the angels praise Me by employing your name, saying: ‘blessed be the name of the G’d of Israel from one end of time to the ultimate end of time.’” The Midrash breaks down these compliments into its constituent parts. “You are precious to Me,” because although I did not bother to count any of the other nations I counted you, giving you an importance expressed in numbers.“ This can be better understood in terms of a parable. A king had many barns most of which were filled with straw and other relatively worthless matters. He did not bother to count the precise contents of each of these barns. He had one barn, however, which was filled with wheat. He told his manager: “count for me how many measures of wheat are stored in that barn.” The king in the parable is a metaphor for G’d; the wheat is a metaphor for the Jewish people. We have a verse in Isaiah 21,10 comparing the Jewish people to grain when the prophet exclaims: “My threshing, the product of My threshing floor.” The harvest the prophet speaks about are the Jewish people as Jeremiah 2,3 described the Jewish people as “Israel is sacred to G’d, it is the first of His harvest.” The “manager” mentioned in the parable is a metaphor for Moses, of whom G’d Himself said in Numbers 17,7 that in “My entire house he is trusted.” Similarly, the barns filled with straw in the parable are metaphors for the Gentile nations concerning whom we have been told in Job 21,18: (Job speaking about the wicked) “Let them become like straw in the wind, like chaff carried off by a storm.” we also have a verse in Ovadiah 18 expressing similar sentiments, i.e. “and the house of Esau shall be straw; they shall burn it and devour it.” The Jewish people by way of contrast are compared to wheat, are described as righteous as per Isaiah 60,21: “and Your people, all of them righteous, shall possess the land for all time; “ this is why G’d was so concerned with each one of them that He ordered each one to be counted.

אדם כי ימות באהל, “when a person dies in a tent (or house), etc.” although the legislation which follows applies equally to people dying inside a house or other roofed structure, the Torah chose the example of “tent” since at the time the Israelites in the desert lived in tents. Legislation mentioned here is valid both at the time it was written and for all future generations. We learn from here that contamination caused by being in the same enclosed airspace with a corpse results only from the corpse of a Jew as only Jews qualify for the title “אדם.” (compare Ezekiel 34,31 “for you My flock are אדם”). Although there are verses scattered throughout the Bible in which the Gentiles are referred to by the same “title” (Numbers 31,11), the sages have already answered this apparent contradiction in Yevamot 61, namely the word had to be used there in order to distinguish Gentiles from beasts which were also numbered as part of the booty. A similar explanation applies to the verse in Jonah 4,11 where אדם is contrasted with the beasts. In other words, the only time the term אדם is used for Gentiles is when it is in contradistinction to בהמה, beast. We are still faced with the word אדם referring clearly to Gentiles in Psalms 124,2. Megillah 11 explains that in that verse the word אדם means “ordinary human,” not a “king.” Another instance which appears to bestow the title אדם on Gentiles is found in Isaiah 43,4. The Talmud Berachot 62 suggests that the word in Isaiah be read as אדום instead of as אדם, i.e. that the “people” G’d will give as ransom for the Jewish people will be the Edomites. A more problematic text involving the word אדם is Leviticus 18,5 on which Sanhedrin 59 suggests that even a Gentile who studies the laws of sexual chastity and observes them attains the level of purity reserved for the High Priest. It is pointed out that in the relevant verse the word for the Gentile is האדם as distinct from אדם. Whenever the Torah speaks of האדם, Gentiles are not excluded. This leaves us with Jeremiah 32,20: where G’d speaks of miracles performed “before Israelites and אדם,” which appears to imply that both peoples merited the miracles, i.e. were on similar ethical levels. The problem is answered by pointing out that whereas these miracles were beneficial for the Israelites, they were at the same time extremely damaging to the Egyptians who are referred to in that verse as אדם. It is clear therefore that far from equating the Israelites and the אדם, i.e. Egyptians as on a similar moral level the prophet wanted to contrast the levels of Israelites with that of people characterised as אדם.

Eisov scorned the birthright. He saw that his father had become poor in his old age and that there was little for him to inherit.

instead of me Heb. תחתי, in my place and in my stead, as the matter is stated (in Isa. 43:4): “and I give men in your stead (תחתיך), (verse 3), “I have given Egypt as your ransom. [Cush and Seba in your stead (תחתיך)].”