Comentários de Citação sobre Jó 38:14

This is what it means here [when she asked] “What will you give me?” What will be the purpose of this intimate encounter? And he answered I will send a young goat — referring to the kings of Babylon who are [like] the goats among the sheep. Israel is a scattered sheep, [but will be saved] through the redeemer who will be born from this encounter. And what is the pledge/collateral by which they will be assured this will happen? He sent a seal, staff, and cord — alluding to three things that are held as collateral as long as Israel is in exile. The first collateral is the Holy One’s seal, namely the Name of Y-H which God sealed upon the tribes: HaReuveni, HaChanochi, HaPalui, as Rashi explains in Parshat Pinchas. And the reason the letter Hey precedes the Yud in the word HaChanochi is because this is the pattern in all seals of God’s ring where the Name Y-H is engraved in its proper order, but after being sealed on the tribes the letters were reversed, as is the way of all seals, as it says It is transformed like clay under a seal (Job 38:14). This seal is held as collateral because wherever they were exiled, the Divine Presence was with them, and the Name Y-H, which is the seal, cannot be complete until the children are redeemed and seated at their heavenly Father’s table, as it says For the hand is on the throne of Y-H (Exodus 17:16). The second collateral is the Aleph of the [Divine] Throne [kiseh, spelled with an aleph at the end], as it says For the hand is on the throne [kes] of Y-H. For neither the Name nor the Throne is complete until the future [redemption]. This is [represented by] your cord — the tzitzit, for techelet [blue thread] resembles the sea, and the sea resembles the sky, and the sky resembles the Throne of Glory (Menachot 43b). Therefore, the techelet in tzitzit reminds us of the Throne of Glory. The cord being collateral alludes to the Throne being partially held as collateral, and in the future both the Name and the Throne will be complete, as it says He has desired [ivah] it for His dwelling place (Psalms 132:13) — for the letters of “ivah” [alef, vav, hey] complete the Name and the Throne.

ויברא אלהים את האדם בצלמו SO GOD CREATED THE MAN IN HIS IMAGE —in the type that was specially made for him, for everything else was created by a creative fiat, whilst he was brought into existence by a creative act (literally, by hand), as it is said (Psalms 139:5) “And Thou hast laid thy hand upon me.” He was made by a seal as a coin that is made by a die that is called in old French coin. It is similarly said, (Job 38:14) “it is changed as clay under the seal” (Sanhedrin 38a).

The entire thrust of the passage in Exodus 34 is to teach the Israelites how to pray and entreat G’d in order for their entreaties to be effective. They are to drape the talit (with the tzitzit) around themselves and invoke the attributes of the Lord relevant to the sin committed for which they seek forgiveness. When the sages spoke about draping the talit over oneself they referred to a white talit, seeing that white is the symbol of forgiveness. This is why the prophet Isaiah 1,18 said: “if your sins are as red as certain types of red wool, they will become white as snow (as a result of your repentance). Just as the color red is a symbol of sin so white is a symbol of forgiveness. When man drapes the white talit over himself this is a pointer to G’d that He should cover His creatures in the white of His pardon and forgiveness. The first time G’d did this is recorded in Genesis 3,21: “The Lord made tunics made of leather for Adam and his wife and clothed them in it.” It is also a reminder that in the future G’d will resurrect the dead and dress them in garments appropriate for them. This is the mystical dimension of Job 38,14: “it changes like clay under the seal till its hues are fixed like those of a garment.” Seeing that this commandment is an allusion to the resurrection of our bodies, it is one which envelopes our body seeing the tzitzit are threads hanging from a talit similar to the locks of hair hanging from the head. This is the meaning of Ezekiel 8,3 which we discussed before. The holes made near the corners of the talit through which the threads of the tzizit are introduced symbolize the eyes, whereas the five knots symbolise the five senses man possesses. The eight strings represent the eight days which elapse until the male baby is circumcised. This is why the sages (Tanchuma Lech Lecha 20) have said that anyone who has not been circumcised will not take part in the resurrection of the dead. You will find five knots at each of the corners of the talit making a total of 20 such knots. This number corresponds to the combined number of fingers and toes, i.e. all these details symbolise man’s entire body.
The reason that the upper third of each bundle of tzitzit is wound whereas the lower two thirds remain hanging freely is to hint that although at the present time the Jewish people are scattered throughout the surface of the globe, i.e. are in exile, (the principal nations harbouring our exiles being Ishmael and Edom (Esau), and therefore the Israelites are at the bottom of the totem pole (nowadays), when the redemption comes we will occupy our true place at the top of the totem pole, i.e. the upper third of the tzizit, bound together), fulfilling the promise of Deut. 26,19: “and to place you at the top among the nations of the earth.” This idea has been spelled out by Zecharyah 13,8: “throughout the land, declares the Lord, two thirds shall perish, shall die, and one third of it shall survive.” Elaborating on this verse Bamidbar Rabbah 15,11 states that the third which will survive the events described by the prophet are the Jewish people. The Midrash bases this on Isaiah 19,24: “In that day, Israel shall be a third (partner with Egypt and Assyria) as a blessing on earth.
Another observation by the sages of the Midrash (Shabbat 32): anyone who observes the commandment of wearing tzitzit will merit to be attended to by 2800 servants. They derive this from Zecharyah 8,23: “In those days ten men from nations of every tongue (70 nations) will take hold- they will take hold of every Jew by a corner of his cloak and say: ‘let us go with you, for we have heard that G’d is with you.’” (Seeing that each talit has four corners this means that 2800 men will beg an individual Jew to be his servant.)
Anyone who treats the commandment of tzitit with contempt is described in Job 38,13 as subject to the curse: “and seizes the corners of the earth and shakes the wicked out of it.”