Comentários de Citação sobre Oséias 7:1

A man of understanding is of a precious spirit (Proverbs 17:27). Let one understand and comprehend, gain insight into the conduct of a people without understanding — how far their ways are from the ways of the Lord, in a generation of perversity that turns the dish upside down and wipes its face, judging good as evil and evil as good, placing the lowly on high, while those rich in wisdom sit in lowliness, calling the scoundrel noble to seat him among the nobles of God’s people, the God of Abraham. And among the Lord’s people, they are divided into sects and groups: some are lovers of money, some are lovers of imaginary honor, some are lovers of pleasurable delights, some are masters of evil speech with every blemish in them. And the lovers of truth among the elevated ones are few and countable, and they are nullified in their minority for the breach is greater than what stands. This one says “I belong to the Lord and holiness is within me,” yet he will not enter the city to sit at the heights of the town. That one calls himself by the name of Israel, saying: I have strived with God and men and prevailed (Genesis 32:29). Another writes his hand to the Lord saying “The light is mine and I created it,” and “my hand is in all wisdoms and who can compare to me in declaring and arranging it.” Yet another says “The world and its fullness are mine,” and “who can sense and who can act besides me in working with silver and gold and in the craftsmanship of the tree of life.” And there are those who grasp this and that, not letting go of either. All these and their like are destroyers of the city — they demolish and do not build. The breach rises before them and the wall of its builders is torn down. The spirit within my belly pressures me, and my heart trembles within me like a coin rattling in a flask, like a bell and pomegranate I cannot contain, and my words are upon my tongue like burning fire saying: “How long will you judge unjustly, placing light for darkness and darkness for light? Will you gouge out people’s eyes to deny what is known? Let the heavens be appalled at this! Has there ever been such a thing, that a nation in exile, turned aside and greatly despised among the nations, does not repent of several well-known abominations that all acknowledge?” And the iniquity of Ephraim is revealed (Hosea 7:1).

שמן למאור, “Oil for illumination;” fine olive oil for lighting the eternal flame.” בשמים לשמן המשחה ולקטורת הסמים, “spices for the oil of anointment and the aromatic incense.” The meaning of the words is that in order for the incense to be offered up they were to bring gifts consisting of a variety of spices. There is a difference between spices, בשמים, and סמים, an inedible kind of fragrance. בשמים are a kind of food which are distinguished by their rich fragrance. סמים are medicinal herbs which are quite unsuitable as food or as additives to food. Frankincense is one of such ingredients known as סמים. The reason that gold is mentioned as the very first material that was to be contributed was to indicate that at the time the materials for the Tabernacle were collected, the sin of the golden calf had already been forgiven. This is why it was appropriate that the very material which had served as the instrument to commit such a grievous sin should now be donated freely to demonstrate the about-face of the Jewish people who were now ready to donate their most precious material to serve the Lord (Tanchuma Terumah 8). This is also the reason that when the Torah legislates which animals make fit sacrifices, the calf heads the list. compare Leviticus 22,27. G’d wanted to emphasize that the sin of the golden calf had been forgiven. This entire commandment to contribute materials for the construction of the Tabernacle was commanded on the day following Yom Kippur, the day when the sin of the golden calf had been forgiven, finally (compare Rashi). Even though that sin had been committed prior to the building of the Tabernacle, seeing it had been committed in the month of Tammuz and the building of the Tabernacle had been commanded only after the Day of Atonement, so that the Torah quite clearly does not report things in chronological sequence here, the Torah, whose paths are all designed to promote peace and harmony decided to write things in this order. G’d is normally at pains to provide (make available) the cure before the onset of the disease (Megillah 13). It was important to G’d to show that before we read about the sin of the golden calf that the means to make the people’s repentance effective had been outlined already. We have a verse in Hoseah 7,1 which spells out this concept that G’d prepares the cure before He inflicts the disease, i.e. “When I would heal Israel the guilt of Ephrayim reveals itself.”

We also have a statement in Midrash Eicha (Eicha Rabba 2:3) in which the time when the guilt of the sin of the golden calf expired is discussed. One scholar said that it expired at the time when King Jerobam made new golden calves which he placed on the road to Jerusalem. He based this on this verse in Ezekiel. Another sage, Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachmeni said that hat the remnants of the guilt of that sin did not become wiped out until the Temple was destroyed. Even though it was no longer subject to retribution, G’d did continue to mention it on occasion. This is what is meant in Chagigah 13 that as of the time when the Temple was destroyed the wingspan of the chayot which were to cover the feet of the chayah described as possessing the feet of a calf in Ezekiel 1,9 was diminished so that the lower part of these feet remained exposed. Unless the wingspan of this chayah had been diminished, how would Ezekiel have known that its feet were like the feet of a calf? It is possible that in his vision of this chayah it had briefly raised its wings so that its feet and their shape became visible. If we were not to accept this possibility, how would Ezekiel have been able to identify the faces of the chayot in his vision? Surely the explanation must be that the wings moved momentarily to reveal what was hidden behind them. The Midrash rejects this kind of reasoning out of hand. It considers it as normal that the wings momentarily exposed the faces, as faces are to be revealed by definition. If a face were not to be visible and therefore identifiable, it would simply not qualify for the definition “face.” Feet, however, are not subject to being exposed. Hence the fact that the feet of this particular chayah looked like that of a calf is proof of something unusual, i.e. that the wingspan of the chayah was shortened so that it was unable to cover the feet with its wings. The purpose of all this was to remind the prophet and through him the Jewish people of the sin of the golden calf and that though G’d no longer had an account to settle with us, He had not “forgotten” about it having occurred. Such a mention, remembrance, of that sin, while not producing retribution, does make the application of the attribute of Mercy more difficult, “weakens” that attribute when we invoke it. I will discuss this subject when discussing the law of ציצית, the wearing of which is meant to remind us of G’d’s commandments (Numbers 16,38).