Comentários de Citação sobre Provérbios 8:30

The Midrash (Bereshis Rabbah, 1): writes, “‘Then I was to Him as an amon.…’⁸Proverbs 8:30. Amon means a guardian [pedagog]; amon means a teacher of that which is covered; amon means a teacher of that which is hidden, and some say that the word amon refers to the capital [Alexandria of Egypt].”⁹This Midrash derives the fourth interpretation from Nahum 3:8: “Are you better than No-amon, which was situated among the rivers with water around it…?” The Targum renders “No-amon” as the “capital Alexandria.” The point of this midrash is that there are three categories of Torah law.¹⁰The analogies are listed in ascending order of difficulty. The Netziv states that these analogies refer to three categories of law. In fact there are four, but since the last category is not accessible by man, it need not be counted separately.

Bereishit is also explained by way of [the Bible's] stating (Proverbs 8:30), "and I was a nursling (amon) with Him," and the Rabbis, of blessed memory, expounded (Bereishit Rabbah 1:1); "Don't read it as amon (nursling), but as uman (artist);" and this is exactly what the verse is hinting at in the beginning of God's word: informing [us about] the creation of the world, it informed [us about] that with which He created it and stated that He created it with the Torah, since it is the artist. (This does not contradict the first explanation, since the Torah prepares the world to walk on straight paths.) And according to this, the level of its 'owners' is magnified, since they merit everything; and for this, it is correct that they should be called 'builders;' and this is what they, of blessed memory, said (Shabbat 114a), that Torah scholars are called builders, since what is in their mouths and in their hearts is the builder. And this is [the sense] of what it stated (Jeremiah 33:25), "and were it not for my covenant etc, the law of the heavens and the earth I would not have set."

What we have [so far] explained is implied in what Scripture states in Proverbs 8:30–31: “Then I was with Him as a nursling, and I was daily sha’ashu’im, ‘all delight’, playing always before Him: playing in His habitable land, and my delights are with the sons of men.” [To understand these verses properly], one needs to understand why there is a duplication of words, and why there is a variation in the words where the Torah is first described as a delight and then as that with which one plays. In addition, why in the first verse is playing mentioned before delight, while in the second verse, delight is placed before playing? [The answer] is that [these verses] describe the two types of forces of the Torah that we have explained. The first type refers to the combination of Divine names used in the creation of the world. This portion of the Torah does not affect the behavior of man;²³As it does not deal with areas of halachah. it is in reference to this aspect of the Torah that the verse says, “I was daily all delight.” Similarly, as used in the Talmud,²⁴This sentence is difficult to translate. The Netziv states tersely, “similar to the language of the Talmud,” and one cannot be certain what the Netziv is alluding to. My suggestion is that the Netziv is telling us to interpret sha’ashu’im as the word is used in the Talmud in Tractate Bava Basra 4a. [the word sha’ashu’im, should be translated as something which a person handles, such as by pasting or smoothing it over]. For God daily [directs His attention to His creations] by constantly curling²⁵Curling, playing with a lock of hair. and handling them, like a person who is infatuated with something.