Midrash sa Isaias 45:7: Otzar Midrashim, Bereshit Rabbah, Sifra & Midrash Tanchuma

Chapter 2. Rabbi Akiva opened and said: "Man is like grass, his days are like a flower of the field" (Psalms 103:15). It happened with Rabbi Yishmael and Rabbi Akiva who were walking in the streets of Jerusalem, and there was another man with them. A sick man met them and said to them: "My teachers, tell me how I can be healed." They said to him: "Do this and this until you are healed." He said to them: "Who struck me?" They said: "God." He said: "And you involve yourselves in something that is not yours! He struck me and you heal me - don't you transgress His will?!" They said: "What is your occupation?" He said: "I am a farmer, here is my sickle in my hand." They said: "Who created the vineyard?" He said: "God." They said: "And you involve yourself in something that is not yours! He created it and you cut its fruits from it." He said: "Don't you see the sickle is in my hand? If I did not go out and plow it, fertilize it, weed it - nothing would grow!" They said: "You foolish man, from your work you have not heard what is written: 'Man is like grass, his days are like a flower' (Psalms 103:15). Just as a tree will not grow if it is not weeded, fertilized, and plowed, and even if it grew but did not drink water and was not fertilized, it would not live but die - so too the body: the fertilizer is the medicine and the varieties of healing, and the man of the earth is the doctor." He said to them: "Please do not punish me. This body's generations are dependent on each other. Without this, that would not be. And when they separate from each other, the body tends towards death. Just as a house has four sides - if one detaches, the house falls. And everything He created, He created as pairs. Without death there would be no life, and without life there would be no death. Without peace there would be no evil, and without evil there would be no peace. If a person entered a city which was half peace and half evil, he would go in the evil part and recognize the peace. And if there was another city which was all peaceful, if there was no evil there, the peace would not be recognizable. If all people were fools, they would not be recognizable as fools. And if all people were wise, they would not be recognizable as wise. Rather, "He made one opposite the other" (Ecclesiastes 7:14). And if all people were rich, they would not be recognizable as rich. And if all were poor, they would not be recognizable as poor. Rather, He created poor and rich so they would be distinguishable from each other. And he created wise and foolish to distinguish one from the other. And He created dead and living to distinguish between fertile and desolate. He created beauty and ugliness, males and females, fire and water, iron and wood, light and darkness, heat and cold, eating and hunger, drinking and thirst, walking and limping, seeing and blindness, hearing and deafness, sea and land, speech and muteness, action and idleness, worry and calm, laughter and crying, healing and illness - with all the opposites that Solomon mentioned in Ecclesiastes: "A time to give birth and a time to die", etc. And all this is to make known the might of God, that everything He created He created in pairs, as partners. Could the Omnipresent not have brought forth children without incest and revealing nakedness? Rather, everything is with a partner and opposite. Without male and female joining there is no offspring. A male cannot give birth without a female, nor can a female give birth without a male. And a house is not built by itself, nor does a house build another house, rather it needs a builder to build it. There is no woodchopper without an axe, and without a woodchopper, what is an axe for? Without an axe there is no woodchopper. Without purity there is no impurity, and without impurity there is no purity." The pigs and all kinds of impure animals said to the pure animals: "You want to be grateful to us - if not for us impure ones, you would not be known to be pure!" The wicked person says to the righteous person: "You want to be grateful to me - if not for me being wicked, how would you be recognized? If all people were righteous, you would have no advantage." So we have said that everything has an opposite except for one thing - to make known to all who come into the world, subtly, that He (God) is One and has no second. And so too the wind, which has no opposite or partner. You cannot grasp it, strike it, burn it or throw it. And if you say you can grasp the wind in a waterskin - no, because if the waterskin is opened and a person comes and says "What is in it?" and you say "Wind" - he will say "What is it, black or red, white or green? How is it sold in the marketplace?" You cannot answer him. And if you open the waterskin's mouth, the wind departs and you cannot see if it is black or red, white or green. Not only that, but it carries people and carries the heavens and earth. How do you know? From what your eyes see: A person enters a house, deeper into the house, or a cave, deeper into the cave, and waves his garment, and the wind comes out, and you do not know from where it came and where it goes. From this you learn that wind fills the world. And so it was that the Queen asked Rabbi Akiva, "On what does the world stand?" He said, "On the wind." She said, "Show me!" He said, "Bring me camels laden with salt." They walked them around the house. He said, "What do you see?" They said, "Camels laden with salt." He said, "Bring me a rope." They brought him a rope and wrapped it around their necks. He gave the rope to two men and said, "This one should pull from here and this one should pull from here" until they strangled them. After they strangled them, he said, "Stand them up." She said, "You are the wise Jew - after you strangled them you say stand them up?!" He said, "What is missing from them except the wind? From this you learn that the world stands on nothing but the wind, which is supreme and exalted." "And it was from the beginning, as it says 'and the wind of God hovered over the surface of the waters' (Genesis 1:2). There are two things that we do not find created - the wind and the water - and they preexisted, as it says 'and the wind of God hovered over the surface of the waters.' The entire world and all within it we find created in the six days of creation, except for the water, the wind and the darkness, as it says 'and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the wind of God hovered over the surface of the waters' (Genesis 1:2), until Isaiah came and said 'He forms light and creates darkness' (Isaiah 45:7)."... GERMAN: Einst gingen Rabbi Akiva und Rabbi Ischmael auf den Straßen von Jerusalem. Ein Kranker begegnete ihnen und fragte sie: „Meine Herren, wie kann ich geheilt werden?“. Sie antworteten ihm: „Tue dies und das bis du gesund wirst“. Er fragte: „Wer machte mich krank?“. Sie sagten: „Gott“. Er sagte: „Und ihr mischt euch ein, in eine Sache, die nicht euch gehört? Er machte mich krank und ihr wollt heilen? Handelt ihr nicht gegen seinen Willen?“. Sie fragen: „Was ist dein Beruf?“. Er sagte: „Ich bin ein Landarbeiter“. Sie fragten: „Wer hat den Weinberg erschaffen?“. Er sagte: „Gott“. Sie fragten: „Du mischst dich in eine Sache ein, die nicht dir gehört? Gott erschuf ihn und du schneidest seine Früchte ab?“. Er sagte: „Würde ich den Weinberg nicht pflügen, nicht, jäten, nicht düngen, käme doch keine Frucht von ihm.“ Sie sagten: „Du Dummkopf, hast du nicht den Vers gehört `Des Menschen Tage sind wie Gras, er blüht wie eine Blume des Feldes´(Ps. 103:15). Genau wie das Gewächs, wenn es nicht gejätet und gedüngt wird, wächst nichts und wenn es wächst und nichts trinkt, dann stirbt es. Genauso ist der Körper des Menschen, sein Dünger ist das Medikament und die Arten der Heilung und der Landarbeiter, der sich darum kümmert, ist der Arzt.“

A certain philosopher once asked Rabban Gamliel, saying to him: ‘Your God is a great artist, however he found many excellent raw materials that helped him: Emptiness, disorder, darkness, wind, water, and depths.’ He said to him: ‘May the spirit of that man depart from him; regarding all of them, creation is written.’³²God did not “find” these materials; He created them Himself. Emptiness and disorder, as it is stated: “Who makes peace and creates evil” (Isaiah 45:7). Darkness, “who forms light [and creates darkness]” (Isaiah 45:7); water, “Praise Him, heavens on heavens, and the water [above the heavens]” (Psalms 148:4). Why? “For He commanded and they were created” (Psalms 148:5). Wind, “For behold, He forms mountains and creates wind” (Amos 4:13); depths, “when there were no depths, I generated” (Proverbs 8:24).

“God called the light, Day” – are “light” and “day” not the same thing? This is bewildering. It is taught: The light that was created during the six days of Creation cannot illuminate by day, because it would make the orb of the sun seem dim [by comparison], nor can it [illuminate] at night, as it was created to illuminate only during the day. Where is it, then?⁹Since it does not illuminate the world at any time. It was stored away, and is designated for the righteous for the future, as it is stated: “The light of the moon will be like the light of the sun and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, like the light of the seven days” (Isaiah 30:26).
This is bewildering:¹⁰The verse just cited, which refers to the shining of the great light of Creation for seven days. “Seven [days]”? Are they not three? Is it not so, that the lights were created only on the fourth day? It is, rather, like a person who says: This and that I am preparing for the seven days of the wedding feast.¹¹He says this even if his preparations are for only one or two of the seven days. Rabbi Neḥemya said: These are the seven days of mourning for the righteous Methuselah, during which the Holy One blessed be He conferred extra light upon them.
“God saw the light, that it was good, and God distinguished between the light and the darkness” (Genesis 1:4).
“God saw the light, that it was good” – Rabbi Ze’eira son of Rabbi Abahu preached in Caesarea: From where is it derived that someone does not recite a blessing on the candle [at havdala on Saturday night] until he avails himself of its light? It is from here: “[God] saw…and [God] distinguished [vayavdel].”
Rabbi Yehuda bar Rabbi Simon said: He set it aside¹²Vayavdel (“He distinguished”) can also mean He set aside. for Himself.¹³As it is said (Daniel 2:22): “Light dwells with Him.” The Rabbis say: He set it aside for the righteous in the World to Come. This is analogous to a king who had a fine portion of food and set it aside for his son.
“God called the light, Day, and to the darkness He called Night. It was evening and it was morning, one day” (Genesis 1:5).
Rabbi Berekhya said: This is what two eminent men of the world, Rabbi Yoḥanan and Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish, expounded: “[God] distinguished” – this refers to distinguishing in the literal sense.¹⁴Unlike the previous explanations. This is analogous to a king who had two commanders, one to be in charge by day and one to be in charge by night. They were arguing with one another. This one said: ‘I will be in charge by day,’ and that one said: ‘I will be in charge by day.’ The king summoned the first one and said to him: ‘So-and-so, the day will be your realm.’ Likewise for the second one, he said to him: ‘So-and-so, the night will be your realm.’ So, too, “God called the light, Day”¹⁵This can also be translated: “God called out to the light: Day [will be your realm].” – He said to it: ‘The day will be your realm.’ “And to the darkness He called Night” – He said to it: ‘The night will be your realm.’ Rabbi Yoḥanan said: That is what the Holy One blessed be He says to Job: “In all your days, have you commanded the morning and apprised darkness of its place?” (Job 38:12) – have you informed it of its place, where it is? This was a rhetorical question. Rabbi Tanḥuma said: I will say the source for this: “He forms light and creates darkness, He makes peace” (Isaiah 45:7) – after they were created, He made peace [between them].
“God called the light, Day” – Rabbi Elazar said: The Holy One blessed be He never associates His name with the bad, but only with the good. “God called the light, Day and to the darkness God called night” is not written here, but rather, “to the darkness He called night.”¹⁶Regarding darkness, the pronoun “He” is used instead of God’s name.