Komentaryong Sumisipi para sa Jeremias 31:21

The enlightened ones will understand that the intent of the Torah is not to inform about the natural sciences; and that the Torah was not given except to straighten the ways of man to righteousness and justice, and to establish in their hearts the belief in [His] unity and providence, since the Torah was not only given to sages but [rather] to the whole people. And just like the matter of providence and reward is not explained (and it would not have been fitting that it be explained) in a philosophical manner, but the Torah [rather] spoke about it like the language of [ordinary] people ([as in] "the anger of the Lord will flare against you" [Deuteronomy 7:4]; "and it grieved His heart [Genesis 6:6]; and there are many [other examples] like this); so too, the matter of creation is not told (and it is not fitting that it would be told) in the Torah in a philosophical manner. And it is as the Rabbis, of blessed memory, have stated (Midrash HaGadol, Genesis 1:1), "To tell the power of the story of creation to flesh and blood is not possible." Hence it is not fitting for the follower of Torah to uproot the verses from their understanding in order to make them agree with the natural sciences. It is also not fitting for the scientist to deny that the Torah is divine (min hashamayim) if he finds things in its stories that don't agree with natural science. But it is fitting for this one and that one, that they contemplate the inner workings of human hearts and the ways of wisdom that is used by nature in speaking to the heart of every individual: to the youth according to his manner and to the young man in a different manner and to the old man in a different manner [still]; to the strong in a particular manner and to the weak in a particular manner; to the rich man in one manner and to the poor man in another manner; and so [too] with all groups of men, nature speaks to their hearts in a specific way that is fitting to the people of that group. And nature does not reveal the pristine truth - without any mask or cover - to any one of these groups. And so [too] the Giver of the Torah, may He be blessed, (since the God that created nature and the God that gave us the Torah is one God.) in his speaking with people was required to speak according to their levels, and not according to His level, may He be blessed. And behold, God wanted to inform people of the unity of the [universe] and the unity of mankind; since error in both of these matters caused great evils in ancient times: from the lack of awareness of the unity of the [universe], it came out that people would believe in the existence of specific gods, with defects and inferior character traits; and they would do evil acts in order to please [these gods] (see what I have written in Parshat Yitro on the verse, "There shall not be for you" [Exodus 20:3]). And from the lack of awareness of the unity of mankind, it came out that the people of one nation would hate and revile the people of another nation and they would act towards them with the force of arms, and not with justice and righteousness. And these two fundamental principles (the unity of the [universe] and the unity of mankind) are the main point of the stories of the creation saga; and details of the book also include other intentions, as will be explained.

ביום כלות משה, on the day Moses completed, etc. Rabbi Levi in Midrash Hagadol on our verse claims that the word כלות is written without the letter ו. In our editions of the Torah it is spelled with the letter ו. How is it possible that scribes could take liberties with the spelling of the Torah? Such a situation would lead to apostasy and a denigration of the respect in which the scholars are held! You should know that the text of our sacred Torah, including every vowel has been carefully counted. Every letter or even crown is sacred enabling us to derive meanings from it. Let me give you a small example of how important an even minute departure from the accepted spelling would be. There are letters which are noticed only by the way they are pronounced, letters which do not even appear in the written text. An example of such a letter is the letter ו before the final ע in the word יהושע. When pronounced properly, we hear that there is a vowel shuruk which does not appear in the written text. On the other hand, such a vowel does appear in the written text in the same word between the letter ה and ש although it cannot be heard when we read the word aloud. This little example ought to alert the intelligent student to the fact that there can never be a question of altering the spelling in the written Torah such as adding a letter ו in the word כלות in our verse, even if only to ensure that the word would be pronounced correctly. If the Torah decided to write a letter ו in a place where we would not have expected it it serves to alert us to hidden meanings in the text. It may have been the intention of the Torah to include three letters of the holy name of G'd in the name of the righteous יהושע. If the Torah had written the letter ו before the letter ע and had omitted the letter ו after the letter ה, we would not have noticed that the Torah had intended to include the first three letters of the tetragram in the name of Joshua. When our sages speak about the word כלות being written without the letter ו, they mean that the letter ו which does appear in the text is to be viewed there as if it were only "on loan." The intelligent student will appreciate that this was the mystical dimension of Moses on whom was fulfilled the verse in Jeremiah 31,21 that נקבה תסובב גבר, that "the female will enclose the male." Moses' exclusive preoccupation with putting together the Tabernacle is alluded to in the word כלות a reference to the "groom-bride" relationship between him and the Tabernacle. When the Midrash says that the word כלות is spelled כלת, the author merely wishes to draw our attention to this relationship of bride and groom. The physical presence of the letter ו in the written text is an allusion to Moses, the גבר, i.e. the male. Inserting the ו into the word כלת is a clear indication of the male-female relationship between the two. No human being has the right to make up such an explanation out of his own mind. Such interpretations are traditional and reflect inspiration by the Holy Spirit.

In the beginning, God created: Many have already been disturbed [about] why there is no proclamation for the creation of the heavens and the earth, and why the creation of the angels is not mentioned. And one should also wonder why the first day is different from the other days of the creation; since every one of them is dedicated to a specific thing or to specific things of one type or one category. But the first day includes a specific thing which is the creation of light, and besides this [also] includes something general - and there is nothing more general than it - and that is the creation of the heavens and the earth. This is something very strange, and it would have been fitting to designate one day for the creation of the heavens and the earth, without attaching to them the creation of something specific - which is the light - on one day. And it appears to me that one answer will suffice for [all] three of the questions, and that is that the heavens and the earth were not created on the first day but before then. And this is according to what is said (Berakhot 25b), "the Torah was not given to the ministering angels" - and [this means] that the story of creation is only coming to tell the beginning of matters of the lower world - which is the habitation of man - and a little of the matters of the upper world, from the angle of that which is relevant to people, which is to say from the angle of that which is useful for us [to know]. And it would not have been possible to explain to people all the matters of the heavens; but [at the same time] it was [also] not His will, may He be blessed, to bring people to believe that nothing exists except that which we see and [empirically] know. Therefore, the Torah tells what was created and made on each one of the six days of creation; and it began the story of the details of creation with one verse that includes a different creation that came before the six days - and its details were not explained in the Torah - in its stating, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth," and not stating, "And God said, 'let there be heavens, let there be earth.'" This is to inform that it is not His intention to tell us the details of that creation and that this is just a vague statement which contains many, many statements. And behold, the heavens and the earth mentioned here are not exactly the heavens and the earth mentioned on the second and third day. Rather the heavens mentioned here includes everything above the earth and the heavens mentioned on the second day includes only the portion from them that is known to people. And the earth that is mentioned here includes the earth that is mixed up with water, and upon which was the wind/spirit, [whereas] the earth mentioned on the third day only includes the dry land. That is, in my opinion, the main simple explanation of this verse. And lest someone say that this contradicts what comes in the Ten Commandments, "because in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth;" there is, in fact, no contradiction to my explanation from there, since it does not say, "because in six days the Lord created the heavens and the earth," but rather, "because in six days the Lord made;" and the intention [there] is about the making of the firmament and about the separation of the earth from the water. And the words, "and all that there is in it" that are said in [the continuation of] the Ten Commandments include the light and the luminaries and the animals that are upon the earth and in the midst of the seas. And in Parshat Ki Tissa (Exodus 31:17), it shortened it and only mentioned the heavens and the earth, and included in them every thing that is in them. Also the Sages, of blessed memory, said (Pesachim 54a) that the Throne of Glory came before the creation of the world. Bara (created): The verb, bara, in the simple structure and in the passive structure, is never found in any place with reference to human action. And we find that a man is called a doer and a former, but we don't find any place where man is called a creator (boreh). And it appears that this root is used to indicate anything that deviates from that which is the way of the world, as per, "I will make wonders which were not created (nivrau) in all the earth" (Exodus 34:10); "and if the Lord creates (yivra) a creation and the ground opens its mouth" (Numbers 16:30); "I let you hear new things from now... they were created (nivrau) now and not from before" (Isaiah 48:6-7); "because the Lord created (bara) something new on the earth" (Jeremiah 48:7); and here God created (bara) the heavens and the earth, a Godly act which has nothing like it. We find creation from nothing (ex nihilo) explicitly [mentioned] in the Book of Maccabees, Book II 7:28; and also the Samaritans say that the world was created from nothing in their liturgical poems, and it is also [included in] the faith of the Karaites. And Yechezkel, when speaking about the king of Tyre, used the expression, briah about him: "on the day you were created (hibaraecha), they were established" (Ezekiel 28:13); "from the day you were created (hibaraech)" (Ibid., 15). He poetically compared him to Adam, whom God created and placed in the Garden of Eden, which is as it is stated [there], "you were in Eden, the garden of God;" hence, he used the expression briah, as if [to say] that he was not formed through a father and mother; instead he was a creation that God created. And in the intensive (piel) structure, we find the root, bara, indicating chopping and cutting (Joshua 17:15; Ezekiel 23:47); and in the causative, "lehavriachem (to feed yourselves)" (I Samuel 2:29), [to indicate] a matter of health and portliness. And in some [versions] of II Samuel 12:17, we find bara in the simple structure [as follows]: "and you did not create bread," with a [letter,] alef instead of a [letter,] hay. And that was the version [in front of] Rabbi Avraham Ibn Ezra, and it was not the version [in front of] Rabbi David Kimchi. Elohim (God): El and eyal is always an expression of power and strength and elohim is the plural form; and this was [the accepted terminology] of the nations that worshiped idols (Kuzari 4:1). And they would call all of the forces of nature that are the causes of phenomena, [elohim], and they would worship them; and each one of them would be a god for them. However, the Hebrews, who were monotheists, kept this name in the plural to indicate that the God that they were worshiping was not [just] one specific power. As the non-Jews would say, "the Lord is the god of the hills and not the god of the valleys," (I Kings 20:28) but [in fact] He is the collection of all the forces and the Master of every force. (And similar to this is the word, seas [yamim], see below, verse 10). So [too] is He called by the name, 'Hosts,' to say that He, Himself, contains all the powers of all of the hosts of the Heavens which the non-Jews would worship - see my commentary on Isaiah 1:9.

In the days of King Josiah when He commanded me to bring back the Ten Tribes, “Have you seen what the backsliding Israel has done? משבה is the same as שובבה, (envejjsede in O.F).

But my beloved had vanished and gone. He was hidden and concealed from me, as in, “the roundness of your flanks,”¹⁷Below 7:2. i.e., the hidden places חַמּוּקֵי of your thighs, because the thigh is hidden. [And as in,] “Until when will you hide תִּתְחַמָּקִין,”¹⁸Yirmiyahu 31:21. [i.e.,] will you hide and cover yourself because of the shame that you betrayed Me?

near the dwellings of the shepherds. Among the dwellings of the other shepherds whom you are near. This is the allegory: If you do not know, My assembly and My congregation, O fairest of women, among other nations, where you should pasture and be saved from the hand of those who oppress you, to be among them, and not have your children perish, ponder the ways of your early ancestors, who accepted My Torah and kept My ordinance and My commandments, and go in their ways. As a reward for this, you will pasture your kids near the princes of the nations. And similarly Yirmiyahu said, “Set up markers for yourself ... set your heart to the path, etc.”³⁶Yirmiyahu 31:20.

the backsliding of My people Heb. שְׁבוּת, an expression of the straying of youth and childhood, anwejjsdoure in O.F. Comp. (Jer. 3:14) “backsliding children (שוֹבָבִים)”; (ibid. 31:21) “backsliding daughter (הַבַּת הַשׁוֹבֵבָה).”

ושמתם את דברי AND YE SHALL PLACE MY WORDS [UPON YOUR HEART] — Even after you have been banished make yourselves distinctive by means of My commands: lay Tephillin, attach Mezuzoth to your doorposts, so that these shall not be novelties to you when you return. Similarly does it state, (Jeremiah 31:21) “Set thee up distinguishing marks” (Sifrei Devarim 43:34).