הַ֭רְנִינוּ לֵאלֹהִ֣ים עוּזֵּ֑נוּ הָ֝רִ֗יעוּ לֵאלֹהֵ֥י יַעֲקֹֽב׃
זינגט צו גאָט אונדזער שטאַרקײט, שאַלט צו דעם גאָט פֿון יעקבֿ.
Avot DeRabbi Natan
Rabbi Yehudah ben Beteira says: Adam was sitting in the Garden of Eden, and the angels who serve God stood there in the Garden attending to him. They grilled meat for him, and chilled wine for him. The snake came and saw all this, and took it as an affront to his own honor, and he became jealous.
How was Adam created? In the first hour, his dirt was gathered together. In the second hour, his form was formed. In the third hour, a torso was made. In the fourth hour, his limbs were attached. In the fifth hour, his orifices were opened. In the sixth hour, he was given breath. In the seventh hour, he stood up on his legs. In the eighth hour, he was paired with Eve. In the ninth hour, he was brought into the Garden of Eden. In the tenth hour, he was commanded [not to eat from the tree]. In the eleventh hour, he disgraced himself. In the twelfth hour, he was driven out and left, which fulfills the words of the verse (Psalms 49:13), “Man does not spend even one night in honor.”
What is recited on the first day? “The earth is the Eternal’s, in all its fullness; the world and those who dwell upon it” (Psalms 24). For He became Master of the World and will judge it. What is recited on the second day? “The Eternal is great, and praised tremendously in the city of our God” (Psalms 48). For He sets up all His works and becomes everything over His world. What is recited on the third day? “God stands in the divine congregation; amidst the powers He judges” (Psalms 82). For He created the sea and the land, and the land was folded into its place, and a space was cleared for His congregation. What is recited on the fourth day? “God of Vengeance, Lord! God of Vengeance, appear!” (Psalms 94). For He created the sun and the moon and the stars and the constellations, and they illuminate the world, and will one day be paid for their work. What is recited on the fifth day? “Sing joyously to the Eternal, our strength, shout out to the God of Jacob!” (Psalms 81). For He created birds and fish, and sea creatures, who all sing joyously in the world. What is recited on the sixth day? “The Eternal is king, He is dressed in dignity; the Eternal has dressed, and wrapped Himself in strength. The world is set in place; it will not fall” (Psalms 93). He finished all of His works, and then rose above them and sat up in the heights of the world. What is recited on the seventh day? “A psalm; a song for the Sabbath day” (Psalms 92). For on it, there is no eating or drinking, no buying or selling. The righteous just sit, with crowns on their heads, and bask in the radiance of the Divine Presence, as it says (Exodus 24:11), “And they beheld God, and they ate and drank,” like the angels who serve God.
(And why [was he created] so close [to the Sabbath]? So that he could enter into the Sabbath meal immediately.)
Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar says: I will give you a parable. What was Adam like? Like a man who married a convert, and would sit with her and give her orders. He said to her: Girl, do not eat bread while your hands are impure. And do not eat fruit that has not been tithed. And do not desecrate the Sabbath. And do not break your vows. And do not go around with other men. Now, if you break any one of these rules, you will die. (Then what did that man do?) He ate bread in front of her while his hands were impure, and he ate fruit that had not been tithed, and he desecrated the Sabbath, and he broke his vows. [And then he cast her out.] What did this convert say to herself? All the rules that my husband ordered me to follow are lies! She immediately went and broke them all.
Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai says: I will give you a parable. What was the situation with Adam like? Like a man who had a woman in his house. What did he do? He went and brought a jar and put figs and nuts in it. Then he caught a scorpion, and put it near the mouth of the jar. And then he sealed the jar with a string and placed it in a corner. He said to her: Girl, everything I have in this house is for you to use, except for that jar, which you must not touch at all. What did the woman do? When her husband went out to the marketplace, she went and opened the jar, and stuck her hand inside, and the scorpion bit her. She went and fell on the bed. When her husband came back from the marketplace, he said to her: What happened? She said to him: I stuck my hand in the jar, and a scorpion bit me, and now I am dying! He said to her: Didn’t I tell you before? Everything I have in my house is for you to use, except for that jar, which you must not touch at all! He became very angry at her and cast her out. So it was with Adam. When the Holy Blessed One said to him (Genesis 2:16–17), “From every tree of the garden you may absolutely eat. But from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, do not eat. For on the day you eat from it, you will surely die.” Then when he ate from it, he was driven out, which fulfills the verse (Psalms 49:13), “Man does not spend even one night in honor. He is just like the beasts.”
(On that same day he was formed;) On that same day he was created; on that same day his form was formed; on that same day a torso was made; on that same day his limbs were attached and his orifices were opened; on that same day breath was given to him. On that same day he stood up on his legs; on that same day he was paired with Eve; on that same day he called [all the animals] names; on that same day he was brought into the Garden of Eden; on that same day he was commanded [not to eat from the tree]; on that same day he disgraced himself; on that same day he was driven out, which fulfills the words of the verse (Psalms 49:13), “Man does not spend even one night in honor.”
On that same day they went up into their bed as two and came down as four. Rabbi Yehudah ben Beteira says: On that same day they went up into their bed as two and came down as six.1This is according to the tradition that each son was born with a twin girl who would become his wife. On that same day Adam was given three new decrees, as it says (Genesis 3:17–18), “And to Adam [God] said: Because you heeded the voice of your wife…the ground will be cursed because of you. You will eat from it in distress…and it will sprout thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the grasses of the field.” When Adam heard that the Holy Blessed One said to him, “You will eat the grasses of the field,” immediately his limbs began to shake. He said before God: Master of the World! Will I and my animal eat from the same trough? The Holy Blessed One said: Since your limbs began to shake (nizdazu), therefore “by the sweat (zeiah) of your brow you will [be able to] eat bread” (Genesis 3:19). And just as Adam was given these three decrees, so, too, Eve was given three decrees, as it says (Genesis 3:16), “To the woman [God] said: I will increase and increase your pangs in childbearing; you will give birth to children in pain.” So when a woman has her menstrual bleeding, the beginning of her cycle is the most difficult for her. (“I will increase and increase”:) When a woman first has sexual relations, at the beginning intercourse is difficult for her. “Your pangs”: And when a woman becomes pregnant, her face becomes ugly and greenish for the first three months.
When evening began to descend, Adam looked toward the darkening horizon and said: Woe is me! Because I disgraced myself, the Holy Blessed one is bringing darkness upon my world. He did not know that this was simply the way of the world. In the morning, when he saw that the world began to brighten from the east, he felt an overwhelming sense of joy. So he went and built altars, and brought a bull whose horns had grown in before his hooves,2Unusual for a bull, but because the first bull grew up out of the ground, its top was formed before its legs. See Rashi, Hullin 60a. and he offered it up as a sacrifice, as it says (Tehillim 69:32), “It will be better to the Eternal than a bull with horns and hooves.”
The bull that Adam offered up on the altar, as well as the bull that Noah offered up, and the ram that Abraham our forefather offered up in place of his son, (all had horns that had grown in before their hooves), as it says (Genesis 22:13), “Abraham raised his eyes, and behold, a ram was caught [in the brambles by its horns].”
At that same hour, three groups of angels who serve God came down, and in their hands were lyres and harps and all kinds of instruments, and they sang with him, as it says (Psalms 92:1–2), “A psalm. A song for the Sabbath day. It is good to thank the Eternal…and to speak of Your kindness in the morning, and Your faith through the night.” “To speak of your kindness in the morning” – that is the World to Come, which is compared to morning, as it says (Lamentations 3:23), “They are renewed in the morning; great is Your faith.” “And Your faith through the night” – that is this world, which is compared to night, as it says (Isaiah 21:11), “The burden of Dumah. Someone calls to me from Seir: Watchman, what will happen in the night? Watchman, what will happen in the night?”
At that same hour, the Holy Blessed One said: If I do not punish the snake, I will be found to have caused the destruction of the whole world! They will say, that one, whom I have crowned, and made king over the whole world, how can it be that he has ruined himself and eaten the fruits of that tree? Immediately, He turned to the snake and cursed it, as it says (Genesis 3:14), “Then the Eternal God said to the snake….” Thus, Rabbi Yosei said: If this verse had not (not) concluded with its curse, the whole world would have been destroyed.
When the Holy Blessed One created the first human being, He formed it facing both frontward and backward, as it says (Psalms 139:5), “You formed me after and before, and You placed Your hand upon me.” And the angels who serve God came down (to serve Him) [in order to destroy the first human being]. So the Holy Blessed One took it and placed it under His wings, as it says (Psalms 139:5), “You hedge me before and behind, and You placed Your hands upon me.”
Another interpretation of “And You placed Your hands upon me”: (When [Adam] disgraced himself, the Holy Blessed One took one of [His hands] away). From here we see that both the human being and the Sanctuary, when they were created, were created by God’s two hands. From where do we learn that the human being was created with God’s two hands? As it says (Psalms 119:73), “Your hands made me and fashioned me.” From where do we learn that the Sanctuary was created with God’s two hands? As it says (Exodus 15:17), “In the Sanctuary, God, which Your hands have established.” (And it says [Psalms 78:54]), “He brought them to the border of His Sanctuary, the mountain which His right hand had acquired.”
And it says (Exodus 15:19), “The Eternal will reign forever and ever.”
How was Adam created? In the first hour, his dirt was gathered together. In the second hour, his form was formed. In the third hour, a torso was made. In the fourth hour, his limbs were attached. In the fifth hour, his orifices were opened. In the sixth hour, he was given breath. In the seventh hour, he stood up on his legs. In the eighth hour, he was paired with Eve. In the ninth hour, he was brought into the Garden of Eden. In the tenth hour, he was commanded [not to eat from the tree]. In the eleventh hour, he disgraced himself. In the twelfth hour, he was driven out and left, which fulfills the words of the verse (Psalms 49:13), “Man does not spend even one night in honor.”
What is recited on the first day? “The earth is the Eternal’s, in all its fullness; the world and those who dwell upon it” (Psalms 24). For He became Master of the World and will judge it. What is recited on the second day? “The Eternal is great, and praised tremendously in the city of our God” (Psalms 48). For He sets up all His works and becomes everything over His world. What is recited on the third day? “God stands in the divine congregation; amidst the powers He judges” (Psalms 82). For He created the sea and the land, and the land was folded into its place, and a space was cleared for His congregation. What is recited on the fourth day? “God of Vengeance, Lord! God of Vengeance, appear!” (Psalms 94). For He created the sun and the moon and the stars and the constellations, and they illuminate the world, and will one day be paid for their work. What is recited on the fifth day? “Sing joyously to the Eternal, our strength, shout out to the God of Jacob!” (Psalms 81). For He created birds and fish, and sea creatures, who all sing joyously in the world. What is recited on the sixth day? “The Eternal is king, He is dressed in dignity; the Eternal has dressed, and wrapped Himself in strength. The world is set in place; it will not fall” (Psalms 93). He finished all of His works, and then rose above them and sat up in the heights of the world. What is recited on the seventh day? “A psalm; a song for the Sabbath day” (Psalms 92). For on it, there is no eating or drinking, no buying or selling. The righteous just sit, with crowns on their heads, and bask in the radiance of the Divine Presence, as it says (Exodus 24:11), “And they beheld God, and they ate and drank,” like the angels who serve God.
(And why [was he created] so close [to the Sabbath]? So that he could enter into the Sabbath meal immediately.)
Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar says: I will give you a parable. What was Adam like? Like a man who married a convert, and would sit with her and give her orders. He said to her: Girl, do not eat bread while your hands are impure. And do not eat fruit that has not been tithed. And do not desecrate the Sabbath. And do not break your vows. And do not go around with other men. Now, if you break any one of these rules, you will die. (Then what did that man do?) He ate bread in front of her while his hands were impure, and he ate fruit that had not been tithed, and he desecrated the Sabbath, and he broke his vows. [And then he cast her out.] What did this convert say to herself? All the rules that my husband ordered me to follow are lies! She immediately went and broke them all.
Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai says: I will give you a parable. What was the situation with Adam like? Like a man who had a woman in his house. What did he do? He went and brought a jar and put figs and nuts in it. Then he caught a scorpion, and put it near the mouth of the jar. And then he sealed the jar with a string and placed it in a corner. He said to her: Girl, everything I have in this house is for you to use, except for that jar, which you must not touch at all. What did the woman do? When her husband went out to the marketplace, she went and opened the jar, and stuck her hand inside, and the scorpion bit her. She went and fell on the bed. When her husband came back from the marketplace, he said to her: What happened? She said to him: I stuck my hand in the jar, and a scorpion bit me, and now I am dying! He said to her: Didn’t I tell you before? Everything I have in my house is for you to use, except for that jar, which you must not touch at all! He became very angry at her and cast her out. So it was with Adam. When the Holy Blessed One said to him (Genesis 2:16–17), “From every tree of the garden you may absolutely eat. But from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, do not eat. For on the day you eat from it, you will surely die.” Then when he ate from it, he was driven out, which fulfills the verse (Psalms 49:13), “Man does not spend even one night in honor. He is just like the beasts.”
(On that same day he was formed;) On that same day he was created; on that same day his form was formed; on that same day a torso was made; on that same day his limbs were attached and his orifices were opened; on that same day breath was given to him. On that same day he stood up on his legs; on that same day he was paired with Eve; on that same day he called [all the animals] names; on that same day he was brought into the Garden of Eden; on that same day he was commanded [not to eat from the tree]; on that same day he disgraced himself; on that same day he was driven out, which fulfills the words of the verse (Psalms 49:13), “Man does not spend even one night in honor.”
On that same day they went up into their bed as two and came down as four. Rabbi Yehudah ben Beteira says: On that same day they went up into their bed as two and came down as six.1This is according to the tradition that each son was born with a twin girl who would become his wife. On that same day Adam was given three new decrees, as it says (Genesis 3:17–18), “And to Adam [God] said: Because you heeded the voice of your wife…the ground will be cursed because of you. You will eat from it in distress…and it will sprout thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the grasses of the field.” When Adam heard that the Holy Blessed One said to him, “You will eat the grasses of the field,” immediately his limbs began to shake. He said before God: Master of the World! Will I and my animal eat from the same trough? The Holy Blessed One said: Since your limbs began to shake (nizdazu), therefore “by the sweat (zeiah) of your brow you will [be able to] eat bread” (Genesis 3:19). And just as Adam was given these three decrees, so, too, Eve was given three decrees, as it says (Genesis 3:16), “To the woman [God] said: I will increase and increase your pangs in childbearing; you will give birth to children in pain.” So when a woman has her menstrual bleeding, the beginning of her cycle is the most difficult for her. (“I will increase and increase”:) When a woman first has sexual relations, at the beginning intercourse is difficult for her. “Your pangs”: And when a woman becomes pregnant, her face becomes ugly and greenish for the first three months.
When evening began to descend, Adam looked toward the darkening horizon and said: Woe is me! Because I disgraced myself, the Holy Blessed one is bringing darkness upon my world. He did not know that this was simply the way of the world. In the morning, when he saw that the world began to brighten from the east, he felt an overwhelming sense of joy. So he went and built altars, and brought a bull whose horns had grown in before his hooves,2Unusual for a bull, but because the first bull grew up out of the ground, its top was formed before its legs. See Rashi, Hullin 60a. and he offered it up as a sacrifice, as it says (Tehillim 69:32), “It will be better to the Eternal than a bull with horns and hooves.”
The bull that Adam offered up on the altar, as well as the bull that Noah offered up, and the ram that Abraham our forefather offered up in place of his son, (all had horns that had grown in before their hooves), as it says (Genesis 22:13), “Abraham raised his eyes, and behold, a ram was caught [in the brambles by its horns].”
At that same hour, three groups of angels who serve God came down, and in their hands were lyres and harps and all kinds of instruments, and they sang with him, as it says (Psalms 92:1–2), “A psalm. A song for the Sabbath day. It is good to thank the Eternal…and to speak of Your kindness in the morning, and Your faith through the night.” “To speak of your kindness in the morning” – that is the World to Come, which is compared to morning, as it says (Lamentations 3:23), “They are renewed in the morning; great is Your faith.” “And Your faith through the night” – that is this world, which is compared to night, as it says (Isaiah 21:11), “The burden of Dumah. Someone calls to me from Seir: Watchman, what will happen in the night? Watchman, what will happen in the night?”
At that same hour, the Holy Blessed One said: If I do not punish the snake, I will be found to have caused the destruction of the whole world! They will say, that one, whom I have crowned, and made king over the whole world, how can it be that he has ruined himself and eaten the fruits of that tree? Immediately, He turned to the snake and cursed it, as it says (Genesis 3:14), “Then the Eternal God said to the snake….” Thus, Rabbi Yosei said: If this verse had not (not) concluded with its curse, the whole world would have been destroyed.
When the Holy Blessed One created the first human being, He formed it facing both frontward and backward, as it says (Psalms 139:5), “You formed me after and before, and You placed Your hand upon me.” And the angels who serve God came down (to serve Him) [in order to destroy the first human being]. So the Holy Blessed One took it and placed it under His wings, as it says (Psalms 139:5), “You hedge me before and behind, and You placed Your hands upon me.”
Another interpretation of “And You placed Your hands upon me”: (When [Adam] disgraced himself, the Holy Blessed One took one of [His hands] away). From here we see that both the human being and the Sanctuary, when they were created, were created by God’s two hands. From where do we learn that the human being was created with God’s two hands? As it says (Psalms 119:73), “Your hands made me and fashioned me.” From where do we learn that the Sanctuary was created with God’s two hands? As it says (Exodus 15:17), “In the Sanctuary, God, which Your hands have established.” (And it says [Psalms 78:54]), “He brought them to the border of His Sanctuary, the mountain which His right hand had acquired.”
And it says (Exodus 15:19), “The Eternal will reign forever and ever.”
Jerusalem Talmud Rosh Hashanah
HALAKHAH: Rebbi Samuel bar Naḥman said, because of what had happened. Once there was a rumor in the city that Saracens had come and took them35This expression is difficult to explain. What it seems to imply is that on the rumor of a marauding band of Saracens, bent on plunder, everybody stayed in his house to defend his property; so nobody dared to go to be a witness for the new moon., and the Levites spoiled the song. Rebbi Aḥa bar Pappus said before Rebbi Ze`ira that the colleagues asked before Rebbi Samuel bar Naḥman, in whose name does the rabbi say this? He said to them, that is like you who have many teachers36Since they have many teachers they must be careful to keep the different traditions separate in order not to run into inconsistencies in their pronouncements. But the only teacher of R. Samuel bar Naḥman was R. Joshua ben Levi; he does not have to mention the tradition to which he adheres.! In the name of Rebbi Joshua ben Levi did he say it. But Rebbi La brought the reason for the practice, as it was stated: They were saying the song of Thursday, shout with joy for our mighty God37Ps.81:2.. But on New Year’s Day they were saying, I removed his shoulder from hardship38Ps. 81:8. Even though blowing the shofar is mentioned in v. 4, the holiday song in the Temple started with v. 8, based on the midrash that Joseph was freed from jail on New Year’s Day (Babli 10b, Midrash Tehillim 81[7]).. If the holiday fell on Thursday, in the morning they did say, shout with joy for our mighty God. In the afternoon they did say, I removed his shoulder from hardship; if they came after the afternoon prayers, they would say, shout with joy for our mighty God39The entire weekday song.. Would they not say the song twice40While they kept the day as holiday, when only the second part of the song would have been appropriate. Differently in the Babli 30b.?
Jerusalem Talmud Sotah
HALAKHAH: “By the measure a person measures one measures him,” etc. 248Tosephta 3:1, Babli 8b. Midrash Tehillim 81(2), Num. rabba 9(23). It was stated in the name of Rebbi Meïr: By the measure a person measures one measures him249The maxim “measure for measure” is found many times; e. g. Babli Šabbat 105b, Megillah 12b, Sanhedrin 90a, Sifry Num. 106 (cf. Halakhah 9), Mekhilta dR. Ismael (ed. Horovitz-Rabin) pp. 78,81,131; Gen. rabba 9(13), Ex. rabba 25(13) [shortened 9(9)]; Tanḥuma Noaḥ 13, Wa’era 14, Bešallaḥ 2,4, Tazria‘ 6; and very frequently in the Gaonic literature.. What is the reason? בְּסַאסְּאָה.2501s. 27:8., seah for seah. Not only a seah, from where a three-qab251A seah is a Roman urna, 12.85 1. The seah contains 6 qab (κάβος); a terqab is half a seah (Gaonic Commentary to Mishnah Kelim 12:3; misinterpreted as תְּרֵיקָב “two qab” in Graetz, Geschichte der Judäer4 vol. 3, p. 443.), half a three-qab, half a qab, a quarter [qab], a toman252A toman is 1/8 qab, identical to a Roman hemina, Greek ἡμίνα, ½sextarius., half a toman, or an ukla253In the Babli עוכלא; a quarter toman, a Roman acetabulum, 6.6 cl. Qalir (Silluq Šabbat Šeqalim) calls it כלה and reports that it is slightly less than a hundredth of a seah.? The verse says, “for all that is in a seah, breaks the seah noisily2541s. 9:4.;” he added many seot here. Not only things that can be measured, from where that small coins add up to a large bill? The verse says, “one to one, to find the bill.255Eccl. 7:27. This is the end of the Tosephta and the parallel in the Babli.” It happens in the world that a person stumbles in a sin for which one would be punished by death by the hands of Heaven. His ox dies, his hen is lost, his flask breaks, and he hurts his finger, by that the bill is paid in full. Another explanation: One is filled into the next and the bill is established. And what is the fulfillment of the bill? Once256This explanation is the opposite of the first, that many small sins add up to one huge bill presented to a man by the Heavenly court..