ספר בראשית

The author offers another way of understanding the verse ‎אלה תולדות השמים והארץ בהבראם וגו‎', ‎and the verse following,‎וכל שיח השדה טרם יהיה בארץ וכל עשב השדה טרם יצמח ואדם אין בו וגגגו‎', ‎‎“when no shrub of the field was yet on earth and no grasses of the field had yet sprouted, etc.;” ‎he draws our attention to Genesis 38,27:‎ויהי בעת לדתה ויתן יד ותקח המילדת ותקשור על ידו שני ‏ויהי כמשיב ידו וגו' ואחר כך יצא אחיו ותאמר מה פרצת עליך פרץ וגו‎', “when the time came for her to ‎give birth, there were twins; while she was in labor one of them put out his hand and the midwife ‎tied a crimson thread on that hand to signify “this one came out first;” but just then he drew back ‎his hand and out came his brother; the midwife said: ‘what a breach you have made for yourself” ‎This one was called ‎פרץ‎, “breach,” whereas his brother was named ‎זרח‎, “brightness.”‎Nachmanides, in his commentary on the Torah, writes concerning this occurrence, quoting Rabbi ‎Nechunya ben hakaneh, that the name ‎פרץ‎ is a euphemism for the moon, whereas the name ‎זרח‎ ‎is a euphemism for the sun. ‎‎[Rabbi Nechunyah ben hakaneh was a scholar of the second generation of the authors of the ‎‎Mishnah and the famous kabbalistic text known as sefer habahir, has been ‎attributed to him. Ed.] ‎Our author (as distinct from Nachmanides) understands the description of the Torah of this ‎unusual birth as illustrating how the various universes at any given moment receive positive input ‎from the Creator, and that when a human being wishes to secure additional ‎שפע‎, Divine beneficial ‎outpouring, or input, for the world in which he lives, he must attach himself to the domain we ‎described as ‎אין‎, i.e. the disembodied spiritual domains of the universe, i.e. to the domains in ‎which G’d did not have to surround Himself with screens in order to avoid blinding His creatures ‎with His brightness. When he has done so, G’d, in turn will respond by showering more of His ‎goodness upon His creatures in the various domains of the universe. In the verse under discussion, ‎the Torah describes a period when this interaction between man and G’d had not yet taken place, ‎i.e. nothing had grown forth as yet from earth that would have such a positive influence triggering ‎further beneficial input originating from the heavenly spheres. This state of the universe, prior to ‎such interaction is what our verse speaks about when writing ‎טרם יצמח‎, “had not yet sprouted,” ‎and similar expressions. The words ‎יצמח‎ and ‎המטיר‎, “sprouting and raining”, respectively, are ‎similes for the reciprocal positive input from the heavens to the earth and from the earth in the ‎direction of the celestial regions. The period under discussion in our verse precedes the time when ‎the Creator garbed Himself in shells that reduced the brightness of His emanations, so that His ‎creatures instead of being burnt up, could “warm” themselves, spiritually.‎The opportunities, i.e. precise moments in time, when G’d responds to man attempting to cleave ‎to Him with his soul, are fleeting moments during which people doing this must perform a ‎מצוה‎, ‎such as giving charity or studying Torah, as a result of which G’d will provide additional ‎שפע‎, divine ‎bounty from above to below. If that moment has passed and not been taken advantage of, G’d ‎withdraws to the region of ‎סוד‎, “hidden” domains where He is only partially within reach of the ‎creatures who wish to establish intimate contact with Him. The words: ‎ואדם אין לעבוד‎, may be ‎understood allegorically as: “there being as yet no human being who would yearn for a close ‎relationship with His Creator.”‎