Hebraic Literature; Translations from the Talmud, Midrashim and Kabbala Part 47

_Midrash Rabbah_, chap. 8.

"And it repented the Lord that He had made man (Adam) on the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart" (Gen. vi. 6). Rabbi Berachiah says that when G.o.d was about to create Adam, He foresaw that both righteous people and wicked people would come forth from him. He reasoned therefore with Himself thus: "If I create him, then will the wicked proceed from him; but if I do not create him, how then shall the righteous come forth?"

What then did G.o.d do? He separated the ways of the wicked from before Him, and a.s.suming the attribute of mercy, so He created him. This explains what is written (Ps. i. 6), "For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked shall be lost." The way of the wicked was lost before Him, but a.s.suming to Himself the attribute of mercy, He created him. Rabbi Chanina says, "It was not so! But when G.o.d was about to create Adam, He consulted the ministering angels and said unto them (Gen. i. 26), 'Shall we make man in our image after our likeness?' They replied, 'For what good wilt thou create him?' He responded, 'That the righteous may rise out of him.' This explains what is written, 'For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked shall be lost.' G.o.d informed them only about the righteous, but He said nothing about the wicked, otherwise the ministering angels would not have given their consent that man should be created."

_Beres.h.i.th Rabbah_, chap. 8.

Rabbi Hoshaiah said, "When G.o.d created Adam the ministering angels mistook him for a divine being, and were about to say, 'Holy! holy!

holy!' before him. But G.o.d caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, so that all knew he was only a man. This explains what is written (Isa. ii.

22), 'Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils; for wherein is he to be accounted of'?"

Ibid.

Rabbi Yochanan saith, "Adam and Eve seemed as if they were about twenty years old when they were created."

Ibid., chap. 14.

Rav Acha said when G.o.d was about to create Adam He consulted the ministering angels, and asked them, saying, "Shall we make man?" They enquired, "Of what good will this man be?" He replied, "His wisdom will be greater than yours." One day, therefore, He brought together the cattle, the beasts, and the birds, and asked them the name of them severally, but they knew not. He then caused them to pa.s.s before Adam, and asked him, "What is the name of this and the other?" Then Adam replied, "This is an ox, this is an a.s.s," and so on. "And thou, why is thy name Adam?" (i.e. in Hebrew, man). "I ought to be called Adam," was his reply, "for I was created from Adamah" (the ground). "And what is My name?" "It is meet Thou shouldst be called Lord, for Thou art Lord over all Thy creatures." Rav Acha says, "'I am the Lord, that is My name'

(Isa. xlii. 8). 'That is My name which Adam called Me.'"

_Beres.h.i.th Rabbah_, chap. 17.

Rabba Eliezer says Adam was skilled in all manner of crafts. What proof is there of this? It is said (Isa. xliv. 11), "And the artisans, they are of Adam."

Ibid., chap. 24.

"And the Lord said, I will destroy man" (Gen. vi. 7). Rabbi Levi, in the name of Rabbi Yochanan, says that even millstones were destroyed. Rabbi Yuda, in the name of Rabbi Yochanan, declares even the very dust of Adam was destroyed. Rabbi Yuda, in the name of Rabbi Shimon, insists that even the (resurrection) bone of the spine, from which G.o.d will one day cause man to sprout forth again, was destroyed.

Ibid., chap. 28.

Concerning the bone, the _os coccygis_, there is an interesting story in Midrash Kohelet (fol. 114, 3), which may be appropriately inserted here. Hadrian (whose bones may they be ground, and his name blotted out) once asked Rabbi Joshua ben Chanania, "From what shall the human frame be reconstructed when it rises again?" "From Luz in the backbone," was the answer.

"Prove this to me," said Hadrian. Then the Rabbi took Luz, a small bone of the spine, and immersed it in water, but it was not softened; he put it into the fire, but it was not consumed; he put it into a mill, but it could not be pounded; he placed it upon an anvil and struck it with a hammer, but the anvil split and the hammer was broken. (See also Zohar in "Genesis," 206, etc. etc.)

"A window shalt thou make to the ark" (Gen. vi. 16). Rabbi Amma says, "It was a real window." Rabbi Levi, on the other hand, maintained that it was a precious stone, and that during the twelve months Noah was in the ark he had no need of the light of the sun by day nor of the moon by night because of that stone, which he had kept suspended, and he knew that it was day when it was dim, and night when it sparkled.

_Beres.h.i.th Rabbah_, chap. 31.

The transparency, ascribed to the ark, has given rise to various conjectures. The idea of Rabbi Levi, that it was a precious stone, has the sanction of the Targum of Jonathan; which volunteers the additional information that the gem was found in the river Pison.

Noah was deficient in faith, for he did not enter the ark till the water was up to his ankles.

Ibid., chap. 32.

"And he sent forth a raven" (Gen. viii. 7). The raven remonstrated, remarking, "From all the cattle, beasts, and fowls thou sendest none but me." "What need has the world for thee?" retorted Noah; "thou art good neither for food nor for sacrifice." Rabbi Eliezer says G.o.d ordered Noah to receive the raven, as the world would one day be in need of him.

"When?" asked Noah. "When the waters are dried up from off the earth, there will in a time to come arise a certain righteous man who shall dry up the world, and then I shall want it." This explains what is written (1 Kings xvii. 6), "And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning."

Ibid., chap. 33.

At the time G.o.d said to the serpent, "Upon thy belly thou shalt go"

(Gen. iii. 14), the ministering angels descended and lopped off his hands and his feet. Then his voice was heard from one end of the world to the other.

_Beres.h.i.th Midrash Rabbah_, chap. 20.

When G.o.d said to the serpent, "And upon thy belly thou shalt go" (Gen.

iii. 14), the serpent replied, "Lord of the universe! if this be Thy will, then I shall be as a fish of the sea without feet." But when G.o.d said to him, "And dust shalt thou eat," he replied, "If fish eat dust, then I also will eat it." Then G.o.d seized hold of the serpent and tore his tongue in two, and said, "O thou wicked one! thou hast commenced (to sin) with thy evil tongue; thus I will proclaim it to all that come into the world that it was thy tongue that caused thee all this."

_Letters of Rabbi Akiva._

"And Noah only remained" (Gen. vii. 23), except Og, king of Bashan, who sat on a beam of the ladders (which projected from the ark), and swore to Noah and his sons that he would be their slave forever. Noah made a hole in the ark through which he handed to Og his daily food. Thus he also remained, as it is said (Deut. iii. 11), "For only Og, king of Bashan, remained."

_Pirke d'Rab. Eliezer_, chap. 23.

"Unto Adam and his wife did the Lord G.o.d make coats of skins" (Gen. iii.

21), viz, to cover their nakedness; but with what? With fringes and phylacteries, "Coats of skins," viz, the leathern straps of the phylacteries; "and they sewed fig-leaves" (Gen. iii. 7), viz, fringes; "and made themselves ap.r.o.ns," this means the proclaiming of the Shema, "Hear, O Israel," etc.

_Yalkut Chadash._

The ap.r.o.ns, which some (as Rashi, for instance) take to denote furs, the Targum of Jonathan says were made "from the skin of the serpent." The wardrobe of Adam afterward came into the possession of Esau and Jacob (see Targ. Yon. in Toledoth, and p.

199, No. 161, _ante_).

All the presents which our father Jacob gave to Esau will one day be returned by the nations of the world to the Messiah, and the proof of this is (Ps. lxxii. 10), "The kings of Tarshish and the isles shall return presents." It is not written here, "They shall bring," but they shall restore or return.

_Midrash Rabbah Vayishlach_, chap. 78.

A philosopher once posed Rabbi Eliezer with the question, "Does not the prophet say (Mal. i. 4), 'They shall build, but I will throw down'? and do not buildings still exist?" To which the Rabbi answered, "The prophet does not speak of buildings, but of the schemes of designers. Ye all think to contrive and build up devices, to destroy and make an end of us, but He bringeth your counsels to nought. He throweth them down, so that your devices against us have no effect." "By thy life," said the philosopher, "it is even so; we meet annually for the purpose of compa.s.sing your ruin, but a certain old man comes and upsets all your projects" (namely, Elijah).

_Yalkut Malachi._

When Israel came out of Egypt, Samael rose to accuse them, and thus he spoke: "Lord of the Universe! these have till now worshiped idols, and art Thou going to divide the sea for such as they?" What did the Holy One--blessed be He!--then do? Job, one of Pharaoh's high counselors, of whom it is written (Job i. 1), "That man was perfect and upright," He took and delivered to Samael, saying, as He did so, "Behold, he is in thy hand; do with him as thou pleasest." G.o.d thought to divert his evil designs by keeping him thus occupied with Job, that Israel meanwhile might cross the sea without any hindrance, after which He would return and rescue Job from his tender mercies. G.o.d then said to Moses, "Behold I have delivered Job to Satan; make haste. Speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward" (Exod. xiv. 15).

_Midrash Rabbah Shemoth_, chap. 21.

No man ever received a mite (in charity) from Job, and needed to receive such a second time (because of the good-luck it brought along with it).

Ibid.

A superst.i.tious belief prevails to some extent in Poland, among the Christian population as well as the Jews, that coins obtained in certain circ.u.mstances bring luck apart altogether from any virtue they may be supposed to convey from the giver. A penny obtained, for instance, the first thing in the morning, by stumbling on it in the street, by the sale of an article in the market, or by gift of charity, is considered to bode luck, and cherished as a pledge of good fortune by being slightly spat upon several times on receipt, and then carefully stowed away, for a longer or shorter period, in some safe sanctum. Job was the luckiest man that ever lived; his very goats even were so lucky as to kill the wolves that came to devour them; and a beggar, as we see, who received a mite from his hands, never needed afterward to beg an alms from him again. (See "Genesis according to the Talmud," p. 288, No. 16.)

"And Saul said unto the Kenites, Go, depart, etc.; for ye showed kindness to all the children of Israel" (1 Sam. xv. 6). And did they show kindness to all the children of Israel? No; but what is written is to teach that he who receives a disciple of the wise as a guest into his house, and gives him to eat and to drink, is as if he had shown kindness to all the children of Israel.

_Midrash Sh'muel_, chap. 18.

Rabbi Levi says, "When Solomon introduced the ark into the Temple, all the woodwork thereof freshened with sap and began to yield fruit, as it is said (Ps. xcii. 13), 'Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our G.o.d.' And thus it continued to bear fruit, which abundantly supplied the juveniles of the priestly caste till the time of Mana.s.seh; but he, by introducing an image into the Temple, caused the Shechinah to depart and the fruit to wither; as it is said (Nah. i. 4), 'And the flower of Lebanon languisheth.'"

_Midrash Tillin Terumah._

The land of Israel is situated in the centre of the world, and Jerusalem in the centre of the land of Israel, and the Temple in the centre of Jerusalem, and the Holy of holies in the centre of the Temple, and the foundation-stone on which the world was grounded, is situated in front of the ark.

_Midrash Tillin Terumah, Kedoshim._