Letters of Light. Kalonymus Kalman Epstein

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СКАЧАТЬ thought connects with the verse, “but as for the tree of knowledge of good and bad, you must not eat of it . . . ” For if you do, pride and the Evil Inclination will enter into you, and because you perceive yourself to be a person of wisdom, your heart will be drawn to discern the ways of your fellows and to consider whether they are good or evil. And this was the claim of the serpent, “And you will be like divine beings who know good and bad” (Gen 3:5), for by eating of the tree you make yourself wise (in your own eyes), believing that you know how to evaluate the ways of your fellow and to know whether they are good or evil. And you will reach a conclusion that you would not have arrived at otherwise.

      And this is heard in the words, “And they perceived that they were naked” (ʿarumim, Gen 3:7), which connects with the words, “Now the serpent was the shrewdest, eirom (of all the wild beasts that the Lord God had made,” Gen 3:1). For as a consequence of their eating from the tree, they opened themselves to the Evil Inclination and to arrogance, and in their guile they attributed to themselves wisdom. And this connects also with the man’s saying, “And I was afraid because I was naked (ʿarum) . . . ” (Gen 3:10)—I fear because I see that my heart arrogantly puffs up within me saying, I am shrewd and wise. And we should be very fearful of that.

      Comment: In this homily, the Kraków master offered his interpretation of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in a way that amazingly brings that theme very much down-to-earth. While statements concerning the effects and consequences of eating from that tree have included very far-reaching and complex implications, for Kalonymus Kalman in this brief homily, the meaning of the sin of the First Man has to do with something extraordinarily commonplace: the tendency of people to be judgmental concerning others and the self-importance involved in a person’s viewing others critically. A rare beauty is displayed in the very simplicity of the master’s interpretation.

8. Maʾor va-shemesh (Warsaw, 1877), I, 2b.

9. b. Ber. 55a and Menaḥ. 29b, Midr.Gen 1.9 and y. Ḥag. 77c; Ginzberg, Legends, 5:56, n. 10.

10. Midr. Gen 3.4; Pirqe R. El, ch. 3.

11. Note Zohar I, 1b-2a, and Scholem, Major Trends, 220–21.

12. Midr. Exod. 3:6 (Sh’mot), perhaps on basis of Ps 82:8.

13. Maʾor va-shemesh, I, 2b-3a.

14. b. Ḥag. 12a, Midr. Gen 3.6, Midr. Exod. 35.1, and Midr. Num. 13.5.

15. See Ba’al shem tov ʿal ha-torah, 1:48–49 (#32–35). Also Shivḥei ha-Besht, In Praise of the Baal Shem Tov, 49 (#33), and 89 (#69).

16. Zohar II, 148b-149a.

17. Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions of Islam, 214–15 and Muhammad is His Messenger, 130.

18. John 1:1, 9; also The Apostalic Fathers, 1:51 (Second Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians, #14).

19. Maʾor va-shemesh, I, 3a.

20. Midr. Gen 8:2.

21. b. Bava Qam. 17a.

22. Maʾor va-shemesh, I, 3b.

23. Midr. Gen 10:6.

24. Idel, Hasidism—Between Ecstasy and Magic, 53–65.

25. Maʾor va-shemesh, I, 3b–4a.

26. m.ʾAbot 4:7.

27. b. B. Bat. 74b.

28. b. Taʿan. 7a.

29. Fishbane, Biblical Myth and Rabbinic Mythmaking, 112–23.

30. Maʾor va-shemesh, I, 4b–5a.

31. Midr. Gen 10:9.

32. Midr. Gen 7:5.

33. b. Ḥag. 12a.

34. Maʾor va-shemesh, I, 5a.

35. Midr. Gen 12:9.

36. Zohar, I, 11b (Int.).

37. Maʾor va-shemesh, I, 5b.

      No’ah

Noah Repaired the Animals38

      The First Man repaired all the beasts and the animals by assigning names to them, as is written, “(And the Lord God formed out of the earth all the wild beasts and all the birds of the sky,) and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; (and whatever the man called each living creature, that would be its name. And the man gave names to all the cattle and to the birds of the sky and to all the wild beasts . . .” Gen 2:19–20).

And so following his fall and failure, although he later repented and on the holy Shabbat even sang the Psalm for the Shabbat39 [Psalm 92, understanding the infinitive l’hodot in the second verse of the Psalm not as “to praise,” but rather as “to confess”] and repaired everything and was forgiven for everything, that act of repair (tikkun) did not essentially effect the beasts and the animals. And it was for this reason that it was initially forbidden to eat meat (Gen 2:16), something that became permissible only in connection with Noah (Gen 9:3).

It is written in the holy Zohar that “Noah and the ark are one” [interpreting Noah’s entering the ark as representing union between the masculine and feminine s’firot40]. These words convey, in brief, that the ark of Noah included also the Tablets of СКАЧАТЬ