Babylonian Talmud

Rodkinson 1918 — source 9, scan section 9

the city of our God** [ibid, xlviii. 2]; it is because He divided all His creatures and became the one ruler of the universe. On the third they said: ** God standeth in the congregation of God, in the midst of judges doth He judge" [ibid. Ixxxii. i]; it is because He then created the sea, the land, and the earth was rolled to its right place, and room was made for His congre- gation. On the fourth day they said: ** O God of vengeance, Lord! O God of vengeance, shine forth" [Ps. xciv. i]; be- cause then He created the sun, the moon, the stars, and the planets which give light to the world, and the Lord will punish those who worship them. On the fifth they said: " Sing aloud unto God our strength; shout joyfully unto the God of Jacob " [Ps. Ixxxi. 2] ; because He then created the birds, the fishes, and the great sea monsters, who (the birds) fill the world with song. On the sixth they said: "The Lord reigneth, He is clothed with excellency; the Lord is clothed, He had girded Himself with strength: (therefore) also the world is firmly estab- lished, that it cannot be moved." Because then He finished all His work He became exalted and placed Himself on the loftiest point of the world. On the seventh they said : ** A psalm or song for the Sabbath day " [ibid. xcii. i]. A day of entire rest, when there is no eating nor no drinking and no traffick, but the upright sit with their crowns on their heads and are nourished from the glory of the Shekhina, as it is written [Ex. xxiv. 11]: ** And they saw (the glory of) God, and did eat and drink," just like the angels.] Why was Adam created on the last hour of the sixth day ? In order that he might immediately partake of the sabbatical meal. R. Simeon b. Elazar said: Adam can be likened to an Israelite who married a proselyte woman, and he constantly sought to impress upon her mind the following regulations: " My daughter, eat not bread when thy hands are unclean, eat not of fruits which were not tithed, do not violate the Sabbath, do not get into the habit of making vows, and walk not with another man. If thou shouldst violate any of the commands, thou wilt die." Another one, who wished to mislead her, did those very things before her that she had been told were sinful: he ate TRACT ABOTH. 9 bread when his hands were unclean, partook of fruits which were not tithed, violated the Sabbath, etc., and thereby caused this proselyte to think that everything that her husband told her was entirely false, so she violated all his commandments. R. Simeon b. Johai said: The case of Adam can be likened to one who, when intending to leave his house, took a barrel and put therein a certain number of dates and nuts; then he caught a scorpion and put it in the top of the barrel, he covered it well and put it in a corner, and said to his wife: " My daughter, everything I have in this house is placed at thy disposal, except this barrel, which thou must touch not at all." As soon as her husband went away, she, however, opened the barrel, put her hand into it, and the scorpion bit her. She took sick and went to her bed. When her husband returned, he asked her what the trouble was. She said: ** I put my hand in the barrel, and the scorpion bit me, and I am dying." He said to her: " Did I not tell thee before that thou must not touch the barrel ?" He became angry, and drove her out of his house. The same hap- pened to Adam when the Holy One, blessed be He, told him: ** Of every tree in the garden thou mayest freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for on the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die " ; but as soon as he did eat he was driven out of the Garden of Eden, and this is what the passage said [Ps. xlix.] (see above). On the same day on which he was formed, on the very same day his countenance was created ; on the very same day he was made a body, and his members were joined and his openings developed, and on the very same day the soul was put unto him. On the same day he stood upon his feet, and Eve was mated to him. On the same day he pronounced the names of all the creatures, and on the very same day he was placed in the Garden of Eden and received the command (not to eat, etc.), and on the very same day he violated it and was driven out, to comply with what is written [Ps. xlix.] (see above). On the same day they went to bed two, and descended from the bed four. R. Jehudah b. Bathyra, however, says that they de- scended six (two sons and two daughters). On that day three sentences were pronounced over Adam, as it is written [Gen. iii. 17, 18]: " And unto Adam he said, because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, etc., cursed be the ground for thy sake, in pain shalt thou eat of it, etc., and thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herbs of the lo THE BABYLONIAN TALMUD. field." As soon as Adam the First heard that the Holy One, blessed be He, said: "And thou shalt eat the herbs of the field," he trembled in his whole body. He said before Him: " Lord of the Universe, shall I and my cattle eat out of the same trough ? " Said the Holy One, blessed be He: " As thou hast trembled, therefore in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread " [ibid., ibid. 19]. As Adam was laid under three sentences, likewise was it with Eve. As it is written [ibid,, ibid. 16]: "I will greatly multiply thy pain and (the suffering of) thy conception ; in pain shalt thou bring forth children." The first few days of menstruation are painful. So also are the first few moments of her sexual inter- course with a man. Also when the woman becomes pregnant, her face loses its beauty and becomes yellow the first three months. When evening drew near, and Adam, looking toward the west, saw that it was becoming darker and darker, he said : " Woe to me is this, because I have sinned, that the Lord darkens the world upon me!" He did not know that it was the course of nature. In the morning, when he saw it lighted up and the sun risen in the east, he rejoiced greatly. He built an altar and sacrificed on it as a burnt-offering an ox, the horns of which were formed before his hoofs. (Rashi explains this else- where as follows: All the creatures of the first days of creation were created in their full-grown sizes, and as the head was formed first the horns thereon preceded the hoofs in point of time. This means to say that Adam sacrificed an ox of the first creation.) As it is written [Ps. Ixix. 32] : " And this will please the Lord better than an ox or bullock having horns and cloven hoofs." (There is a tradition) that the ox of Adam, the steer of Noah, the ram sacrificed by Abraham in place of his son, were all of