Commentary of Rav Samson Raphael Hirsh on Chumash – Bereishit 2:4
These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, on the day that Hashem G-d made earth and heaven.
The Name
expresses the secret of G-d’s essence – and this will always remain
unfathomable to us; nevertheless, we must try to grasp the meaning of His Name
as far as possible.
Our Sages
say that the Tetragrammaton symbolizes midat harachamim, G-d’s attribute
of mercy. The direct meaning of the Name
is the future tense of a transitive verb root hei vav hei, exist,
denoting “the One Who grants existence”, “One Who is always ready to grant new
life.” This indeed is the full
implication of midat harachamim. G-d is not an “Ancient of Days”, Who,
after having created the world, retired to repose within the depths of His own
eternal being. Rather, He is Elokim hayim umelech olam, “the living G-d
and King of the universe” (Jeremiah 10:10), the ever-living, ever-reigning
G-d. He is not only the Source of the
past, but also the Grantor of every moment yet to be, which He fashions
in accordance with the educational needs of mankind. In His abundant mercies He is ready at all
times to grant new life, even if the merits of the past have been
exhausted.
Elokim is midat ha-din, the attribute
of Divine justice; He is the Creator of the world, Who imposes on it order,
gives it law and measure; and sets limits to all things. Were it not for the
free will of man, who is capable for straying from the right path, the world
would not need midat harachamim. All the rest of G-d’s
creatures – except for man – do not deviate from the paths assigned to them at
the Creation; and if man had not been created, the generations of the
heavens and the earth would hinge solely on the laws of growth and
development implanted in them by the law-giving Creator at the time of their
creation. But with the creation of man,
who is free and hence is free to err, the need arose for midat
harachamim.
Had man been
created – like all other creatures – without a free will, then G-d’s work would
have been completed on the sixth day. But because man was created with a
free will, and because this freedom – though it raises him even
higher than the angels – of necessity entails the possibility of error and
sin, man must be educated to recognize the truth and to do good
of his own free will. The education of man toward his spiritual and moral
level was entrusted to the Shabbat. 2:3 And G-d blessed the seventh day and
made it holy.
G-d’s rule of
mercy educates man to his exalted purpose, sustains him and his world despite
his errors, leads him back from deviance and fault to the path of truth and
faithfulness, grants him renewed strength for a new life and new future , and
shapes generations of the heavens and the earth in accordance with the
educational needs of mankind.
Man was
Created with a Free Will è Man has a Possibility of Error and Sin è World needs midat harachamim, Mercy,
Forgiveness, Granting of a New Life, New Chance, Continuous Renewal.
FREE WILL è
ERROR AND SIN è
MERCY, FORGIVENESS, RENEWAL OF LIFE
2:4 The day that the Hashem G-d made
earth and heaven is none other than the seventh day. One this day, G-d introduced Shabbat into
creation, put His entire work of heaven and earth in the service of educating
man to become adam, and made the survival of the world dependent on this
educational process. For, with the
creation of man, the Tetragrammaton is added to the Name Elokim; henceforth,
there will be two factors that will shape the development of the world:
a)
The law of nature established at the time of creation
b)
Divine guidance, which depends on the conduct of man.
The Name Hashem
Elokim opens our eyes to G-d’s physical and moral order in the world,
and to the ways of G-d in nature and history.
Avraham
contemplated heaven and earth, and was not led astray by his generation. Thus he came to recognize the Creator and
Law-giver of the physical world order, and therefore G-d chose him, to
teach him also the Name Hashem, His role in history and His moral world
order. But this Name became known and
manifest in the world, only when Avraham’s descendants became a people. This people lacked all the conditions
necessary for national existence – according to the physical world order. They attained their physical existence as a
nation only by virtue of thir moral path; from G-d’s hand alone did this attain
national existence, by virtue of their devotion to G-d. The whole history of Israel is nothing a
revelation of the Name Hashem.
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