Drawn After God Like Cattle Into the Rivers of Eden

Israel said: Master of the World, we are human, yet You shall save us as cattle — because we are drawn after You like cattle, as it is said, "Draw me after you" (Song of Songs 1:4). To where are we drawn after You? To the Garden of Eden, as it is said, "They shall be sated from the fatness of Your house, and from the stream of Your Edens You shall give them to drink" (Psalms 36:9). Rabbi Eleazar bar Menahem said: "Your Eden" is not written here, but "Your Edens" — for every single righteous person has a dwelling of his own in Eden. "Human and cattle You save, O Lord" (Psalms 36:7). Rabbi Isaac said: the ordinance of the human and the ordinance of the cattle are alike. The ordinance of the human: "And on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised" (Leviticus 12:3). And the ordinance of the cattle: "And from the eighth day onward it shall be accepted..." (Leviticus 22:27).