God Divorced Adam

Another interpretation: "The days were fashioned, and not one of them" (Psalms 139) refers to the Day of Atonement for Israel, because there was great joy before the Holy One, blessed be He, when they were given to Israel in great love. They told a parable of His own: To what is the matter likened? To a king of flesh and blood whose servants and household members would take out the refuse and cast it before the door of the king's house; and when the king goes out and sees the refuse, he rejoices with great joy. So is the Day of Atonement likened, which the Holy One, blessed be He, gave in great love and in joy. And not only this, but at the hour when He pardons the iniquities of Israel, He does not grieve in His heart, but rejoices with great joy. Therefore it is said: "Thus says the Lord GOD to the mountains and to the hills, to the watercourses and to the valleys," and so forth (Ezekiel 36:4): Come and rejoice with great joy, for I pardon Israel their iniquities. Therefore a man should remember, from the day the Holy One, blessed be He, chose Abraham our father until that hour, all the kindnesses and acts of charity He did with Israel at every single hour, as it is said: "Remember these things, O Jacob," and so forth (Isaiah 44:22). And it is said: "I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, your transgressions, and, as a cloud, your sins" (Isaiah 44:22). Just as clouds are blotted out by the wind, so the iniquities of Israel are blotted out in this world and have no standing in the world to come, as it is said: "I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, your transgressions." And what is the meaning of "for I have redeemed you" (Isaiah 44:22)? I have redeemed you from the book of death and placed you in the book of life. Therefore it is said: "for I have redeemed you." What matter follows after it? "Sing, O heavens, for the LORD has done it," and so forth (Isaiah 44:23). Another interpretation: "The days were fashioned, and not one of them" refers to the day of Gog in the time to come, because this world is, before the Holy One, blessed be He, like a householder who hired laborers and watches over them, to see who works in truth, as it is said: "The eyes of the LORD, they range through the whole earth" (Zechariah 4:10), one who works truly and one who does not work truly; all is prepared before Him for the feast. Therefore the idolaters became liable to be swept away and to perish and to descend to Gehenna, because they sent forth their hand against Israel and against Jerusalem and against the Temple. Know that this is so: when Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came and surrounded Jerusalem, the idolaters would respond and say, With one mouth, with which (variant: by what) reckoning did we conquer his city and his palace? The Holy Spirit answers and says to them: Fools of the world! Until that hour you had not become liable to descend to Gehenna; concerning that hour it says (Jeremiah 20): "Your mother shall be greatly ashamed; she that bore you shall be confounded," and so forth. Just as they would gather assemblies and come to plunder the wealth of Israel, so the Holy One, blessed be He, gathers them to be judged upon the mountains of Israel, to execute great vengeance upon them, because they did not heed the words of Torah and because they afflicted Israel, as it is said: "And I am very greatly angry," and so forth, "for I was but a little angry, and they helped forward the evil" (Zechariah 1:15). "And I will execute vengeance in anger and fury upon the nations, such as they have not heard" (Micah 5:14). And it says: "Behold, the day comes," and so forth, "and I will gather all the nations" (Zechariah 14:2), "and immediately the LORD shall go forth and fight," and so forth (Zechariah 14:3). Once I was walking in a great city of the world, and there were young men there who seized me and brought me into the king's house, and I saw there made-up beds and silver vessels and gold vessels that were placed there. I said: "O LORD God, to whom vengeance belongs; O God, to whom vengeance belongs, shine forth," and so forth (Psalms 94:1). A certain companion (that is, a sage of the nations of the world) came to me and said to me: You are a scribe. I said to him: Something of one. He said to me: If you will tell me a thing that I ask you, go in peace. I said to him: Speak. He said to me: God is a true judge; God is holy, righteous, and pious and true to all eternity, and recognizes at the beginning what will be at the end, and declares from the beginning the end, and from of old that which has not yet been done, and knows what has been done and what is destined to be done, and looks toward good and does not look toward evil, and is rich and rejoices in His portion. And in His wisdom and in His understanding He created the world and prepared it, and afterward He created Adam and brought him into the world; and He created him only so that he might serve Him with a whole heart, and that He might find contentment of spirit from him and from his descendants after him to the end of all generations. Since he was fruitful and multiplied, this one worships the sun and the moon, and this one worships wood and stone, and every single day they become liable before God. Therefore, when He turns and looks again at all the works of His hands that He created in the world, He says: To these and those, life; to these and those, souls; to these and those, eating and drinking. Behold, they are considered like cattle and like beasts and like the rest of the swarming and creeping things that the Holy One, blessed be He, created in His world. Immediately His mind is set at ease, and He does not destroy them. So you have learned that cattle, beasts, swarming and creeping things were created in the world only as a remedy for the children of men upon the earth. He said to me: You say fire is not a god; why then is it written in the Torah, "Fire shall be kept burning continually," and so forth (Leviticus 6:6)? I said to him: My son, when our fathers stood at Mount Sinai to receive the Torah upon themselves, they saw no form of a man, nor form of any creature, nor form of any soul that the Holy One, blessed be He, created in His world, as it is said: "Take therefore good heed unto yourselves, for you saw no manner of form" (Deuteronomy 4:14-15). Rather, God is one; He is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, whose kingdom is established in heaven and on earth and in the highest heaven of heavens. And you say fire is a god? It is nothing but a rod given for the use of the children of men upon the earth. They told a parable: To what is the matter likened? To a king who took the strap and hung it within his house and said to his servants and his children and his household members: With this I strike you, and with this I kill you, so that they would turn back and repent; and if they did not turn back, with it he strikes them, and with it he kills them. Therefore it is said: "Fire shall be kept burning continually," and it says: "For by fire will the LORD enter into judgment" (Isaiah 66:16). One might think otherwise; the verse therefore teaches: "For the LORD your God is a consuming fire" (Deuteronomy 4:24). They told a parable: To what is the matter likened? To a king whose servants and his children and his household members were behaving improperly. He said to his children and to his servants and to his household members: I am a bear over you, I am a lion over you, I am the angel of death over you, because of the fruit of your ways. Therefore it is said: "For the LORD your God is a consuming fire."