Another matter, “in accordance with the practices of the land of Egypt” – that is what is written: “The eye of the adulterer awaits the night [neshef], saying: No eye will behold me, and he directs his glance clandestinely” (Job 24:15). Reish Lakish said: So you will not say: Only one who acts with his body is an adulterer. One who is an adulterer with his eyes is [also] called an adulterer, as it is stated: “The eye of the adulterer.”
This adulterer sits and waits: When will neshef come? When will evening come, as it is stated: “In the neshef, in the evening of the day” (Proverbs 7:9). But he does not know that the One who sits in the clandestine part of the world, this is the Holy One blessed be He, shapes all its features in order to publicize him.24When the woman gives birth, God fashions the child’s features to look like the man with whom she committed adultery, even if the woman’s husband is the actual father of the child.
That is what Job says: “Is it good for You that You should exploit?” (Job 10:3). This one25The woman’s husband. sustains and provides, and He shapes all its features in the image of another. Moreover, “that You should despise Your handiwork” (Job 10:3) – after You toiled for it for forty days, You then ruin it?26After giving the fetus the features of its father, You then change its features to match those of the man with whom its mother committed adultery?
Moreover, “and appear in the counsel of the wicked” (Proverbs 10:3) – is it befitting Your glory to stand among an adulterer and an adulteress? The Holy One blessed be He said to Job: ‘It would be proper for you to placate. Shall it be said, as you said: “Do You have eyes of flesh; [do You see as man sees”?’ (Job 10:4).27Should God involve Himself in such unsavory matters? Rather, the Holy One blessed be He said: ‘Behold, I will shape all its features in the image of its father in order to publicize him.’
Rabbi Levi said: This is analogous to the apprentice of a potter who stole a lump of potter’s clay, and his master became aware of his theft. What did he do? He stood and crafted it28He took back the stolen lump and crafted a vessel from it. into a vessel and suspended it before him. Why to that extent?
In order to make it known that his master became aware of his theft. The Holy One blessed be He said: ‘Behold, I will shape all its features in his image in order to publicize him.’ Rabbi Yehuda ben Rabbi Simon in the name of Rabbi Levi ben Parta: It is written: “You forsook [teshi] the Rock [Tzur] who begot you” (Deuteronomy 32:18). You weakened [hitashtem] the strength of the craftsman [yotzer].
This is analogous to a sculptor who was sitting and sculpting an image of the king. When he finished it, they came and said to him: ‘The king has been replaced.’ Immediately, the strength of the sculptor’s hands weakened. He said: ‘Whose image shall I sculpt, that of the first or the second?’
So, all forty days,29After conception. the Holy One blessed be He is engaged in forming the fetus. At the end of forty days, [the mother] goes and sins with another. Immediately, the hands of the Craftsman weaken. He says: ‘In whose image shall I form it, that of the first or the second?’
That is, “you forsook the Rock who begot you” – you weakened the strength of the craftsman. There is a small yod,30In Torah scrolls, the letter yod in the word teshi is written smaller than usual. and there is nothing like it in any verse. Rabbi Yitzḥak said: We find with all those who commit transgressions, the thief benefits and the victim of the theft loses. The robber benefits, the one who was robbed loses.
However, here, both of them benefit. Who loses? It is the Holy One blessed be He who loses His dyes.31After having fashioned the embryo, comparable to dying a fabric, God has to redo what He already fashioned. Alternatively, God fashions the embryo, but it is not a productive use of resources, as it were, because the child is a mamzer and cannot marry a regular Jew (Etz Yosef).