Rabbi Levi began: “Behold, you are from nothing [me’ayin] and your actions are for naught [me’afa]” (Isaiah 41:24); me’ayin – from nothing, from a putrid drop. Me’afa – from the one hundred cries [pe’iyot] that a woman cries while she is seated on the birthing stool, ninety-nine for death and one for life.15She feels as though there is a ninety-nine percent chance she will die. “Abomination shall he choose among you” (Isaiah 41:24).
Even though this baby emerges from his mother’s womb dirty and filthy, covered with mucus and blood, everyone hugs him and kisses him, especially if he is male. Another matter, “behold [hen], you are from nothing” – Rabbi Berekhya said: In Greek hen is one. The Holy One blessed be He said: ‘You are one nation for Me among the nations of the world.’ “From nothing,” from among those in whose regard He wrote: “All the nations are as nothing before Him” (Isaiah 40:17).
“Your actions are for naught [me’afeh]” – Rabbi Levi said: All the good and comforting actions that the Holy One blessed be He is destined to perform on behalf of Israel are only due to the cry that you cried out before Me at Sinai: “Everything that God has spoken we will perform and we will heed” (Exodus 24:7). “Abomination shall he choose among you” – that abomination in whose regard it is written: “They crafted for themselves a molten calf” (Exodus 32:8), from that abomination, bring an offering before Me, as it is stated: “A bull or a sheep.”