This the third of a series of translations from the Bialik-Ravnitzky Sefer Ha-Aggada. Previous selections from the Sefer Ha-Aggada (“Men and Women” and “The Creation”) appeared in the July and January issues.

The Aggada is made up of stories, dialogues, homilies, sayings, proverbs, fables, and riddles scattered through the Mishna and the Jerusalem and Babylonian Talmuds, as well as other sources. The Bialik-Ravnitzky edition of the Aggada, which appeared in six volumes from 1908 onwards, and from which this translation was made, was the fruit of research into the numerous traditional collections of Aggadic sayings by the famous Hebrew poet and his scholarly patron. It was created with the needs of the modern Hebrew-reading and Hebrew-speaking generation in mind and intended as a popular, literary folk-collection rather than an archaeological or scholarly monument. It has become one of the most popular modern Hebrew books. The translation is by Hilda Auerbach.

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And God said, let us make man (Gen. 1:26).

With whom did he take counsel? Said Rabbi Ami: With his heart. This may be compared to a king who built a palace with the aid of an architect, he saw it and it did not please him, to whom should he complain—if not to the architect? Thus, “it grieved him at his heart” (Gen. 6:6).

Said Rabbi Berachyahu: At the time when the Holy One, Blessed Be He, came to create the first man, He saw the wicked and the virtuous proceeding from him, said He: If I create him—the wicked will proceed from him; but if I do not create him—how will the virtuous proceed from him? What did the Holy One, Blessed Be He, do? He removed the wicked ones from the range of His vision and, causing the quality of mercy to participate, He created him.

Said Rav Acha: When the Holy One, Blessed Be He, thought of creating Adam, He consulted with the ministering angels. Said He to them: Let us make Adam. Said they to Him: What will this Adam be like? Said He to them: His wisdom will be greater than yours. What did He do? He gathered together all the cattle and the wild animals and the fowl and made them pass before them. Said He to them: What are their names? And they did not know. After he had created the first man he gathered together all the cattle and all the wild animals and all the fowl and made them pass before him, said He to him: What are their names? Said [Adam]: This should be called an ox, this should be called a donkey, this a horse, this a camel, this a lion, this an eagle, and so forth with all of them. And what is your name? Said he: I should be called Adam. And why? Because I was created of the earth [adamah]. And I, what is my name? Said he: You should be called the Lord. And why? For you are the lord over all of your creatures.

Rabbi Meier used to say: The dust of which the first man was made was gathered from all over the world.

Said Rabbi Levi bar Chayta: If a king of flesh and blood builds himself a palace and puts the sewer in the doorway it is not proper, but if the king of kings of kings, the Holy One, Blessed Be He, created Adam and put his sewer in front—it is his pride and his glory.

For this reason was Adam created alone—to teach us that whoever destroys a single soul in Israel causes it to be said of him: it is as if he had destroyed the whole world, and whoever preserves a soul alive in Israel causes it to be said of him that it is as if he had preserved the whole world; and also for reasons of keeping peace among mankind, so that one man will not say to another: My father is greater than your father; and so that the heretics will not be able to say: There are many powers in heaven; and to proclaim the greatness of the Holy One, Blessed Be He, for if a man stamps several coins with a single stamp they all resemble each other, but when the king of the king of kings, the Holy One, Blessed Be He, stamped each man with the stamp of the first man, then not one of them resembles the other. Thus everyone is bound to say: The world was created for me.

And why do not their faces resemble each other? So that a man, seeing a beautiful dwelling or a beautiful woman, shall not say: That is mine. Said Rabbi Tafdai for Rabbi Acha: The angels were created in the image and the likeness [of God] and they do not increase and multiply, and the earthly creatures increase and multiply but were not created in the image and likeness. Said the Holy One, Blessed Be He: Behold, I shall create him in the image and the likeness, like the angels, but to increase and multiply like the earthly creatures. And Rabbi Tafdai said for Rabbi Acha: Said the Holy One, Blessed Be He: If I create him like the angels he will live and not die, but if I create him like the earthly creatures he will die and not live—therefore behold I shall create him partly like these and partly like those—if he sins, he shall die, if not—he shall live.

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But for adam there was not found any helpmeet for him (Gen. 2:20).

For the cattle and the wild animals and the fowl had been caused to pass before his eyes, pair by pair. Said Adam: They all have partners and I have no partner!

And why did He not create her earlier? This was because the Holy One, Blessed Be He, saw in advance that he would complain about her in the future, therefore He did not create her until he asked for her. As soon as he had asked for her—immediately “And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam” (Gen. 2:21).

Said Rabbi Hanina, son of Rabbi Aidi: as soon as Eve was created, Satan was created with her.

Said the emperor to Rabbi Gamaliel: your God is a thief, for it is said: “And the Lord God caused a deep sleep . . . and he took one of his ribs” (Gen. 2:21). Said his daughter to him: Let him be, for I will answer it. Said she to him [to the emperor]: Let me have a judge. Said he to her: Why should you? [Said she to him]: Robbers fell upon us at night and took a jug of silver from us, leaving us a jug of gold. Said he to her: Would that they would fall upon us every day. [Said she]: And was it not good for the first man when a rib was taken from him and a woman given him to serve him?

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And brought her unto the man (Gen. 2:22).

This teaches us that the Holy One, Blessed Be He, acted the part of the friends who bring the couple to the wedding canopy.

Said Rabbi Yehuda, son of Rabbi Simon: Michael and Gabriel acted as the friends who bring the couple together at the wedding.

Said Rabbi Hama bar Hanina: Do you think that He brought her to him under a carob-tree or a sycamore tree [like any passerby in the field]? Instead, only after he had ornamented her with twenty-four kinds of ornaments did He bring her to him, for so it is said: “Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering” (Ezek. 28:13).

Said Rish-Lakish: From the time of her creation she has always been in a dream.

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Now the serpent was . . . subtil (Gen. 3·1).

The serpent took counsel with himself and said: If I go and say it to Adam—I know that he will not listen to me, for the man is always more difficult to sway; but if I go to Eve, I know that she will listen to me, for women always are more pliable and listen to everyone.

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For God doth know (Gen. 3:5).

Rabbi Yehuda Disikhnin said for Rabbi Levi: He began to calumniate his creator. Said he: He ate of this tree and created the whole world and then He said to you: Thou shalt not eat of it—so that you may not create other worlds, for every craftsman hates his fellows. [And he also said]: Everything that has been created after another creature is lord over that creature, and Adam was created after everything—to be master over everything, go then and eat so that He may not create other worlds to rule over you.

The serpent went and touched the tree with his hands and his feet and shook it so that its fruits dropped to the earth. The tree began to shriek: Wicked one, do not touch me—“Let not the foot of pride come against me, and let not the hand of the wicked remove me” (Ps. 36:11). The serpent went and said to the woman: Behold, I have touched the tree and I have not died, you, too, can touch it and not die. So he pushed her and she touched it Then she saw the angel of death coming towards her and said: Alas for me, now I shall die, and the Holy One, Blessed Be He, will make another woman and give her to Adam. Immediately “she took of the fruit thereof and did eat, and gave also to her husband” (Gen. 3:6). Said Rabbi Ayvu: She squeezed grapes and gave of them to him. Rabbi Simlai said: She came to him deliberately. Said she to him: What think you, that I should die and another Eve be created for you—“there is no new thing under the sun” (Eccles. 1, 8), or that I should die and you sit by yourself at ease—“he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited” (Is. 45:18). Rabanan said: She began howling at him with her voice, thus it is said: “And unto Adam he said: Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife and hast eaten of the tree” (Gen. 3:17).

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And the woman said unto the serpent (Gen. 3:2).

And where was Adam at the same time? Abba bar Guria said: He was sleeping, the scholars say: The Holy One, Blessed Be He, took him around the whole of the earth and said to him: This is a place for planting, this is a place for sowing.

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Cursed is the ground for thy sake (Gen. 3:17)

Why was it cursed? Like a man who says: Cursed are the breasts that nursed you.

Rabbi Yehuda bar Elai said: The fruits [of the tree of life] were grapes. For it is said: “Their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter” (Deut. 32, 33)—those clusters brought bitterness into the world.

Rabbi Yosi said: They were figs. This you may learn from the context This may be likened to the parable of a prince who disgraced himself with one of the serving-maids. When the king heard, he threw him out of the palace and he used to go about from one door to another of the serving-maids and they would not receive him, but that serving-maid with whom he had disgraced himself opened her doors and received him. Thus, when the first man ate of that tree, the Holy One, Blessed Be He, drove him out and expelled him from the garden of Eden and he went about from tree to tree and they would not receive him (and what would they say to him? Said Rabbi Berachyahu: Look at the thief who stole the knowledge of his creator, “Let not the foot of pride come against me,” the foot which set itself up over its creator, and “let not the hand of the wicked remove me,” do not take a leaf from me) but the fig tree of whose fruits he had eaten opened her doors to him and received him, for it is said: “And they sewed fig leaves together” (Gen. 3:7).

They said, for Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi: God forbid, but the Holy One, Blessed Be He, did not reveal and will not reveal that tree to anyone, for He had pity on Adam’s honor.

Our masters taught: The primeval serpent desired what was not proper for him. What he wished for was not given him, and what he had was taken away from him. Said the Holy One, Blessed Be He: I said that he would be king over all the cattle and the wild beasts and now “thou art cursed above all cattle and above every beast of the field” (Gen. 3:14). I said that he would walk erect but now “upon thy belly shalt thou go” (Gen. 3:14). I said sad his food would be like Adam’s food, and now “dust shalt thou eat” (Gen. 3:14). For the serpent had said: I shall kill Adam and take Eve to wife—and now “I will put enmity between thee and the woman” (Gen. 15).

Our masters taught: On the day on which the first man was created, after he saw the sun set he said: Woe is me, because I corrupted the world it is darkened and everything will return to chaos, and this is the death that has been decreed for me from heaven. He was sitting there, fasting and weeping all night and Eve was weeping with him. After the dawn had risen he said: It is merely the way of the world, and he stood up and sacrificed a bull.

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