Adam's Despair, Miriam's Hope, and the Fast Days that Connect Them

(3) The main thing is to encourage oneself in every way possible {for there is no such thing as despair! (What he said was: Kein yiush iz gor nit fahr-handin !) He drew out these words Kein yiush…, and said them emphatically and with very amazing and awesome depth, in order to instruct and hint to each and every person throughout the generations not to despair under any circumstances, no matter what happens to him.} And be what may, even if one has fallen to where he has fallen, God spare us, since he encourages himself with something, he still has hope of repenting and returning to God.

1. This is a book of human generations; On the day of God’s creation of the human, It made it in God’s likeness. 2. It made them male and female; It blessed them and called their name Adam/human on the day of their creation. 3. Adam [Adam?] lived one hundred thirty years and begat in its [his?] likeness according to its [his?] image. It [He?] called his name Seth.

Rabbi Yirmeya ben Elazar said: All those years during which Adam was under the ban, he bore spirits, male demons, and female demons, as it is stated: “And Adam lived a hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness, after his image, ” (Genesis 5:3). By inference, until now, he did not bear after his image.

It was taught: Amram was the great man of his generation. Once he saw that the wicked Pharaoh said: “Every son that is born you shall cast into the river," he said: We are laboring for nothing. So he arose and divorced his wife. So everyone arose and divorced their wives. His daughter said to him: "Father, your decree is more harsh than that of Pharaoh, as Pharaoh decreed only with regard to the males, but you decreed regarding both the males and the females. Pharaoh's decree is only regarding this world, but yours is regarding this world and the World-to-Come. The decree of wicked Pharaoh might be fulfilled, or might not be fulfilled. You are a righteous person, and your decrees will certainly be fulfilled, as it is stated: 'You shall also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto you' (Job 22:28)." He [Amram] arose and remarried, his wife, and all the others arose and remarried their wives.

For she was one hundred thirty years old at the time Moses was born. How is that? Since Yocheved was born between the [border] walls at the time the Israelites descended to Egypt, she was included in the count of those who went down to Egypt, as it is said (Genesis 46:15): "All the persons among his sons and daughters amounted to thirty-three." You find that the total is given as thirty-three, but you find only thirty-two individuals enumerated. Why? Because Yocheved was born between the walls and was among those who descended to Egypt. We wouldn't know that she was born in Egypt, but given that her name isn't mentioned among those arriving, it must be telling you that she was born born in Egypt between the walls, at the moment they entered Egypt, but she hadn't been conceived in Egypt. Now go calculate: It was one hundred thirty years from the day our ancestors descended to Egypt until the day Moses was born: They were in Egypt for 210 (רד"ו) years. From where is that derived? It is said (Genesis 42:3), "Descend (רדו) there." Subtract from that the eighty years Moses had lived when Israel left Egypt, and one hundred thirty remain. So we learn the Yocheved was one hundred thirty years old at the time Moses was born.

"The woman conceived": Behold Yocheved was a reincarnation-soul of Eve. And so, just as Adam separated from Eve for a hundred thirty years until Seth, who is a reincarntion-soul of Moses, was born, so Amram separated from his wife for a hundred thirty years until begetting Moses.

And this is the quality of Shovavi”m, when those who are fit have the custom of fasting and crying out to blessed God with prayers and penitential liturgy. For in this season, we read in the Torah about the exile in Egypt, and their redemption, which came through their crying out, as written above. And we need to do the same now in this exile, as written above. And so: “Return, wayward children – shuvu banim shovavim” (Jeremiah 3:14, 22), for the essence of troubles and exiles – may the Compassionate One save us from them – is in a lack of knowing, which is the quality of the wayward, when everyone goes around in the world like a literally crazy wayward person, as it is said (Isaiah 57:17), “The went wayward on their [own] heart’s path.” And when a person understands all this about themselves, how they are wayward and literally crazy, because they follow the stubbornness [or: imagination] of their heart and don’t pay attention to the eternal end-point, they will certainly have pity on themselves and do a lot of crying out to blessed God, and in that way will merit, in accord with their own qualities, to understanding and knowledge, which are the essence of the means to redemption generally and specifically, for each person and each time, as is written above.