Adam and Chanukah by: Devora Steinmetz (Copy)

(15) I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your offspring and hers;
They shall strike at your head,
And you shall strike at their heel.” (16) And to the woman He said,
“I will make most severe
Your pangs in childbearing;
In pain shall you bear children.
Yet your urge shall be for your husband,
And he shall rule over you.” (17) To Adam He said, “Because you did as your wife said and ate of the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’
Cursed be the ground because of you;
By toil shall you eat of it
All the days of your life: (18) Thorns and thistles shall it sprout for you.
But your food shall be the grasses of the field; (19) By the sweat of your brow
Shall you get bread to eat,
Until you return to the ground—
For from it you were taken.
For dust you are,
And to dust you shall return.”

(1) For the leader. Of David. A psalm.

O LORD, You have examined me and know me. (2) When I sit down or stand up You know it;
You discern my thoughts from afar. (3) You observe^-a my walking and reclining,
and are familiar with all my ways. (4) There is not a word on my tongue
but that You, O LORD, know it well. (5) You hedge me before and behind;
You lay Your hand upon me. (6) It is beyond my knowledge;
it is a mystery; I cannot fathom it. (7) Where can I escape from Your spirit?
Where can I flee from Your presence? (8) If I ascend to heaven, You are there;
if I descend to Sheol, You are there too. (9) If I take wing with the dawn
to come to rest on the western horizon, (10) even there Your hand will be guiding me,
Your right hand will be holding me fast. (11) If I say, “Surely darkness will conceal me,
night will provide me with cover,”^-b (12) darkness is not dark for You;
night is as light as day;
darkness and light are the same. (13) It was You who created my conscience;
You fashioned me in my mother’s womb. (14) I praise You,
for I am awesomely, wondrously made;
Your work is wonderful;
I know it very well. (15) My frame was not concealed from You
when I was shaped in a hidden place,
knit together in the recesses of the earth. (16) Your eyes saw my unformed limbs;
they were all recorded in Your book;
in due time they were formed,
to the very last one of them.^-a (17) How weighty Your thoughts seem to me, O God,
how great their number! (18) I count them—they exceed the grains of sand;
I end—but am still with You.
(19) O God, if You would only slay the wicked—
you murderers, away from me!— (20) who invoke You for intrigue,
Your enemies who swear by You falsely.^-a (21) O LORD, You know I hate those who hate You,
and loathe Your adversaries. (22) I feel a perfect hatred toward them;
I count them my enemies.
(23) Examine me, O God, and know my mind;
probe me and know my thoughts. (24) See if I have vexatious ways,
and guide me in ways everlasting.

GEMARA: Rav Ḥanan bar Rava says: When are these festivals celebrated? Kalenda is celebrated during the eight days after the winter solstice, and Saturnalia is celebrated during the eight days before the winter solstice. And your mnemonic to remember which festival is that the one that occurs after the solstice is mentioned first in the mishna, and the festival that takes place before the solstice is mentioned after, as in the verse: “You have hemmed me in behind and before, and laid Your Hand upon me” (Psalms 139:5), where the word “before” appears after the term “behind.” With regard to the dates of these festivals, the Sages taught: When Adam the first man saw that the day was progressively diminishing, as the days become shorter from the autumnal equinox until the winter solstice, he did not yet know that this is a normal phenomenon, and therefore he said: Woe is me; perhaps because I sinned the world is becoming dark around me and will ultimately return to the primordial state of chaos and disorder. And this is the death that was sentenced upon me from Heaven, as it is written: “And to dust shall you return” (Genesis 3:19). He arose and spent eight days in fasting and in prayer. Once he saw that the season of Tevet, i.e., the winter solstice, had arrived, and saw that the day was progressively lengthening after the solstice, he said: Clearly, the days become shorter and then longer, and this is the order of the world. He went and observed a festival for eight days. Upon the next year, he observed both these eight days on which he had fasted on the previous year, and these eight days of his celebration, as days of festivities. He, Adam, established these festivals for the sake of Heaven, but they, the gentiles of later generations, established them for the sake of idol worship.

[The following dialogue, one of many, is reported in the name of R. Yosi ben Halafta, one of the Mishnah’s most prominent sages, and an unnamed Roman woman of rank.] Rabbi Yehudah bar Simon began: "God returns the solitary ones homeward" (Psalms 68:7). A Roman Matron asked Rabbi Yosi ben Halafta, "In how many days did God create the world?" He said, "In six, as it is said, 'Since six days God made...' (Exodus 20:11) "And since then," she asked, "what has God been doing?" "God sits [on the Heavenly Throne] and makes matches: the daughter of this one to that one, the wife [i.e. widow] of this one to that one, the money of this one to that one," responded R. Yosi. "And for merely this you believe in Him!" she said. "Even I can do that. I have many slaves, both male and female. In no time at all, I can match them for marriage." R. Yosi, "Though this may be an easy thing for you to do, for God it is as difficult as splitting the Sea of Reeds." Whereupon, Rabbi Yosi took his leave. What did she do? The Matron lined up a thousand male and a thousand female slaves and said you marry you, and married them all off that night. The next day, one slave had his head bashed in, another had lost an eye, while a third hobbled because of a broken leg. She said to them: "What happened to you?" and they each said to her: "I don't want this one" [with whom you matched me]." Immediately, she sent for and summoned R. Yosi and she said: "There is no God like your God, and your Torah is true, pleasing and praiseworthy. You spoke wisely." He said to her, "Didn't I tell you, if it appears easy in your eyes, it is difficult for the Holy One Blessed Be He like splitting the sea." "What do you think? That The Holy One Blessed Be He, is marrying them against their will but not for their benefit?!?" This is why it states "God returns the solitary ones homeward, and brings out the chained ones with their bindings" (Psalms 58:7) What is binding (Kosharot), Crying (Bechi) and sing (Shirot). The one who wants [their spouse] sings, the one who doesn't want their spouse cries. Rabbi Brekhya said, like this R' Yosi bar Tahlafta responded, "the Holy One Blessed Be He sits and makes ladders, lowers for this and raises for that one, lowers this one raises that one. As it says 'God judges - this one laid low, this one raised (Psalms 75, 8)', there are those who walk to their partner and those whose partner walks to them: Yitzchak's partner came to him, as it says, 'Isaac went out to speak in the field' (Genesis 24, 63) and Yaakov went to his partner, as it says 'Yaakov went out from Be'er Sheva' (Genesis 28, 10)"

(6) And if any person turns to ghosts and familiar spirits and goes astray after them, I will set My face against that person, whom I will cut off from among the people.