Parshiyot Va'eira uBo: Let My People Go!

(7) the LORD God formed man from the dust of the earth. He blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being.

(1) וייצר ה' אלוקים את האדם, the word is written with two letters י as is appropriate. We find this fact commented on allegorically in Bereshit Rabbah 14,2 where it is suggested that these two letters י allude to man’s basic urges, contradictory tendencies of either being obedient to G’d or rebelling against His dictates. [there is an obscure reference to two different kinds of development of the fetus before birth, i.e. a seven month pregnancy or a nine month pregnancy respectively, being alluded to by the two letters י. If that is the meaning of the spelling, there is no moral lesson involved here. Ed.] עפר מן האדמה, the Torah here mentions only one of the four raw materials man is made of, seeing it is the predominant one, at least quantitatively, in all land based living creatures as opposed to the creatures whose habitat is the water, whose predominant raw material is the water. In the case of the birds, air is the quantitatively predominant raw material. This fact enables the birds to fly in the air. Mention of the raw material עפר means that this raw material distinguishes man, is the most visible, the result of G’d’s directive to earth to bring forth a lifeless human being beautifully shaped, functional, awaiting only the soul G’d would insert to turn it into a living creature. מן האדמה, the prefix ה was used here to let us know that only the choicest earth was employed in constructing this golem. Man’s body is superior to the bodies of the other mammals that had also been produced by primarily using earth as their raw material. Proof that this claim is correct is the fact that man alone of all the mammals on earth walks upright. The scholar Rabbi Yoseph ben Tzadik (in a book called olam hakatan) writes that we can understand this by comparing pure oil and impure oil respectively supplying a wick with its fuel. When pure oil is used, the flame rises perpendicularly, not flickering from one side to another, whereas when impure, insufficiently refined oil is used, the flame does not rise in an uninterrupted upward motion. Similarly, the fact that man walks upright is a reflection of the purity of the raw material used in his composition. An additional reason why man is able to walk upright is the fact that he contains the soul whose origin is in heaven. This fact would reflect that whatever grows reflects its origin in the manner in which it grows. Seeing that man’s head is his most important part, it being higher than the rest of his body, it is no more than natural that he would walk in a manner which illustrates the superior importance of his head, i.e. walking upright, head held high. By holding his head high, he symbolically points toward heaven, his origin. (2) ויפח באפיו נשמת חיים, G’d blew into man some of the spirit prevailing in the highest regions on earth. Whereas the life force of the animals is described as נפש חיים, something abstract but originating in physical earth, man’s life force is called here נשמה, to alert us to the fact that the origin of this life force is not physical, has not been supplied by earth, in fact could not have been supplied by earth. Our verse illustrates what G’d had meant when He had announced that man would be בצלמנו כדמותנו, “in Our image, Our likeness.” (1,24). This is so in spite of the fact that sometimes man is equipped additionally with רוח and נפש. The expression נשמה is reserved exclusively for describing man, whereas the other two expressions, describing non-tangible animalistic forms of energy called “life-force,” are shared by man and beast. You may argue that the Torah describes all of the living creatures by invoking the term נשמה in Genesis 7,22. We are told there: כל אשר נשמת רוח חיים באפיו וגו', “every creature which had the soul and spirit of life in its nostrils… died.” We must understand that verse as meaning that man who possessed both a נשמה as well as רוח חיים, died.” (3) באפיו, all land-based living creatures, man as well as mammals, need the nose to breathe, i.e. to stay alive. It is the organ through which cold air enters man from the outside and blows on the heart. It is also the organ through which the air exits after it has performed its task. The air exiting through the nostrils is the one left over after digestion, having previously nestled around the warmth of the heart. It (the heart’s task) is divided into three parts as the biologists and anthropologists have told us. It comprises growth potential, sensitivity i.e. ability to move, and the ability to think. (4) ויהי האדם לנפש חיה, man now appeared similar to other living creatures that move on their feet, propelled by the נפש, life-force which becomes active as soon as the baby leaves the mother’s womb. Original man is described here as fully mature, not like subsequent human beings who were born by woman, and who could not walk, etc., as soon as they were born. The reason why he could walk immediately was because he was created as a grown up, did not have to grow from being an infant first. The weakness of human beings at birth, and therefore their inability to walk from birth, etc., stems from the fact that while in the womb, the nourishment provided by the mother’s menstrual blood is impure, unlike the animal young who had shared the same food as their respective mothers while inside the womb. This is why these animals are practically able to fend for themselves soon after they have been born. [mobility, i.e. the ability of moving about on its own is considered a crucial part of the definition נפש חיה being a living creature. Ed.] Both Adam and Chavah resembled the animals in that respect, never having been fed polluted food. This is the reason why our verse uses the term לנפש חיה, to alert the reader that the first pair of human beings was different from subsequent humans in that they were fully developed as soon as they could breathe.
As to Onkelos’ translation of נפש חיה, as רוח ממללא, “talking spirit,” a well known commentary, perhaps the way we have to understand his commentary is that only after G’d blew the נשמה into Adam’s nostrils did he become a creature that could express his feelings and thoughts in words. It is also possible to interpret the expressionויהי האדם לנפש חיה, as man now becoming capable to possess eternal life by being directly connected to the source of eternal life. The words לנפש חיה are to be contrasted to נפש מתה, a life force which is mortal, i.e. which dies as soon as its body dies.

(15) Everything is foreseen yet freedom of choice is granted, And the world is judged with goodness; And everything is in accordance with the preponderance of works.

(1) Every man was endowed with a free will; if he desires to bend himself toward the good path and to be just it is within the power of his hand to reach out for it, and if he desires to bend himself to a bad path and to be wicked it is within the power of his hand to reach out for it. This is known from what it is written in the Torah, saying: "Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil" (Gen. 3.22), that is as if saying: "Behold, this species, man, stands alone in the world, and there is no other kind like him, as regards this subject of being able of his own accord, by his reason and thought, to know the good and the evil, and to do whatever his inclination dictates him with none to stay his hand from either doing good or evil; and, being that he is so, 'Lest he put forth his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever'" (Ibid.)

(21) And the LORD said to Moses, “When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the marvels that I have put within your power. I, however, will stiffen his heart so that he will not let the people go.

(35) So Pharaoh’s heart stiffened and he would not let the Israelites go, just as the LORD had foretold through Moses.

(20) But the LORD stiffened Pharaoh’s heart, and he would not let the Israelites go.

(27) But the LORD stiffened Pharaoh’s heart and he would not agree to let them go.

(3) But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, that I may multiply My signs and marvels in the land of Egypt.

(2) Another word came in the morning; the Holy One, blessed be He, said to him, saying: this wicked one [Pharaoh] hardened his heart against the first three signs and the fourth plague hardened him....

(1) ואני אקשה AND I WILL ALLOW [PHARAOH’S HEART] TO HARDEN — Since he has wickedly resisted Me, and it is manifest to Me that the heathen nations find no spiritual satisfaction in setting their whole heart to return to Me penitently, it is better that his heart should be hardened in order that My signs may be multiplied against him so that ye may recognise My divine power. Such, indeed, is the method of the Holy One, blessed be He: He brings punishment upon the nations so that Israel may hear of it and fear Him, as it is said, (Zephaniah 3:6, 3:7) “I have cut off nations, their corners are desolate etc. … I said: Surely thou wilt fear Me, thou wilt receive correction” (cf. Yevamot 63a). Nevertheless, in the case of the first five plagues it is not stated, “The Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart” but “Pharaoh’s heart was hardened” (Midrash Tanchuma, Vaera 3).

(11) But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he became stubborn and would not heed them, as the LORD had spoken.

(28) But Pharaoh became stubborn this time also, and would not let the people go.

(34) But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he became stubborn and reverted to his guilty ways, as did his courtiers.

(1) Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh. For I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his courtiers, in order that I may display these My signs among them,