Shabbat Parashat Vayishlach 5779

Ein Ayah: The Wisdom of Creation and Connecting between Its Parts

Gemara: Nothing that Hashem created in His world was for naught. … He created: a fly [to heal one who was stung by] a wasp; a mosquito for [one who was bitten by] a snake; a snake for [one who is afflicted by] boils; and a samamit for [one who was bitten by] a scorpion.

Ein Ayah: The totality of creation was created with wisdom, for a lofty divine purpose, which is far greater than the creation itself. Indeed it is normal that the purpose of something of value is more significant than the means that enabled it to come to fruition.

Similarly, divine wisdom is found in the depth of the smallest details of a subset of the creation. There is no need to attribute anything to something that needed to be for a reason outside of the framework of the general divine wisdom that relates to the details. While we may see cause and effect relationships that connect one occurrence to another, it is that the seemingly necessary connection was actually designed as part of the divine wisdom. A lofty intellectual, moral matter is a partner in all such existence. Therefore, there is not even a small thing that has no purpose that can be related to the power of creation other than to the elements of divine wisdom and mercy. This is what the gemara means by saying that nothing was created for naught. “How great are those things that You made; You made them all with wisdom; the world is filled with Your possessions” (Tehillim 104:24).

Related things are connected by means of belonging to a unified broad category of objects. The fly and the wasp are sufficiently part of one category so that one provides the antidote to the damaging power of the other. Sometimes the lower realm is connected to the upper realm of the creation of a species.

A mosquito is a most tiny creature which is at the bottom of the hierarchy of living things. The gemara speaks of it being something that ingests but does not eliminate in a normal manner. In contrast, a snake was created at the highest rung of the animal world, just that it lost from its stature due to its involvement in the sin of Adam and Chava. The low and the high are connected to take away from the danger presented by one of them.

Snakes have qualities that connect them to boils (see Bereishit Rabba 20:4), and snakes are able to relieve some of the suffering from boils. The samamit relates to the scorpion as being opposites. The scorpion causes damage without doing so purposely, but its poison is expelled as it walks. The samamit waits and plans for a long time to trap its prey.

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