(8) איש
'Man.' R. Simon b.
Johai saw in Prov. 15. 23 שמחה לאיש (joy to a man), an allusion to God, cf.
Exod. 15. 3.65 R. Joshua b. Levi sees in Gen. 43. 14 לפני האיש the name of God.
'The brethren stood before their heavenly Judge.' Interesting is R. Aha's
sermon, who says: 'When Israel went into exile the nations of the world greatly
rejoiced that Israelites were driven from their places. It does not say נורי
(thou shalt move), but נורו (ye shall move). They (the nations of the world)
spoke against God (כלפי מעלה) and Israel (בלפי מטה). Like as a bird is moving
from its nest, so a man (God) wanders from his place' (Prov. 27. 8). Nahum, the
son of Simai, preached in Tarsus on Exod. 12.3 ויקחו להם איש: ‘Take God
unto you. By performing the duty of sacrificing the Paschal lamb the Israelite
draws near to God.' This extraordinary homiletical contribution seems to be
directed against Christological conceptions of the Paschal lamb, and it is
rather a curious coincidence that it should have been delivered in Paul's
native place! We find similar expositions of Biblical verses, which are
most instructive instances of the allegorical methods and sermons of the
Palestinian preachers. We mention here some of them. On Num. 5. 12 a preacher
remarks: 'The faithless woman commits a sin against God (איש של מעלה) and
against her husband (איש של מטה). Others apply Num. 15. 24 to explain Israel
and God's mutual relation. A third preacher combines Num. 11. 16 with Prov. 22.
11. ‘Why does the text say שבעים איש and not שבעים אישים? They shall be similar
to God and Moses, both of whom are called איש' (v. Exod. 15. 3 and Num. 12. 3).
A fourth teacher dwells on Num. 19. 9. ואמף 'God, who gathered the exiles of
Israel'(cf. Isa. 11.12) ,איש 'God'(cf. Exod. 15.3),טהור 'God' (cf. Hab. 1. 13),
shall gather ' the ashes of the heifer, i.e. the exiles of Israel, and lay them
without the camp in a clean place, i.e. Jerusalem.' A fifth preacher saw in ברו
לכם איש (1 Sam. 17. 8) 'choose unto you a man', i.e. God. Further, we find that
Isa. 2. 9; וישפל איש, was expounded as the humiliation of God by the sins of
His creatures. As a characteristic instance shall be quoted a homily on Exod.
21. 7, where איש 'the man is God', בתו 'his daughter', the Torah, לאמה 'to
Israel'. All these and other77 homilies are based on Exod. 15. 3. The old
Tannaites asked already: ' Is it possible to speak thus of God? Behold, the
Heavens and the earth do I fill, saith the Lord' (Jer. 23. 24, cf. Isa. 6.3, 2
Chron. 6. 18, and Ezek. 43. 2). Owing to His love of Israel, Israel's holiness,
does God sanctify His name through Israel, as it is said: 'For I am God, and
not man' (Hos. 11.9). We have plenty of evidence at our disposal to prove
that this Midrash belongs to the school of R. Ishmael, who were averse to
anthropomorphic explanations of R. Akiba's method, and consequently objected to
and opposed the identification of איש with God. (Arthur Marmorstein, The
Old Rabbinic Doctrine of God, 2 vols. [Jews’ College Publications 10; Oxford:
Oxford University Press; London: Humphrey Milford, 1927], 1:65-67, emphasis in
bold added)
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