Lessons from the Ground and the Luminaries
After this yesod, I would like to address another wonderful idea that the Alter of Kelm discusses. R’ Simcha Zissel Ziv examines three places in the Torah and tries to understand their significance. The first, when man ate from the Eitz HaDa’at – the Tree of Knowledge and was cursed. The Torah says:
The soil will be cursed because of you; in sorrow you shall eat from it all the days of your life. Rashi writes, the earth will produce cursed things for you, such as flies, fleas, and ants.
The question arises, however – why does it say the soil will be cursed and not that man will be cursed? What does the ground care about what it produces – whether fleas and ants, or kiwi and mango?! According to the Alter of Kelm, from here we learn a yesod, that if the ground wants to give and is able to give, but does not give what it can – it is cursed!
The Gemara in Massechet Sukkah (29a) says:
Rabbi Meir says: When the heavenly lights [the sun and moon] are eclipsed, it is a bad omen for the enemies of the Jewish people [a euphemism for the Jewish people] because they are experienced in their beatings.
Similar to what we asked about the ground’s curse, when the luminaries – i.e., the sun and moon – are eclipsed, nothing happens to them! They are there, in their entirety, but simply hidden from us. The Alter of Kelm says, we learn here that if they cannot give what they’re equipped and able to, they are, in a negative context, considered eclipsed!
Additionally, when the Egyptians come to Yosef and ask him for seeds to plant in the ground, they say to him:
Why should we die before your eyes, both we and our land? Buy us, and our land, in exchange for bread. We and our land will become slaves to Pharaoh. Give us seed grain, let us live and not die, and let the land not become desolate.
The question arises – can the ground really die?! Once again, the Alter of Kelm says, the Egyptians were in essence saying to Yosef: "If the ground does not give what it can give – it is considered dead!" These are all the wonderful words of the Alter of Kelm.
