Bereshit Rabbah

English

Rav Huna began in the name of bar Kapara: “May they be silenced [te’alamna], those lying lips [that speak harsh words against the righteous one with arrogance and contempt]” (Psalms 31:19) – may they be bound up, may they become mute, may they be silenced. May they become mute – as it says: “Who gives a mouth to a person, or who renders one mute [ilem] or deaf, or sighted or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?” (Exodus 4:11). And [may they be bound up,] as it says: “Behold, we were binding [me’alemim] sheaves in the field and behold, my sheaf arose” (Genesis 37:7). May they be silenced – that is its plain sense. “That speak…against the Righteous One” (Psalms 31:19) – [this refers to] Him of eternal life. “Harsh words [atak]” (Psalms 31:19) – matters that He concealed [shehe’etik] from His creations. “With arrogance” (Psalms 31:19) – this is an expression of bewilderment: [Do they do this] in order to boast arrogantly: I am expounding the act of Creation? “And contempt” (Psalms 31:19) – this [too] is an expression of bewilderment: Is it in order to show contempt for My honor? As Rabbi Yosei bar Ḥanina said: Anyone who attains honor through the degradation of another person has no portion in the World to Come; how much more so is this so regarding the honor of the Omnipresent. What is written following this? “How great is the goodness You have in store for those who fear You” (Psalms 31:20) – for those who fear You, but not for those who demean the [awesome] fear of You. They will not be included in: “How great is the goodness.”

The Sefaria Midrash Rabbah, 2022 · sefaria-midrash-rabbah

Hebrew / Aramaic

Bereshit Rabbah 1:5, first half (Vilna numbering) · cc-by-sa

Notes

A curse on the expositors, at the head of the commentary that expounds it. Rav Huna in the name of Bar Kappara takes Ps 31:19, 'may they be silenced, those lying lips that speak against the righteous one with arrogance and contempt', and reads every word of it against people doing what Bereshit Rabbah is doing: may they be bound, may they be made mute, may they be silenced; 'against the Righteous One' means him of eternal life; 'harsh words' means matters he concealed from his creatures; 'with arrogance' — is it in order to boast, I am expounding the work of creation? 'and contempt' — is it in order to show contempt for my honour? And R. Yose bar Ḥanina's rule follows: anyone who attains honour through another's degradation has no portion in the world to come, and how much more so where the honour is the Omnipresent's. The section that says this is section five of a commentary that runs to a hundred sections on this book. Slice note: K4 built the palace parable that follows as `br-1-5b`; this is the half before it.

Threads

• → echoes · the Mishnah
  The Mishnah restricts the audience and the midrash curses the motive. Rav Huna in the name of Bar Kappara reads Ps 31:19 against those who speak 'with arrogance' — is it in order to boast, I am expounding the work of creation? — and 'with contempt', for the honour of the Maker. The Mishnah's closing clause is the same: whoever has no care for the honour of his Maker, it were fitting he had not come into the world.
• → echoes · Bereshit Rabbah
  Two fences in one chapter of the same commentary, five sections apart, and both about the same book they are introducing: a curse on those who expound the work of creation for their own honour, and a letter shaped so that the questions before and behind may not be put. Bereshit Rabbah opens by making the case against itself twice.
• ← contests · Augustine
  Both texts stand at the head of an exposition of Genesis 1 and both are about who should be doing the expounding. Bereshit Rabbah: may they be silenced, may they be made mute — is it in order to boast, I am expounding the work of creation? Augustine: since the Manichees pursue the learned and the unlearned alike, the reply must be made not in ornate and polished speech but in plain facts, and educated friends warned him kindly that his earlier books could not be followed by ordinary readers. One tradition's answer to a wide audience is to restrict the teaching; the other's is to change the prose.
• ← contests · Peter Comestor
  The most complete opposition on the daf, and neither text knows the other exists. Comestor's Scripture is a dining-hall in which the Emperor makes his own drunk so as to render them sober, with a threefold curriculum built on it and a book to follow. Bereshit Rabbah's fifth section curses those who expound the work of creation for their own honour and reserves the concealed matters to the Righteous One. One tradition institutionalises the exposition; the other keeps warning itself against it — and both then produce the exposition anyway.