Rabbi Bachya ben Asher (Rabbeinu Bachya)
Rabbi Bachya ben Asher, popularly known as Rabbeinu Bachya or Bechaya, was a student of the Rashba and served as
dayan (rabbinical judge) in Saragossa, Spain. He gained immortal fame through his Torah commentary
Midrash Rabbeinu Bachya, which is studied and quoted widely to this day. Its popularity is evident by the fact that it has been reprinted more than twenty-five times. At least ten commentaries have been written on his work, most recently a commentary by Rabbi Chaim Dov Chavel.
Rabbeinu Bachya introduces the weekly Torah portions with a discourse on ethics, based on a verse from Mishlei. He then expounds the text according to the four methods of interpretation: peshat, the plain, rational meaning; derash, midrashic, homiletic exegesis; remez, philosophic allusions; and sod, Kabbalistic interpretation. In his profound Kabbalistic insights he often quotes the Ramban and the Zohar.
Rabbeinu Bachya also wrote Kad HaKemach on ethics, faith, and the observance of the mitzvos. A great Kabbalist, he wrote Ohel Moed, a penetrating commentary on Sefer Yetzirah.
Selections from Kabbalistic Portions of Rabbeinu Bachya’s Torah Commentary
Why Do People Hate Snakes?
God said to the serpent, ... “I will plant hatred between you and the woman....” (Bereishis 3:15)
Why do people loathe snakes more than they detest other reptiles? In the above verse Scripture is hinting at the mystical idea that the body of the cunning snake was the instrument that brought punishment on man. The snake has the tendency to infect people with its innate [satanic] power. That’s how it provoked Chavah to sin, and because of that, death was decreed on her offspring. That is the source of the hatred between the snake and Chavah’s descendants.
And that is the reason why the snake is called saraf, “the fiery serpent,” as it says, “[When the people in the wilderness spoke out against God,] God sent the fiery serpents, [and they bit the people]” (Bemidbar 21:6). These snakes were offshoots of the primeval serpent [in Gan Eden].
This explains why God said to the serpent, “Man will pound your head, and you will bite his heel” (Bereishis 3:15). Man should be quick to overcome his innate “serpent” [i.e., his yetzer hara] and crush it; otherwise, “you will bite his heel.” If man does not squash his yetzer hara, it will strike him in the heel and kill him. The heel [the end of the foot] is a metaphor for death [the end of life]. You surely know that our Sages say that the serpent, Satan, the yetzer hara, and the Angel of Death are one and the same (Bava Basra 16a).
The Mitzvah of Circumcision
My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. (Bereishis 17:13)
The deeper meaning is that “My covenant in your flesh” shall be an embodiment of the everlasting covenant [of the Sefirah of Yesod, which is the sixth of the seven lower Sefiros]. The Sefirah of Yesod is associated with the verse, “A tzaddik is the foundation [yesod] of the world” (Mishlei 10:25).
It is also described as “an eternal salt-like covenant” (Bemidbar 18:19), for [just as salt preserves food], this covenant sustains the world.
It could have said, “My covenant shall be in your flesh forever.” Instead it says, “for an everlasting covenant.” This “everlasting covenant” refers to the mystical covenant [Yesod, symbolized by the male organ] which is situated between the thighs, namely, the two Sefiros: Netzach and Hod. [In the human body, the male organ is the symbol of Yesod.] The Kabbalists find an allusion to Yesod in the verse, “He did not remember the hadom of His feet on the day of His wrath” (Eichah 2:1). They say that hadom [usually translated “footstool”] refers to the [Sefirah of Yesod, the male organ] that is between the feet. [The letters of hadom: hei, dalet, vav, and mem can be rearranged to read middah vav, “the sixth Sefirah,” i.e., Yesod.]
Yesod is directly above Malchus. In man, the counterparts of Yesod and Malchus [i.e., the male and female organ] are separated by the periah membrane. For that reason the halachah rules: If the milah (circumcision) was performed without removing the periah membrane, the milah is invalid (Shabbos 137b). The right way to perform the mitzvah of milah is to remove both [the foreskin and the periah membrane], for thereby the complete union [between Yesod and Malchus] is achieved.
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