Sin death and beyond
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
SIN, DEATH AND BEYOND: M.M.NINAN<br />
But the old haggadists loved especially to dwell on the glory of God's first-created before his<br />
fall. He was "like one of the angels" (Slavonic Book of Enoch, xxx. 11; compare Christian Book<br />
of Adam, i. 10; also Papias in Gen. R. xxi.; Pirḳe R. El. xii.; Ex. R. xxxii.; Targ. Yer. Gen. iii. 22).<br />
"His body reached from earth to heaven [or from one end of the world to the other] before sin<br />
caused him to sink" (Ḥag. 12a, Sanh. 38b; compare also Philo, "Creation of the World," ed.<br />
Mangey, i. 33, 47). (This is referring to the dimensions of the cosmos from material to divine)<br />
"In Shaar HaGilgulim, the Ari explains that Adam had a universal soul (neshamah klalit) that<br />
included [aspects of] all creation [i.e. every individual angel <strong>and</strong> every individual animal - all<br />
were asked to give an essence part of themselves to Adam; only as a miniature reflection of<br />
the entire universe could he be connected to all creation, <strong>and</strong> either elevate it or lower it...]. His<br />
soul also included all the souls of mankind in a higher- unity. This is why even one action on<br />
his part could have such a powerful effect. After he ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good<br />
<strong>and</strong> Evil, his soul fragmented into thous<strong>and</strong>s of thous<strong>and</strong>s of sparks (fragments <strong>and</strong> fragments<br />
of fragments) which subsequently became clothed/incarnated in every single human being that<br />
was ever born <strong>and</strong> is alive now."( http://www.projectmind.org/exoteric/souls.html)<br />
"He was of extreme beauty <strong>and</strong> sunlike brightness" (B. B. 58a).<br />
2
Change language