Gene Therapy: The Role of the Patriarchs

(3) And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because on it God ceased from all the work of creation that He had created in making.

(1) that the Lord created in making: But it appears to me, that its understanding is that He rested from all of His work that He had created, ex nihilo, to make from it all of the creations mentioned in the first six days... And you should know that also included in the word, "to make" is that the six days of creation are all of the days of the world - since their duration will be six thousand years (Rosh Hashanah 31a) - as it is for this reason that they say that the day of the Holy One, blessed be He, is a thousand years (Bereishit Rabbah 19:8). And behold, on the first two days the whole world was water and nothing was completed on them, and they hint to the first two thousand years of chaos (tohu), in which there was not one who called in the name of God. And so did they say (Avodah Zarah 9a), "Two thousand years of chaos." But as there was the creation of light on the first day, it corresponds to the thousand years of Adam - who was the light of the world, recognizing his Creator. And maybe Enosh did not worship idolatry until Adam died. On the second day, "Let there be a firmament and let it divide" (Genesis 1:6) - as on it, Noach and his righteous children became separated from the evildoers that were judged with water. On the third day, the dry land appeared and grew vegetation and produced fruit - that is the third millennium that started when Avraham was forty-eight years old (Bereishit Rabbah 48b) - and "then began the calling in the name of the Lord" (Genesis 4:26), and 'a righteous sprout' grew; since he pulled many to know the Lord, as they expounded [about] "and the souls that they had made in Charan" (Genesis 12:5). And he commanded 'his household and his children after him that they keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice.' And the matter advanced to the point that his seed received the Torah at Sinai. And the first Temple was built on that day, and they kept all of the commandments, which are the fruits of the world. And you should know that twilight is considered like the next day, and so the matter of each day begins slightly before it; as when Avraham is born at the end of the second day. And so you will see with each and every day. And on the fourth day, the big and small luminaries (the sun and the moon) and the stars were created. Its day hints to the fourth millennium, which is the one that begins when the first Temple was [already] built for seventy-two years until one hundred and seventy-two years after the second Temple. And behold, on this day 'there was light for all of the Children of Israel,' 'since the glory of God filled the House of the Lord' and the light of Israel was like a fire on top of the altar, crouching there like a lion eating the sacrifices. And afterward, their light diminished and they were exiled, [such] as [the light] disappears at the beginning of the [cycle of the] moon. And it shone for them all the days of the second Temple, and the fire on top of the altar was like a dog crouching. And the two luminaries set at the evening of the day, and the Temple was destroyed. On the fifth day, the waters swarmed with living animals and flying birds upon the earth. It hints to the fifth millennium that begins one hundred and seventy-two years after the destruction of Temple; since to it were the nations of the world compared, and man was made 'to be like the fish of the sea, like the crawling animals that none rules over - they bring it all up with a hook, they catch them with a net, and gather them with a drag.' And there is no one that seeks the Lord. On the sixth day in the morning, "Let the earth bring forth the living creature after its kind, animals and creeping things, and beast of the earth after its kind" (Genesis 1:24) - and its creation was before the shining of the sun, as the matter that is written (Psalms 104:22), "The sun shines and they gather, and crouch in their dens." And then man was created in the image of God, and that is the time of his rulership, as it states (Psalms 104:23), "Man goes out to his labor and to his work until the evening." And that is the sixth millennium, since in its beginning, the beasts rule in it - these are the kingdoms that did not know God... The seventh day is Shabbat. It hints to the world to come, which is completely Shabbat and rest for eternal life. And may God guard us in all of the days and place our portion with His innocent servants (those do not try to divine the future).

(1) And there was famine in the land (Gen. 12:10) – behold, Avraham went down to Egypt due to hunger, to live there temporarily in order to save his life in the days of drought, and the Egyptians exploited him without cause to get his wife, and the Holy One of Blessing avenged them with great afflictions, and brought him out from there with cattle, silver and gold, and Pharaoh had commanded men to send him. And it is a hint from (Avraham), since his children went down to Egypt because of hunger to live temporarily in the land, and the Egyptians did evil to them and took their wives, as it says (Exodus 1:22) And every (baby) girl you shall let live, and the Holy One of Blessing avenged them with great afflictions until they were taken out (laden) with silver and gold and sheep and cattle, with many possessions, and they (Egyptians) pressed them to be gone from the land. Not a single incident that befell the father didn't befall the children. And this matter is explained in Bereshit Rabbah 8:6: "Rabi Pinchas said in the name of Rabbi Oshaya - The Holy One said to Avraham: ‘Go and conquer the way for your children.’ And you find that everything that was written regarding Avraham was also written regarding his descendants: regarding Avraham it is written and there was famine in the land, regarding Israel it is written (Genesis 45:6) this is already two years of famine in all the land."...

In relation to the discussion on the calculation of years, the Gemara states that one of the Sages of the school of Eliyahu taught: The world is destined to exist for six thousand years. For two thousand years the world was waste, as the Torah had not yet been given. The next set of two thousand years are the time period of the Torah. The last set of two thousand years are the period designated for the days of the Messiah, but due to our many sins there are those years that have been taken from them, i.e., such and such years have already passed and have been taken from the two thousand years that are designated for the Messiah, and the Messiah has not yet arrived. Whenever a tanna taught this baraita, he would insert the number of years that was correct for his time. The Gemara asks: With regard to the two thousand years of the time period of the Torah, from when are they counted? ...Rather, the two-thousand-year time period of the Torah is counted from the time when it is stated about Abraham and Sarah: “And the souls that they had gotten in Haran” (Genesis 12:5), which is interpreted by the Sages as referring to the men and women who were brought closer to the Torah by Abraham and Sarah. Therefore, it was at this point that the Torah began to spread throughout the world. And it is learned as a tradition that at that time Abraham was fifty-two years old.