The Midrash on Exchange

Chapter 2

R. Akiva began: As for man, his days are as grass; as a flower of the field, so he flourishes (Psalms 103:15). There was an incident with R. Ishmael and R. Akiva, who were walking in the outskirts of Jerusalem, and there was a [third] person with them. A sick person met them.

He said to them, “My masters, tell me, with what may I be cured?”

They said to him, “Do such and such, until you have been cured.”

He said to them, “And who struck me down?”

They said to him, “The Holy One.”

He said to them, “Then you have intruded yourselves in a matter that does not belong to you! He strikes and you heal, are you not opposing His will?!”

They said to him, “What is your occupation?”

He said, “I am a farmer, and, see, the sickle is in my hand.”

They said to him, “Who created the vineyard?”

He said to them, “The Holy One.”

They said to him, “Yet you have intruded yourself in a matter that does not belong to you! He created it and you cut its fruits from it.”

He said to them, “Do you not see the sickle in my hand?! If I did not go out, plow, cover over, fertilize, and prune it, it would produce nothing at all.”

They said to him, “Foolish man! In your work, have you not heard what is written: As for man, his days are as grass? Just as the tree, if it is not pruned, fertilized, and plowed, it will not sprout up—and if it does sprout up, but does not absorb water or is not fertilized, it will not live but die. So, too, the body. The fertilizer is the drug and the [various] kinds of medicaments, and the farmer is the doctor.”

He said to them, “I beg of you, please do not punish me.”

The elements of the body depend on each other, and if one is missing, so is the other. If they are detached from each other, the body will die, just as a house has four sides and, if one is detached from the others, the house will collapse.

Everything that He created, He created with its counterpart. Were it not for death, there would be no life; were it not for life, there would be no death. Were it not for peace, there would be no evil; were it not for evil, there would be no peace. Were a person to come to a country that contained half peace and half evil, he would walk among evil and recognize peace. If another country consisted altogether of peace, if no evil were there, then peace would not be recognized. If all human beings were fools, they would not recognize that they were fools. If all human beings were wise, they would not recognize that they were wise. Rather: God made the one as well as the other (Ecclesiastes 7:14). Were all people wealthy, we would not recognize them to be wealthy. If they were all poor, we would not recognize that they were poor. Rather, both poor and rich were created so that we could distinguish between them; wise and foolish, to distinguish between them; dead and alive, to distinguish between growth and destruction. Beauty and ugliness were created, male and female. Fire and water were created, metal and wood, light and darkness, hot and cold, eating and hunger, drinking and thirst, walking and being lame, sight and blindness, hearing and deafness, sea and dry land, speech and muteness, action and inaction, worry and desire, laughter and weeping, health and sickness, together with all of the contrasts that Solomon taught in Ecclesiastes: A time to be born and a time to die (Ecclesiastes 3:1).

All this to inform [us] of the power of the Holy One, that He created everything in pairs and with counterparts. How could He have arranged for [us to have] children without sexual relations? Rather everything was done with counterparts and exchange. Without male and female engaging with each other, a child would not come about. A male cannot beget a child without a female and a female cannot without a male. A house does not build itself, nor does one house build another, but with a builder who builds. There can be no woodchopper without an axe. Without the woodchopper there is no axe, but without the axe there is no woodchopper. There is no purity without impurity, and there is no impurity without purity. The pigs and other impure animals said to the kosher animals, “You should recognize the good we have done for you. Were it not for me and my friends who are impure, no one would recognize that you are pure.” If there is no righteous person, there is no evil person. The evil person says to the righteous one, “I would like you to recognize the good that I have done on your behalf. Were I not evil, how would you be recognized? Were everyone righteous, there would be nothing special about you.” For we have said: Everything has its exchange with the exception of One thing. This is to inform every person in the world that He is One and there is no other. [ . . . ]

You thereby have learned that everything that exists in the universe has a counterpart—the upper realm and the lower, those at the beginning and those at the end, east and west, north and south, together with all of the counterparts we have mentioned. Only He is unique, and there is no other but Him. The first and the last, God, faithful King, who rules all, who inhabits eternity, whose Name is holy, who created nothing other [than Him] in the universe that is unique. He has no second, nor any counterpart, as we explained at the beginning of this book, in order to inform every creature in the world that He is One, and that He created His world.

Once a heretic came and said to R. Akiva, “Who created this world?”

He answered him, “The Holy One.”

He said, “Show me clear proof.”

He answered, “Come to me tomorrow.”

He came to him the next day.

He said to him, “What are you wearing?”

He answered him, “Clothing.”

He said to him, “Who made it?”

He answered him, “The weaver.”

He said to him, “I do not believe you. Show me clear proof.”

He answered him, “What can I show you? Do you not recognize that the weaver made it?”

He said to him, “And do you not know that the Holy One created His world?” The heretic left.

His students then said to him, “What is the clear proof?”

He said to them, “My children, just as the house informs of the builder, the clothing informs of the weaver, and the door informs of the carpenter, so, too, the world informs that the Holy One created it. His Name should be praised and raised up forever and ever. Amen, amen, forever selah and ever.”