Avodah Zarah – Daf 2
Our Gemara on amud aleph states: “Kol (all) mitzvos performed by Jews in this world will testify for them in the World to Come, per Yeshayahu: ‘Let them bring their witnesses…’” Commentaries emphasize kol to include various mitzvos :
- Ben Yehoyada: Rabbinic mitzvos and hiddur mitzvah (e.g., a beautiful esrog or neat mezuzah).
- Pesach Eynaim: Mitzvos that others performed inspired by one’s influence.
- Maris Ayin: Mitzvos of abstention (resisting prohibitions when tempted).
These views align as mar amar chada, umar amar chadavelo peligi – each highlights a facet without contradiction. “Kol” stresses that intention, effort, and purity amplify impact.
Why do we need a verse? Doesn’t Tehillim (33:15) state: “He who formed the hearts… comprehends all…” This implies that G-d values intent. However, I believe that this teaching isn’t about reward or punishment but the effects of mitzvos. Commentaries describe mitzvos creating angels or forces, shaping us and the world, like witnesses enabling outcomes (e.g., Reuven owing Shimon). Similarly, a man may diet for his health to reduce his cholesterol and high blood pressure, but gains confidence and improves other aspects of his life. So too mitzvos yield side benefits beyond reward, such as the mal’ach created, per G-d’s plan.
One might assume only technical fulfillment triggers benefits, like qualifying for a community perk. The Gemara teaches that effort, mindset, and enhancements proportionately amplify positive ripples on personality and community, the true testimony of mitzvos.
The Whole of Existence Is a Process
Avodah Zarah – Daf 3
Our Gemara on amud beis speaks of the Jewish soul’s need for Torah for basic survival:
“And makes people as the fish of the sea, as the creeping things, that have no ruler over them” (Habakkuk 1:14). Why are people compared to the fish of the sea? Just as the fish of the sea die immediately once removed from water, so too, when people separate from Torah and mitzvos, they die immediately.
This is reminiscent of a Gemara in Berachos (61b) recording Rabbi Akiva’s rationale for teaching Torah in violation of a Roman ban, despite mortal risk:
Rabbi Akiva answered him: “I will relate a parable… It is like a fox walking along a riverbank who sees fish fleeing from place to place. The fox asks why, and the fish say they are fleeing fishermen’s nets.
The fox proposes they join him on land and live together, just as their ancestors lived together.
The fish reply: Are you the cleverest of animals? You are a fool! If we are afraid in the water, which gives us life, all the more so on dry land, which causes our death.
Rabbi Akiva concludes: Now that we sit and study Torah, about which it is written, “For that is your life” (Devarim 30:20), we fear the Empire to this extent – if we stop studying, how much more so!”
While the story is powerful on its own, I want to focus on one striking line: The fox says to the fish, “As my ancestors lived with your ancestors.” Rabbi Akiva takes it for granted that there was an earlier, perhaps primordial, era in which land and sea creatures shared the same realm.
This idea strikingly echoes evolutionary theory: Life began in water and gradually developed greater complexity, eventually branching onto land. Rabbi Akiva, of course, did not “believe in evolution,” nor did his Hellenistic contemporaries, because the idea did not exist yet. But the ancients were keen observers of nature. Perhaps they encountered fossils of strange creatures or perceived deep patterns in biology. As I wrote in a previous article: Separate from the theory of evolution, clearly forms of life follow a pattern of progression from simple to more complex, yet using similar structures from DNA to organs. Indeed, jellyfish and humans share over 60% of the same DNA; chimpanzees and humans, about 98%. This suggests a lineage, an ontological ladder of living forms.
Koheles Rabbah (3:11) alludes to a similar notion of Divine process: “The Holy One, Blessed be He, created worlds and destroyed them, created and destroyed, until He created this one and declared: ‘These please Me.’”
Why does this matter? Isn’t the miracle of creation equally astounding whether it took a moment or a millennium? Perhaps. Yet even Chazal had some sense of the developmental structure of creation. The Mishna in Avos (5:1) notes that G-d created the world with ten utterances, and asks: Why not just one?
To understand G-d in a mature, philosophical way – not just as a cosmic candy-giver or punisher – we must examine the process itself. There’s a concept called entelechy: the internal force that guides something toward its telos, its destined form. This idea reflects a deeper understanding of Divine Providence as not just commanding outcomes but shaping the unfolding development of reality because of the pure truth of it that resides within G-d.
Everything, from quarks to consciousness, emanates from Divine will and intellect. Just as a child matures through stages, so too the world evolves spiritually and intellectually toward greater awareness of G-d. In a Maimonidean sense, greater intellect means not just knowledge but the refinement of character and emotional balance (middos).
The Moreh Nevuchim (I:72) articulates this idea beautifully:
You must consider the entire globe as one individual being endowed with life, motion, and a soul… This view is indispensable for demonstrating the unity of G-d… In man, there is a force which unites and sustains the body. The universe likewise possesses a force which unites its parts, protects species, and maintains balance… But while man’s soul is immanent, G-d is separate and transcendent. G-d’s rule and providence can be demonstrated in every part of creation, even the smallest. Praised be He, whose perfection is above our comprehension.
The Rambam envisions a living cosmos whose unity is a reflection of its Creator’s oneness. The soul is to the body as G-d is to the cosmos. And in that sense, the whole of existence is a process.
The Souls We Birth Beyond Biology
Avodah Zarah – Daf 5
Our Gemara on amud aleph engages in a mystical and provocative idea: Had Israel not sinned with the Golden Calf, they would have become like angels – immortal, and beyond the need for reproduction.
But then the Gemara raises a challenge: Isn’t reproduction a mitzvah? It responds by distinguishing between pre-Sinai commandments and post-Sinai obligations, suggesting that perhaps they were not obligated after Sinai. However, the answer does not hold enough water because there is an additional verse giving direction after Mount Sinai: “Return to your tents” (Devarim 5:27), which implies a resumption of conjugal life after the giving of the Torah.
The Gemara answers: That was not about reproduction per se, but rather the mitzvah of onah –marital intimacy.
Ben Yehoyada highlights that even non-procreative intimacy can give rise to spiritual consequences. He asserts that a married couple, even past childbearing years, still “give birth to souls” when they unite in holiness. Biur Halacha (240:1) echoes this idea.
This is a powerful convergence of mystical and psychological insight. Intimacy is not just physical – it’s generative. A deep union between souls builds an emotional network of connection and spiritual influence on the couple, their family, and even their community.
As discussed in our discussion of Avodah Zara Daf 2, mitzvos create “forces” or “angels” that shape our inner and outer world. So too, intimacy creates something real, even if invisible.
The opposite also holds true. After the sin, Adam withdrew from Chava for 130 years. The Zohar (I:55a) tells us he begat spirits and demons during that time – forms of impurity and distortion.
The Rambam in Moreh Nevuchim (I:7) explains:
Those sons of Adam born before that time were not human in the full sense. They lacked the “form of man” – i.e., intellectual and moral perfection… Such beings resemble man externally but act as beasts internally, misusing intellect for harm.
These “demons” are not mythical – they are real psychological and spiritual consequences of alienation, frustration, and emotional exile. When a person is estranged from their spouse, their values, or their purpose, they birth destruction instead of growth.
Just as death is inevitable, so too estrangement is a risk in all human life. But we do everything to resist it. When Adam returned to Chava, they begat Seth – “in his image, in his likeness” – a restoration of wholeness.
Loss, alienation, and the demonic consequences of misused potential are real. But so is return. Like Adam, we too can come back to ourselves, to our loves, and to our G-d.
Rabbi Simcha Feuerman, LCSW-R, DHL maintains a practice in Brooklyn, Queens and Boca Raton, specializing in high conflict couples and families. He writes a daily blog which focuses on psychological insights from the Daf Yomi with over 1.5 million lifetime hits, nefesh.org/blogs/SimchaFeuerman. He can be contacted at [email protected].
