[Avodah] "Borei nefashos rabbos VECHESRONAM"

[Michael Kopinsky]

On Jan 28, 2008 11:16 PM, Richard Wolberg <cantorwolberg at cox.net> wrote:

> Someone wrote:
> *That is indeed one of the interpretations given by the Rishonim, but
> another one does indeed understand "v'hesronan" as "defects" or "lacks".*
> This brings to mind Isaiah 45:7  "I form the light, and create darkness: I
> make peace, and create evil;<http://www.godrules.net/library/topics/topic670.htm> I
> am the Lord Who does all these things."
> Actually, the term *evil* (ra) here denotes calamity and suffering. These
> serve as means of punishment for the sins of man. Moral evil, on the other
> hand, does not proceed from God, but is the result of man's actions. Moral
> evil is an absence of God's morality. In most Siddurim, the phrase is
> changed to 'create all things.' Some commentators have detected in this
> verse, in which God is declared to be the universal Creator of both light
> and darkness, good and evil, a directr allusion to, and intentional
> contradiction of , the Persian belief in dualism according to which the
> world is ruled by two antagonistic gods, Ahura Mada, the god of light and
> goodness, and Ahriman, the god of darkness and evil. (Though we have Soton,
> it is never referred to as a god). More modern exegetes doubt the allusion
> and understand the declaration as a general denial of all polytheistic
> systems -- not just Persian dualism.
>

It is clear that Chazal's  inclusion of this pasuk in birchos Krias Shma of
Yom and Layla had this intent ("laafukei midaas hakofrim she'omrim shemi
shebara or lo bara choshech.").  But who says that's what the pasuk itself
is referring to?  Was dualism even a popular belief in the times of Isaiah?
Looking at the pasuk in context (http://www.mechon-mamre.org/i/t/k/k1045.htm),
it is part of a long statement about the absolute power of G-d, and that
there are no other gods.  In that sense, it is a denial of polytheism, just
as Sh'ma Yisrael is a denial of polytheism.  But I find no need to
understand it as a polemic against a particular religion not prevalent at
the time of Isaiah.

KT,
Michael
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