Talmud Bavli
Talmud Bavli

Commentary for Avodah Zarah 15:10

ת"ר יום שנברא בו אדם הראשון כיון ששקעה עליו חמה אמר אוי לי שבשביל שסרחתי עולם חשוך בעדי ויחזור עולם לתוהו ובוהו וזו היא מיתה שנקנסה עלי מן השמים היה יושב בתענית ובוכה כל הלילה וחוה בוכה כנגדו כיון שעלה עמוד השחר אמר מנהגו של עולם הוא עמד והקריב שור שקרניו קודמין לפרסותיו שנאמר (תהלים סט, לב) ותיטב לה' משור פר מקרין מפריס

Our rabbis taught: On the day that the world was created, the first Adam, when he saw the setting of the sun he said, “Woe is me, it is because I have sinned that the world around me is becoming dark; the universe will now become again void and without form. This then is the death to which I have been sentenced from Heaven!” So he sat up all night fasting and weeping and Eve was weeping opposite him. When however dawn broke, he said, “This is the way of the world!” He then arose and offered up a bull whose horns were developed before its hooves, as it is said, “And it [my thanksgiving] shall please the Lord better than a bull that is horned and has hooves” (Psalms 69:32).

Daf Shevui to Avodah Zarah

Poor Adam, always getting afraid of the dark! This story seems to explain a curious verse from Psalms. Why would the verse say “a bull that has horns and hooves”? Don’t most bulls have them? Is there any reason to note that the bull has these features? The midrash reads this as a bull whose horns were created before its hooves. Now there can only have been one such bull in all of history—the first bull. And who else could have sacrificed the first bull—Adam. So Adam must be saying this verse. And why would Adam offer thanksgiving—because the sun went away and the came back again. It’s actually quite a remarkable piece of exegetical thinking.
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