From the rear and the front You encompassed me / Rabbi Chanan Atlas

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On the opening verse of our Torah portion, “When a woman conceives” (Tazria), the Midrash reflects on the verse from Psalms: “Back and front You have fashioned me.” The Midrash further cites the words of Rabbi Simlai: “Just as the creation of man came after the cattle, the beasts, and the birds, so too his Torah (laws) follows those of the cattle, beasts, and birds.” In other words, just as man was created only at the very end of the Work of Creation, the Torah deals with the laws of man only after it has concluded the laws of the animal kingdom. However, the Midrash adds a surprising dimension. On one hand, man is “Back” (Achor) to all actions—he appears only at the end. Yet, on the other hand, he is also “Front” (Kedem), or preceding. How? The Midrash links this to the words of Reish Lakish regarding the verse “And the spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters”—”This is the spirit of the King Messiah.” In other words: man possesses one side that was created last, and another side that precedes all.

The Dual Nature of Humanity

It seems our Sages seek to convey a fundamental truth here about the dual nature of man. Physically, man indeed comes last, appearing only after the conditions that allow for his existence were formed. The basic material world had to be built first: earth, vegetation, animals—the conditions of life. Only then could man appear. In this sense, he is “Back,” a product of the material order of creation. Spiritually, however, man is not just another link in the chain of nature. Precisely because he is the purpose, because he carries within him consciousness, meaning, morality, and the ability to turn toward that which is beyond nature—in this sense, he precedes all. His “spirit” precedes the practical world, for it is what gives the world its meaning.

The Choice of Identity

Therefore, the Midrash says: “If man is worthy, he is told: ‘You preceded the entire Work of Creation’; if he is not, he is told: ‘The gnat preceded you, the earthworm preceded you.'” This does not refer to a stroke of luck, but to the question of how a person perceives themselves. If man views himself solely as a material creature—just another sophisticated animal within nature—then there is truly no reason to attribute any special status to him; “the gnat preceded you.” But if he merits to realize that his primary virtue lies in the spirit—in the ability to live out of meaning, responsibility, and closeness to God—then it becomes clear that he “preceded the entire Work of Creation.” Perhaps the central question is not when man was created, but what man is. One can live in a world where matter is the essence and spirit is a marginal addition, or one can do the opposite—understand that while matter is important, it is not the whole story. The “superiority of man over beast” does not lie in sophistication alone, but in the fact that he is capable of recognizing what lies beyond himself and the world perceived by the senses.

Body and Soul

Precisely because of this, Parashat Tazria—which deals with birth and the body—opens with a call that reminds man of his spiritual depth. Man lives within a body, within nature, and within a material world; but he does not exhaust his essence there. Perhaps there is also an echo here of the blessed work of Torah MiTzion. The Torah is not just more knowledge; it is the soul of our nation, the national spirit of life that God breathed into us. The understanding that the thing the People of Israel need most is the Torah repositions the spirit in its proper place—not as a footnote to life, but as the core that gives it direction and meaning. In days when it is so easy to sink into the immediate, the material, and the utilitarian, there is a special value in an enterprise that seeks to remind us of the “Kedem” (the precedence) of man and of the People of Israel—the spirit that hovers even before the deed.
 

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