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Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz: “A state of contradiction.”

The angels did not complain about the cows, goats, sheep, and swallows.

Only when man was created did the angels have something to say.

If God had created man strictly as a holy soul, the angels might have extolled him (Genesis Rabba 8:10).

If man had been created as a kind of advanced ape that wanders around the world, this too would not have troubled the angels.

But God created man, and that is the problem.

On the one hand, man was given a soul, which constantly urges him to ascend, yet on the other hand he was given a body, which constantly pulls him down.

Thus, God formed a creation that, from its very inception, has existed in a state of contradiction.

–Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz