Let My People Know

"A gnat has a better lineage than a human being"

 

Our sages asked why man was created on Friday afternoon. 

They answered that if a man grows proud, he can be told, "The gnat was ahead of you in Creation.” 

The simple meaning of this is that the gnat was created earlier. 

It has a better lineage than does a human being. 

A human being's superiority is not dependent on the order of creation. 

Rather, it is dependent on his doing the will of his Creator. 

If, however, he sins and loses this unique superiority, he becomes a creature like any other. 

In fact, he is inferior even to the gnat, which was created before he was. 

–Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz
 
From Learning fropm the Tanya, Chapter 24, by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz