Our Gemara on Amud Aleph discusses various rights and courtesies that are granted to the owner of an adjoining field, such as first choice in purchasing the property over other buyers if it is on the market. This law, known as Bar Mitzrah (owner of a bordering field) is conceptualized as an obligation to grant courtesy to the neighbors, because there is much more of a benefit for the neighbor to buy this field in particular.  The other buyer can always find another field. If, on the other hand, the seller has a specific reason why it’s more advantageous to choose a different buyer over a neighbor, he may do so for a substantial reason. The Gemara offers different examples such as selling all the properties in a bundle or if the neighbor doesn’t have the cash on hand and must raise the capital.

The Benei Yissaschar (Sivan Ma’amar 5:23) explains that this was part of the claim of the angels, who argued why should Hashem give the Torah to the Jews (Shabbos 88b) instead of them. They argued we should have first choice to buy, like the adjoining neighbor, as the Torah is initially here, in heaven. The Benei Yissaschar says that according to Shittah Mekubetzes on Bava Metzia, if the purchaser is a son of the owner, he also is not subject to the requirements of Bar Mitzrah. As we saw above, this law is mostly about a courtesy and right that belongs to the owner of the neighboring field, if all things considered equal, there is no major inconvenience to the owner. Since there is a strong advantage and reason to sell the property to his son, the owner and the purchaser (the son) do not have to give the neighbor precedence.  So too, Hashem’s counterargument to the angels was that the Jewish people are my children, and they are exempt from the requirements of Bar Mitzrah.

When we learn a clever derush like this we must stop and analyze this further. Are angels also not as close to God as His children?  Apparently not. But why?

Let us reflect on what is the essence of a son. A son represents an aspiration to carry out a person’s legacy in a unique manner. Angels are like God’s employees. A worker can do a lot for a person, but never be a son. As Avraham plaintively declared (Bereishis 15:3):

וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אַבְרָ֔ם הֵ֣ן לִ֔י לֹ֥א נָתַ֖תָּה זָ֑רַע וְהִנֵּ֥ה בֶן־בֵּיתִ֖י יוֹרֵ֥שׁ אֹתִֽי׃

Abram said further, “Since You have granted me no offspring, my steward will be my heir.”  As if to say, Eliezer has been a fine support and companion, but he is not my proper heir.

One way to understand what it means when the Torah says that man is made in God’s image (tzelem Elokim, Bereishis 1:27) is that Man has free choice and full intellectual capacity. (For more about this, see our blog post, Psychology of the Daf, Bava Kamma 104. https://nefesh.org/SimchaFeuerman/maintaining-a-good-image-bava-kamma--psychology-of-the-daf-yomi/read )  

When Man employs his free will and agency, he is like God.  When Man chooses to be connected to God out of his own volition, it is the deepest form of being a child of God. Just as a parent’s life is not meaningful without passing his love and legacy to his children, so too, in a certain way, God “needs” to be a parent and give that love to someone who will accept it.  It is not that God’s love is like that of a parent in so much that our parental yearnings are a reflection of the deeper godly truth about attachment, and giving from a free and full place.  We have referenced the Shalah (Toldos Odom:15) many times who holds that every word in Hebrew, the holy tongue, is a metaphor or borrowed term from a broader spiritual reality. This is certainly true when it comes to parental love.

Therefore, the answer is that only humans are like God’s children in that we do not merely have a job to do, or responsibilities toward God, but we are to realize and enact Godly ways of living and act as his children.  

Translations Courtesy of Sefaria, except when, sometimes, I disagree with the translation

Do you like what you see? Please subscribe and also forward any articles you enjoy to your friends, (enemies too, why not?)