זהר הקדוש, ויקרא דף מ"ד ע"ב -- וכי לבדו הוה, והא כתיב, (בראשית ה) זכר ונקבה בראם. ותנינן אדם דו פרצופין אתברי, ואת אמרת, לא טוב היות האדם לבדו. אלא דלא אשתדל בנוקביה, ולא הות ליה סמך לקבליה, בגין דהות בסטרוי, והוו כחדא מאחורא, וכדין הוה האדם לבדו.
בד meaning "solitary/unitary" by itself (see Yoma 71b), לבד then does not really mean "alone" but rather "towards solitarianism/solidarity" even if being done by more than one person (see Janus' Groupthink in Sociology as an example).
The difference between נגד and כנגד being clearly obvious then:
כנגד - "like" or "as if to be" נגד, but in truth not נגד at all because it's ultimately towards a mutual consensus and השלמה in the larger scheme. Hence the meaning of כנגד as complementary/alongside/ parallel to.
לא טוב היות האדם לבדו אעשה לו עזר כנגדו
[Also, besides for "bad"/ בד having negative connotations in both english and persian, see שער הכוונות תפלת השחר ג that kabbalistically as well בד is related to negative realms]
2 comments:
Thank you- I am doing a translation project where כנגד shows up in a comparison, and the idea of being opposite or contrary does not make any sense at all. I was trying to remember where I saw this word in the Torah a, dfound your blog online and answered the question. THank you!!
wow, very kind of you to take the time to comment. Much thanks; it's my pleasure :-)
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