Hebrew Myths Page 4

  12. Paran, on which God took up His abode according to Habakkuk III. 3, is one of several mountains in Teman (‘the South-land’) which He is said to have thus honoured; the others being Horeb, Sinai and Seir (Exodus III. 1; Deuteronomy XXXIII. 2). From Paran He would ride out vengefully on the wings of the storm (Zechariah IX. 14). The mountainous wilderness of Paran, Zin and Kadesh, where the Israelites wandered for forty years, and where God appeared to them in fire (Exodus XIX. 1–3 and 16–20), had associations not only with Moses, but with Elijah (1 Kings XIX. 8), and Abraham (see 29. g).

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  MYTHICAL COSMOLOGY

  (a) So great was the work accomplished at the Creation that a walk from east to west across the Earth would take a man five hundred years—if he lived to finish it; and a walk from north to south would take him another five hundred years. These distances correspond with those from Earth to the First Heaven, and from the First Heaven to its summit. As for Earth itself—one-third of its surface is desert, one-third sea, and the remaining third habitable land.9

  Some reckon the width of Earth as 6000 parasangs, namely 18,000 miles, in all directions; and the height of the sky as 1000 parasangs, or 3000 miles.10 Others believe Earth to be even larger: Egypt, they say, measures 400 by 400 parasangs, or 1200 by 1200 miles; yet Egypt is one-sixtieth the size of Ethiopia, Ethiopia one-sixtieth of the Earth’s surface, Earth one-sixtieth of Eden, and Eden one-sixtieth of Gehenna. Thus Earth is to Gehenna as a small lid to an immense pot.11

  Eastward of the habitable world lies the Garden of Eden, abode of the righteous. Westward lie the Ocean and its islands; and behind them the Desert, a parched land where only snakes and scorpions crawl. Northward stretch Babylonia and Chaldaea, and behind them are storehouses of Hell-fire and storehouses of snow, hailstones, fog, frost, darkness and gales. Here live demons, harmful spirits, the host of Samael; here also is Gehenna, where the wicked are confined. Southward lie the Chambers of Teman, storehouses of fire, and the Cave of Smoke, whence rises the hot whirlwind.12

  (b) According to others, the East is the quarter from which light and heat spread across the world; the West contains the storehouses of snow and hailstones from which cold winds blow; dews and rains of blessing come from the south; the north breeds darkness.13

  God fastened down the firmament to the rim of Earth on the east, south and west, but left the northern part loose, announcing: ‘Should anyone say “I am God!”, let him fasten down this side too, in proof of his godhead.’14

  (c) The seven Earths, separated from one another by intervals of whirlwind, are named in ascending order: Eres, Adama, Harabha, Siyya, Yabbasha, Arqa, Tebhel and Heled.15

  (d) Arqa, the Fifth Earth, contains Gehenna and its seven layers, each with its storehouses of darkness. The highest of these is Sheol, and beneath lie others named Perdition, The Lowest Pit, The Bilge, Silence, The Gates of Death and The Gates of the Shadow of Death. The fire of each layer is sixty times fiercer than that immediately below. Here the wicked are punished, and angels torture them.16

  Tebhel, the Sixth Earth, contains hills, mountains, valleys and plains, inhabited by no fewer than three hundred and sixty-five kinds of creatures. Some have the heads and bodies of oxen, but are endowed with human speech; others have twin heads, four ears and four eyes, twin noses and mouths, four hands and four legs, yet only one trunk. When seated they look like two people; but when they walk, like one. As they eat and drink, the twin heads quarrel and accuse each other of taking more than a fair share; nevertheless, they pass for righteous beings.17

  Heled, our own Earth, the seventh, needs no description.18

  (e) Opinions vary as to whether there are two, three, seven or ten Heavens;19 but doubtless their number agrees with that of the seven Earths.20 The Firmament covers Earth like a dome-shaped lid;21 its edges touch the surrounding Ocean. The hooks of Heaven are sunk in these waters.22

  An Arab once led Rabba bar Bar-Hana to the very edge of Earth, where the Firmament is fastened down. Rabba had brought a basketful of bread and, since this was the hour of prayer, set it on the heavenly window-ledge. Later he looked in vain for the basket, and asked: ‘Who has stolen my bread?’ The Arab answered: ‘No man, but the wheel of the Firmament has turned while you prayed. Wait until tomorrow, and you will eat bread again.’23

  Some describe Earth as a hall open only to the north; because once the Sun, moving from east to west, has reached the north-western corner, it turns and goes upwards and backwards, this time behind the dome of the Firmament. Thus, since the Firmament is opaque, the Sun’s return journey causes night upon Earth. After reaching the east, however, it passes once more below the dome of the Firmament, and shines for all mankind.24

  (f) Rabbi Shimon ben Laqish names the seven Heavens as follows: Wilon, Raqi‘a, Shehaqim, Zebhul, Ma‘on, Makhon, and ‘Arabhoth.25 They are all fixed and vaulted over Earth, one above the other, like the skins of an onion; except only Wilon, the lowest, which shades the uppermost earth from the heat. At daybreak, therefore, Wilon stretches across the sky; but at sundown is rolled away to enable the Moon and stars to shine from Raqi’a, the Second Heaven.26

  (g) In Shehaqim, a pair of millstones grind manna for the righteous; in Zebhul are found the Heavenly Jerusalem, the Temple, and the altar upon which the Archangel Michael offers sacrifices; in Ma ‘on, hosts of ministering angels hymn God’s mercy all night long, but fall silent at dawn, thus allowing Him to hear His praises sung by Israel below; Makhon contains storehouses of snow and hailstones, lofts of dews and rains, chambers of storms, and caves of fog; in ‘Arabhoth abide Justice, Law and Charity, the treasures of Life, Peace and Blessing, the souls of the righteous, the souls of the yet unborn, the dew with which God will revive the dead, the chariot seen by Ezekiel in a vision, the ministering angels, and the Divine Throne.27

  (h) According to a very different view, the lowest Heaven contains clouds, winds, air, the Upper Waters, the two hundred angels appointed to watch the stars, and storehouses of snow, ice and dews with their guardian angels.

  In the Second Heaven complete darkness reigns over the sinners chained there in expectation of Judgement.

  In the Third Heaven lies the Garden of Eden, full of marvellous fruit trees, including the Tree of Life under which God rests whenever He comes on a visit. Two rivers issue from Eden: one flowing with milk and honey, the other with wine and oil; they branch out into four heads, descend, and surround the Earth. Three hundred Angels of Light, who unceasingly sing God’s praises, watch over the Garden, which is the Heaven to which righteous souls are admitted after death. Northward of Eden stretches Gehenna, where dark fires perpetually smoulder, and a river of flame flows through a land of biting cold and ice; here the wicked suffer tortures.

  In the Fourth Heaven are chariots ridden by the Sun and Moon; also great stars, each with a thousand lesser stars as followers, that accompany the Sun on its circuit: four to the right, another four to the left. Of the two winds that draw these chariots, one is shaped like a phoenix, the other like a brazen serpent; though, indeed, their faces resemble those of a lion, and their lower parts those of Leviathan. Each wind has twelve wings. To east and west of this Heaven stand gates through which the chariots pass at their appointed hours.

  The Fifth Heaven houses the gigantic Fallen Angels, who crouch there in silent and everlasting despair.

  In the Sixth Heaven live seven Phoenixes, seven Cherubim singing God’s praises without cease, and hosts of radiant angels engrossed in astrological study; besides other angels who guard the hours, years, rivers, seas, crops, pastures, and mankind, recording for God’s attention whatever unusual sights they observe.

  The Seventh Heaven, one of ineffable light, holds the Archangels, Cherubim, Seraphim, and divine wheels; here God Himself occupies His Divine Throne, and all sing His praises.28

  These seven Heavens and seven Earths are prevented from falling apart and dropping into the Void beneath by immense hooks attached to the rim of each Heaven and linking it with the ri
m of a corresponding earth. The uppermost Earth has, however, been hooked to the rim of the Second Heaven (not the First, which is no more than a huge folding veil); the Second Earth is hooked to the Third Heaven, and so forth. In addition, each Heaven is similarly fastened to its neighbouring Heaven. The entire structure thus resembles a fourteen-storeyed tower the top storey of which, ‘Arabhoth, hangs on God’s arm-though some say that God holds up the Heavens with His right hand, and the Earths with His left.

  Every day God mounts a cherub and visits all these worlds, where He receives homage and adoration. On His return journey, He rides on the wings of the Wind.29

  1. These rabbinical doctrines, mostly borrowed at haphazard from Greek, Persian and Babylonian sources, were meant to impress hearers with the amazing range and complexity of God’s works; and the very irreconcilability of any two theories supported this impression. The sages accepted the Biblical concept of a flat earth, and were all baffled by the Sun’s re-appearance in the East each morning. One small fragment of mathematical science has slipped in: the measure of the earth’s dimensions comes reasonably close to that offered by the Ptolemaic physicist, Eratosthenes of Cyrene, in the third century B.C.

  The placing of Gehenna not only in the Underworld, but on earth, and in one of the heavens, is perhaps deliberate: an echo of Amos IX. 2—‘though they dig into hell, there shall Mine hand take them; though they climb up into heaven, thence will I bring them down.’

  2. Teman means both ‘south’ and ‘southland’. Esau had a grandson of that name, his father being Eliphaz. A ‘chief of Teman’ is twice mentioned in a passage that also names Husham of the Southland (temani) as a King of Edom. ‘Eliphaz the Temanite’ (temani) was one of Job’s comforters; elsewhere the distant ‘Southland’ appears as a region of mysterious ‘chambers’ and ‘southern whirlwinds’. The late midrash (see b.) on these chambers refers either to Yemen in South Arabia, or to Tayma, a settlement in North Arabia, about 250 miles east of the entrance to the Gulf of Aqaba.

  3. Hashmal is a divine substance which, according to the first chapter of Ezekiel, provides the fiery splendour of God’s Throne and Countenance. The Septuagint translates electron, which in Greek is connected with Elector, a name for the sun, and thus means ‘shining with a golden light’; hence either amber, or amber-coloured electrum, an alloy of gold and silver. Hashmal is modern Hebrew for ‘electricity’, because the rubbing of amber to attract particles of dust was, it seems, the earliest experimental use of electricity. But the association of lightning with the power of God being ancient, Ezekiel may have regarded this divine hashmal as the source of lightning.

  4. In Talmudic times, speculations on the structure of the Universe were called ma‘asse merkabhah, ‘matters of the chariot’, because of the divine chariot described by Ezekiel. The Pharisees regarded the study of these matters as dangerous, and several stories are told about learned men who failed to take proper precautions: Ben Azzay died suddenly, Ben Zoma lost his mind, Elisha ben Abuya became a heretic; Rabbi Akiba alone escaped harm by humility and circumspection (B. Hagiga 14b–16a).

  5. That the entire Universe hangs from God’s arms is first quoted in the Babylonian Talmud (B. Hagiga 12b): ‘Rabbi Yose said: “The earth rests on columns, the columns on water, the water on mountains, the mountains on wind, the wind on the whirlwind, and the whirlwind hangs from God’s arm.”’ But it can hardly be reconciled with His daily visits to each Heaven and Earth.

  6. Eres means ‘earth’; so do adama and arqa (an Aramaic loan-word); siyya, ‘dryness’; yabbasha, ‘dry land’; harabha, ‘parched land’; tebhel and heled, ‘world’.

  Wilon means ‘curtain’; raqi‘a, ‘firmament’; shehaqim, ‘clouds’ or ‘grindstones’; zebhul, ‘dwelling’; ma‘on, ‘residence’; makhon, ‘emplacement’; and ‘arabhoth, ‘plains’.

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  GLOSSES ON THE CREATION STORY

  (a) God created the Heavens from the light of His garment. When He spread them out like a cloth, they began to stretch farther and farther of their own accord, until He cried ‘Enough!’ He created Earth from the snow beneath His Divine Throne: throwing some of this on the waters, which froze and turned to dust. Earth and Sea also stretched farther and farther, until He cried ‘Enough!’30

  (b) Some, however, say that God wove together two skeins, one of fire and one of snow, for His creation of the world; and two more, of fire and water, for the creation of the Heavens. Others hold that the Heavens were made of snow alone.31

  (c) Under the ancient rule of Water such disorder and chaos prevailed that wise men avoid all mention of it. ‘Likening God to a king who has built his palace above a vast privy,’ they say, ‘would be apt but irreverent.’32

  (d) God therefore banished Tohu and Bohu from Earth, though retaining them as two of five layers that separate the seven Earths. Tohu may be readily discerned as the horizon’s thin green line from which, every evening, Darkness rises across the world. ‘Bohu’ is also the name given to certain glittering stones sunk in the abyss where Leviathan lurks.33

  (e) God found the male Upper Waters and the female Lower Waters locked in a passionate embrace. ‘Let one of you rise,’ He ordered, ‘and the other fall!’ But they rose up together, whereupon God asked: ‘Why did you both rise?’ ‘We are inseparable,’ they answered with one voice. ‘Leave us to our love!’ God now stretched out His little finger and tore them apart; the Upper He lifted high, the Lower He cast down. To punish their defiance, God would have singed them with fire, had they not sued for mercy. He pardoned them on two conditions: that, at the Exodus, they would allow the Children of Israel to pass through dry-shod; and that they would prevent Jonah from fleeing by ship to Tarshish.34

  (f) The divided Waters then voiced their agony of loss by blindly rushing towards each other, and flooding the mountain tops. But when the Lower Waters lapped at the very foot of God’s throne, He shouted in anger and trampled them under His feet.35

  (g) Others say that the Lower Waters, heart-broken at being no longer so close to God, shrieked: ‘We have not been found worthy of our Maker’s presence,’ and tried to reach His throne as suppliants.36

  (h) On the third day, when God set Himself to gather the Salt Waters in one place—thus letting dry land emerge—they protested: ‘We cover the entire world, and even so lack elbow room; would you confine us still further?’ Whereupon God kicked their leader Oceanus to death.37

  (i) These difficulties past, God allotted a separate place to each body of Waters. Yet at the horizon they are parted by no more than the breadth of three narrow fingers.38

  (j) At times, the Sea still menaces her barrier of sand. A seasoned mariner once told Rabbah of Babylon: ‘The distance between one wave and its fellow may be three hundred leagues; and each may rise to a height of three hundred leagues also. Not long ago, a wave lifted our ship so close to a small star that it spread to the size of a field on which forty measures of mustard seed might grow. Had we risen higher yet, the star’s breath would have scorched us. And we heard one wave call to its fellow: “Sister, is anything left in the world that you have not already swept away? If so, let me destroy it.” But the wave answered: “Respect the power of our Lord, sister; we may not cross the barrier of sand by even the width of a thread…”’39

  (k) God also forbade Tehom, the sweet Underground Waters, to rise up—except little by little; and enforced obedience by placing a sherd above her, on which He had engraved His Ineffable Name. This seal was removed once only: when mankind sinned in Noah’s day. Thereupon Tehom united with the Upper Waters and together they flooded the earth.40

  (l) Since then, Tehom has always crouched submissively in her deep abode like a huge beast, sending up springs to those who deserve them, and nourishing the tree roots. Though she thus influences man’s fate, none may visit her recesses.41

  (m) Tehom delivers three times more water to Earth than the rain. At the Feast of Tabernacles, Temple priests pour libations of wine and water on God’s altar. Then Ridya, a
n angel shaped like a three-year-old heifer with cleft lips, commands Tehom: ‘Let your springs rise!’, and commands the Upper Waters: ‘Let rain fall!’42

  (n) Some say that a gem bearing the Messiah’s name—which floated with the wind until the Altar of Sacrifice had been built on Mount Zion, and then came to rest there—was the first solid thing God created. Others, that it was the Foundation Rock supporting His altar; and that, when God restrained Tehom’s waters, He engraved His forty-two-letter Name on its face, rather than on a sherd. Still others say that He cast the Rock into deep water and built land around, much as a child before birth grows from the navel outward; it remains the world’s navel to this day.43

  (o) Later, when Adam wondered how Light had been created, God gave him two stones—of Darkness and of the Shadow of Death—which he struck together. Fire issued from them. ‘Thus it was done,’ said God.44

  ***

  1. In Ugaritic mythology, as in Hebrew, water always takes a dual form: thus there are two Floods, two Oceans, and two Deeps. Allusion is also made to the desire of the male waters for the female: when Kothar wa-Khasis built the Rain-god Baal’s house, he was forbidden to open any windows through which the amorous Yamm (‘the Sea’) might catch sight of the god’s two wives—Padriya (‘Flashing One’) daughter of Ar (‘Light’), and Talliya (‘Dewy’) daughter of Rabb (‘Distillation’). The house-walls were clouds, as in God’s Celestial Pavilion (see 2. a). When about to attack Yamm, Baal ‘opens a window within the house, makes rifts in the clouds, and gives forth his holy voice, which convulses the earth… so that the mountains quake…’

  2. The metaphor of the king who built his palace above a privy may refer to male and female prostitution, and other Canaanite ‘abominations’ practised on Mount Zion in honour of Baal and Asherah, before the monotheistic reform of the Temple rites (2 Kings XXXIII. 4 ff).