This is an especially important passage from Psalms, which demonstrates clear evidence of ancient creation myths beyond those found in Genesis. This version of the Creation gives God a more active, mythic role. God stretches out the heavens, lays the roof of His upper chambers, establishes the earth on its foundations, and covers it with the deep. Even the creation of light is described in very active terms, with God covering Himself with light as with a garment. In contrast, in the Genesis creation myth God’s actions are limited to speech—God speaks and everything comes into existence. Thus the portrayal of God in this myth from Psalms is far closer to that of pagan gods, as found in Babylonian, Canaanite, and Greek myth. For additional myths about the creation of light, see “The Light of the First Day,” p. 83.
Sources:
Psalms 104:1-9.
99. THE RAINBOW
Some say that the rainbow was created by God at the time of Noah, when God set it in the clouds. It came into being when God strengthened the power of the sun after the Flood, so that its rays would produce a rainbow. Others say that the rainbow was one of the ten things created on the eve of the first Sabbath, but until the time of Noah it was hidden in the clouds, and only God could see it. God revealed the rainbow to Noah as the sign of the covenant between them. The rainbow had been designated for this purpose from the time of its creation.
God said, “I have set My bow in the clouds” (Gen. 9:13), meaning that the beauty of the bow was comparable to that of God. Still, as beautiful as the rainbow was, it was but a faint reflection of God’s glory. It is forbidden to stare at the rainbow because the Shekhinah appears in it, adorned in garments yellow, red, and white. That is why the eyes of anyone who stares at the rainbow will become dim.
Sometimes the rainbow does not appear at all during a generation. This indicates there is a Tzaddik in that generation, and therefore the world does not need a sign that God will not destroy it. Such a righteous one prays for compassion for the world and is worthy of protecting it.
From time to time the rainbow appears in the sky to reassure us that despite our sins, God will not annihilate us.
There is a debate among biblical commentators about whether or not the rainbow existed before God revealed it to Noah as a sign of their covenant as stated in the verse “I have set My bow in the clouds” (Gen. 9:13). The past tense of “I have set” was taken as evidence that the rainbow existed before Noah. Among the commentators, Saadiah Gaon asserted that the rainbow was previously in existence, while Ibn Ezra interpreted this verse to mean, “I have now set a bow in the clouds.”
According to Rabbi Moshe Alshekh (sixteenth century), each of the seven colors of the rainbow represents one day in the seven days of Creation.
Rabbi Joshua ben Levi wanted anyone who saw a rainbow to prostrate himself, to acknowledge the wisdom of God in all that He has created. But other rabbis scoffed at this idea, since it would appear that the one prostrating himself was worshipping the rainbow.
In B. Ketubot 77b, it is said that the rainbow did not appear in the sky during the generation of Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai as a sign of his righteousness, since the merit of one Tzaddik alone is enough to save the world, and therefore the rainbow, itself a sign of God’s mercy, is not needed, since the presence of a great Tzaddik is in itself sufficient to invoke God’s mercy. This tradition is repeated in Zohar 3:15a, where Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai is the hero and reputed author of the book.
The association of the rainbow and the Shekhinah grows out of Ezekiel 1:28: As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of Yahweh.
In the Zohar, Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai associates the colors of the garment of the Shekhinah—yellow, red and white—with the three patriarchs, Abraham with white, Isaac with red, and Jacob with yellow. See “The Garments of the Shekhinah,” p. 54.
Sources:
Mishneh Avot 5:6; B. Ketubot 77b; B. Hagigah 16; Midrash Tehillim 36:8; Zohar 1:18a, 3:15a, 3:215a-215; Rashi on Genesis 9:14; Ibn Ezra on Genesis 9:14; Moshe Alshekh on Genesis 9:8; Akedat Yitzhak 14:4-7.
Studies:
The Faces of the Chariot by David J. Halperin, pp. 250-261.
100. THE TIME OF CREATION
When was the world created? It is one of the foundations of Judaism that God created the world at the precise instant that He desired to do so.
What existed before that? Whoever speculates about four things, it is better if he had not been born: What is above? What is below? What came before? And what will come after?
There is little speculation in Jewish lore about what God did before He created the world, or what, if anything, existed before then. The one major exception are the myths about prior worlds. See “Prior Worlds,” p. 71. So too is little said about God’s decision to create the world when He did. But Me’am Lo’ez emphasizes God’s own free will in deciding when to undertake Creation, “at the precise instant that He desired to do so.” According to Jewish philosophy, while human free will may be encumbered by a person’s fate, God’s free will is limitless, and His decision to create the universe and make a covenant with Israel was entirely God’s own choice. The only exception seems to be some strata of Lurianic Kabbalah where the process of creation/emanation seems to be a necessity within God, although His free will initiates the whole process.
This famous quotation from Mishnah Hagigah 2:1 lists four things it is forbidden to speculate about. It represents that dimension of rabbinic thought that was alarmed at even the study of mystical contemplation, and warned against its dangers. Indeed, the tale of the four sages who entered Paradise, from B. Hagigah 14b, is itself a warning tale about the dangers of mystical explorations. See “The Four Who Entered Paradise,” p. 173.
Sources:
Mishnah Hagigah 2:1; B. Hagigah 16a; Me’am Lo’ez, Genesis 1:1.
101. EVERYTHING WAS CREATED AT ONCE
The entire universe was created at once. Everything was created in one moment, in the same hour, on the same day, as it is said, Such is the story of heaven and earth on the day that they were created (Gen. 2:4). Not only were heaven and earth created on that day, but they were not deficient in any way. They contained their descendants within them, existing in potential.
This myth of the simultaneous creation of the universe strongly echoes the modern Big Bang theory of creation. It finds its basis in the phrase on the day that they were created, which seems to imply that heaven and earth were created on the same day. While this myth would appear to contradict the sequential creation described in Genesis 1:1-31, it avoids this by stating that the potential for subsequent creation already existed.
Sources:
Midrash ha-Ne’elam, Zohar Hadash 2d, 13d.
102. HOW GOD BEGOT BEING
God was the father of all that was begotten, and the mother was God’s knowledge. God had intercourse with knowledge—not in human fashion—and begat being. Knowledge received the divine seed and gave birth, with many birth-throes, bearing the only beloved son, this world.
This is a strange philosophical creation myth of Philo, in which God, the father, has intercourse with knowledge (gnosis in Greek), the mother, and as a result the world, their only son, was begotten. Philo’s use of the metaphor of human intercourse for divine forces implies a kind of mythic personification of them, and demonstrates the mythic dimension lying close to the surface in Philo’s writing, despite his efforts to use allegory as a way of denying the mythic realm.
Sources:
Philo, De Ebrietate 30-31.
Studies:
“Daughter, Sister, Bride, and Mother: Images of the Femininity of God in the Early Kabbala” by Peter Schäfer, p. 235.
103. WHAT DOES THE EARTH STAND ON?
Once, when Aaron the Priest, brother of Moses, was offering sacrifices on Yom Kippur, the bull sprang up from beneath his hands and covered a cow. When that calf was born, it was stronger than any other. Before a ye
ar was out, the calf had grown bigger than the whole world.
God then took the world and stuck it on one horn of that bull. And the bull holds up the world on his horn, for that is God’s wish. But when people sin, their sins make the world heavier, and the burden of the bull grows that much greater. Then the bull grows tired of its burden, and tosses the world from one horn to the other. That is when earthquakes take place, and everything is uncertain until the world stands secure on a single horn.
So it is that the bull tosses the world from time to time from one horn to the other, causing earthquakes and other catastrophes. And if people only knew of the danger, they would recognize how much they are dependent on God’s mercy. For if they would only observe the commandments and sanctify God’s name, the bull would stand still and the world remain quietly on its horns.
This Moroccan myth about God putting the world on one horn of a giant bull demonstrates that myths, as well as folktales, can be found among the abundant tales collected orally in Israel by the Israel Folktale Archives. While many of these myths are found in earlier texts, sometimes, as here, a myth is passed down orally and is not to be found in the written tradition. This myth reminds us of myths from other cultures about what the world stands on, such as the widespread belief in South Asia and among North American Indians that the earth rests on the back of a turtle. Not only does this myth explain what the world stands on (since it appears to be standing still), but also provides an explanation for earthquakes and other disasters. Note the genesis of the bull that grows to be bigger than the world—it is born from the unplanned copulation of a bull about to be sacrificed on Yom Kippur. What the myth does not address is the obvious contradiction that the world already existed at the time of Aaron, brother of Moses, the first High Priest.
Sources:
IFA 4396.
104. CREATION EX NIHILO
When God created the world, He created it out of nothing and brought it into being. Who can understand what the Creator had in mind when He willed the universe to come into existence?
Some say that it was only the body of heaven that was created from nothing, while its form was created from the light above.
God is the Cause of all creation. It is God who sustains the existence of all that exists, for nothing can exist unless it emanates from God.
Creation Ex Nihilo means creation out of nothing. This is the ultimate form of creation, in that it demonstrates that the power of the Creator is total. This myth, in its variants, emphasizes that God did indeed create the world out of nothing, and therefore emphasizes God’s complete and utter mastery of all elements related to creation and existence.
Sources:
Zohar Hadash Bereshit, 17b; Nachmanides, Perush Ramban al ha- Torah on Genesis 1:1; Sforno on Exodus 34:6; Akedat Yitzhak on Genesis 18.
105. THE ORDER OF CREATION
The universe was created from the top down. The upper worlds were created first, and each and every subsequent world was created from the world above it. Thus it was not possible to hasten or to delay the creation of the world, but each development took place in turn. In this way all the worlds were brought into being, each one later than the other, until it came to be time for this world to be created.
This myth answers the question of whether God started Creation with the upper or lower worlds. This is a prominent question in the midrash. This is also a version of the myth of prior worlds. See “Prior Worlds,” p. 71. This world is the last to be created in a succession of worlds. The difference in this kabbalistic myth and the earlier, rabbinic one is that the prior worlds are destroyed in the earlier version, while here they became the foundation of the building blocks of the universe. The other important point of this myth is not simply that lower worlds were created after upper ones, but that lower worlds were created from upper ones.
Sources:
Etz Hayim 1:20-28.
106. GOD’S GARMENT OF LIGHT
How did God create the heavens? Some say that God wrapped Himself in a prayer shawl, a tallit of light, and the light cast from that prayer shawl suffused the world. That garment of light was covered with the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, inscribed in black fire on white fire.
Others say that God draped the six days of Creation around Himself like a gown and dazzled the universe with His glory from one end to the other.
Then there are those who say that God took the light and stretched it like a garment, and the heavens continued to expand until God said, “Enough!”
God said, “Let there be light.” And there was light (Gen. 1:3). This enigmatic verse raises as many questions as it answers. Did God create this light out of nothing, or did this light pre-exist? This question receives a number of answers in rabbinic sources, all of them based on interpretations of Psalms 104:2: Who cover Yourself with light as with a garment, who stretches out the heavens like a curtain. One such interpretation grows out of a dialogue between Rabbi Simeon ben Jehozadak and Rabbi Samuel bar Nachman in Genesis Rabbah 3:4. Rabbi Simeon asked the other, “How did God create light?” Rabbi Samuel replied in a whisper that God wrapped himself in a white garment, and when Rabbi Simeon noted that this explanation is found in Psalms 104:2 (and is therefore not esoteric, requiring a whisper), Rabbi Samuel explained: “I received this tradition in a whisper, so I passed it on in a whisper.” Why would this teaching have been conveyed in a whisper? Because it hints that the light somehow pre-existed. This would imply that while God was the Creator, He created using existing building blocks and might somehow be viewed as diminishing God’s accomplishment. In addition, there is a Gnostic interpretation in which the light of God’s garment is identified with the First Created Being. See “The First Created Being,” p. 118. This interpretation would certainly justify the use of a whisper.
The view that light itself was a kind of primordial element, along with darkness, chaos, and void (tohu and vohu), is found in “Light from the Temple,” p. 411. Such an interpretation is also found in Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer 6, which interprets the verse from Psalms 104:2 to mean that God took of an existing light and stretched it out to create the world.
Another verse used to explain God’s wearing of a garment at the time of the Creation is Psalms 104:1: You are clothed with glory and majesty. This is said to be the first of ten occasions in which God clothed himself in a garment (Pesikta de-Rav Kahana 22:5).
Rabbi Moshe Alshekh suggests in his commentary on Psalm 104 that the light that God draped around Himself was that of the six days of Creation, which were yet to take place. Only after God draped the six days in this fashion did Creation proceed. Alshekh also suggests that “clothing Himself in light” refers to the creation of God’s Throne of Glory, and that the purpose of the Throne of Glory was to protect the world from the damaging effects of God’s emanations. Thus the light serves as a kind of protective intermediary between God and the rest of creation, for God’s original light proved too brilliant for the material universe to endure.
The tradition that God wore a fringed prayer shawl (tallit) is found in other sources. For example, God is said to have demonstrated the nature of such a prayer shawl to Moses by appearing to him in a garment with fringed corners. This is said to be one of the things that Moses could comprehend only after God demonstrated it to him.
Sources:
B. Rosh ha-Shanah 17b; Genesis Rabbah 3:4; Midrash Tehillim on Psalm 104:4; Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer 3; Pesikta de-Rav Kahana 21:5; Romemot El on Psalm 104; Makhon Siftei Tzaddikim on Gen. 17:1.
107. THE LIGHT OF THE FIRST DAY
Before the world was created, the thought arose in God’s mind to create a light to illuminate it. So on the first day of Creation, God wrapped Himself in a garment of light, and the radiance of His majesty illuminated the world. That was the light of the first day, a primordial light, distinct from the light of the fourth day, when God created the sun, the moon, and the stars. That light was the first thing that God created and it completely suffused all of existence without beginning
or end. Everything was filled with that light, which traveled throughout the cosmos without stopping, until all the world began to sing. Thus it is written, He sends it forth under the whole heaven, and His light to the ends of the earth (Job 37:3).
The light created on the first day accompanied all the days of Creation, and thus all the days are contained in the first day, for the world was created through that sacred light. It is the light of the eye. In that light Adam saw from one end of the universe to the other, and he was also able to view the world from the beginning of Creation until the end. For it was not only possible to see tangible things in this light, but even ethereal things, which are otherwise invisible.
Where did the light come from? Some say it was the light of Paradise, which God brought into the world at the time of Creation. For the first three days and nights, the primordial light shone undiminished. Seven times brighter than the sun, it was so intense that no created thing could gaze upon it. In this light it was possible for Adam to see from one end of the universe to the other.
Others say that the light existed even before the Creation. When God said, “Let there be light,” light came forth from the place in the universe where the Temple in Jerusalem would one day be built. Surrounded by that light, God completed the creation of the world.
How, then, did God bring the light into the world? Some say that God wrapped himself in a prayer shawl of light, and the light cast from that prayer shawl suffused the world. Others say that God draped the six days of Creation around Himself like a gown and dazzled the universe with His glory from one end to the other. Then there are those who say that God took the light and stretched it like a garment, and the heavens continued to expand until God said, “Enough!” Still others say that the light was cast from the very countenance of God.
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