In Tanya, Rabbi Shneur Zalman (1745-1813) interprets the passage, Yahweh exists forever; Your word stands firm in heaven (Ps. 119:89) to refer to the firmament in the midst of the waters. He proposes that if the firmament were ever removed, the existence of this world would come to an end. See “The Spirit of the Firmament,” p. 105 and “The Rebellion of the Waters,” p. 105, for variants of this myth.
Sources:
B. Ta’anit 10a; Genesis Rabbah 4:2-4, Genesis Rabbah 13:11-13; Ecclesiastes Rabbah 1:13; Zohar 1:17b, 1:18a, 1:29b, 1:62a, 2:28b; Tanya, Sha’ar ha-Yihud ve ha-Emunah 1:2 (76b); Midrash Konen in Beit ha-Midrash 2:24-39.
137. THE SPIRIT OF THE FIRMAMENT
On the second day of Creation, God created the spirit of the firmament, and commanded him to separate the waters from the waters, so that one part might move upward and the other part remain beneath.
This brief myth from 4 Ezra suggests that God created some kind of spirit, or perhaps angel, to separate the upper and lower waters. Therefore it was this spirit, rather than God, who forced the upper waters and lower waters to separate. In all other versions of this myth, it is God Himself who tears the upper and lower waters apart. See “The Rebellion of the Waters” below.
Sources:
4 Ezra 6:41.
138. THE REBELLION OF THE WATERS
On the second day of Creation, God tore the upper waters from the arms of the lower waters amidst great weeping, and the upper waters were suspended in the heavens by word of God. On the third day, when God said, “Let the waters be gathered together” (Gen 1:9), the mountains and hills were raised up and scattered, and deep valleys were dug in the earth, into which the waters rolled. As soon as they had gathered together, the waters became rebellious, rising up almost to the Throne of Glory, and covered the face of the earth. But God rebuked the waters and said “Enough!” and subdued them beneath the soles of His feet. He trod down on them so that the air came out of them. When the rest of the waters saw how He had trampled the ocean, and heard its terrible cry, they fled. Even though they were seething, there was nowhere for them to go but to the sea. Therefore God surrounded the sea with sand, and measured it with the hollow of His hand, and made the sea swear that it would not go beyond the boundary He had set, as it is said, Who set the sand as a boundary to the sea (Jer. 5:22). Some say that God not only circled the sea with sand, but caused it to dry up, in accord with the verse He rebukes the sea and dries it up (Nah. 1:4).
This midrash draws a link between God’s separation of the upper and lower waters on the second day (see “The Upper Waters and the Lower Waters,” p. 104) and the gathering of the waters on the third, suggesting that the waters rebelled because of their anger at their recent separation. This midrash also comments on Psalm 93:3: The floods have lifted up, O Lord, the floods have lifted up their voice, the floods lift up their roaring. God’s quelling the rebellion of the waters clearly echoes the struggle between Marduk, the rain god of Babylon, and Tiamat, the personification of primeval waters in the Babylonian epic, Enuma Elish. This epic struggle (also found in other Near Eastern texts) is hinted at in the Genesis creation narrative, where tehom, the deep, echoes Tiamat. The parallels to the Babylonian myth can be seen in the following passage from Enuma Elish, from Near Eastern Mythology by John Gray, 1969, p. 32:
The Lord trod on the legs of Tiamat
With his unsparing mace he crushed her skull.
When the arteries of her blood he had severed,
He split her like a shell-fish into two parts;
Half of her he set up and sealed it as sky,
Pulled down the bar and posted guards.
He bade them not to allow her waters to escape.
Exodus Rabbah 15:22 makes clear that the ocean was not only trampled by God, but slain: “Then God trampled upon the ocean and slew it.” This text is sometimes interpreted to mean that God slew its prince, Rahab. The reference to the hollow of God’s hand comes from Isaiah 60:12. See the following myth, “The Rebellion of Rahab.”
In Likutei Moharan 1:2, Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav interprets God’s command of “Enough!” to stop the expansion of the world as referring to the creation of the Sabbath. The Sabbath, in effect, stops the work of the six days of the week.
Sources:
B. Ta’anit 10a; B. Hagigah 12a; Numbers Rabbah. 18:22; Midrash Tehillim 93.5; Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer 5; Sefer ha-Zikhronot 2:1.
Studies:
Myths from Mesopotamia by S. Dalley, pp. 228-277 (Enuma Elish).
Near Eastern Mythology by John Gray.
139. THE REBELLION OF RAHAB
When God desired to create the world, He said to Rahab, the angel of the sea: “Open your mouth and swallow all the waters of the world.” Rahab replied: “Master of the Universe, I already have enough.” God then kicked Rahab with His foot and killed him. And had not the waters covered him, no creature could have stood his foul odor.
The traditions about God slaying Rahab grows out of Isaiah 51:9, Are you not he who cut Rahab in pieces, and wounded the dragon? and Psalms 89:10, You have trampled upon Rahab; you have scattered your enemies with your strong arm. This midrash is also based on Job 26:12: By His power He stilled the sea; by His skill He struck down Rahab. This myth is another version of “The Rebellion of the Waters,” which describes the struggle between God and tehom, the deep, and thus also echoes the battle between Marduk and Tiamat in the Babylonian epic, Enuma Elish. However, Tiamat is a feminine figure, while Rahab is masculine.
In Enuma Elish Marduk uses Tiamat’s body to build a new world, using half to make the heavens and half to make the earth. He uses considerable violence in defeating Tiamat, as does God in defeating Rahab. Marduk crushes her skull with his club, splits her body in two, and scatters her blood in the wind. In the Hebrew myth, the waters are personified in Rahab, the Prince of the Sea, and instead of trampling the waters, God kicks and kills Rahab. There are hints in rabbinic writings that Rahab once had a great, godlike status. For example, it is stated in Deuteronomy Rabbah 2:28: “Rahab placed God in heaven and upon earth.” Although Rahab is killed in this myth, he reappears in later legends as the Prince of the Sea, and performs various deeds at the command of God or one of the rabbis. See, for example, Y. Sanhedrin 7:25d, where Rabbi Joshua ben Haninah calls upon Rahab to recover a lost charm, so that a spell can be broken.
Midrash Tanhuma tries to explain why God kicked Rahab, the angel of the ocean, who represents the ocean itself: “Why did God kill the angel? The rest of the waters, seeing that God kicked the ocean, and hearing its screams, fled without knowing where to flow, until they reached the place that God had prepared for them.” This violent act is thus explained as a way to force the recalcitrant waters to gather in the right places. See “The Rebellion of the Waters,” p. 105.
An alternate version of the Rahab myth found in the Prologue to the Zohar 56 explains that God’s tears, hot as fire, shed over the exile of the Shekhinah, fall into the Great Sea and sustain Rahab. And Rahab sanctifies God’s Name by swallowing all the waters of the days of Creation—the very act that Rahab refused to do in the other version of the myth, for which God killed him in anger. The moral of the two versions is clear: when Rahab refuses an order from God, he is slain; when he accepts the order, his life is sustained.
For a further discussion of this myth, see the Introduction, p. li.
Sources:
B. Bava Batra 74b; B. Ta’anit 10a; Numbers Rabbah 18:22; Midrash Tanhuma, Hayyei Sarah 3.
Studies:
Slaying the Dragon: Mythmaking in the Biblical Tradition by Bernard F. Batto.
A Commentary on the Book of Exodus by U. Cassuto, p. 178.
“The Great Dragon Battle and Talmudic Redaction” by Michael Fishbane, pp. 41-55.
“Elements of Neo-Eastern Mythology in Rabbinic Aggadah” by Irving Jacobs.
“Five Stages of Jewish Myth and Mythmaking,” in The Exegetical Imagination: On Jewish Thought and Theology by Michael Fishbane, pp. 86-104.
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sp; Myths from Mesopotamia by S. Dalley, pp. 228-277 (Enuma Elish).
140. THE PRINCE OF DARKNESS
When God decided to create the world, He addressed the Prince of Darkness, saying, “Get you hence. It is My intention to begin Creation with light.” But the Prince of Darkness, who was black as a bull, was afraid that if the darkness were lit, he would become God’s slave. So the Prince feigned deafness, and ignored God’s rebuke, saying, “Why not create the world from darkness?” “Get you hence at once,” God replied, “before you perish from the world!” “And after light what will You create?” asked the Prince of Darkness. God replied, “Darkness.”
So it was. But it is said that in End of Days the Prince of Darkness will declare himself equal to God, and claim to have taken part in Creation, saying, “Although God made heaven and light, it was I who made darkness and the pit of hell!” His angels will support his claim, but the fires of hell will quench their arrogance.
The identity of the Prince of Darkness is blurred in rabbinic texts. In this case, the Prince of Darkness is primarily a mythic personification of elemental darkness. At the same time, the rebellion of the Prince of Darkness is linked to the rebellions of the angels Satan (sometimes called Samael), and Lucifer. The identity of all of these angels, including the Prince of Darkness, blurs together in Jewish tradition. See “The Fall of Lucifer,” p. 108. After God’s rebuke, other princes in heaven proclaim the Prince of Darkness to be their king, and he rewards them by bestowing pavilions on them, as in the passage, He made pavilions of darkness about him (2 Sam. 22:12). But God then rebukes them for their rebelliousness and disperses them. Following the creation of light and darkness, the myth goes on to describe the creation of the signs of the zodiac, linking rabbinic lore with the astrological.
Sources:
Pesikta Rabbati 20:2; Pesikta Rabbati 53:2; Yalkut Re’uveni 1:19; Midrash Alphabetot 434.
141. THE FALL OF LUCIFER
At first Lucifer, the highest archangel, was the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and flawless in beauty. He resided on God’s holy mountain; he walked among stones of fire. He was blameless in his ways until he was filled with lawlessness and sinned. For he said, “I will climb to the sky; higher than the stars of God will I set my throne.” Then, on the second day of Creation, Lucifer, together with his legions of angels, attempted to set himself up as the equal of God. Then God hurled him from the heights, together with his angels, and cast them into a bottomless abyss.
The myth of the fall of Lucifer finds its origin in the ancient Canaanite myth of Athtar, who attempted to rule the throne of Ba’al, but was forced to descend and rule the underworld instead. In Jewish sources, this myth only exists in fragmentary form, primarily in Isaiah 14:12 and 2 Enoch. The myth of Lucifer’s fall plays a surprisingly minor role in Jewish mythology, perhaps because of the prominence it gained in Christianity. Here, because of the statement by Jesus, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven (Luke 18:10), Lucifer became identified with Satan, even though they are two entirely separate mythic figures. (It is interesting to note that in some recensions of 2 Enoch, Lucifer is identified with the angel Satanel.) From this point on, Lucifer and Satan become synonymous with the Devil in Christian lore, while the myth of Lucifer is essentially lost from Jewish tradition. Yet there is a clear distinction between Satan, the Tempter and heavenly prosecutor, who often cooperates with God, and with Lucifer, who was cast out after rebelling. The fall of Lucifer also strongly echoes the account in Genesis 6 of the descent of the Sons of God to earth from heaven.
Once the myth of Lucifer was ceded to the Christians, the primary sources for the myth remained those in the Bible and Pseudepigrapha, and the myth ceased to be developed in the midrash. Indeed, it is necessary to reconstruct it from the existing fragments, not only in Isaiah and 2 Enoch, but also from Ezekiel 28:11-19, where Lucifer is not directly named, but reference to his myth seems apparent.
The name Lucifer also refers to the planet Venus, the morning star, which first appears to dominate the heavens, but then disappears. This too parallels the pattern of the fall of Lucifer. Isaiah recounts the myth:
How are you fallen from heaven,
O Shining One, son of Dawn!
How are you felled to earth,
O vanquisher of nations!
Once you thought in your heart,
I will climb to the sky;
Higher than the stars of God
I will set my throne.
I will sit in the mount of the assembly.
On the summit of Zaphon:
I will mount the back of a cloud—
I will match the Most High.
Instead, you are brought down to Sheol,
to the bottom of the pit.
Isaiah 14:12-13
The account of Lucifer being cast out of heaven is also found in 2 Enoch 29, 4-5, where God Himself is the speaker, describes how Lucifer tried to overthrow Him and was cast out of heaven: “I hurled him out of the heights, together with his angels.”
By setting the myth on the second day of Creation, it is clear that the rebellion takes place strictly in heaven, without any consideration of human beings, who were yet to be created. The missing details of the fall of Lucifer appear to be found in Ezekiel 28:11, although Lucifer is not directly named. Indeed, the passage seems to allude to the myth by means of allegory, in that it is addressed to the King of Tyre, who is about to experience a great fall.
These missing details make it possible to reconstruct the myth. Lucifer was beautiful and brilliant: You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and flawless in beauty (Ezek. 28:11). Here Lucifer is described in terms very similar to that of the Greek gods. Here, too, is a direct statement of Lucifer’s fate: I have struck you down from the mountain of God (Ezek. 28:17). The fate of the King of Tyre is thus parallel to that of Lucifer—both undergo a great fall.
The ultimate fate of Lucifer appears to be some kind of eternal wandering, as he was brought down to Sheol, to the bottom of the Pit (Isa. 14:15). Sheol was the early Israelite version of Hell, although it more closely resembles the Greek tradition of Limbo. The meaning seems to be that God has cast Lucifer into the Abyss.
A strong parallel to the myth of the fall of Lucifer is found in Vita Adae et Evae 15:2, where Michael speaks to Satan: “And Michael said, ‘Worship the image of God, but if you will not, you will know the Lord’s wrath.’ And I (Satan) said: ‘If He shows me His wrath, I will set my seat above the stars of heaven.”
Even though there is very little midrashic interest in the myth of Lucifer, a parallel myth emerges, also about rebellious angels, known as the Watchers. See “The Sons of God and the Daughters of Men,” p. 454 and “The Watchers,” p. 457. Here the fate of Lucifer is duplicated by the angel Azazel. Both are cast out of heaven into the Abyss, but Azazel is said to be chained upside down in a distant canyon, where he continues his evil plotting. For the cycle of myths of the Sons of God, see pp. 454-460.
For a close variant of this myth, see “Satan Cast From Heaven,” p. 109.
Sources:
Isaiah 6, 14:12; Ezekiel 28:11-19; Psalms 82:6-7; 1 Kings 22; Job 1:6; Vita Adae et Evae 12:1, 13:2-3, 14:1-3; 2 Enoch 29, 4-5.
Christian Sources:
1 John 3:8; Luke 10:18; 2 Corinthians 11:14.
Studies:
The Jewish Study Bible on Psalm 82,
“Ascension or Invasion: Implications of the Heavenly Journey in Ancient Judaism” by David J. Halperin.
142. SATAN CAST FROM HEAVEN
On the day that Adam was created, Satan went forth in heaven and flew like a bird in the air. God breathed His spirit into Adam, and Adam received the likeness of His image, as it is said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness (Gen. 1:26). God summoned the angel Michael and said, “Behold—I have made Adam in the likeness of My image.”
So Michael summoned all the angels, and God said to them, “Come, bow down to the god I have made.”
Michael bowed down first. T
hen he called upon Satan and said, “You too bow down to Adam.”
Satan said, “I will not bow down to anyone created after me. It is not proper for me to bow down to Adam.” And the other angels who were with him also refused to bow down to Adam.
Then God became angry with Satan and cast him and all the angels who had followed him from heaven to the earth. So too did God announce that He would establish Adam’s dominion on the throne of Satan, while Satan would be cast down so that Adam might sit above him.
When Satan realized all that he had lost, he decided to avenge himself against Adam, who was living in the Garden of Eden. He carefully prepared a trap for Adam so that he, too, would be deprived of his happiness, just as Satan had been. And that is why Satan sought revenge against Adam and convinced Eve to taste the forbidden fruit.
This myth is a variant of the “The Fall of Lucifer,” p. 108. Here the evil angel is identified as Satan instead of Lucifer, and the rebellion was not planned in advance, but grows out of Satan’s indignation at being asked to bow down to the newly created Adam, who is identified to the angels as a god: “Come, bow down to the god I have made.” Satan’s refusal to do so provokes God into casting him and all his followers to earth—not to hell. God’s identification of Satan with sinners is confirmed in Targum to Job 27:7: “Let my enemy be like the sinner, and the one rising up against me like the wicked.”
In the present myth Satan’s rebellion follows the creation of Adam, which took place on the sixth day of Creation, rather than at the beginning of Creation, as in the fall of Lucifer. Thus, in “The Fall of Lucifer,” Lucifer rebels directly against God simply to usurp God’s power, out of his jealousy over God, while here Satan’s rebellion is brought about by God’s creation of Adam. This is stated explicitly in the Targum to Job 31, in which Satan wanted to create another world, where he would have dominion, because all things were subservient to Adam on earth.
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