Tree of Souls
Page 60
God wrote the Torah while seated on the Throne of Glory, high in the firmament above the heads of the celestial creatures. The Garden of Eden was at God’s right hand, and Gehenna was at His left. The heavenly sanctuary was set up in front of Him, with the name of the Messiah engraved upon the altar. There, as the Torah rested on His knees, God wrote the letters in black fire on white fire. Later, it was tied to the arm of God, as it is said, Lightning flashing at them from His right (Deut. 33:2). Others say that the Torah was written on the arm of God, while still others say it was carved in fire on God’s crown.
The Torah was there when God created the heavens, drawing a circle on the face of the depths. So too was it there when God fashioned the heavens and set the streams into motion.
The Torah was reared by God, and it was His daily joy, giving God great pleasure. Later Moses arose and brought it down to earth to give to humanity.
Here the passage from Proverbs that is spoken by Wisdom is attributed to the Torah: Yahweh created me at the beginning of His course (Prov. 8:22). Thus Wisdom and the Torah are identified as the same figure, since the Torah is regarded as the sum of Jewish wisdom.
This myth answers the question of what the Torah was written on before it was given to Moses. The answer is that it was written with black fire on white fire and tied to the arm of God. An alternate version says that it was tied to the knee of God. Still another version says that the Torah was carved with fire on God’s crown.
According to Avot de-Rabbi Natan, God created the Torah 974 generations before the world was created.
Sources:
Midrash Tehillim 90:12; Eliyahu Rabbah 31:160; Midrash Mishlei 8; Midrash Konen in Beit ha-Midrash 2:24-39;Avot de-Rabbi Natan 31; Alpha Beta de-Rabbi Akiva in Otzar Midrashim p. 424.
309. CREATION BY THE TORAH
The Torah was one of the seven things created before the creation of the world, and the Torah served as God’s advisor when He was about to create this world. God looked into the Torah and created the world and all created beings through it.
When the time came to create man, the Torah said, “Master of the Universe, the world is Yours to create. The days of this man You want to create will be short and full of anger, and he will be drawn into sin. If You are not going to have patience with him, it’s better for him not to be created.”
God answered, “It’s not for nothing that I’m called Merciful.”
After that God consulted only the Torah, and let the Torah serve as a blueprint for all creation. So too did the Torah serve as an artisan in all the work of creation. With the assistance of the Torah, God stretched out the heavens and established the earth. With the Torah He bound up the sea, lest it go forth and overflow the world. With the Torah He locked up the deep, so that it might not inundate the world. So too did He fashion the sun and moon with it. Thus we learn that the world was indeed founded upon the Torah, and that God created the world and all created beings through the Torah. How did God do this? He looked into the Torah and created the world with it. With every single act of creation, God looked into the Torah, and created that detail of creation.
Others say that God fashioned the world according to the Torah. Looking at the word “heavens,” God created the heavens. Looking at the word “light,” He created light. So it went with each and every word of the Torah. In this way the world came into being.
Still others say that God opened the Torah and took a name that had not been given to any creature, and let three drops of that name fall into the sea. Those drops became filled with water and with the Holy Spirit, for The spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters (Gen. 1:1). Thus the Shekhinah was present in that place.
God opened the Torah again and took out a second name. This time God took three drops of light: one for the light of this world, one for the light of the World to Come, and one for the light of the Torah. For there is a holy light hidden in the Torah, and in order to discover it, it is necessary to probe deeply into the Torah, and one day the light of the Torah will shine forth.
Then God opened the Torah for the third time, and took out three drops of fire, and from that fire the whole world is heated.
God saw fire on His right, light on His left, and water beneath Him. He mixed them together two by two. He took fire and water and mixed them together, and made heaven out of them. So too did God take water and light and make a tent of darkness of them, as well as the Clouds of Glory. And out of fire and light God made the holy beasts.
Thus not only was the Torah created prior to the creation of the world, it was the vessel by which the world was created. Thus the universe was created through the letters of the Torah.
So too did God declare, at the time of man’s creation, that the world was created only for the sake of the Torah, and that as long as the Jewish people occupy themselves with the Torah, the world will continue to exist. But if the Jewish people abandon the Torah, God will return all of creation to a state of chaos.
God is able to consult the Torah because it is one of the seven things created before the creation. See “Seven Things Created before the Creation,” p. 74. A parable is given to explain God’s use of the Torah to create the world: “When a king wishes to build a palace, he does not build it himself but brings in an artisan. Nor does the artisan build it himself. He uses sketches and notebooks. So too did God look into the Torah and create the world.” (Genesis Rabbah 1:1). Here the Torah is presented as an “artisan,” while God is the architect, that is, as an active, creating force, not simply a text that was consulted. Here the Torah seems to participate in the creation in much the same way as the angels are said to have done in other rabbinic sources. See “Creation by Angels,” p. 116.
In the second example of God creating the world from the Torah, found in Midrash Konen, God takes a name out of the Torah and transforms it into drops of water, light, and fire, the elements with which God creates the world. This myth provides the origin of the primordial elements with which God was able to create the world, having them find their origin in a name found in the Torah. Such a name or names, usually the name of an angel, is used to invoke various kinds of spells in the Jewish magical tradition. It makes the creation of those elements itself a step in the creation process, thus making it a part of God’s overall plan. In this scenario, God created the Torah, which, in turn, was used to create the elements, which were used to create the world. This tradition probably emerged in response to the Gnostic view that the primordial elements—darkness, light, water, and fire—already existed when God decided to proceed with creation.
Philo also offers the metaphor of God having used a blueprint in the creation of the world, but he does not identify this blueprint with the Torah, but rather with a blueprint in an architect’s mind.
Three types of light are reported to have been created in this myth: the light of this world (Olam ha-Zeh), the light of the World to Come (Olam ha-Ba), and the light of the Torah. Each one is created out of a word of the Torah, one that was not the name of any creature.
The Zohar and later the Ba’al Shem Tov linked the light of the first day, known as the hidden light (or ha-ganuz), with the light of the Torah. Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav, the greatest Jewish storyteller, added to this interpretation his view that the light could be found in the stories of the Torah. He loved stories. See “The Light of the First Day,” p. 83, and “Light from the Temple,” p. 411. According to Rabbi Hayim of Volozhin, the Torah did not actively participate in Creation, but nevertheless played an essential role: “At the time of Creation, the Torah illuminated the universe from a remote distance to give it life and sustain it. Still, the world remained unsettled until the giving of the Torah 2000 years later” (Nefesh ha-Hayim 4:1).
The basis for the assertion that God will destroy the world if the Jewish people abandon the Torah is Jeremiah 33:25: “If not for My Covenant, I would not have set day and night and the bounds of heaven and earth.”
Sources:
Philo, De Opificio Mun
di 16-20; Midrash Tanhuma-Yelammedenu, Bereshit 1; Genesis
Rabbah 1:1, 1:4; Midrash Tanhuma, Bereshit 4; Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer 3; Eliyahu Rabbah 160; Midrash Konen in Beit ha-Midrash 2:24-27; Perush ha-Aggadot le-Rav Azriel 86-91; Zohar 1:24a, 1:134a, 3:11b; Maggid Devarav le-Ya’akov 135; Nefesh haHayim 4:1.
Studies:
“God, Torah and Israel” by Abraham Joshua Heschel.
310. THE LETTERS OF THE ALPHABET
For two thousand years prior to the creation of the world, all the letters of the Hebrew alphabet were hidden. During that time, God gazed upon the letters and delighted in them. Then, when God was about to create the world, all twenty-two letters engraved upon His crown came down and stood before him, from tav to aleph. The letter tav approached first and said: “O Lord, create the world through me, for I am at the beginning of the word ‘Torah.’”
God replied, “Tav, You are worthy and deserving, and in the days to come I shall command that you be put as a sign on the foreheads of the righteous, so that when the destroying angel comes to punish sinners, he will see the letter on their foreheads and spare them.” But the letter tav was sad that it would not be used to create the world, and it left the presence of the Lord.
Then, one by one, each of the other letters came forward and pleaded with God to create the world through them. But God did not grant their wish. Soon all that remained were two letters, aleph and bet. Bet came forth and said, “O Lord, it would be appropriate to create the world through me, for your children will praise you through me every time they say ‘Blessed be the Lord for ever and ever.’
Then God said, “Blessed are you who comes in the name of the Lord.” And God took the letter bet and created the world through it.
All this time the letter aleph had stood silent. Then God called it and said, “Why are you silent?” Aleph replied, “Master of the Universe, I am the least among the letters, for my value is but one. How can I presume to approach you?”
The words of the letter aleph were pleasing to God, and He said, “Because you are so modest, aleph, you shall become the foremost among the letters, for just as your value is one, so am I one and the Torah is one.”
So it is that the aleph is the first letter of the alphabet, while bet is the first letter of Bereshit, the first word of the Torah, which means “in the beginning.”
God informs the letter tav that in the future it is destined to serve as a mark on the foreheads of the faithful ones who have kept the Law, and through the absence of this mark the rest will be killed. This refers to the vision in Ezekiel 9 where the word usually translated as “man” is tav in Hebrew.
Bet is the first letter of the word barukh, blessed, which is the first word used in a wide range of blessings.
Note that in Hebrew the letters serve also as numbers, so that aleph is literally one.
Sources:
Alpha Beta de-Rabbi Akiva in Otzar Midrashim p. 424; Yalkut Shim’oni; Zohar 1:2b.
311. CREATION BY LETTERS
With letters, heaven and earth were created, the oceans and rivers were created, all the world’s needs and all the orders of Creation. And each letter flashed over and over again like lightning.
The world was created with the letter bet, because it stands for “blessing,” not with the aleph, which stands for “curse.” Others say that two worlds were created with two letters—the yod and the heh—this world and the World to Come. The account of creation opens with the letter bet (which serves as the number two) in order to teach that these two worlds exist.
Bezalel, the architect of the tabernacle, knew how to combine the letters through which heaven and earth were created.
There are a variety of traditions about how the world was created. “Creation by Word,” p. 247, suggests that the heavens and earth came into being as a result of God’s speech. Here it is not the speech, but the letters of the words to which the power of creation is attributed. This myth also suggests that Bezalel, whose abilities as an architect were legendary, drew his power from knowing how to combine the letters that had been used to create the world. A similar tradition concerns the creation of the golem, the man made out of clay. The golem was said to have been brought to life through the letters of the word emet, which were inscribed on its forehead, and through the Tetragrammaton, the four-letter Name of God, inscribed on a piece of parchment, which was placed inside its mouth. See “The Golem of Prague,” p. 281.
Sources:
B. Berakhot 55a; Midrash Tanhuma-Yelammedenu, Bereshit 5; Sefer ha-Bahir 3; Pesikta Rabbati 21:21; Midrash Tehillim 62:1; 3 Enoch 41; Synopse zur Hekhalot-Literatur 16; Sha’arei Orah 5:68b-69a.
312. THE SHINING LETTERS
Most people derive pleasure from eating and drinking, not from the light shining through the letters. The Tzaddik, however, derives no pleasure from eating or drinking or other bodily pleasures. Instead, he is renewed by the shining letters, and derives all his pleasure from them. For the letters of the holy tongue animate every object. And the Tzaddik, when reaching for an object, can actually grasp the letters within it.
Basic kabbalistic doctrine holds that the interaction of the letters of a word is directly linked to what that word represents. Indeed, every object has at its essence the letters that make it up. Most people are oblivious to this inner truth, the letters glowing inside of every object. But the Tzaddikim—the righteous ones—are well aware of these letters and are even able to grasp them. Here Rabbi Nachman expands, as he often does, on the remarkable spiritual insight of the Tzaddik.
Sources:
Likutei Moharan 1:19.
313. THE TORAH WRITTEN ON THE ARM OF GOD
Prior to the creation of the world, there were no animals, therefore there were no skins of parchment on which to write the Torah. How, then, was the Torah written? On the arm of God, with black fire on white fire. And God took the Torah and placed it before Him and gazed at it, and read it from beginning to end. And as He read those words, they came to pass.
While writing on parchment is not as ancient as writing on clay tablets, it was the method used to record the most ancient Jewish texts, and to this day possession of a parchment scroll of the Torah is considered a necessity for every Jewish congregation. Since there was a well-known tradition that the Torah was one of the things created before the rest of the world, this myth attempts to resolve the problem of where the Torah was written down before there were skins to use as parchment. The answer given is a surprising one—that it was written on the arm of God, and that God read it from where it was inscribed on His arm. This myth suggests how closely the Torah was associated with God, so much so that it was inscribed on His arm like a tattoo.
Sources:
Aseret ha-Dibrot in Beit ha-Midrash 1:62; Merkavah Rabbah.
314. GOD’S ORIGINAL PLAN
According to God’s original plan, a thousand generations were supposed to pass before the Torah was given. But nine hundred and seventy-four of those generations were swept away in the wink of an eye, for God saw that they would give themselves to wickedness. After they were carried away, they were gone like a dream, as it is said, You engulf men in sleep (Ps. 90:5).
So it was that God gave the Torah to Moses in the twenty-sixth generation from Adam, which would have been the thousandth generation.
Here God changes His original plan, which was to give the Torah in the thousandth generation. Instead, foreseeing the wickedness of the coming generations, He eliminated 974 of them, speeding the process of the giving of the Torah to the twenty-sixth generation.
The notion of God changing His original plan is intriguing, since God has the ability to foresee the future.
This myth is an interesting variation on the theme that God created and destroyed 974 worlds prior to this one. Here, instead of 974 worlds, there are an equal number of generations. See “Prior Worlds,” p. 71.
Sources:
Eliyahu Rabbah 2:9; Midrash Tehillim 90:13, 105:3.
315. THE BOOK OF RAZIEL
The Book was revealed to Adam while he was still in the Garden of Eden, to show him each generation and its sages, each generation and its leaders. How did God show him generations that did not yet exist? Some say that God cast sleep upon him and showed him, while others say that Adam saw them all with his eyes, for whatever he read in that book he saw with his own vision. For since the time the world was created, all of the souls of those yet to be born stand before God in the very same form in which they will live in this world.
God sent the angel Raziel, the Angel of Secrets, to read the Book to Adam. But when Adam heard the first words issue from the mouth of the angel, he fell down in fear. Therefore God let Raziel leave the Book with him so that he could read from it on his own, and in this way Adam came to know the future and was made wise in all things.
Some say that book was written on parchment, while others say it was engraved on a sapphire. How was that sapphire read? Adam held it up to his eyes, and the flame burning inside that sapphire took the form of the letters, so Adam could read them there. So too there are those who say that the true text of the Book of Raziel was the Torah, for the Torah was one of the seven things created before the rest of Creation, and this way its wisdom was transmitted even to the first man.
Contained in the Book was a secret writing that explained seventy-two branches of wisdom, mysteries which had not been revealed even to the other angels. So too did the Book contain the entire history, past and future, of mankind. Whenever Adam opened the Book, angels gathered around him to learn all the mystical secrets it contained. Then the angels made a plea to God, saying, “Impart the mystery of Your glory to the angels, not to men.” Instead, the angel Hadarniel was secretly sent to Adam and said: “Adam, Adam, do not reveal the glory of your Master, for to you alone and not to the angels is the privilege given to know these mysteries.”