The Universe was created with ten utterances (א"כ הליגמ ;א ,ה תובא):
1./ „In the beginning…” (Beraishis 1:1)1: „By the word of the Lord were the heavens made…” (Tehilim 33:6). According to an other opinion (ג א"רדפ), the first utterance is: 1./ „Behold, I have given you…” (Beraishis 1:29);
The letter „אאאא” complains during 26 generations, finally it will be recompensed by the Eternal at Mount-Sinai with the word „יכונא”, beginning with the letter
„אאאא” (ד"הידמ).
1 English quotations from the TANACH, if not signalized otherwise, are generally taken from the ArtScroll TANACH. Ed. R. Nosson SCHERMAN. New York: Mesorah Publications, 1996, 1998.
Quotations from the TANACH and the Talmud, if not signalized otherwise, are generally taken from the Soncino Classic Collection, Judaic Classic Library by David KANTOROWITZ CD-ROM, Davka Corporation and Judaica Press, 1991-1996.
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2./ „And a wind from G-d hovered…” (Beraishis 1:2): a separate utterance, a separate creation. According to the above other opinion (ג א"רדפ), the second utterance is „It is not good that the man should be alone” (Ibid. 2:18);
3./ „Let there be light…” (Ibid. 1:3);
4./ „Let there be a firmament…” (Ibid. 1:6);
5./ „Let the waters…be gathered…” (Ibid. 1:9);
6./ „Let the earth bring forth grass…” (Ibid. 1:11);
7./ „Let there be luminaries…” (Ibid. 1:14);
8./ „Let the waters be filled…” (Ibid. 1:20);
9./ „Let the earth bring forth all kinds of living creatures…” (Ibid. 1:24);
10./ „Let us make man…” (Ibid. 1:26; א ז,"י ר"ב).
The Universe was created with the divine attribute of strict justice (ןידה תדימ).
Later, the Eternal joined to it the divine attribute of mercy (םימחרה תדימ), in order that Creation should survive (ו"ט ,ב"י ר"ב).
Hashem created the Universe in six days: from the 25th of Elul until the 1st of Tishrai; acting only during daytime: 6 x 12 = 72 hours, as it is written „The world is built by kindness…” (Tehilim 89:3). „הנבי דדדד""""סחסחסחסח םלוע”: the gematrioh (אירטמיג ’numerical value’)1 of the letters of the word דדדד""""סחסחסחסח
’kindness’ is 72.
● Elul 25, Sunday: the first day of Creation.
1 Gematrioh: from the Greek word geometria ’geodesy, geometry’, one of the aggadic hermeneutical rules for interpreting the Torah (Baraisa of 32 Rules, no. 29), consisting of explaining a word or group of words according to the total numerical value of the letters.
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Everything was created on the first day, but the different things started functioning only on one of the following days.
Ten creatures (ב"י הגיגח):
1-2./ The Heaven and the Earth (Beraishis 1:1):
► „Bais Shammai say: Heaven was created first and afterwards the earth was created, for it is said: »In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth«”
(Beraishis 1:1);
► „Bais Hillel say: Earth was created first and afterwards heaven, for it is said:
»In the day that the Lord God made earth and heaven« (Beraishis 2:4) first the Earth then the heaven”; „…you laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the work of your hands” (Tehilim 102:26);
► „But the Sages say: Both were created at the same time. For it is said: »Yea, Mine hand had laid the foundation of the earth, and My right hand had spread out the heavens: When I call unto them they stand up together.«” (Yeshayah 48:13).
► „Raish Lakish answered: When they were created, He created heaven [first], and afterwards He created the earth; but when He stretched them forth He stretched forth the earth [first], and afterwards He stretched forth heaven.” ( דימת
ל
"
ב ; י הגיגח
"
ב )
The Eternal takes a piece of the light of His „garment”, and spreads it over the Universe (ג א"רדפ).
There are seven heavens (ב"י הגיגח):1
► vilon (ןוליו; ’curtain’)2 – „it serves no purpose except that it enters in the morning and goes forth in the evening, and renews every day the work of
1 Cf. Dante’s Paradise has nine sectors.
2 From Lat. velum.
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creation, for it is said: »That stretches out the heavens as a curtain, and spreads them out as a tent to dwell in.« (Yeshayah 40:12)”;
► rokiah (עיקר; ’expanse, firmament’) – „is that in which sun and moon, stars
and constellations are set. For it is said: »And God set them in the firmament [Rokiah] of the heaven.« (Beraishis 1:17);
► shechokim (םיקחש; ’clouds’) - „is that in which millstones stand and grind manna for the righteous. For it is said: »And He commanded the skies [Shechokim] above, and opened the doors of heaven; and He caused manna to rain upon them for food…« (Tehilim 78:23-24);
► zvul (לובז; ‘elevation, height, lofty abode’1) - „is that in which [the heavenly]
Jerusalem and the Temple and the Altar are built,2 and Michoel, the great Prince, stands and offers up thereon an offering. For it is said: »I have surely built You a house of habitation [Zvul], a place for You to dwell in for ever.«
(1Melochim 8:13). And whence do we derive that it is called heaven? For it is written: »Look down from heaven, and see, even from Your holy and glorious habitation.«” (Yeshayoh 63:15);
► moon (ןועמ;‘dwelling, habitation’) – „is that in which there are companies of Ministering Angels, who utter [divine] song by night, and are silent by day for the sake of Israel’s glory [who say by day]. For it is said: »By day the Lord does command His lovingkindness, and in the night His song is with me.« (Tehilim 42:9). And whence do we derive that it is called heaven? For it is said: »Look forth from Your holy habitation [moon], from heaven.« (Devorim 26:15);
► mochon (ןוכמ; ‘fixed or established place, foundation, residence’) - „is that in which there are the stores of snow and stores of hail, and the loft of harmful
1 BDB.
2 Cf. bTaanis 5a: „The Holy One blessed be He, said: I shall not enter the Jerusalem which is above, until I enter the Jerusalem which is below.”
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dews and the loft of raindrops, the chamber of the whirlwind and storm, and the cave of vapour, and their doors are of fire. For it is said: »The Lord will open unto you His good treasure.« (Devorim 28:12). And whence do we derive that it is called heaven? For it is written: »Then hear You in heaven, Your dwelling place [mokon]«.” (1Melochim 8:39);
► arovos (תוברע) - „is that in which there are Right and Judgment and Righteousness, the treasures of life and the treasures of peace and the treasures of blessing, the souls of the righteous and the spirits and the souls which are yet to be born, and dew wherewith the Holy One, blessed be He, will hereafter revive the dead. … And whence do we derive that it is called heaven? From the word ‘riding’, which occurs in two Biblical passages. Here it is written: »Extol Him that rides upon Arovos«. (Tehilim 68:5). And elsewhere it is written: »Who rides upon the heaven as your help«.(Devorim 33:26)”.
Other sources give other lists. One (ד"הידמ) has the same seven as the above Talmud, but mochon precedes moon. An other (א"י ,ט"כ ר"רקיו) has shomayim (םימש), shemai hashomayim (םימשה ימש; Tehilim 148:4, Nechemiah 9:6), rokiah, shechokim, zevul, moon, arovos. Again an other list (ד"יק םיליהת שרדימ) has shomayim, rokiah, shechokim, zvul, moon, mochon, arovos.
The Eternal pours from the snow under the Kissai hakovod over the waters, and these crystallize and become sand: the Earth is created (ג א"רדפ).
The seven parts of the Earth are:
► eretz (ץרא): mild weather,
► adomoh (המדא; Beraishis 1:25): cold weather,
► arko (הקרא): hot weather, but all three are inhabited,
► ge (יג; Yehoshuah 15:8): low place, the sun does not reach there,
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► tzioh (ה-יצ; Yeshayoh 41:18): unbarren desert, however there is a road crossing near the inhabited place,
► neshioh (ה-ישנ; Tehilim 88:13): desert, inhabited only by wild beasts,
► taivail (לבת; 1Shmuel 2:8): Eretz Yisroel (א"י ,ט"כ ר"רקיו).
3-4./ The Light and the Darkness (Beraishis 1:3-4): two separate creatures.
That Light erradiated from the Glory of the Shechinah, and not from the celestial bodies (ב"י הגיגח ;ו ,ז ;ד ,ג ר"ב).
5-6./ Tohu [’chaos’] and Bohu [’desolation’] (Beraishis 1:2).
7./ The Wind (Beraishis 1:2).
Four winds rule over the world: the Southern (bringing blessings: rain, dew), the Eastern (light), the Western (darkness), the Northern (snow, hail, cold-warm).
Some say (ג א"רדפ) that the Eternal did not finish the northern pole of the Earth.
Thus, if someone comes and wants to make concurrence to Him, let him come and finish. That is the place where the harmful beings come to the world.
8./ The Water (Beraishis 1:2).
9-10./ The measure of the Day and the Night (Beraishis 1:5).
● Elul 26, Monday: the second day of Creation.
1./ The Eternal separates the waters.
2./ He consolidates the Firmament (Beraishis 1:6), this is the firmament above the Kissai hakovod (Yechezkel 1:22; ד א"רדפ).
The heaven (םימש; Beraishis 1:8) is composed of fire (שא; an allusion to the severness of justice) and of water (םימ; an allusion to mercifullness), being the dwelling place of the Eternal(ב"י הגיגח ;ט ,ד ר"ב).
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The waters below complain that because of the consolidation of the firmament, they are now farther from the Creator. The Angel of the Sea (םי לש רש) complains for an other reason also. A third part of the world is inhabited territory, a third part of it is desert, and again a third part is water. Now, the Torah will be given in the wilderness, the Bais hamikdosh will stand on inhabited territory, and which honour will there be for the water? The Eternal promises that there will always be sea-salt on the altar together with the sacrifices (Bris melach, Vayikroh 2:13), and in the Bais hamikdosh every year during Sukkos, the Jews will pour water on the altar (םימה ךוסינ; ,קחצי טוקלי חקור).
2./ The seven sectors of the Gehinnom, conforming to the seven heavens.1
3./ The five groups of the Angels: Arailim (םילרא), Malochim (םיכאלמ), Ofanim (םינפוא), Serofim (םיפרס), Chasmalim (םילמשח); the others on the fifth day (ח ,ג ר"ב).
On this day the Eternal doesn’t say „and G-d saw that it was good” („Ki tov…”;
Beraishis 1:10, etc.), because of the creation of the Gehinnom, and the waters what were to destroy mankind one day in the flood (ו ,א י"שר :י ,ד ר"ב).
● Elul 27, Tuesday: the third day of Creation.
1./ The Dry Lands emerge from the waters (Beraishis 1:9).
2./ The fruit-bearing Trees and the Herbes (Beraishis 1:11): originally every tree was supposed to be a fruit-tree and even itself fit to eating, but as the Earth disobeyed, the Eternal curses it together with Odom hoRishon.
1 Cf. Dante’s Hell has nine sectors.
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Originally – until Odom horishon’s - the trees bear fruits the same day when planted; during the wandering of the Bnai Yisroel in the wilderness, it will again be so.
The herbes wait under the ground until Friday, when Odom horishon will pray for them. Consequently, rain will fall, and the herbes sprout. This shows that the Eternal is awaiting for the prayers of tzaddikim (ס ןילוח).
3./ The Garden hidden in Eden (Beraishis 2:8)1: 800.000 trees, in the middle the Tree of Life, tzaddikim are sitting beyond it and learning Torah.
The river coming out from Eden waters the Garden (Beraishis 2:10)2. The river gets divided, becoming four branches (Beraishis 2:10).
► Pishon (ןושיפ; Beraishis 2:11): this is only an attribute of the river, its true Hercule (the Strait of Gibraltar): modern opinions identify the place with the Gran Canaria.
2 According to JOSEPHUS (I:1), it surrounds the whole earth.
3 The word Nilus originates from a semitic root nhl ’river’, and has been taken to the European languages through the Greek form Neilos. The Egyptians called it simply 'iotr, 'io'r ’river’; considered being the outlet of Nun, the primitive sea. In Assyrian cuneiform tablets ja'uru ’river’, 'Iaru'û ’Nile’
(BDB). The 6.670 km long river is formed by the so called White-Nile (Ar. Bahr el Abjad) which starts from the big lakes of Eastern Africa, and the 1.350 km long Blue-Nile (Ar. Bahr el Azrak) which starts on the Ethiopian Highland, from the Lake Tana, and joins the precedent at Khartoum, Sudan. The third important affluent, the Atbara meets the Nile in Nubia near Meroe. The river formes an S-bend in the Nubian desert, going through six cataracts. The Delta, north of Kairo, has today only two branches reaching the Mediterranean Sea: that of Rosetta (Rasid) and that of Damietta. However, in ancient times, it had more branches: Canobos, Bolbitis-Naukratis, Sebennytos, Phatnis, Mendes, Tanis, Pelusion.
The Nile is generally mentioned in the Torah (eg. Beraishis 41:1-3, 17-18; Shemos 2:5; 4:9; 7:15) as yeor (רואי), meaning simply ’The River’, and on one occasion (Beraishis 15:18) is designated as nohor (רהנ).
On the other hand, the expression nachal Mitzrayim (םירצמ לחנ; Bamidbor 34:5) is translated by the Targum Yonassan and the Targum Yerushalmi and also by RASHI (Bamidbor 34:3) and R. Eliyah MIZRACHI as Nile. However, IBN EZRA says, that this is not the yeor i. e. the Nile. Rabainu BACHJA
considers it also erroneous to identify the nachal Mitzrayim with the Nile. Acording to the RADBAZ
(ד"ה א"פ תומורת 'ה ם"במר לע ,ו"ר 'ב הבושת), the river called by the Torah nachal, is not the Nile, but a temporary water called in Arab Wadi el-Arish. This latter originates on the Sinai-peninsula, East of Aisom, on the other side of the Jebel el-Tih, ca. at the height of Wadi Amarah. Running Northwards, it
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Ganges (cf. the Targum Yonassan ad loc. has Hindeki for Chaviloh, see below), and Gichon with the Nile, what is surprising supposing that they were for sure also acquainted with the tradition conserved byRASHI.1
It flows around the whole land of Chaviloh (הליוח, ’Hindeki, יקידניה’, י"וגרת; Beraishis 2:11), where there is fine gold and bedolach (חלדב)2 and the shoham-stone (םהשןבא)3 (Beraishis 2:12). However, this cannot be Chaviloh shel Mitzrayim, as the river flows around Chaviloh,4 and then it flows through the whole land of Mitzrayim5, until it finally flows into the [Mediterranean] sea (ן"במר);
reaches the Mediterranean. In ancient times, this was the border between Eretz Yisroel and Erez Mitzrayim, and this could obviously not be the Nile.
In the same way, the expression Shichor Mitzrayim (רוחיש, ’black’, related to the black left-over of the river; Yehoshua 13:3; 1Divrai haYomim 13:5) has to mean the border-river between Eretz Yisroel and Eretz Mitzrayim, nonwithstand the fact that the Targum Rav Yossef (םירצמד סולינ) and the other meforshim render it unanimously as Nile. However the same word presumably means effectively the Nile in Yeshayoh 23:3.
1 JOSEPHUS (I:1) has the same: Ganges for Pishon and Nile for Gichon.
2 Bedolach: the ’bdellium, an odoriferous transparent gum, of yellowish colour’; in the Septuaginth antrax; however ’rock crystal’ in Bamidbor 11:7 (BDB).
3 Shoham-stone: ’onyx’ or ’chrysoprasus’ or ’beryl’ or ’malachite’; cf. Ass. Sâmtu (BDB).
4 Considering the Pishon to be the Nile, the land of Chaviloh mentioned as Cush’s son among the descendants of Noach (Beraishis 10:7) can be Upper-Egypt (called Mitzrayim in the strict sense) or a part of it, as the river makes a curbe on its territory. However the epitheton „rich in gold” is more valid to Nubia. JOSEPHUS (I:1:3) renders it similar to the abovementioned Targum as India (Hindeki); while the RAMBAN says explicitely, that this is not Chaviloh of Mitzrayim. Modern scientific identifications are looking for the Land of Chaviloh on the Ethiopian sea-shore, on the shores of the Arabian-Peninsula on the Persian-Gulf, on the North-Eastern edge of the Syrian desert, in the Central- or North-Eastern part of the Arabian-Peninsula, and even in India. A further difficulty is that there is a Chaviloh among the descendants of Shem: one of Yokton’s sons bears the same name (Beraishis 10:29). This latter is rendered by JOSEPHUS as Ghetuli, the inhabitants of Nubia (In Daat Mikra: Numidia).
5 Mitzrayim: Egypt or, in the stricter sense, Lower-Egypt. Upper Egypt is called in the TANACH Patros (the use of the dualis could mean Upper- and Lower-Egypt together). The name of the land figures in Assyrian cuneiform texts as Musur(u), Musru, Misir, on the Amarna tablets as Misri, in Arab it is called Misr (sing.). The Greek name, Aigyptos is derived from the name of the Memphis temple, and of the town itself in the New-Kingdom periode: Hut-Ka-Ptah (’the house of the spirit of the g-d Ptah’).
Called Memphis by the Greeks, the original Egyptian name of the town was Ineb-Hej ’White Wall’. It was called Memphis (Egypt. Men-Nofer-Pepi) after the pyramide of Pepi I (c. 2400 BCE, 6th Dynasty in Memphis). The town has been founded on the West bank of the Nile, South of the Delta, by Aha-Menes (c. 3000 BCE, 1st Dynasty) of Thinis (Tjen) as his new capital, when he united Lower- and Upper-Egypt, thus creating the unified Egyptian Empire.
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► Gichon (ןוחיג; Beraishis 2:13).1
It flows around the whole land of Cush (שוכ; Beraishis 2:13).2
1Gichon: JOSEPHUS (I:1) renders it as the Nile. One can think to the Blue-Nile, which effectively has a great curbe on the actual territory of Ethiopia, to South of the Land of Cush. However Cush in the broader sense means all the territorries South of Mitzrayim, as the ancient Greeks called in general Aithiopia all the territories South of Egypt and Libya.
Others (Aharon MARCUS, Keseth Sofer) identify the Gichon with the Oxos (the Amu-Darya) which in the Antiquity flew into the Caspian Sea (today into the Aral Lake), or eventually with a left-side affluent of the Eufrates, the Khaboras. These latter solutions render difficult the identification of Cush, as in this case – contradicting tradition – we have to place the land of Cush on the „map” of the TANACH not South of Mitzrayim but to the East, somewhere on the territory of Iran. However, it is also true that the Greeks called the inhabitants of India also Aithiopos.
We have also to remember the fact that the midroshim (especially the „Sefer haYoshor”) often call the Mediterranean Sea, mentioned in the Torah generally as the „Big Sea” (לודגה םי; eg. Bamidbor 34:6-7), the Sea of Gichon. However, in Bamidbor 34:6, the Targum Yonassan renders it as Okinos (< Greek Okeanos ’the river surrounding the World, the world-sea, the name of the g-d of the big primitive water’).
2 Cush: in Egyptian texts Kosh (Ass. Kushu, on the Amarna tablets Kashi) means the territory South of Egypt – i. e. of the first cataract, of Sveneh (הנוס, Yechezkel 29:10; today Assuan) on the right bank of the Nile, in front of the Island of Elephantine -, not the Ethiopia of today, rather the modern Sudan, the ancient Nubia, possibly with the Northern region of the actual Ethiopia. However, already JOSEPHUS
renders Cush as Ethiopia. This region was called in Greek Aithiopia: Greek aithiop ’a man whose face is bronzed by the sun’, originally the homeland of people living at the South-Eastern edge of the world, later the inhabitants of Nubia and India. Nubia takes its name from a Mahas word, nob ’slave’, cf. Arab nuba.
The sovereigns of this territory beginning with Kasta (d. 747 BCE), king of Napata (at the fourth cataract), try successfully to extend their rule over Egypt: 25th Dynasty, 716-656 BCE, Sabaka (716-702 BCE). Their reign is overthrown by the Assyrian conquest. When PSAMMETIK II (595-589 BCE, 26th Dynasty) starts a military campaign toward the South, the royal capital moves to Meroe (today Sendi), situated between the fifth and sixth cataracts, where the Nile, the Astrapus and the Astaboras meet.
According to STRABON (XVII:I.5), the town had been named by KAMBYSES II (529-522 BCE) when conquering Egypt in 525 BCE, after his sister (or wife) Meroe who died there. From the fourth century BCE, there was existing a Meroe Empire. In 270 BCE, King ERGAMENES defeats the priesthood, and creates a new empire which exists until the third century CE, its capital being Napata.
The Targum (to 2Divrai haYomim 1:8) renders Cush as Arabia. Acoording to the „Book of Jubilees”
(9:1) Cush is situated to the East of Eretz Yisroel. It is possible that the two regions are called by a common name, Arabia because of similitudes of language, civilization and even alimentation
Modern scientific identifications propose the abovementioned alternatives: Nile (SUKENIK-CASSUTO, ALBRIGHT) versus Ganges (DILMANN) and Ethiopia (GRINTZ, Encyclopaedia Judaica) versus India (DILLMANN). Others (F. DELITZSCH, E. A. SPEISER, A. MARCUS), however, try to identify Cush (שוכ) as Kash (שכ) = Akkadian Kashu, and speak about the land of the Kashus, a dynasty of foreign origin, bearing foreign names, who rule over Babylon for five hundred years, until 1155 BCE. Consequently, they are looking for the Pishon and the Gichon in Mesopotamia. They propose the rivers Kerche (SPEISER) or Diala (JENSEN) for the former, and the Oxos or the Khaboras (MARCUS) for the latter. Again an other idea (SAUER, The River Runs Dry. In: Biblical Archeological Review, July-August, 1996.) identifies the Pishon with the already extinct Kuwait-river, which originated in the Hidjaz-mountains near Medina and reached the Persian Gulf. And the ancient Mesopotamian town of Kish, eight miles to
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► Chidekkel (לקדח)1: to the East of Ashur (רושא)2 (Beraishis 2:14), what is Saliko (אקילס / קילס; י תובותכ ;י אמוי).3
► Pras (תרפ; Beraishis 2:14).4
In his commentary to the Torah (to Beraishis 2:11), R. ABRAHAM ibn Ezra criticizes R. SAADYA Gaon: according to him the latter „only rendered the Pishon as the Nile in his Arab translation of the Torah, that the Arabs could not say there are things in the Torah what the Jews do not understand”. And the Pishon can not be Egypt’s river, the Níle, „because it has its source far in the South, »on the White-Mountain«”.5 Ibn Ezra draws our attention to an unresolvable geographical problem which emerges when we try to identify the Pishon or the Gichon with the Níle: the river-heads of the four rivers are located many thousands of miles distant from each other. The Tigris and the
In his commentary to the Torah (to Beraishis 2:11), R. ABRAHAM ibn Ezra criticizes R. SAADYA Gaon: according to him the latter „only rendered the Pishon as the Nile in his Arab translation of the Torah, that the Arabs could not say there are things in the Torah what the Jews do not understand”. And the Pishon can not be Egypt’s river, the Níle, „because it has its source far in the South, »on the White-Mountain«”.5 Ibn Ezra draws our attention to an unresolvable geographical problem which emerges when we try to identify the Pishon or the Gichon with the Níle: the river-heads of the four rivers are located many thousands of miles distant from each other. The Tigris and the