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Title: The Legends of the Jews Volume 1

Author: Louis Ginzberg

Release Date: October, 1998  [Etext #1493]
[Most recently updated on July 4, 2007]

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The Legends of the Jews Volume 1, by Louis Ginzberg





Footnote numbers have been indicated but footnotes are not
included in this etext. If you have a copy of this book and would
like to add the footnotes, please contact Project Gutenberg.

THE LEGENDS OF THE JEWS

BY LOUIS GINZBERG


TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN MANUSCRIPT BY

HENRIETTA SZOLD


VOLUME I


BIBLE TIMES AND CHARACTERS

FROM THE CREATION TO JACOB




TO MY BROTHER ASHER


PREFACE

     Was sich nie und nirgends hat
      begeben, das allein veraltet nie.


The term Rabbinic was applied to the Jewish Literature of
post-Biblical times by those who conceived the Judaism of the
later epoch to be something different from the Judaism of the
Bible, something actually opposed to it. Such observers held that
the Jewish nation ceased to exist with the moment when its
political independence was destroyed. For them the Judaism of the
later epoch has been a Judaism of the Synagogue, the spokesmen of
which have been the scholars, the Rabbis. And what this phase of
Judaism brought forth has been considered by them to be the
product of the schools rather than the product of practical,
pulsating life. Poetic phantasmagoria, frequently the vaporings
of morbid visionaries, is the material out of which these
scholars construct the theologic system of the Rabbis, and fairy
tales, the spontaneous creations of the people, which take the
form of sacred legend in Jewish literature, are denominated the
Scriptural exegesis of the Rabbis, and condemned incontinently as
nugae rabbinorum.

As the name of a man clings to him, so men cling to names. For
the primitive savage the name is part of the essence of a person
or thing, and even in the more advanced stages of culture,
judgments are not always formed in agreement with facts as they
are, but rather according to the names by which they are called.
The current estimate of Rabbinic Literature is a case in point.
With the label Rabbinic later ages inherited from former ages a
certain distorted view of the literature so designated. To this
day, and even among scholars that approach its investigation with
unprejudiced minds, the opinion prevails that it is purely a
learned product. And yet the truth is that the most prominent
feature of Rabbinic Literature is its popular character.

The school and the home are not mutually opposed to each other in
the conception of the Jews. They study in their homes, and they
live in their schools. Likewise there is no distinct class of
scholars among them, a class that withdraws itself from
participation in the affairs of practical life. Even in the
domain of the Halakah, the Rabbis were not so much occupied with
theoretic principles of law as with the concrete phenomena of
daily existence. These they sought to grasp and shape. And what
is true of the Halakah is true with greater emphasis of the
Haggadah, which is popular in the double sense of appealing to
the people and being produced in the main by the people. To speak
of the Haggadah of the Tannaim and Amoraim is as far from fact as
to speak of the legends of Shakespeare and Scott. The ancient
authors and their modern brethren of the guild alike elaborate
legendary material which they found at hand.

It has been held by some that the Haggadah contains no popular
legends, that it is wholly a factitious, academic product. A
cursory glance at the pseudepigraphic literature of the Jews,
which is older than the Haggadah literature by several centuries,
shows how untenable this view is. That the one literature should
have drawn from the other is precluded by historical facts. At a
very early time the Synagogue disavowed the pseudepigraphic
literature, which was the favorite reading matter of the
sectaries and the Christians. Nevertheless the inner relation
between them is of the closest kind. The only essential
difference is that the Midrashic form prevails in the Haggadah,
and the parenetic or apocalyptic form in the pseudepigrapha. The
common element must therefore depart from the Midrash on the one
hand and from parenesis on the other.

Folklore, fairy tales, legends, and all forms of story telling
akin to these are comprehended, in the terminology of the
post-Biblical literature of the Jews, under the inclusive
description Haggadah, a name that can be explained by a
circumlocution, but cannot be translated. Whatever it is applied
to is thereby characterized first as being derived from the Holy
Scriptures, and then as being of the nature of a story. And, in
point of fact, this dualism sums up the distinguishing features
of Jewish Legend. More than eighteen centuries ago the Jewish
historian Josephus observed that "though we be deprived of our
wealth, of our cities, or of the other advantages we have, our
law continues immortal." The word he meant to use was not law,
but Torah, only he could not find an equivalent for it in Greek.
A singer of the Synagogue a thousand years after Josephus, who
expressed his sentiments in Hebrew, uttered the same thought:
"The Holy City and all her daughter cities are violated, they lie
in ruins, despoiled of their ornaments, their splendor darkened
from sight. Naught is left to us save one eternal treasure
alone--the Holy Torah." The sadder the life of the Jewish people,
the more it felt the need of taking refuge in its past. The
Scripture, or, to use the Jewish term, the Torah, was the only
remnant of its former national independence, and the Torah was
the magic means of making a sordid actuality recede before a
glorious memory. To the Scripture was assigned the task of
supplying nourishment to the mind as well as the soul, to the
intellect as well as the imagination, and the result is the
Halakah and the Haggadah.

The fancy of the people did not die out in the post-Biblical
time, but the bent of its activity was determined by the past.

Men craved entertainment in later times as well as in the
earlier, only instead of resorting for its subject-matter to what
happened under their eyes, they drew from the fountain-head of
the past. The events in the ancient history of Israel, which was
not only studied, but lived over again daily, stimulated the
desire to criticize it. The religious reflections upon nature
laid down in the myths of the people, the fairy tales, which have
the sole object of pleasing, and the legends, which are the
people's verdict upon history--all these were welded into one
product. The fancy of the Jewish people was engaged by the past
reflected in the Bible, and all its creations wear a Biblical hue
for this reason. This explains the peculiar form of the Haggadah.

But what is spontaneously brought forth by the people is often
preserved only in the form impressed upon it by the feeling and
the thought of the poet, or by the speculations of the learned.
Also Jewish legends have rarely been transmitted in their
original shape. They have been perpetuated in the form of
Midrash, that is, Scriptural exegesis. The teachers of the
Haggadah, called Rabbanan d'Aggadta in the Talmud, were no
folklorists, from whom a faithful reproduction of legendary
material may be expected. Primarily they were homilists, who used
legends for didactic purposes, and their main object was to
establish a close connection between the Scripture and the
creations of the popular fancy, to give the latter a firm basis
and secure a long term of life for them.

One of the most important tasks of the modern investigation of
the Haggadah is to make a clean separation between the original
elements and the later learned additions. Hardly a beginning has
been made in this direction. But as long as the task of
distinguishing them has not been accomplished, it is impossible
to write out the Biblical legends of the Jews without including
the supplemental work of scholars in the products of the popular
fancy.

In the present work, "The Legends of the Jews," I have made the
first attempt to gather from the original sources all Jewish
legends, in so far as they refer to Biblical personages and
events, and reproduce them with the greatest attainable
completeness and accuracy. I use the expression Jewish, rather
than Rabbinic, because the sources from which I have levied
contributions are not limited to the Rabbinic literature. As I
expect to take occasion elsewhere to enter into a description of
the sources in detail, the following data must suffice for the
present.

The works of the Talmudic Midrashic literature are of the first
importance. Covering the period from the second to the fourteenth
century, they contain the major part of the Jewish legendary
material. Akin to this in content if not always in form is that
derived from the Targumim, of which the oldest versions were
produced not earlier than the fourth century, and the most recent
not later than the tenth. The Midrashic literature has been
preserved only in fragmentary form. Many Haggadot not found in
our existing collections are quoted by the authors of the Middle
Ages. Accordingly, a not inconsiderable number of the legends
here printed are taken from medieval Bible commentators and
homilists. I was fortunate in being able to avail myself also of
fragments of Midrashim of which only manuscript copies are
extant.

The works of the older Kabbalah are likewise treasuries of
quotations from lost Midrashim, and it was among the Kabbalists,
and later among the Hasidim, that new legends arose. The
literatures produced in these two circles are therefore of great
importance for the present purpose.

Furthermore, Jewish legends can be culled not from the writings
of the Synagogue alone; they appear also in those of the Church.
Certain Jewish works repudiated by the Synagogue were accepted
and mothered by the Church. This is the literature usually
denominated apocryphal-pseudepigraphic. From the point of view of
legends, the apocryphal books are of subordinate importance,
while the pseudepigrapha are of fundamental value. Even
quantitatively the latter are an imposing mass. Besides the Greek
writings of the Hellenist Jews, they contain Latin, Syrian,
Ethiopic, Aramean, Arabic, Persian, and Old Slavic products
translated directly or indirectly from Jewish works of
Palestinian or Hellenistic origin. The use of these
pseudepigrapha requires great caution. Nearly all of them are
embellished with Christian interpolations, and in some cases the
inserted portions have choked the original form so completely
that it is impossible to determine at first sight whether a
Jewish or a Christian legend is under examination. I believe,
however, that the pseudepigraphic material made use of by me is
Jewish beyond the cavil of a doubt, and therefore it could not
have been left out of account in a work like the present.

However, in the appreciation of Jewish Legends, it is the
Rabbinic writers that should form the point of departure, and not
the pseudepigrapha. The former represent the main stream of
Jewish thought and feeling, the latter only an undercurrent. If
the Synagogue cast out the pseudepigrapha, and the Church adopted
them with a great show of favor, these respective attitudes were
not determined arbitrarily or by chance. The pseudepigrapha
originated in circles that harbored the germs from which
Christianity developed later on. The Church could thus
appropriate them as her own with just reason.

In the use of some of the apocryphal and pseudepigraphic
writings, I found it expedient to quote the English translations
of them made by others, in so far as they could be brought into
accord with the general style of the book, for which purpose I
permitted myself the liberty of slight verbal changes. In
particulars, I was guided, naturally, by my own conception of the
subject, which the Notes justify in detail.

Besides the pseudepigrapha there are other Jewish sources in
Christian garb. In the rich literature of the Church Fathers many
a Jewish legend lies embalmed which one would seek in vain in
Jewish books. It was therefore my special concern to use the
writings of the Fathers to the utmost.

The luxuriant abundance of the material to be presented made it
impossible to give a verbal rendition of each legend. This would
have required more than three times the space at my disposal. I
can therefore claim completeness for my work only as to content.
In form it had to suffer curtailment. When several conflicting
versions of the same legend existed, I gave only one in the text,
reserving the other one, or the several others, for the Notes,
or, when practicable, they were fused into one typical legend,
the component parts of which are analyzed in the Notes. In other
instances I resorted to the expedient of citing one version in
one place and the others in other appropriate places, in
furtherance of my aim, to give a smooth presentation of the
matter, with as few interruptions to the course of the narrative
as possible. For this reason I avoided such transitional phrases
as "Some say," "It has been maintained," etc. That my method
sometimes separates things that belong together cannot be
considered a grave disadvantage, as the Index at the end of the
work will present a logical rearrangement of the material for the
benefit of the interested student. I also did not hesitate to
treat of the same personage in different chapters, as, for
instance, many of the legends bearing upon Jacob, those connected
with the latter years of the Patriarch, do not appear in the
chapter bearing his name, but will be found in the sections
devoted to Joseph, for the reason that once the son steps upon
the scene, he becomes the central figure, to which the life and
deeds of the father are subordinated. Again, in consideration of
lack of space the Biblical narratives underlying the legends had
to be omitted--surely not a serious omission in a subject with
which widespread acquaintance may be presupposed as a matter of
course.

As a third consequence of the amplitude of the material, it was
thought advisable to divide it into several volumes. The
references, the explanations of the sources used, and the
interpretations given, and, especially, numerous emendations of
the text of the Midrashim and the pseudepigrapha, which
determined my conception of the passages so emended, will be
found in the last volume, the fourth, which will contain also an
Introduction to the History of Jewish Legends, a number of
Excursuses, and the Index.

As the first three volumes are in the hands of the printer almost
in their entirety, I venture to express the hope that the whole
work will appear within measurable time, the parts following each
other at short intervals.

LOUIS GINZBERG.

NEW YORK, March 24, 1909



CONTENTS

PREFACE
I. THE CREATION OF THE WORLD
The First Things Created--The Alphabet--The First Day--The Second
Day--The Third Day--The Fourth Day--The Fifth Day--The Sixth
Day--All Things Praise the Lord.

II. ADAM
Man and the World--The Angels and the Creation of Man--The
Creation of Adam--The Soul of  Man--The Ideal Man--The Fall of
Satan--Woman--Adam and Eve in Paradise--The Fall of Man--The
Punishment--Sabbath in Heaven--Adam's Repentance--The Book of
Raziel--The Sickness of Adam--Eve's Story of the Fall--The Death
of Adam--The Death of Eve.

III. THE TEN GENERATIONS
The Birth of Cain--Fratricide--The Punishment of Cain--The
Inhabitants of the Seven Earths--The Descendants of Cain--The
Descendants of Adam and Lilith--Seth and His
Descendants--Enosh--The Fall of the Angels--Enoch, Ruler and
Teacher--The Ascension of Enoch--The Translation of
Enoch--Methuselah.

IV. NOAH
The Birth of Noah--The Punishment of the Fallen Angels--The
Generation of the Deluge--The Holy Book--The Inmates of the
Ark--The Flood--Noah Leaves the Ark--The Curse of
Drunkenness--Noah's Descendants Spread Abroad--The Depravity of
Mankind--Nimrod--The Tower of Babel.

V. ABRAHAM
The Wicked Generations--The Birth of Abraham--The Babe Proclaims
God--Abraham's First Appearance in Public--The Preacher of the
True Faith--In the Fiery Furnace--Abraham Emigrates to Haran--The
Star in the East--The True Believer--The Iconoclast--Abraham in
Canaan--His Sojourn in Egypt--The First Pharaoh--The War of the
Kings--The Covenant of the Pieces--The Birth of Ishmael--The
Visit of the Angels--The Cities of Sin--Abraham Pleads for the
Sinners--The Destruction of the Sinful Cities--Among the
Philistines--The Birth of Isaac--Ishmael Cast Off--The Two Wives
of Ishmael--The Covenant with Abimelech--Satan Accuses
Abraham--The Journey to Moriah--The Akedah--The Death and Burial
of Sarah--Eliezer's Mission--The Wooing of Rebekah--The Last
Years of Abraham--A Herald of Death--Abraham Views Earth and
Heaven--The Patron of Hebron.

VI. JACOB
The Birth of Esau and Jacob--The Favorite of Abraham--The Sale of
the Birthright--Isaac with the Philistines--Isaac Blesses
Jacob--Esau's True Character Revealed--Jacob Leaves His Father's
House--Jacob Pursued by Eliphaz and Esau--The Day of
Miracles--Jacob with Laban--The Marriage of Jacob--The Birth of
Jacob's Children--Jacob Flees before Laban--The Covenant with
Laban--Jacob and Esau Prepare to Meet--Jacob Wrestles with the
Angel--The Meeting between Esau and Jacob--The Outrage at
Shechem--A War Frustrated--The War with the Ninevites--The War
with the Amorites--Isaac Blesses Levi and Judah--Joy and Sorrow
in the House of Jacob--Esau's Campaign against Jacob--The
Descendants of Esau.



I

THE CREATION OF THE WORLD
THE FIRST THINGS CREATED
THE ALPHABET
THE FIRST DAY
THE SECOND DAY
THE THIRD DAY
THE FOURTH DAY
THE FIFTH DAY
THE SIXTH DAY
ALL THINGS PRAISE THE LORD



I

THE CREATION OF THE WORLD

THE FIRST THINGS CREATED

In the beginning, two thousand years before the heaven and the
earth, seven things were created: the Torah written with black
fire on white fire, and lying in the lap of God; the Divine
Throne, erected in the heaven which later was over the heads of
the Hayyot; Paradise on the right side of God, Hell on the left
side; the Celestial Sanctuary directly in front of God, having a
jewel on its altar graven with the Name of the Messiah, and a
Voice that cries aloud, "Return, ye children of men."[1]

When God resolved upon the creation of the world, He took counsel
with the Torah.[2] Her advice was this: "O Lord, a king without
an army and without courtiers and attendants hardly deserves the
name of king, for none is nigh to express the homage due to him."
The answer pleased God exceedingly. Thus did He teach all earthly
kings, by His Divine example, to undertake naught without first
consulting advisers.[3]

The advice of the Torah was given with some reservations. She was
skeptical about the value of an earthly world, on account of the
sinfulness of men, who would be sure to disregard her precepts.
But God dispelled her doubts. He told her, that repentance had
been created long before, and sinners would have the opportunity
of mending their ways. Besides, the Temple service would be
invested with atoning power, and Paradise and hell were intended
to do duty as reward and punishment. Finally, the Messiah was
appointed to bring salvation, which would put an end to all
sinfulness.[4]

Nor is this world inhabited by man the first of things earthly
created by God. He made several worlds before ours, but He
destroyed them all, because He was pleased with none until He
created ours.[5] But even this last world would have had no
permanence, if God had executed His original plan of ruling it
according to the principle of strict justice. It was only when He
saw that justice by itself would undermine the world that He
associated mercy with justice, and made them to rule jointly.[6]
Thus, from the beginning of all things prevailed Divine goodness,
without which nothing could have continued to exist. If not for
it, the myriads of evil spirits had soon put an end to the
generations of men. But the goodness of God has ordained, that in
every Nisan, at the time of the spring equinox, the seraphim
shall approach the world of spirits, and intimidate them so that
they fear to do harm to men. Again, if God in His goodness had
not given protection to the weak, the tame animals would have
been extirpated long ago by the wild animals. In Tammuz, at the
time of the summer solstice, when the strength of behemot is at
its height, he roars so loud that all the animals hear it, and
for a whole year they are affrighted and timid, and their acts
become less ferocious than their nature is. Again, in Tishri, at
the time of the autumnal equinox, the great bird ziz[7] flaps his
wings and utters his cry, so that the birds of prey, the eagles
and the vultures, blench, and they fear to swoop down upon the
others and annihilate them in their greed. And, again, were it
not for the goodness of God, the vast number of big fish had
quickly put an end to the little ones. But at the time of the
winter solstice, in the month of Tebet, the sea grows restless,
for then leviathan spouts up water, and the big fish become
uneasy. They restrain their appetite, and the little ones escape
their rapacity.

Finally, the goodness of God manifests itself in the preservation
of His people Israel. It could not have survived the enmity of
the Gentiles, if God had not appointed protectors for it, the
archangels Michael and Gabriel.[8] Whenever Israel disobeys God,
and is accused of misdemeanors by the angels of the other
nations, he is defended by his designated guardians, with such
good result that the other angels conceive fear of them. Once the
angels of the other nations are terrified, the nations themselves
venture not to carry out their wicked designs against Israel.

That the goodness of God may rule on earth as in heaven, the
Angels of Destruction are assigned a place at the far end of the
heavens, from which they may never stir, while the Angels of
Mercy encircle the Throne of God, at His behest.[9]


THE ALPHABET

When God was about to create the world by His word, the
twenty-two letters of the alphabet[10] descended from the
terrible and august crown of God whereon they were engraved with
a pen of flaming fire. They stood round about God, and one after
the other spake and entreated, "Create the world through me!" The
first to step forward was the letter Taw. It said: "O Lord of the
world! May it be Thy will to create Thy world through me, seeing
that it is through me that Thou wilt give the Torah to Israel by
the hand of Moses, as it is written, 'Moses commanded us the
Torah.'" The Holy One, blessed be He, made reply, and said,
"No!" Taw asked, "Why not?" and God answered: "Because in days to
come I shall place thee as a sign of death upon the foreheads of
men." As soon as Taw heard these words issue from the mouth of
the Holy One, blessed be He, it retired from His presence
disappointed.

The Shin then stepped forward, and pleaded: "O Lord of the world,
create Thy world through me: seeing that Thine own name Shaddai
begins with me." Unfortunately, it is also the first letter of
Shaw, lie, and of Sheker, falsehood, and that incapacitated it.
Resh had no better luck. It was pointed out that it was the
initial letter of Ra', wicked, and Rasha' evil, and after that
the distinction it enjoys of being the first letter in the Name
of God, Rahum, the Merciful, counted for naught. The Kof was
rejected, because Kelalah, curse, outweighs the advantage of
being the first in Kadosh, the Holy One. In vain did Zadde call
attention to Zaddik, the Righteous One; there was Zarot, the
misfortunes of Israel, to testify against it. Pe had Podeh,
redeemer, to its credit, but Pesha: transgression, reflected
dishonor upon it. 'Ain was declared unfit, because, though it
begins 'Anawah, humility, it performs the same service for
'Erwah, immorality. Samek said: "O Lord, may it be Thy will to
begin the creation with me, for Thou art called Samek, after me,
the Upholder of all that fall." But God said: "Thou art needed in
the place in which thou art;[11] thou must continue to uphold all
that fall." Nun introduces Ner, "the lamp of the Lord," which is
"the spirit of men," but it also introduces Ner, "the lamp of the
wicked," which will be put out by God. Mem starts Melek, king,
one of the titles of God. As it is the first letter of Mehumah,
confusion, as well, it had no chance of accomplishing its desire.
The claim of Lamed bore its refutation within itself. It advanced
the argument that it was the first letter of Luhot, the celestial
tables for the Ten Commandments; it forgot that the tables were
shivered in pieces by Moses. Kaf was sure of victory Kisseh, the
throne of God, Kabod, His honor, and Keter, His crown, all begin
with it. God had to remind it that He would smite together His
hands, Kaf, in despair over the misfortunes of Israel. Yod at
first sight seemed the appropriate letter for the beginning of
creation, on account of its association with Yah, God, if only
Yezer ha-Ra' the evil inclination, had not happened to begin with
it, too. Tet is identified with Tob, the good. However, the truly
good is not in this world; it belongs to the world to come. Het
is the first letter of Hanun, the Gracious One; but this
advantage is offset by its place in the word for sin, Hattat.
Zain suggests Zakor, remembrance, but it is itself the word for
weapon, the doer of mischief. Waw and He compose the Ineffable
Name of God; they are therefore too exalted to be pressed into
the service of the mundane world. If Dalet had stood only for
Dabar, the Divine Word, it would have been used, but it stands
also for Din, justice, and under the rule of law without love the
world would have fallen to ruin. Finally, in spite of reminding
one of Gadol, great, Gimel would not do, because Gemul,
retribution, starts with it.

After the claims of all these letters had been disposed of, Bet
stepped before the Holy One, blessed be He, and pleaded before
Him: "O Lord of the world! May it be Thy will to create Thy world
through me, seeing that all the dwellers in the world give praise
daily unto Thee through me, as it is said, 'Blessed be the Lord
forever. Amen, and Amen.'" The Holy One, blessed be He, at once
granted the petition of Bet. He said, "Blessed be he that cometh
in the name of the Lord." And He created His world through Bet,
as it is said, "Bereshit God created the heaven and the earth."
The only letter that had refrained from urging its claims was the
modest Alef, and God rewarded it later for its humility by giving
it the first place in the Decalogue.[12]


THE FIRST DAY

On the first day of creation God produced ten things:[13] the
heavens and the earth, Tohu and Bohu, light and darkness, wind
and water, the duration of the day[14] and the duration of the
night.[15]

Though the heavens and the earth consist of entirely different
elements,[16] they were yet created as a unit, "like the pot and
its cover."[17] The heavens were fashioned from the light of
God's garment, and the earth from the snow under the Divine
Throne.[18] Tohu is a green band which encompasses the whole
world, and dispenses darkness, and Bohu consists of stones in the
abyss, the producers of the waters. The light created at the very
beginning is not the same as the light emitted by the sun, the
moon, and the stars, which appeared only on the fourth day. The
light of the first day was of a sort that would have enabled man
to see the world at a glance from one end to the other.
Anticipating the wickedness of the sinful generations of the
deluge and the Tower of Babel, who were unworthy to enjoy the
blessing of such light, God concealed it, but in the world to
come it will appear to the pious in all its pristine glory.[19]

Several heavens were created,[20] seven in fact,[21] each to
serve a purpose of its own. The first, the one visible to man,
has no function except that of covering up the light during the
night time; therefore it disappears every morning. The planets
are fastened to the second of the heavens; in the third the manna
is made for the pious in the hereafter; the fourth contains the
celestial Jerusalem together with the Temple, in which Michael
ministers as high priest, and offers the souls of the pious as
sacrifices. In the fifth heaven, the angel hosts reside, and sing
the praise of God, though only during the night, for by day it is
the task of Israel on earth to give glory to God on high. The
sixth heaven is an uncanny spot; there originate most of the
trials and visitations ordained for the earth and its
inhabitants. Snow lies heaped up there and hail; there are lofts
full of noxious dew, magazines stocked with storms, and cellars
holding reserves of smoke. Doors of fire separate these celestial
chambers, which are under the supervision of the archangel
Metatron. Their pernicious contents defiled the heavens until
David's time. The pious king prayed God to purge His exalted
dwelling of whatever was pregnant with evil; it was not becoming
that such things should exist near the Merciful One. Only then
they were removed to the earth.

The seventh heaven, on the other hand, contains naught but what
is good and beautiful: right, justice, and mercy, the storehouses
of life, peace, and blessing, the souls of the pious, the souls
and spirits of unborn generations, the dew with which God will
revive the dead on the resurrection day, and, above all, the
Divine Throne, surrounded by the seraphim, the ofanim, the holy
Hayyot, and the ministering angels.[22]

Corresponding to the seven heavens, God created seven earths,
each separated from the next by five layers. Over the lowest
earth, the seventh, called Erez, lie in succession the abyss, the
Tohu, the Bohu, a sea, and waters.[23] Then the sixth[24] earth
is reached, the Adamah, the scene of the magnificence of God. In
the same way the Adamah is separated from the fifth earth, the
Arka, which contains Gehenna, and Sha'are Mawet, and Sha'are
Zalmawet, and Beer Shahat, and Tit ha-Yawen, and Abaddon, and
Sheol,[25] and there the souls of the wicked are guarded by the
Angels of Destruction. In the same way Arka is followed by
Harabah, the dry, the place of brooks and streams in spite of its
name, as the next, called Yabbashah, the mainland, contains the
rivers and the springs. Tebel, the second earth, is the first
mainland inhabited by living creatures, three hundred and
sixty-five species,[26] all essentially different from those of
our own earth. Some have human heads set on the body of a lion,
or a serpent, or an ox; others have human bodies topped by the
head of one of these animals. Besides, Tebel is inhabited by
human beings with two heads and four hands and feet, in fact with
all their organs doubled excepting only the trunk.[27] It happens
sometimes that the parts of these double persons quarrel with
each other, especially while eating and drinking, when each
claims the best and largest portions for himself. This species of
mankind is distinguished for great piety, another difference
between it and the inhabitants of our earth.

Our own earth is called Heled, and, like the others, it is
separated from the Tebel by an abyss, the Tohu, the Bohu, a sea,
and waters.

Thus one earth rises above the other, from the first to the
seventh, and over the seventh earth the heavens are vaulted, from
the first to the seventh, the last of them attached to the arm of
God. The seven heavens form a unity, the seven kinds of earth
form a unity, and the heavens and the earth together also form a
unity.[28]

When God made our present heavens and our present earth, "the new
heavens and the new earth"[29] were also brought forth, yea, and
the hundred and ninety-six thousand worlds which God created unto
His Own glory.[30]

It takes five hundred years to walk from the earth to the
heavens, and from one end of a heaven to the other, and also from
one heaven to the next,[31] and it takes the same length of time
to travel from the east to the west, or from the south to the
north.[32] Of all this vast world only one-third is inhabited,
the other two-thirds being equally divided between water and
waste desert land.

Beyond the inhabited parts to the east is Paradise[33] with its
seven divisions, each assigned to the pious of a certain degree.
The ocean is situated to the west, and it is dotted with islands
upon islands, inhabited by many different peoples. Beyond it, in
turn, are the boundless steppes full of serpents and scorpions,
and destitute of every sort of vegetation, whether herbs or
trees. To the north are the supplies of hell-fire, of snow, hail,
smoke, ice, darkness, and windstorms, and in that vicinity
sojourn all sorts of devils, demons, and malign spirits. Their
dwelling-place is a great stretch of land, it would take five
hundred years to traverse it. Beyond lies hell. To the south is
the chamber containing reserves of fire, the cave of smoke, and
the forge of blasts and hurricanes.[34] Thus it comes that the
wind blowing from the south brings heat and sultriness to the
earth. Were it not for the angel Ben Nez, the Winged, who keeps
the south wind back with his pinions, the world would be
consumed.[35] Besides, the fury of its blast is tempered by the
north wind, which always appears as moderator, whatever other
wind may be blowing.[36]

In the east, the west, and the south, heaven and earth touch each
other, but the north God left unfinished, that any man who
announced himself as a god might be set the task of supplying the
deficiency, and stand convicted as a pretender.[37]

The construction of the earth was begun at the centre, with the
foundation stone of the Temple, the Eben Shetiyah,[38] for the
Holy Land is at the central point of the surface of the earth,
Jerusalem is at the central point of Palestine, and the Temple is
situated at the centre of the Holy City. In the sanctuary itself
the Hekal is the centre, and the holy Ark occupies the centre of
the Hekal, built on the foundation stone, which thus is at the
centre of the earth.[39] Thence issued the first ray of light,
piercing to the Holy Land, and from there illuminating the whole
earth.[40] The creation of the world, however, could not take
place until God had banished the ruler of the dark.[41] "Retire,"
God said to him, "for I desire to create the world by means of
light." Only after the light had been fashioned, darkness arose,
the light ruling in the sky, the darkness on the earth.[42] The
power of God displayed itself not only in the creation of the
world of things, but equally in the limitations which He imposed
upon each. The heavens and the earth stretched themselves out in
length and breadth as though they aspired to infinitude, and it
required the word of God to call a halt to their
encroachments.[43]


THE SECOND DAY

On the second day God brought forth four creations, the
firmament, hell, fire, and the angels.[44] The firmament is not
the same as the heavens of the first day. It is the crystal
stretched forth over the heads of the Hayyot, from which the
heavens derive their light, as the earth derives its light from
the sun. This firmament saves the earth from being engulfed by
the waters of the heavens; it forms the partition between the
waters above and the waters below.[45] It was made to crystallize
into the solid it is by the heavenly fire, which broke its
bounds, and condensed the surface of the firmament. Thus fire
made a division between the celestial and the terrestrial at the
time of creation, as it did at the revelation on Mount Sinai.[46]
The firmament is not more than three fingers thick,[47]
nevertheless it divides two such heavy bodies as the waters
below, which are the foundations for the nether world, and the
waters above, which are the foundations for the seven heavens,
the Divine Throne, and the abode of the angels.[48]

The separation of the waters into upper and lower waters was the
only act of the sort done by God in connection with the work of
creation.[49] All other acts were unifying. It therefore caused
some difficulties. When God commanded, "Let the waters be
gathered together, unto one place, and let the dry land appear,"
certain parts refused to obey. They embraced each other all the
more closely. In His wrath at the waters, God determined to let
the whole of creation resolve itself into chaos again. He
summoned the Angel of the Face, and ordered him to destroy the
world. The angel opened his eyes wide, and scorching fires and
thick clouds rolled forth from them, while he cried out, "He who
divides the Red Sea in sunder!"--and the rebellious waters stood.
The all, however, was still in danger of destruction. Then began
the singer of God's praises: "O Lord of the world, in days to
come Thy creatures will sing praises without end to Thee, they
will bless Thee boundlessly, and they will glorify Thee without
measure. Thou wilt set Abraham apart from all mankind as Thine
own; one of his sons Thou wilt call 'My first-born'; and his
descendants will take the yoke of Thy kingdom upon themselves. In
holiness and purity Thou wilt bestow Thy Torah upon them, with
the words, 'I am the Lord your God,' whereunto they will make
answer, 'All that God hath spoken we will do.' And now I beseech
Thee, have pity upon Thy world, destroy it not, for if Thou
destroyest it, who will fulfil Thy will?" God was pacified; He
withdrew the command ordaining the destruction of the world, but
the waters He put under the mountains, to remain there
forever.[50] The objection of the lower waters to division and
Separation[51] was not their only reason for rebelling. The
waters had been the first to give praise to God, and when their
separation into upper and lower was decreed, the waters above
rejoiced, saying, "Blessed are we who are privileged to abide
near our Creator and near His Holy Throne." Jubilating thus, they
flew upward, and uttered song and praise to the Creator of the
world. Sadness fell upon the waters below. They lamented: "Woe
unto us, we have not been found worthy to dwell in the presence
of God, and praise Him together with our companions." Therefore
they attempted to rise upward, until God repulsed them, and
pressed them under the earth.[52] Yet they were not left
unrewarded for their loyalty. Whenever the waters above desire to
give praise to God, they must first seek permission from the
waters below.[53]

The second day of creation was an untoward day in more than the
one respect that it introduced a breach where before there had
been nothing but unity; for it was the day that saw also the
creation of hell. Therefore God could not say of this day as of
the others, that He "saw that it was good." A division may be
necessary, but it cannot be called good, and hell surely does not
deserve the attribute of good.[54] Hell[55] has seven
divisions,[36] one beneath the other. They are called Sheol,
Abaddon, Beer Shahat, Tit ha-Yawen, Sha'are Mawet, Sha'are
Zalmawet: and Gehenna. It requires three hundred years to
traverse the height, or the width, or the depth of each division,
and it would take six thousand three hundred[37] years to go over
a tract of land equal in extent to the seven divisions.[38]

Each of the seven divisions in turn has seven subdivisions, and
in each compartment there are seven rivers of fire and seven of
hail. The width of each is one thousand ells, its depth one
thousand, and its length three hundred, and they flow one from
the other, and are supervised by ninety thousand Angels of
Destruction. There are, besides, in every compartment seven
thousand caves, in every cave there are seven thousand crevices,
and in every crevice seven thousand scorpions. Every scorpion has
three hundred rings, and in every ring seven thousand pouches of
venom, from which flow seven rivers of deadly poison. If a man
handles it, he immediately bursts, every limb is torn from his
body, his bowels are cleft asunder, and he falls upon his
face.[56] There are also five different kinds of fire in hell.
One devours and absorbs, another devours and does not absorb,
while the third absorbs and does not devour, and there is still
another fire, which neither devours nor absorbs, and furthermore
a fire which devours fire. There are coals big as mountains, and
coals big as hills, and coals as large as the Dead Sea, and coals
like huge stones, and there are rivers of pitch and sulphur
flowing and seething like live coals.[60]

The third creation of the second day was the angel hosts, both
the ministering angels and the angels of praise. The reason they
had not been called into being on the first day was, lest men
believe that the angels assisted God in the creation of the
heavens and the earth.[61] The angels that are fashioned from
fire have forms of fire,[62] but only so long as they remain in
heaven. When they descend to earth, to do the bidding of God here
below, either they are changed into wind, or they assume the
guise of men.[63] There are ten ranks or degrees among the
angels.[64]

The most exalted in rank are those surrounding the Divine Throne
on all sides, to the right, to the left, in front, and behind,
under the leadership of the archangels Michael, Gabriel, Uriel,
and Raphael.[65]

All the celestial beings praise God with the words, "Holy, holy,
holy, is the Lord of hosts," but men take precedence of the
angels herein. They may not begin their song of praise until the
earthly beings have brought their homage to God.[66] Especially
Israel is preferred to the angels. When they encircle the Divine
Throne in the form of fiery mountains and flaming hills, and
attempt to raise their voices in adoration of the Creator, God
silences them with the words, "Keep quiet until I have heard the
songs, praises, prayers, and sweet melodies of Israel."
Accordingly, the ministering angels and all the other celestial
hosts wait until the last tones of Israel's doxologies rising
aloft from earth have died away, and then they proclaim in a loud
voice, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts." When the hour
for the glorification of God by the angels draws nigh, the august
Divine herald, the angel Sham'iel, steps to the windows[67] of
the lowest heaven to hearken to the songs, prayers, and praises
that ascend from the synagogues and the houses of learning, and
when they are finished, he announces the end to the angels in all
the heavens. The ministering angels, those who come in contact
with the sublunary world,[68] now repair to their chambers to
take their purification bath. They dive into a stream of fire and
flame seven times, and three hundred and sixty-five times they
examine themselves carefully, to make sure that no taint clings
to their bodies.[69] Only then they feel privileged to mount the
fiery ladder and join the angels of the seventh heaven, and
surround the throne of God with Hashmal and all the holy Hayyot.
Adorned with millions of fiery crowns, arrayed in fiery garments,
all the angels in unison, in the same words, and with the same
melody, intone songs of praise to God.[70]


THE THIRD DAY

Up to this time the earth was a plain, and wholly covered with
water. Scarcely had the words of God, "Let the waters be gathered
together," made themselves heard, when mountains appeared all
over and hills,[71] and the water collected in the deep-lying
basins. But the water was recalcitrant, it resisted the order to
occupy the lowly spots, and threatened to overflow the earth,
until God forced it back into the sea, and encircled the sea with
sand. Now, whenever the water is tempted to transgress its
bounds, it beholds the sand, and recoils.[72]

The waters did but imitate their chief Rahab, the Angel of the
Sea, who rebelled at the creation of the world. God had commanded
Rahab to take in the water. But he refused, saying, "I have
enough." The punishment for his disobedience was death. His body
rests in the depths of the sea, the water dispelling the foul
odor that emanates from it.[73]

The main creation of the third day was the realm of plants, the
terrestrial plants as well as the plants of Paradise. First of
all the cedars of Lebanon and the other great trees were made. In
their pride at having been put first, they shot up high in the
air. They considered themselves the favored among plants. Then
God spake, "I hate arrogance and pride, for I alone am exalted,
and none beside," and He created the iron on the same day, the
substance with which trees are felled down. The trees began to
weep, and when God asked the reason of their tears, they said:
"We cry because Thou hast created the iron to uproot us
therewith. All the while we had thought ourselves the highest of
the earth, and now the iron, our destroyer, has been called into
existence." God replied: "You yourselves will furnish the axe
with a handle. Without your assistance the iron will not be able
to do aught against you."[74]

The command to bear seed after their kind was given to the trees
alone. But the various sorts of grass reasoned, that if God had
not desired divisions according to classes, He would not have
instructed the trees to bear fruit after their kind with the seed
thereof in it, especially as trees are inclined of their own
accord to divide themselves into species. The grasses therefore
reproduced themselves also after their kinds. This prompted the
exclamation of the Prince of the World, "Let the glory of the
Lord endure forever; let the Lord rejoice in His works."[75]

The most important work done on the third day was the creation of
Paradise. Two gates of carbuncle form the entrance to
Paradise,[76] and sixty myriads of ministering angels keep watch
over them. Each of these angels shines with the lustre of the
heavens. When the just man appears before the gates, the clothes
in which he was buried are taken off him, and the angels array
him in seven garments of clouds of glory, and place upon his head
two crowns, one of precious stones and pearls, the other of gold
of Parvaim,[77] and they put eight myrtles in his hand, and they
utter praises before him and say to him, "Go thy way, and eat thy
bread with joy." And they lead him to a place full of rivers,
surrounded by eight hundred kinds of roses and myrtles. Each one
has a canopy according to his merits,[78] and under it flow four
rivers, one of milk, the other of balsam, the third of wine, and
the fourth of honey. Every canopy is overgrown by a vine of gold,
and thirty pearls hang from it, each of them shining like Venus.
Under each canopy there is a table of precious stones and pearls,
and sixty angels stand at the head of every just man, saying unto
him: "Go and eat with joy of the honey, for thou hast busied
thyself with the Torah, and she is sweeter than honey, and drink
of the wine preserved in the grape since the six days of
creation,[79] for thou hast busied thyself with the Torah, and
she is compared to wine." The least fair of the just is beautiful
as Joseph and Rabbi Johanan, and as the grains of a silver
pomegranate upon which fall the rays of the sun.[80] There is no
light, "for the light of the righteous is the shining light." And
they undergo four transformations every day, passing through four
states. In the first the righteous is changed into a child. He
enters the division for children, and tastes the joys of
childhood. Then he is changed into a youth, and enters the
division for the youths, with whom he enjoys the delights of
youth. Next he becomes an adult, in the prime of life, and he
enters the division of men, and enjoys the pleasures of manhood.
Finally, he is changed into an old man. He enters the division
for the old, and enjoys the pleasures of age.

There are eighty myriads of trees in every corner of Paradise,
the meanest among them choicer than all the spice trees. In every
corner there are sixty myriads of angels singing with sweet
voices, and the tree of life stands in the middle and shades the
whole of Paradise.[81] It has fifteen thousand tastes, each
different from the other, and the perfumes thereof vary likewise.
Over it hang seven clouds of glory, and winds blow upon it from
all four sides,[82] so that its odor is wafted from one end of
the world to the other. Underneath sit the scholars and explain
the Torah. Over each of them two canopies are spread, one of
stars, the other of sun and moon, and a curtain of clouds of
glory separates the one canopy from the other.[83] Beyond
Paradise begins Eden, containing three hundred and ten worlds[84]
and seven compartments for seven different classes of the pious.
In the first are "the martyr victims of the government," like
Rabbi Akiba and his colleagues;[85] in the second those who were
drowned;[86] in the third[87] Rabbi Johanan ben Zakkai and his
disciples; in the fourth those who were carried off in the cloud
of glory;[88] in the fifth the penitents, who occupy a place
which even a perfectly pious man cannot obtain; in the sixth are
the youths[89] who have not tasted of sin in their lives; in the
seventh are those poor who studied Bible and Mishnah, and led a
life of self-respecting decency. And God sits in the midst of
them and expounds the Torah to them.[90]

As for the seven divisions of Paradise, each of them is twelve
myriads of miles in width and twelve myriads of miles in length.
In the first division dwell the proselytes who embraced Judaism
of their own free will, not from compulsion. The walls are of
glass and the wainscoting of cedar. The prophet Obadiah,[91]
himself a proselyte, is the overseer of this first division. The
second division is built of silver, and the wainscoting thereof
is of cedar. Here dwell those who have repented, and Manasseh,
the penitent son of Hezekiah, presides over them. The third
division is built of silver and gold. Here dwell Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob, and all the Israelites who came out of Egypt, and the
whole generation that lived in the desert.[92] Also David is
there, together with all his sons[93] except Absalom, one of
them, Chileab, still alive. And all the kings of Judah are there,
with the exception of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, who presides
in the second division, over the penitents. Moses and Aaron
preside over the third division. Here are precious vessels of
silver and gold and jewels and canopies and beds and thrones and
lamps, of gold, of precious stones, and of pearls, the best of
everything there is in heaven.[94] The fourth division is built
of beautiful rubies,[95] and its wainscoting is of olive wood.
Here dwell the perfect and the steadfast in faith, and their
wainscoting is of olive wood, because their lives were bitter as
olives to them. The fifth division is built of silver and gold
and refined gold,[96] and the finest of gold and glass and
bdellium, and through the midst of it flows the river Gihon. The
wainscoting is of silver and gold, and a perfume breathes through
it more exquisite than the perfume of Lebanon. The coverings of
the silver and gold beds are made of purple and blue, woven by
Eve, and of scarlet and the hair of goats, woven by angels. Here
dwells the Messiah on a palanquin made of the wood of Lebanon,
"the pillars thereof of silver, the bottom of gold, the seat of
it purple." With him is Elijah. He takes the head of Messiah, and
places it in his bosom, and says to him, "Be quiet, for the end
draweth nigh." On every Monday and Thursday and on Sabbaths and
holidays, the Patriarchs come to him, and the twelve sons of
Jacob, and Moses, Aaron, David, Solomon, and all the kings of
Israel and of Judah, and they weep with him and comfort him, and
say unto him, "Be quiet and put trust in thy Creator, for the end
draweth nigh." Also Korah and his company, and Dathan, Abiram,
and Absalom come to him on every Wednesday, and ask him: "How
long before the end comes full of wonders? When wilt thou bring
us life again, and from the abysses of the earth lift us?" The
Messiah answers them, "Go to your fathers and ask them"; and when
they hear this, they are ashamed, and do not ask their fathers.

In the sixth division dwell those who died in performing a pious
act, and in the seventh division those who died from illness
inflicted as an expiation for the sins of Israel.[97]


THE FOURTH DAY

The fourth day of creation produced the sun, the moon, and the
stars. These heavenly spheres were not actually fashioned on this
day; they were created on the first day, and merely were assigned
their places in the heavens on the fourth.[98] At first the sun
and the moon enjoyed equal powers and prerogatives.[99] The moon
spoke to God, and said: "O Lord, why didst Thou create the world
with the letter Bet?" God replied: "That it might be made known
unto My creatures that there are two worlds." The moon: "O Lord:
which of the two worlds is the larger, this world or the world to
come?" God: "The world to come is the larger." The moon: "O Lord,
Thou didst create two worlds, a greater and a lesser world; Thou
didst create the heaven and the earth, the heaven exceeding the
earth; Thou didst create fire and water, the water stronger than
the fire, because it can quench the fire; and now Thou hast
created the sun and the moon, and it is becoming that one of them
should be greater than the other." Then spake God to the moon: "I
know well, thou wouldst have me make Thee greater than the sun.
As a punishment I decree that thou mayest keep but one-sixtieth
of thy light." The moon made supplication: "Shall I be punished
so severely for having spoken a single word?" God relented: "In
the future world I will restore thy light, so that thy light may
again be as the light of the sun." The moon was not yet
satisfied. "O Lord," she said, "and the light of the sun, how
great will it be in that day?" Then the wrath of God was once
more enkindled: "What, thou still plottest against the sun? As
thou livest, in the world to come his light shall be sevenfold
the light he now sheds."[100] The Sun runs his course like a
bridegroom. He sits upon a throne with a garland on his
head.[101] Ninety-six angels accompany him on his daily journey,
in relays of eight every hour, two to the left of him, and two to
the right, two before Him, and two behind. Strong as he is, he
could complete his course from south to north in a single
instant, but three hundred and sixty-five angels restrain him by
means of as many grappling-irons. Every day one looses his hold,
and the sun must thus spend three hundred and sixty-five days on
his course. The progress of the sun in his circuit is an
uninterrupted song of praise to God. And this song alone makes
his motion possible. Therefore, when Joshua wanted to bid the sun
stand still, he had to command him to be silent. His song of
praise hushed, the sun stood still.[102]

The sun is double-faced; one face, of fire, is directed toward
the earth, and one of hail, toward heaven, to cool off the
prodigious heat that streams from the other face, else the earth
would catch afire. In winter the sun turns his fiery face upward,
and thus the cold is produced.[103] When the sun descends in the
west in the evening, he dips down into the ocean and takes a
bath, his fire is extinguished, and therefore he dispenses
neither light nor warmth during the night. But as soon as he
reaches the east in the morning, he laves himself in a stream of
flame, which imparts warmth and light to him, and these he sheds
over the earth. In the same way the moon and the stars take a
bath in a stream of hail before they enter upon their service for
the night.[104]

When the sun and the moon are ready to start upon their round of
duties, they appear before God, and beseech him to relieve them
of their task, so that they may be spared the sight of sinning
mankind. Only upon compulsion they proceed with their daily
course. Coming from the presence of God, they are blinded by the
radiance in the heavens, and they cannot find their way. God,
therefore, shoots off arrows, by the glittering light of which
they are guided. It is on account of the sinfulness of man, which
the sun is forced to contemplate on his rounds, that he grows
weaker as the time of his going down approaches, for sins have a
defiling and enfeebling effect, and he drops from the horizon as
a sphere of blood, for blood is the sign of corruption.[105] As
the sun sets forth on his course in the morning, his wings touch
the leaves on the trees of Paradise, and their vibration is
communicated to the angels and the holy Hayyot, to the other
plants, and also to the trees and plants on earth, and to all the
beings on earth and in heaven. It is the signal for them all to
cast their eyes upward. As soon as they see the Ineffable Name,
which is engraved in the sun, they raise their voices in songs of
praise to God. At the same moment a heavenly voice is heard to
say, "Woe to the sons of men that consider not the honor of God
like unto these creatures whose voices now rise aloft in
adoration."[106] These words, naturally, are not heard by men; as
little as they perceive the grating of the sun against the wheel
to which all the celestial bodies are attached, although the
noise it makes is extraordinarily loud.[107] This friction of the
sun and the wheel produces the motes dancing about in the
sunbeams. They are the carriers of healing to the sick,[108] the
only health-giving creations of the fourth day, on the whole an
unfortunate day, especially for children, afflicting them with
disease.[109] When God punished the envious moon by diminishing
her light and splendor, so that she ceased to be the equal of the
sun as she had been originally,[110] she fell,[111] and tiny
threads were loosed from her body. These are the stars.[112]


THE FIFTH DAY

On the fifth day of creation God took fire[118] and water, and
out of these two elements He made the fishes of the sea.[114] The
animals in the water are much more numerous than those on land.
For every species on land, excepting only the weasel, there is a
corresponding species in the water, and, besides, there are many
found only in the water.[115]

The ruler over the sea-animals is leviathan.[116] With all the
other fishes he was made on the fifth day.[117] Originally he was
created male and female like all the other animals. But when it
appeared that a pair of these monsters might annihilate the whole
earth with their united strength, God killed the female.[119] So
enormous is leviathan that to quench his thirst he needs all the
water that flows from the Jordan into the sea.[119] His food
consists of the fish which go between his jaws of their own
accord.[120] When he is hungry, a hot breath blows from his
nostrils, and it makes the waters of the great sea seething hot.
Formidable though behemot, the other monster, is, he feels
insecure until he is certain that leviathan has satisfied his
thirst.[121] The only thing that can keep him in check is the
stickleback, a little fish which was created for the purpose, and
of which he stands in great awe.[122] But leviathan is more than
merely large and strong; he is wonderfully made besides. His fins
radiate brilliant light, the very sun is obscured by it,[123] and
also his eyes shed such splendor that frequently the sea is
illuminated suddenly by it.[121] No wonder that this marvellous
beast is the plaything of God, in whom He takes His pastime.[124]

There is but one thing that makes leviathan repulsive, his foul
smell: which is so strong that if it penetrated thither, it would
render Paradise itself an impossible abode.[125]

The real purpose of leviathan is to be served up as a dainty to
the pious in the world to come. The female was put into brine as
soon as she was killed, to be preserved against the time when her
flesh will be needed.[126] The male is destined to offer a
delectable sight to all beholders before he is consumed. When his
last hour arrives, God will summon the angels to enter into
combat with the monster. But no sooner will leviathan cast his
glance at them than they will flee in fear and dismay from the
field of battle. They will return to the charge with swords, but
in vain, for his scales can turn back steel like straw. They will
be equally unsuccessful when they attempt to kill him by throwing
darts and slinging stones; such missiles will rebound without
leaving the least impression on his body. Disheartened, the
angels will give up the combat, and God will command leviathan
and behemot to enter into a duel with each other. The issue will
be that both will drop dead, behemot slaughtered by a blow of
leviathan's fins, and leviathan killed by a lash of behemot's
tail. From the skin of leviathan God will construct tents to
shelter companies of the pious while they enjoy the dishes made
of his flesh. The amount assigned to each of the pious will be in
proportion to his deserts, and none will envy or begrudge the
other his better share. What is left of leviathan's skin will be
stretched out over Jerusalem as a canopy, and the light streaming
from it will illumine the whole world, and what is left of his
flesh after the pious have appeased their appetite, will be
distributed among the rest of men, to carry on traffic
therewith.[127]

On the same day with the fishes, the birds were created, for
these two kinds of animals are closely related to each other.
Fish are fashioned out of water, and birds out of marshy ground
saturated with water.[128]

As leviathan is the king of fishes, so the ziz is appointed to
rule over the birds.[129] His name comes from the variety of
tastes his flesh has; it tastes like this, zeh, and like that,
zeh.[130] The ziz is as monstrous of size as leviathan himself.
His ankles rest on the earth, and his head reaches to the very
sky.[121]

It once happened that travellers on a vessel noticed a bird. As
he stood in the water, it merely covered his feet, and his head
knocked against the sky. The onlookers thought the water could
not have any depth at that point, and they prepared to take a
bath there. A heavenly voice warned them: "Alight not here! Once
a carpenter's axe slipped from his hand at this spot, and it took
it seven years to touch bottom." The bird the travellers saw was
none other than the ziz.[132] His wings are so huge that unfurled
they darken the sun.[133] They protect the earth against the
storms of the south; without their aid the earth would not be
able to resist the winds blowing thence.[134] Once an egg of the
ziz fell to the ground and broke. The fluid from it flooded sixty
cities, and the shock crushed three hundred cedars. Fortunately
such accidents do not occur frequently. As a rule the bird lets
her eggs slide gently into her nest. This one mishap was due to
the fact that the egg was rotten, and the bird cast it away
carelessly. The ziz has another name, Renanin,[135] because he is
the celestial singer.[136] On account of his relation to the
heavenly regions he is also called Sekwi, the seer, and, besides,
he is called "son of the nest,"[137] because his fledgling birds
break away from the shell without being hatched by the mother
bird; they spring directly from the nest, as it were.[138] Like
leviathan, so ziz is a delicacy to be served to the pious at the
end of time, to compensate them for the privations which
abstaining from the unclean fowls imposed upon them.[139]


THE SIXTH DAY

As the fish were formed out of water, and the birds out of boggy
earth well mixed with water, so the mammals were formed out of
solid earth,[140] and as leviathan is the most notable
representative of the fish kind, and ziz of the bird kind, so
behemot is the most notable representative of the mammal kind.
Behemot matches leviathan in strength, and he had to be
prevented, like leviathan, from multiplying and increasing, else
the world could not have continued to exist; after God had
created him male and female, He at once deprived him of the
desire to propagate his kind.[141] He is so monstrous that he
requires the produce of a thousand mountains for his daily food.
All the water that flows through the bed of the Jordan in a year
suffices him exactly for one gulp. It therefore was necessary to
give him one stream entirely for his own use, a stream flowing
forth from Paradise, called Yubal.[142] Behemot, too, is destined
to be served to the pious as an appetizing dainty, but before
they enjoy his flesh, they will be permitted to view the mortal
combat between leviathan and behemot, as a reward for having
denied themselves the pleasures of the circus and its
gladiatorial contests.[143]

Leviathan, ziz, and behemot are not the only monsters; there are
many others, and marvellous ones, like the reem, a giant animal,
of which only one couple, male and female, is in existence. Had
there been more, the world could hardly have maintained itself
against them. The act of copulation occurs but once in seventy
years between them, for God has so ordered it that the male and
female reem are at opposite ends of the earth, the one in the
east, the other in the west. The act of copulation results in the
death of the male. He is bitten by the female and dies of the
bite. The female becomes pregnant and remains in this state for
no less than twelve years. At the end of this long period she
gives birth to twins, a male and a female. The year preceding her
delivery she is not able to move. She would die of hunger, were
it not that her own spittle flowing copiously from her mouth
waters and fructifies the earth near her, and causes it to bring
forth enough for her maintenance. For a whole year the animal can
but roll from side to side, until finally her belly bursts, and
the twins issue forth. Their appearance is thus the signal for
the death of the mother reem. She makes room for the new
generation, which in turn is destined to suffer the same fate as
the generation that went before. Immediately after birth, the one
goes eastward and the other westward, to meet only after the
lapse of seventy years, propagate themselves, and perish.[144] A
traveller who once saw a reem one day old described its height to
be four parasangs, and the length of its head one parasang and a
half.[145] Its horns measure one hundred ells, and their height
is a great deal more.[146]

One of the most remarkable creatures is the "man of the
mountain," Adne Sadeh, or, briefly, Adam.[147] His form is
exactly that of a human being, but he is fastened to the ground
by means of a navel-string, upon which his life depends. The cord
once snapped, he dies. This animal keeps himself alive with what
is produced by the soil around about him as far as his tether
permits him to crawl. No creature may venture to approach within
the radius of his cord, for he seizes and demolishes whatever
comes in his reach. To kill him, one may not go near to him, the
navel-string must be severed from a distance by means of a dart,
and then he dies amid groans and moans.[143] Once upon a time a
traveller happened in the region where this animal is found. He
overheard his host consult his wife as to what to do to honor
their guest, and resolve to serve "our man," as he said. Thinking
he had fallen among cannibals, the stranger ran as fast as his
feet could carry him from his entertainer, who sought vainly to
restrain him. Afterward, he found out that there had been no
intention of regaling him with human flesh, but only with the
flesh of the strange animal called "man."[146] As the "man of the
mountain" is fixed to the ground by his navel-string, so the
barnacle-goose is grown to a tree by its bill. It is hard to say
whether it is an animal and must be slaughtered to be fit for
food, or whether it is a plant and no ritual ceremony is
necessary before eating it.[150]

Among the birds the phoenix is the most wonderful. When Eve gave
all the animals some of the fruit of the tree of knowledge, the
phoenix was the only bird that refused to eat thereof, and he was
rewarded with eternal life. When he has lived a thousand years,
his body shrinks, and the feathers drop from it, until he is as
small as an egg. This is the nucleus of the new bird.[151]

The phoenix is also called "the guardian of the terrestrial
sphere." He runs with the sun on his circuit, and he spreads out
his wings and catches up the fiery rays of the sun.[152] If he
were not there to intercept them, neither man nor any other
animate being would keep alive. On his right wing the following
words are inscribed in huge letters,[153] about four thousand
stadia high: "Neither the earth produces me, nor the heavens, but
only the wings of fire." His food consists of the manna of heaven
and the dew of the earth. His excrement is a worm, whose
excrement in turn is the cinnamon used by kings and princes.[152]
Enoch, who saw the phoenix birds when he was translated,
describes them as flying creatures, wonderful and strange in
appearance, with the feet and tails of lions, and the heads of
crocodiles; their appearance is of a purple color like the
rainbow; their size nine hundred measures. Their wings are like
those of angels, each having twelve, and they attend the chariot
of the sun and go with him, bringing heat and dew as they are
ordered by God. In the morning when the sun starts on his daily
course, the phoenixes and the chalkidri[154] sing, and every bird
flaps its wings, rejoicing the Giver of light, and they sing a
song at the command of the Lord.[155] Among reptiles the
salamander and the shamir are the most marvellous. The salamander
originates from a fire of myrtle wood[156] which has been kept
burning for seven years steadily by means of magic arts. Not
bigger than a mouse, it yet is invested with peculiar properties.
One who smears himself with its blood is invulnerable,[157] and
the web woven by it is a talisman against fire.[158] The people
who lived at the deluge boasted that, were a fire flood to come,
they would protect themselves with the blood of the
salamander.[159]

King Hezekiah owes his life to the salamander. His wicked father,
King Ahaz, had delivered him to the fires of Moloch, and he would
have been burnt, had his mother not painted him with the blood of
the salamander, so that the fire could do him no harm.[160]

The shamir was made at twilight on the sixth day of creation
together with other extraordinary things.[161] It is about as
large as a barley corn, and it possesses the remarkable property
of cutting the hardest of diamonds. For this reason it was used
for the stones in the breastplate worn by the high priest. First
the names of the twelve tribes were traced with ink on the stones
to be set into the breastplate, then the shamir was passed over
the lines, and thus they were graven. The wonderful circumstance
was that the friction wore no particles from the stones. The
shamir was also used for hewing into shape the stones from which
the Temple was built, because the law prohibited iron tools to be
used for the work in the Temple.[162] The shamir may not be put
in an iron vessel for safe-keeping, nor in any metal vessel, it
would burst such a receptacle asunder. It is kept wrapped up in a
woollen cloth, and this in turn is placed in a lead basket filled
with barley bran.[163] The shamir was guarded in Paradise until
Solomon needed it. He sent the eagle thither to fetch the
worm.[164] With the destruction of the Temple the shamir
vanished.[165] A similar fate overtook the tahash, which had been
created only that its skin might be used for the Tabernacle. Once
the Tabernacle was completed, the tahash disappeared. It had a
horn on its forehead, was gaily colored like the turkey-cock, and
belonged to the class of clean animals.[166] Among the fishes
there are also wonderful creatures, the sea-goats and the
dolphins, not to mention leviathan. A sea-faring man once saw a
sea-goat on whose horns the words were inscribed: "I am a little
sea-animal, yet I traversed three hundred parasangs to offer
myself as food to the leviathan."[167] The dolphins are half man
and half fish; they even have sexual intercourse with human
beings; therefore they are called also "sons of the sea," for in
a sense they represent the human kind in the waters.[163]

Though every species in the animal world was created during the
last two days of the six of creation,[169] yet many
characteristics of certain animals appeared later. Cats and mice,
foes now, were friends originally. Their later enmity had a
distinct cause. On one occasion the mouse appeared before God and
spoke: "I and the cat are partners, but now we have nothing to
eat." The Lord answered: "Thou art intriguing against thy
companion, only that thou mayest devour her. As a punishment, she
shall devour thee." Thereupon the mouse: "O Lord of the world,
wherein have I done wrong?" God replied: "O thou unclean reptile,
thou shouldst have been warned by the example of the moon, who
lost a part of her light, because she spake ill of the sun, and
what she lost was given to her opponent.[170] The evil intentions
thou didst harbor against thy companion shall be punished in the
same way. Instead of thy devouring her, she shall devour thee."
The mouse: "O Lord of the world! Shall my whole kind be
destroyed?" God: "I will take care that a remnant of thee is
spared." In her rage the mouse bit the cat, and the cat in turn
threw herself upon the mouse, and hacked into her with her teeth
until she lay dead. Since that moment the mouse stands in such
awe of the cat that she does not even attempt to defend herself
against her enemy's attacks, and always keeps herself in
hiding.[171] Similarly dogs and cats maintained a friendly
relation to each other, and only later on became enemies. A dog
and a cat were partners, and they shared with each other whatever
they had. It once happened that neither could find anything to
eat for three days. Thereupon the dog proposed that they dissolve
their partnership. The cat should go to Adam, in whose house
there would surely be enough for her to eat, while the dog should
seek his fortune elsewhere. Before they separated, they took an
oath never to go to the same master. The cat took up her abode
with Adam, and she found sufficient mice in his house to satisfy
her appetite. Seeing how useful she was in driving away and
extirpating mice, Adam treated her most kindly. The dog, on the
other hand, saw bad times. The first night after their separation
he spent in the cave of the wolf, who had granted him a night's
lodging. At night the dog caught the sound of steps, and he
reported it to his host, who bade him repulse the intruders. They
were wild animals. Little lacked and the dog would have lost his
life. Dismayed, the dog fled from the house of the wolf, and took
refuge with the monkey. But he would not grant him even a single
night's lodging; and the fugitive was forced to appeal to the
hospitality of the sheep. Again the dog heard steps in the middle
of the night. Obeying the bidding of his host, he arose to chase
away the marauders, who turned out to be wolves. The barking of
the dog apprised the wolves of the presence of sheep, so that the
dog innocently caused the sheep's death. Now he had lost his last
friend. Night after night he begged for shelter, without ever
finding a home. Finally, he decided to repair to the house of
Adam, who also granted him refuge for one night. When wild
animals approached the house under cover of darkness, the dog
began to bark, Adam awoke, and with his bow and arrow he drove
them away. Recognizing the dog's usefulness, he bade him remain
with him always. But as soon as the cat espied the dog in Adam's
house, she began to quarrel with him, and reproach him with
having broken his oath to her. Adam did his best to pacify the
cat. He told her he had himself invited the dog to make his home
there, and he assured her she would in no wise be the loser by
the dog's presence; he wanted both to stay with him. But it was
impossible to appease the cat. The dog promised her not to touch
anything intended for her. She insisted that she could not live
in one and the same house with a thief like the dog. Bickerings
between the dog and the cat became the order of the day. Finally
the dog could stand it no longer, and he left Adam's house, and
betook himself to Seth's. By Seth he was welcomed kindly, and
from Seth's house, he continued to make efforts at reconciliation
with the cat. In vain. Yes, the enmity between the first dog and
the first cat was transmitted to all their descendants until this
very day.[172]

Even the physical peculiarities of certain animals were not
original features with them, but owed their existence to
something that occurred subsequent to the days of creation. The
mouse at first had quite a different mouth from its present
mouth. In Noah's ark, in which all animals, to ensure the
preservation of every kind, lived together peaceably, the pair of
mice were once sitting next to the cat. Suddenly the latter
remembered that her father was in the habit of devouring mice,
and thinking there was no harm in following his example, she
jumped at the mouse, who vainly looked for a hole into which to
slip out of sight. Then a miracle happened; a hole appeared where
none had been before, and the mouse sought refuge in it. The cat
pursued the mouse, and though she could not follow her into the
hole, she could insert her paw and try to pull the mouse out of
her covert. Quickly the mouse opened her mouth in the hope that
the paw would go into it, and the cat would be prevented from
fastening her claws in her flesh. But as the cavity of the mouth
was not big enough, the cat succeeded in clawing the cheeks of
the mouse. Not that this helped her much, it merely widened the
mouth of the mouse, and her prey after all escaped the cat.[173]
After her happy escape, the mouse betook herself to Noah and said
to him, "O pious man, be good enough to sew up my cheek where my
enemy, the cat, has torn a rent in it." Noah bade her fetch a
hair out of the tail of the swine, and with this he repaired the
damage. Thence the little seam-like line next to the mouth of
every mouse to this very day.[174]

The raven is another animal that changed its appearance during
its sojourn in the ark. When Noah desired to send him forth to
find out about the state of the waters, he hid under the wings of
the eagle. Noah found him, however, and said to him, "Go and see
whether the waters have diminished." The raven pleaded: "Hast
thou none other among all the birds to send on this errand?"
Noah: "My power extends no further than over thee and the
dove."[175] But the raven was not satisfied. He said to Noah with
great insolence: "Thou sendest me forth only that I may meet my
death, and thou wishest my death that my wife may be at thy
service."[176] Thereupon Noah cursed the raven thus: "May thy
mouth, which has spoken evil against me, be accursed, and thy
intercourse with thy wife be only through it."[177] All the
animals in the ark said Amen. And this is the reason why a mass
of spittle runs from the mouth of the male raven into the mouth
of the female during the act of copulation, and only thus the
female is impregnated.[178] Altogether the raven is an
unattractive animal. He is unkind toward his own young so long as
their bodies are not covered with black feathers,[179] though as
a rule ravens love one another.[180] God therefore takes the
young ravens under His special protection. From their own
excrement maggots come forth,[181] which serve as their food
during the three days that elapse after their birth, until their
white feathers turn black and their parents recognize them as
their offspring and care for them.[182]

The raven has himself to blame also for the awkward hop in his
gait. He observed the graceful step of the dove, and envious of
her tried to enmulate it. The outcome was that he almost broke
his bones without in the least succeeding in making himself
resemble the dove, not to mention that he brought the scorn of
the other animals down upon himself. His failure excited their
ridicule. Then he decided to return to his own original gait, but
in the interval he had unlearnt it, and he could walk neither the
one way nor the other properly. His step had become a hop betwixt
and between. Thus we see how true it is, that he who is
dissatisfied with his small portion loses the little he has in
striving for more and better things.[163]

The steer is also one of the animals that have suffered a change
in the course of time. Originally his face was entirely overgrown
with hair, but now there is none on his nose, and that is because
Joshua kissed him on his nose during the siege of Jericho. Joshua
was an exceedingly heavy man. Horses, donkeys, and mules, none
could bear him, they all broke down under his weight. What they
could not do, the steer accomplished. On his back Joshua rode to
the siege of Jericho, and in gratitude he bestowed a kiss upon
his nose.[134]

The serpent, too, is other than it was at first. Before the fall
of man it was the cleverest of all animals created, and in form
it resembled man closely. It stood upright, and was of
extraordinary size.[185] Afterward, it lost the mental advantages
it had possessed as compared with other animals, and it
degenerated physically, too; it was deprived of its feet, so that
it could not pursue other animals and kill them. The mole and the
frog had to be made harmless in similar ways; the former has no
eyes, else it were irresistible, and the frog has no teeth, else
no animal in the water were sure of its life.[186]

While the cunning of the serpent wrought its own undoing, the
cunning of the fox stood him in good stead in many an
embarrassing situation. After Adam had committed the sin of
disobedience, God delivered the whole of the animal world into
the power of the Angel of Death, and He ordered him to cast one
pair of each kind into the water. He and leviathan together thus
have dominion over all that has life. When the Angel of Death was
in the act of executing the Divine command upon the fox, he began
to weep bitterly. The Angel of Death asked him the reason of his
tears, and the fox replied that he was mourning the sad fate of
his friend. At the same time he pointed to the figure of a fox in
the sea, which was nothing but his own reflection. The Angel of
Death, persuaded that a representative of the fox family had been
cast into the water, let him go free. The fox told his trick to
the cat, and she in turn played it on the Angel of Death.[187] So
it happened that neither cats nor foxes are represented in the
water, while all other animals are.[188]

When leviathan passed the animals in review, and missing the fox
was informed of the sly way in which he had eluded his authority,
he dispatched great and powerful fish on the errand of enticing
the truant into the water. The fox walking along the shore espied
the large number of fish, and he exclaimed, "How happy he who may
always satisfy his hunger with the flesh of such as these." The
fish told him, if he would but follow them, his appetite could
easily be appeased. At the same time they informed him that a
great honor awaited him. Leviathan, they said, was at death's
door, and he had commissioned them to install the fox as his
successor. They were ready to carry him on their backs, so that
he had no need to fear the water, and thus they would convey him
to the throne, which stood upon a huge rock. The fox yielded to
these persuasions, and descended into the water. Presently an
uncomfortable feeling took possession of him. He began to suspect
that the tables were turned; he was being made game of instead of
making game of others as usual. He urged the fish to tell him the
truth, and they admitted that they had been sent out to secure
his person for leviathan, who wanted his heart,[189] that he
might become as knowing as the fox, whose wisdom he had heard
many extol. The fox said reproachfully: "Why did you not tell me
the truth at once? Then I could have brought my heart along with
me for King Leviathan, who would have showered honors upon me. As
it is, you will surely suffer punishment for bringing me without
my heart. The foxes, you see," he continued, "do not carry their
hearts around with them. They keep them in a safe place, and when
they have need of them, they fetch them thence." The fish quickly
swam to shore, and landed the fox, so that he might go for his
heart. No sooner did he feel dry land under his feet than he
began to jump and shout, and when they urged him to go in search
of his heart, and follow them, he said: "O ye fools, could I have
followed you into the water, if I had not had my heart with me?
Or exists there a creature able to go abroad without his heart?"
The fish replied: "Come, come, thou art fooling us." Whereupon
the fox: "O ye fools, if I could play a trick on the Angel of
Death, how much easier was it to make game of you?" So they had
to return, their errand undone, and leviathan could not but
confirm the taunting judgment of the fox: "In very truth, the fox
is wise of heart, and ye are fools."[190]


ALL THINGS PRAISE THE LORD

"Whatever God created has value." Even the animals and the
insects that seem useless and noxious at first sight have a
vocation to fulfil. The snail trailing a moist streak after it as
it crawls, and so using up its vitality, serves as a remedy for
boils. The sting of a hornet is healed by the house-fly crushed
and applied to the wound. The gnat, feeble creature, taking in
food but never secreting it, is a specific against the poison of
a viper, and this venomous reptile itself cures eruptions, while
the lizard is the antidote to the scorpion.[191] Not only do all
creatures serve man, and contribute to his comfort, but also God
"teacheth us through the beasts of the earth, and maketh us wise
through the fowls of heaven." He endowed many animals with
admirable moral qualities as a pattern for man. If the Torah had
not been revealed to us, we might have learnt regard for the
decencies of life from the cat, who covers her excrement with
earth; regard for the property of others from the ants, who never
encroach upon one another's stores; and regard for decorous
conduct from the cock, who, when he desires to unite with the
hen, promises to buy her a cloak long enough to reach to the
ground, and when the hen reminds him of his promise, he shakes
his comb and says, "May I be deprived of my comb, if I do not buy
it when I have the means." The grasshopper also has a lesson to
teach to man. All the summer through it sings, until its belly
bursts, and death claims it. Though it knows the fate that awaits
it, yet it sings on. So man should do his duty toward God, no
matter what the consequences. The stork should be taken as a
model in two respects. He guards the purity of his family life
zealously, and toward his fellows he is compassionate and
merciful. Even the frog can be the teacher of man. By the side of
the water there lives a species of animals which subsist off
aquatic creatures alone. When the frog notices that one of them
is hungry, he goes to it of his own accord, and offers himself as
food, thus fulfilling the injunction, "If thine enemy be hungry,
give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to
drink."[192]

The whole of creation was called into existence by God unto His
glory,[193] and each creature has its own hymn of praise
wherewith to extol the Creator. Heaven and earth, Paradise and
hell, desert and field, rivers and seas--all have their own way
of paying homage to God. The hymn of the earth is, "From the
uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs, glory to the
Righteous." The sea exclaims, "Above the voices of many waters,
the mighty breakers of the sea, the Lord on high is mighty."

Also the celestial bodies and the elements proclaim the praise of
their Creator--the sun, moon, and stars, the clouds and the
winds, lightning and dew. The sun says, "The sun and moon stood
still in their habitation, at the light of Thine arrows as they
went, at the shining of Thy glittering spear"; and the stars
sing, "Thou art the Lord, even Thou alone; Thou hast made heaven,
the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all
things that are thereon, the seas and all that is in them, and
Thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth
Thee."

Every plant, furthermore, has a song of praise. The fruitful tree
sings, "Then shall all the trees of the wood sing for joy, before
the Lord, for He cometh; for He cometh to judge the earth"; and
the ears of grain on the field sing, "The pastures are covered
with flocks; the valleys also are covered over with corn; they
shout for joy, they also sing."

Great among singers of praise are the birds, and greatest among
them is the cock. When God at midnight goes to the pious in
Paradise, all the trees therein break out into adoration, and
their songs awaken the cock, who begins in turn to praise God.
Seven times he crows, each time reciting a verse. The first verse
is: "Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye
everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in. Who is
the King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in
battle." The second verse: "Lift up your heads, O ye gates; yea,
lift them up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall
come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, He is the
King of glory." The third: "Arise, ye righteous, and occupy
yourselves with the Torah, that your reward may be abundant in
the world hereafter." The fourth: "I have waited for Thy
salvation, O Lord!" The fifth: "How long wilt thou sleep, O
sluggard? When wilt thou arise out of thy sleep?" The sixth:
"Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty; open thine eyes, and
thou shalt be satisfied with bread." And the seventh verse sung
by the cock runs: "It is time to work for the Lord, for they have
made void Thy law."

The song of the vulture is: "I will hiss for them, and gather
them; for I have redeemed them, and they shall increase as they
have increased"--the same verse with which the bird will in time
to come announce the advent of the Messiah, the only difference
being, that when he heralds the Messiah he will sit upon the
ground and sing his verse, while at all other times he is seated
elsewhere when he sings it.

Nor do the other animals praise God less than the birds. Even the
beasts of prey give forth adoration. The lion says: "The Lord
shall go forth as a mighty man; He shall stir up jealousy like a
man of war; He shall cry, yea, He shall shout aloud; He shall do
mightily against his enemies." And the fox exhorts unto justice
with the words: "Woe unto him that buildeth his house by
unrighteousness, and his chambers by injustice; that useth his
neighbor's service without wages, and giveth him not his hire."

Yea, the dumb fishes know how to proclaim the praise of their
Lord. "The voice of the Lord is upon the waters," they say, "the
God of glory thundereth, even the Lord upon many waters"; while
the frog exclaims, "Blessed be the name of the glory of His
kingdom forever and ever."

Contemptible though they are, even the reptiles give praise unto
their Creator. The mouse extols God with the words: "Howbeit Thou
art just in all that is come upon me; for Thou hast dealt truly,
but I have done wickedly." And the cat sings: "Let everything
that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord."[194]



II

ADAM MAN AND THE WORLD
THE ANGELS AND THE CREATION OF MAN
THE CREATION OF ADAM
THE SOUL OF MAN
THE IDEAL MAN
THE FALL OF SATAN
WOMAN
ADAM AND EVE IN PARADISE
THE FALL OF MAN
THE PUNISHMENT
SABBATH IN HEAVEN
ADAM'S REPENTANCE
THE BOOK OF RAZIEL
THE SICKNESS OF ADAM
EVE'S STORY OF THE FALL
THE DEATH OF ADAM
THE DEATH OF EVE



II

ADAM

MAN AND THE WORLD

With ten Sayings God created the world, although a single Saying
would have sufficed. God desired to make known how severe is the
punishment to be meted out to the wicked, who destroy a world
created with as many as ten Sayings, and how goodly the reward
destined for the righteous, who preserve a world created with as
many as ten Sayings.[1]

The world was made for man, though he was the last-comer among
its creatures. This was design. He was to find all things ready
for him. God was the host who prepared dainty dishes, set the
table, and then led His guest to his seat. At the same time man's
late appearance on earth is to convey an admonition to humility.
Let him beware of being proud, lest he invite the retort that the
gnat is older than he.[2]

The superiority of man to the other creatures is apparent in the
very manner of his creation, altogether different from theirs. He
is the only one who was created by the hand of God.[3] The rest
sprang from the word of God. The body of man is a microcosm, the
whole world in miniature, and the world in turn is a reflex of
man. The hair upon his head corresponds to the woods of the
earth, his tears to a river, his mouth to the ocean.[4] Also, the
world resembles the ball of his eye: the ocean that encircles the
earth is like unto the white of the eye, the dry land is the
iris, Jerusalem the pupil, and the Temple the image mirrored in
the pupil of the eye.[5] But man is more than a mere image of
this world. He unites both heavenly and earthly qualities within
himself. In four he resembles the angels, in four the beasts. His
power of speech, his discriminating intellect, his upright walk,
the glance of his eye--they all make an angel of him. But, on the
other hand, he eats and drinks, secretes the waste matter in his
body, propagates his kind, and dies, like the beast of the field.
Therefore God said before the creation of man: "The celestials
are not propagated, but they are immortal; the beings on earth
are propagated, but they die. I will create man to be the union
of the two, so that when he sins, when he behaves like a beast,
death shall overtake him; but if he refrains from sin, he shall
live forever."[6] God now bade all beings in heaven and on earth
contribute to the creation of man, and He Himself took part in
it. Thus they all will love man, and if he should sin, they will
be interested in his preservation.[7]

The whole world naturally was created for the pious, the
God-fearing man, whom Israel produces with the helpful guidance
of the law of God revealed to him.[8] It was, therefore, Israel
who was taken into special consideration at the time man was
made. All other creatures were instructed to change their nature,
if Israel should ever need their help in the course of his
history. The sea was ordered to divide before Moses, and the
heavens to give ear to the words of the leader; the sun and the
moon were bidden to stand still before Joshua, the ravens to feed
Elijah, the fire to spare the three youths in the furnace, the
lion to do no harm to Daniel, the fish to spew forth Jonah, and
the heavens to open before Ezekiel.[9]

In His modesty, God took counsel with the angels, before the
creation of the world, regarding His intention of making man. He
said: "For the sake of Israel, I will create the world. As I
shall make a division between light and darkness, so I will in
time to come do for Israel in Egypt--thick darkness shall be over
the land, and the children of Israel shall have light in their
dwellings; as I shall make a separation between the waters under
the firmament and the waters above the firmament, so I will do
for Israel--I will divide the waters for him when he crosses the
Red Sea; as on the third day I shall create plants, so I will do
for Israel--I will bring forth manna for him in the wilderness;
as I shall create luminaries to divide day from night, so I will
do for Israel--I will go before him by day in a pillar of cloud
and by night in a pillar of fire; as I shall create the fowl of
the air and the fishes of the sea, so I will do for Israel--I
will bring quails for him from the sea; and as I shall breathe
the breath of life into the nostrils of man, so I will do for
Israel--I will give the Torah unto him, the tree of life." The
angels marvelled that so much love should be lavished upon this
people of Israel, and God told them: "On the first day of
creation, I shall make the heavens and stretch them out; so will
Israel raise up the Tabernacle as the dwelling-place of My glory.
On the second day, I shall put a division between the terrestrial
waters and the heavenly waters; so will he hang up a veil in the
Tabernacle to divide the Holy Place and the Most Holy. On the
third day, I shall make the earth put forth grass and herb; so
will he, in obedience to My commands, eat herbs on the first
night of the Passover, and prepare showbread for Me. On the
fourth day, I shall make the luminaries; so will he make a golden
candlestick for Me. On the fifth day, I shall create the birds;
so will he fashion the cherubim with outstretched wings. On the
sixth day, I shall create man; so will Israel set aside a man of
the sons of Aaron as high priest for My service."[10]

Accordingly, the whole of creation was conditional. God said to
the things He made on the first six days: "If Israel accepts the
Torah, you will continue and endure; otherwise, I shall turn
everything back into chaos again." The whole world was thus kept
in suspense and dread until the day of the revelation on Sinai,
when Israel received and accepted the Torah, and so fulfilled the
condition made by God at the time when He created the
universe.[11]


THE ANGELS AND THE CREATION OF MAN

God in His wisdom hiving resolved to create man, He asked counsel
of all around Him before He proceeded to execute His purpose--an
example to man, be he never so great and distinguished, not to
scorn the advice of the humble and lowly. First God called upon
heaven and earth, then upon all other things He had created, and
last upon the angels.

The angels were not all of one opinion. The Angel of Love favored
the creation of man, because he would be affectionate and loving;
but the Angel of Truth opposed it, because he would be full of
lies. And while the Angel of Justice favored it, because he would
practice justice, the Angel of Peace opposed it, because he would
be quarrelsome.

To invalidate his protest, God cast the Angel of Truth down from
heaven to earth, and when the others cried out against such
contemptuous treatment of their companion, He said, "Truth will
spring back out of the earth."

The objections of the angels would have been much stronger, had
they known the whole truth about man. God had told them only
about the pious, and had concealed from them that there would be
reprobates among mankind, too. And yet, though they knew but half
the truth, the angels were nevertheless prompted to cry out:
"What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? And the son of man,
that Thou visitest him?" God replied: "The fowl of the air and
the fish of the sea, what were they created for? Of what avail a
larder full of appetizing dainties, and no guest to enjoy them?"
And the angels could not but exclaim: "O Lord, our Lord, how
excellent is Thy name in all the earth! Do as is pleasing in Thy
sight."[12]

For not a few of the angels their opposition bore fatal
consequences. When God summoned the band under the archangel
Michael, and asked their opinion on the creation of man, they
answered scornfully: "What is man, that Thou art mindful of him?
And the son of man, that Thou visitest him?" God thereupon
stretched forth His little finger, and all were consumed by fire
except their chief Michael. And the same fate befell the band
under the leadership of the archangel Gabriel; he alone of all
was saved from destruction.


The third band consulted was commanded by the archangel Labbiel.
Taught by the horrible fate of his predecessors, he warned his
troop: "You have seen what misfortune overtook the angels who
said 'What is man, that Thou art mindful of him?' Let us have a
care not to do likewise, lest we suffer the same dire punishment.
For God will not refrain from doing in the end what He has
planned. Therefore it is advisable for us to yield to His
wishes." Thus warned, the angels spoke: "Lord of the world, it is
well that Thou hast thought of creating man. Do Thou create him
according to Thy will. And as for us, we will be his attendants
and his ministers, and reveal unto him all our secrets."
Thereupon God changed Labbiel's name to Raphael, the Rescuer,
because his host of angels had been rescued by his sage advice.
He was appointed the Angel of Healing, who has in his
safe-keeping all the celestial remedies, the types of the medical
remedies used on earth.[12]


THE CREATION OF ADAM


When at last the assent of the angels to the creation of man was
given, God said to Gabriel: "Go and fetch Me dust from the four
corners of the earth, and I will create man therewith." Gabriel
went forth to do the bidding of the Lord, but the earth drove him
away, and refused to let him gather up dust from it. Gabriel
remonstrated: "Why, O Earth, dost thou not hearken unto the voice
of the Lord, who founded thee upon the waters without props or
pillars?" The earth replied, and said: "I am destined to become a
curse, and to be cursed through man, and if God Himself does not
take the dust from me, no one else shall ever do it." When God
heard this, He stretched out His hand, took of the dust of the
ground, and created the first man therewith.[14] Of set purpose
the dust was taken from all four corners of the earth, so that if
a man from the east should happen to die in the west, or a man
from the west in the east, the earth should not dare refuse to
receive the dead, and tell him to go whence he was taken.
Wherever a man chances to die, and wheresoever he is buried,
there will he return to the earth from which he sprang. Also, the
dust was of various colors--red, black, white, and green--red for
the blood, black for the bowels, white for the bones and veins,
and green for the pale skin.

At this early moment the Torah interfered. She addressed herself
to God: "O Lord of the world! The world is Thine, Thou canst do
with it as seemeth good in Thine eyes. But the man Thou art now
creating will be few of days and full of trouble and sin. If it
be not Thy purpose to have forbearance and patience with him, it
were better not to call him into being." God replied, "Is it for
naught I am called long-suffering and merciful?"[15]

The grace and lovingkindness of God revealed themselves
particularly in His taking one spoonful of dust from the spot
where in time to come the altar would stand, saying, "I shall
take man from the place of atonement, that he may endure."[19]


THE SOUL OF MAN

The care which God exercised in fashioning every detail of the
body of man is as naught in comparison with His solicitude for
the human soul. The soul of man was created on the first day, for
it is the spirit of God moving upon the face of the waters. Thus,
instead of being the last, man is really the first work of
creation.[17]

This spirit, or, to call it by its usual name, the soul of man,
possesses five different powers. By means of one of them she
escapes from the body every night, rises up to heaven, and
fetches new life thence for man.[18]

With the soul of Adam the souls of all the generations of men
were created. They are stored up in a promptuary, in the seventh
of the heavens, whence they are drawn as they are needed for
human body after human body.[19]

The soul and body of man are united in this way: When a woman has
conceived, the Angel of the Night, Lailah, carries the sperm
before God, and God decrees what manner of human being shall
become of it--whether it shall be male or female, strong or weak,
rich or poor, beautiful or ugly, long or short, fat or thin, and
what all its other qualities shall be. Piety and wickedness alone
are left to the determination of man himself. Then God makes a
sign to the angel appointed over the souls, saying, "Bring Me the
soul so-and-so, which is hidden in Paradise, whose name is
so-and-so, and whose form is so-and-so." The angel brings the
designated soul, and she bows down when she appears in the
presence of God, and prostrates herself before Him. At that
moment, God issues the command, "Enter this sperm." The soul
opens her mouth, and pleads: "O Lord of the world! I am well
pleased with the world in which I have been living since the day
on which Thou didst call me into being. Why dost Thou now desire
to have me enter this impure sperm, I who am holy and pure, and a
part of Thy glory?" God consoles her: "The world which I shall
cause thee to enter is better than the world in which thou hast
lived hitherto, and when I created thee, it was only for this
purpose." The soul is then forced to enter the sperm against her
will, and the angel carries her back to the womb of the mother.
Two angels are detailed to watch that she shall not leave it, nor
drop out of it, and a light is set above her, whereby the soul
can see from one end of the world to the other. In the morning an
angel carries her to Paradise, and shows her the righteous, who
sit there in their glory, with crowns upon their heads. The angel
then says to the soul, "Dost thou know who these are?" She
replies in the negative, and the angel goes on: "These whom thou
beholdest here were formed, like unto thee, in the womb of their
mother. When they came into the world, they observed God's Torah
and His commandments. Therefore they became the partakers of this
bliss which thou seest them enjoy. Know, also thou wilt one day
depart from the world below, and if thou wilt observe God's
Torah, then wilt thou be found worthy of sitting with these pious
ones. But if not, thou wilt be doomed to the other place."

In the evening, the angel takes the soul to hell, and there
points out the sinners whom the Angels of Destruction are smiting
with fiery scourges, the sinners all the while crying out Woe!
Woe! but no mercy is shown unto them. The angel then questions
the soul as before, "Dost thou know who these are?" and as before
the reply is negative. The angel continues: "These who are
consumed with fire were created like unto thee. When they were
put into the world, they did not observe God's Torah and His
commandments. Therefore have they come to this disgrace which
thou seest them suffer. Know, thy destiny is also to depart from
the world. Be just, therefore, and not wicked, that thou mayest
gain the future world."

Between morning and evening the angel carries the soul around,
and shows her where she will live and where she will die, and the
place where she will buried, and he takes her through the whole
world, and points out the just and the sinners and all things. In
the evening, he replaces her in the womb of the mother, and there
she remains for nine months.

When the time arrives for her to emerge from the womb into the
open world, the same angel addresses the soul, "The time has come
for thee to go abroad into the open world." The soul demurs, "Why
dost thou want to make me go forth into the open world?" The
angel replies: "Know that as thou wert formed against thy will,
so now thou wilt be born against thy will, and against thy will
thou shalt die, and against thy will thou shalt give account of
thyself before the King of kings, the Holy One, blessed be He."
But the soul is reluctant to leave her place. Then the angel
fillips the babe on the nose, extinguishes the light at his head,
and brings him forth into the world against his will. Immediately
the child forgets all his soul has seen and learnt, and he comes
into the world crying, for he loses a place of shelter and
security and rest.

When the time arrives for man to quit this world, the same angel
appears and asks him, "Dost thou recognize me?" And man replies,
"Yes; but why dost thou come to me to-day, and thou didst come on
no other day?" The angel says, "To take thee away from the world,
for the time of thy departure has arrived." Then man falls to
weeping, and his voice penetrates to all ends of the world, yet
no creature hears his voice, except the cock alone. Man
remonstrates with the angel, "From two worlds thou didst take me,
and into this world thou didst bring me." But the angel reminds
him: "Did I not tell thee that thou wert formed against thy will,
and thou wouldst be born against thy will, and against thy will
thou wouldst die? And against thy will thou wilt have to give
account and reckoning of thyself before the Holy One, blessed be
He."[20]


THE IDEAL MAN

Like all creatures formed on the six days of creation, Adam came
from the hands of the Creator fully and completely developed. He
was not like a child, but like a man of twenty years of age.[21]
The dimensions of his body were gigantic, reaching from heaven to
earth, or, what amounts to the same, from east to west.[22] Among
later generations of men, there were but few who in a measure
resembled Adam in his extraordinary size and physical
perfections. Samson possessed his strength, Saul his neck,
Absalom his hair, Asahel his fleetness of foot, Uzziah his
forehead, Josiah his nostrils, Zedekiah his eyes, and Zerubbabel
his voice. History shows that these physical excellencies were no
blessings to many of their possessors; they invited the ruin of
almost all. Samson's extraordinary strength caused his death;
Saul killed himself by cutting his neck with his own sword; while
speeding swiftly, Asahel was pierced by Abner's spear; Absalom
was caught up by his hair in an oak, and thus suspended met his
death; Uzziah was smitten with leprosy upon his forehead; the
darts that killed Josiah entered through his nostrils, and
Zedekiah's eyes were blinded.[23]

The generality of men inherited as little of the beauty as of the
portentous size of their first father. The fairest women compared
with Sarah are as apes compared with a human being. Sarah's
relation to Eve is the same, and, again, Eve was but as an ape
compared with Adam. His person was so handsome that the very sole
of his foot obscured the splendor of the sun.[24]

His spiritual qualities kept pace with his personal charm, for
God had fashioned his soul with particular care. She is the image
of God, and as God fills the world, so the soul fills the human
body; as God sees all things, and is seen by none, so the soul
sees, but cannot be seen; as God guides the world, so the soul
guides the body; as God in His holiness is pure, so is the soul;
and as God dwells in secret, so doth the soul.[25]

When God was about to put a soul into Adam's clod-like body, He
said: "At which point shall I breathe the soul into him? Into the
mouth? Nay, for he will use it to speak ill of his fellow-man.
Into the eyes? With them he will wink lustfully. Into the ears?
They will hearken to slander and blasphemy. I will breathe her
into his nostrils; as they discern the unclean and reject it, and
take in the fragrant, so the pious will shun sin, and will cleave
to the words of the Torah"[26]

The perfections of Adam's soul showed themselves as soon as he
received her, indeed, while he was still without life. In the
hour that intervened between breathing a soul into the first man
and his becoming alive, God revealed the whole history of mankind
to him. He showed him each generation and its leaders; each
generation and its prophets; each generation and its teachers;
each generation and its scholars; each generation and its
statesmen; each generation and its judges; each generation and
its pious members; each generation and its average, commonplace
members; and each generation and its impious members. The tale of
their years, the number of their days, the reckoning of their
hours, and the measure of their steps, all were made known unto
him.[27]

Of his own free will Adam relinquished seventy of his allotted
years. His appointed span was to be a thousand years, one of the
Lord's days. But he saw that only a single minute of life was
apportioned to the great soul of David, and he made a gift of
seventy years to her, reducing his own years to nine hundred and
thirty.'

The wisdom of Adam displayed itself to greatest advantage when he
gave names to the animals. Then it appeared that God, in
combating the arguments of the angels that opposed the creation
of man, had spoken well, when He insisted that man would possess
more wisdom than they themselves. When Adam was barely an hour
old, God assembled the whole world of animals before him and the
angels. The latter were called upon to name the different kinds,
but they were not equal to the task. Adam, however, spoke without
hesitation: "O Lord of the world! The proper name for this animal
is ox, for this one horse, for this one lion, for this one
camel." And so he called all in turn by name, suiting the name to
the peculiarity of the animal. Then God asked him what his name
was to be, and he said Adam, because he had been created out of
Adamah, dust of the earth. Again, God asked him His own name, and
he said: "Adonai, Lord, because