MYTHICAL COSMOLOGY
(a) So great was the work accomplished at the Creation that a walk from east to west across the Earth would take a man five hundred years—if he lived to finish it; and a walk from north to south would take him another five hundred years. These distances correspond with those from Earth to the First Heaven, and from the First Heaven to its summit. As for Earth itself—one-third of its surface is desert, one-third sea, and the remaining third habitable land.[9]
Some reckon the width of Earth as 6000 parasangs, namely 18,000 miles, in all directions; and the height of the sky as 1000 parasangs, or 3000 miles.[10] Others believe Earth to be even larger: Egypt, they say, measures 400 by 400 parasangs, or 1200 by 1200 miles; yet Egypt is one-sixtieth the size of Ethiopia, Ethiopia one-sixtieth of the Earth's surface, Earth one-sixtieth of Eden, and Eden one-sixtieth of Gehenna. Thus Earth is to Gehenna as a small lid to an immense pot.[11]
Eastward of the habitable world lies the Garden of Eden, abode of the righteous. Westward lie the Ocean and its islands; and behind them the Desert, a parched land where only snakes and scorpions crawl. Northward stretch Babylonia and Chaldaea, and behind them are storehouses of Hell-fire and storehouses of snow, hailstones, fog, frost, darkness and gales. Here live demons, harmful spirits, the host of Samael; here also is Gehenna, where the wicked are confined. Southward lie the Chambers of Teman, storehouses of fire, and the Cave of Smoke, whence rises the hot whirlwind.[12]
(b) According to others, the East is the quarter from which light and heat spread across the world; the West contains the storehouses of snow and hailstones from which cold winds blow; dews and rains of blessing come from the south; the north breeds darkness.[13]
God fastened down the firmament to the rim of Earth on the east, south and west, but left the northern part loose, announcing: 'Should anyone say "I am God!", let him fasten down this side too, in proof of his godhead.'[14]
(c) The seven Earths, separated from one another by intervals of whirlwind, are named in ascending order: Eres, Adama, Harabha, Siyya, Yabbasha, Arqa, Tebhel and Heled.[15]
(d) Arqa, the Fifth Earth, contains Gehenna and its seven layers, each with its storehouses of darkness. The highest of these is Sheol, and beneath lie others named Perdition, The Lowest Pit, The Bilge, Silence, The Gates of Death and The Gates of the Shadow of Death. The fire of each layer is sixty times fiercer than that immediately below. Here the wicked are punished, and angels torture them.[16]
Tebhel, the Sixth Earth, contains hills, mountains, valleys and plains, inhabited by no fewer than three hundred and sixty-five kinds of creatures. Some have the heads and bodies of oxen, but are endowed with human speech; others have twin heads, four ears and four eyes, twin noses and mouths, four hands and four legs, yet only one trunk. When seated they look like two people; but when they walk, like one. As they eat and drink, the twin heads quarrel and accuse each other of taking more than a fair share; nevertheless, they pass for righteous beings.[17]
Heled, our own Earth, the seventh, needs no description.[18]
(e) Opinions vary as to whether there are two, three, seven or ten Heavens;[19] but doubtless their number agrees with that of the seven Earths.[20] The Firmament covers Earth like a dome-shaped lid;[21] its edges touch the surrounding Ocean. The hooks of Heaven are sunk in these waters.[22]
An Arab once led Rabba bar Bar-Hana to the very edge of Earth, where the Firmament is fastened down. Rabba had brought a basketful of bread and, since this was the hour of prayer, set it on the heavenly window-ledge. Later he looked in vain for the basket, and asked: 'Who has stolen my bread?' The Arab answered: 'No man, but the wheel of the Firmament has turned while you prayed. Wait until tomorrow, and you will eat bread again.'[23]
Some describe Earth as a hall open only to the north; because once the Sun, moving from east to west, has reached the north-western corner, it turns and goes upwards and backwards, this time behind the dome of the Firmament. Thus, since the Firmament is opaque, the Sun's return journey causes night upon Earth. After reaching the east, however, it passes once more below the dome of the Firmament, and shines for all mankind.[24]
(f) Rabbi Shimon ben Laqish names the seven Heavens as follows: Wilon, Raqi'a, Shehaqim, Zebhul, Ma'on, Makhon, and 'Arabhoth.[25] They are all fixed and vaulted over Earth, one above the other, like the skins of an onion; except only Wilon, the lowest, which shades the uppermost earth from the heat. At daybreak, therefore, Wilon stretches across the sky; but at sundown is rolled away to enable the Moon and stars to shine from Raqi'a, the Second Heaven.[26]
(g) In Shehaqim, a pair of millstones grind manna for the righteous; in Zebhul are found the Heavenly Jerusalem, the Temple, and the altar upon which the Archangel Michael offers sacrifices; in Ma 'on, hosts of ministering angels hymn God's mercy all night long, but fall silent at dawn, thus allowing Him to hear His praises sung by Israel below; Makhon contains storehouses of snow and hailstones, lofts of dews and rains, chambers of storms, and caves of fog; in 'Arabhoth abide Justice, Law and Charity, the treasures of Life, Peace and Blessing, the souls of the righteous, the souls of the yet unborn, the dew with which God will revive the dead, the chariot seen by Ezekiel in a vision, the ministering angels, and the Divine Throne.[27]
(h) According to a very different view, the lowest Heaven contains clouds, winds, air, the Upper Waters, the two hundred angels appointed to watch the stars, and storehouses of snow, ice and dews with their guardian angels.
In the Second Heaven complete darkness reigns over the sinners chained there in expectation of Judgement.
In the Third Heaven lies the Garden of Eden, full of marvellous fruit trees, including the Tree of Life under which God rests whenever He comes on a visit. Two rivers issue from Eden: one flowing with milk and honey, the other with wine and oil; they branch out into four heads, descend, and surround the Earth. Three hundred Angels of Light, who unceasingly sing God's praises, watch over the Garden, which is the Heaven to which righteous souls are admitted after death. Northward of Eden stretches Gehenna, where dark fires perpetually smoulder, and a river of flame flows through a land of biting cold and ice; here the wicked suffer tortures.
In the Fourth Heaven are chariots ridden by the Sun and Moon; also great stars, each with a thousand lesser stars as followers, that accompany the Sun on its circuit: four to the right, another four to the left. Of the two winds that draw these chariots, one is shaped like a phoenix, the other like a brazen serpent; though, indeed, their faces resemble those of a lion, and their lower parts those of Leviathan. Each wind has twelve wings. To east and west of this Heaven stand gates through which the chariots pass at their appointed hours.
The Fifth Heaven houses the gigantic Fallen Angels, who crouch there in silent and everlasting despair.
In the Sixth Heaven live seven Phoenixes, seven Cherubim singing God's praises without cease, and hosts of radiant angels engrossed in astrological study; besides other angels who guard the hours, years, rivers, seas, crops, pastures, and mankind, recording for God's attention whatever unusual sights they observe.
The Seventh Heaven, one of ineffable light, holds the Archangels, Cherubim, Seraphim, and divine wheels; here God Himself occupies His Divine Throne, and all sing His praises.[28]
These seven Heavens and seven Earths are prevented from falling apart and dropping into the Void beneath by immense hooks attached to the rim of each Heaven and linking it with the rim of a corresponding earth. The uppermost Earth has, however, been hooked to the rim of the Second Heaven (not the First, which is no more than a huge folding veil); the Second Earth is hooked to the Third Heaven, and so forth. In addition, each Heaven is similarly fastened to its neighbouring Heaven. The entire structure thus resembles a fourteen-storeyed tower the top storey of which, 'Arabhoth, hangs on God's arm-though some say that God holds up the Heavens with His right hand, and the Earths with His left.
Every day God mounts a cherub and visits all these worlds, where He receives homage and adoration. On His return journey, He rides on the wings of the Wind.[29]
1. These rabbinical doctrines, mostly borrowed at haphazard from Greek, Persian and Babylonian sources, were meant to impress hearers with the amazing range and complexity of God's works; and the very irreconcilability of any two theories supported this impression. The sages accepted the Biblical concept of a flat earth, and were all baffled by the Sun's re-appearance in the East each morning. One small fragment of mathematical science has slipped in: the measure of the earth's dimensions comes reasonably close to that offered by the Ptolemaic physicist, Eratosthenes of Cyrene, in the third century B.C.
The placing of Gehenna not only in the Underworld, but on earth, and in one of the heavens, is perhaps deliberate: an echo of Amos IX. 2—'though they dig into hell, there shall Mine hand take them; though they climb up into heaven, thence will I bring them down.'
2. Teman means both 'south' and 'southland'. Esau had a grandson of that name, his father being Eliphaz. A 'chief of Teman' is twice mentioned in a passage that also names Husham of the Southland (temani) as a King of Edom. 'Eliphaz the Temanite' (temani) was one of Job's comforters; elsewhere the distant 'Southland' appears as a region of mysterious 'chambers' and 'southern whirlwinds'. The late midrash (see b.) on these chambers refers either to Yemen in South Arabia, or to Tayma, a settlement in North Arabia, about 250 miles east of the entrance to the Gulf of Aqaba.
3. Hashmal is a divine substance which, according to the first chapter of Ezekiel, provides the fiery splendour of God's Throne and Countenance. The Septuagint translates electron, which in Greek is connected with Elector, a name for the sun, and thus means 'shining with a golden light'; hence either amber, or amber-coloured electrum, an alloy of gold and silver. Hashmal is modern Hebrew for 'electricity', because the rubbing of amber to attract particles of dust was, it seems, the earliest experimental use of electricity. But the association of lightning with the power of God being ancient, Ezekiel may have regarded this divine hashmal as the source of lightning.
4. In Talmudic times, speculations on the structure of the Universe were called ma'asse merkabhah, 'matters of the chariot', because of the divine chariot described by Ezekiel. The Pharisees regarded the study of these matters as dangerous, and several stories are told about learned men who failed to take proper precautions: Ben Azzay died suddenly, Ben Zoma lost his mind, Elisha ben Abuya became a heretic; Rabbi Akiba alone escaped harm by humility and circumspection (B. Hagiga 14b–16a).
5. That the entire Universe hangs from God's arms is first quoted in the Babylonian Talmud (B. Hagiga 12b): 'Rabbi Yose said: "The earth rests on columns, the columns on water, the water on mountains, the mountains on wind, the wind on the whirlwind, and the whirlwind hangs from God's arm."' But it can hardly be reconciled with His daily visits to each Heaven and Earth.
6. Eres means 'earth'; so do adama and arqa (an Aramaic loan-word); siyya, 'dryness'; yabbasha, 'dry land'; harabha, 'parched land'; tebhel and heled, 'world'.
Wilon means 'curtain'; raqi'a, 'firmament'; shehaqim, 'clouds' or 'grindstones'; zebhul, 'dwelling'; ma'on, 'residence'; makhon, 'emplacement'; and 'arabhoth, 'plains'.
