cellio | stray thoughts on creation

One of the two classes I'm taking through the Melton program is a basic theology/text class with an excellent rabbi. Last week's topic was creation, and I wanted to jot down a few things that he taught about before I forget about them.

Two words are used in Hebrew to convey separation. One is "kadosh", which means to sanctify or set apart. Yisrael is set apart for a particular purpose; we set Shabbat apart from the rest of the week; when we marry we set our spouses apart from all other people (kidoshin); etc. The other word is "havdil", which I gather is a more "mundane" separation. This is the word used in the torah when God separates light from darkness on the first day. That makes sense; it's not like one of them is in any way elevated over the other. But, if that's the reasoning, then what of havdalah, the ceremony we do to mark the end of Shabbat where we say that God separates (havdil) Shabbat from the rest of the week? We elevate it but God doesn't so much? Must think more on this. (The rabbi only pointed out the use of "havdil" versus "kadosh"; the rest of this ramble is me. So don't hold him accountable if I'm off-base.)

The days of creation pair up as follows: day one light/dark and day four sun/moon; day two waters and day five water creatures; day three earth and vegetation and day six land animals and man. I never noticed that before.

(I, by the way, have no problem whatsoever with light on day one and the sun not showing up until day four. God can make light come from anything he wants, or nothing at all. He doesn't require a star to create it. I've met people who see a difficulty here.)

The word "hashamayim" (heaven(s)) contains "mayim", water. Day two talks about separating the "waters above" (heaven) and the "waters below" (sea). I don't really think of heaven as a place requiring a snorkel and fins to traverse; I wonder where the "water" association disappeared? (There is midrash about Moshe going up to heaven, so we can't just write it off as "God can live in any environment". The midrash doesn't talk about Moshe breathing in water while there.)

The rabbi asserts (I haven't confirmed) that the only time in B'reishit that God seems to talk about himself in the plural is when creating man (the first time), when he says "let us make man in our image". One could write off the "us" as referring to the heavenly court, but tradition teaches that man is made in God's image, not the image of God and his underlings, so the "our" is problematic. I read it as the royal "we" and don't worry about it, but I'm sure there are people out there who use this as a basis for polytheism. (I should mention that I've been taught that early Judaism was monolatrous; monotheism came later.)

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But, if that's the reasoning, then what of havdalah, the ceremony we do to mark the end of Shabbat where we say that God separates (havdil) Shabbat from the rest of the week?

Keep "l'havdil bein kodesh l'chol" in mind as well....

The rabbi asserts (I haven't confirmed) that the only time in B'reishit that God seems to talk about himself in the plural is when creating man (the first time)

Hm, the Tower of Babel?

I conside this to be not particularly meaningful; I consider it, and the plural nouns (mayim, HaShamayim, Mitzrayim) and the fact that our words for HaShem are plural, as related to the Persian-originated "royal we", i.e. as a kind of superlative. (And further note that, with the possible exception of hashamayim (depending on how you think about it), the superlatives applied to things other than HaShem are all "duals", the true plural being reserved for HaShem.)

Could you explain to me what monolatrous means, please?

Funny you should be taking about the water aspect, I was doing a tiny bit of Hebrew this morning and immediately noticed the mayim / hashamayim thing and was pondering it myself... concepts of the sky/ above being where rain comes from, perhaps?

Oddly I see no problem with God creating light without a sun around, the sheer power and significane of "let there be light" makes humdrum things like balls of very hot gas seem superflous...

(And its nice that for once I'm able to follow the things you're discussing, usually I've no frame of reference and am fascinated but ultimately a bit blank)

Monolatrous-accepting the idea that there's more than one deity out there, but only worshipping one of them. Given certain statements in the Torah & the Prophets, some scholars figure Jews were originally monolatrous.

Heaven is above he waters of the sky the same way that earthly cities are above the waters of the earthly ocean? I mean, God doesn't have to live in the water, he might live above it. :)

Hm, the Tower of Babel?

Looks like, yes. (I wonder belatedly if the rabbi meant the parsha rather than the book as I interpreted?)

I don't particularly worry about this either, nor the plural-looking name for God that often accompanies singular verbs. "Royal we" works for me. I hadn't picked up on the dualities aspect before; thanks for pointing that out.

Could you explain to me what monolatrous means, please?

What

pedropadrao said. The assertion that there is in fact only one god seems to be a later development. (I'm not saying there definitely were believed to be other gods; I'm just saying that door wasn't closed from the beginning, as I understand it.)

concepts of the sky/ above being where rain comes from, perhaps?

Maybe, yeah.

(And its nice that for once I'm able to follow the things you're discussing, usually I've no frame of reference and am fascinated but ultimately a bit blank)

I'm sorry. Please feel free to ask questions or ask me to explain things! I rarely have a good sense of which of my readers will be interested in a particular entry, so I don't always know how much explaining to do.

That works too. :-)

Monolatrous - very useful concept/word, thanks for introducing me to it...

And no need for apologies, my comment was meant more as a regret that I can't follow things at the same levels and depth that you do than as a criticism of you being less than clear, its usually my lack of knowledge limiting me, but I can work on that :)

Aha, thankyou *makes mental note*

I've forgotten the source (possibly Rashi?) for this, but anyway:

shamayim as contraction of sham + mayim, i.e. there is water there, i.e. the sky as source for water (rain and such)

(fasting seems to remove some grammar here too)

Well, see, I'm willing to help with the lack of knowledge. I just sometimes need a whack with the clue-by-four to know it's out there. :-)

This rabbi pointed that out too. He didn't provide a citation either. :-) But it does sound like something Rashi would say.

This just occurred to me: the phrase is "l'havdil beyn kodesh l'chol" so you're going from kodesh to chol. If you used a verb that implied elevation rather than simple separation, you'd be elevating both/each relative to the other (not really possible) or possibly just the second, neither of which is what you want. So in this case it's l'havdil. Havdil is also used for the separation between shabbat and yom tov (when yom tov is immediately after shabbat) but the phrasing specifically mentions the kadosh status of both shabbat and yom tov.

In kiddush, we say "m'kadesh hashabbat" or "m'kadesh yisrael v'..." or "m'kadesh hashabbat v'yisrael v'..." - the "shabbat/yisrael/..." is separated & elevated so it gets the m'kadesh verb rather than havdil verb. (Side note: I've heard the reason for the ordering in the variations of this bracha is that hashem is m'kadesh shabbat without yisrael being involved, but yisrael decides the month beginnings (by declaring rosh chodesh) so all holidays are declared by hashem & yisrael.)

That's a good point; havdalah isn't just about separation but also about transition, so the direction matters.

(Side note: I've heard the reason for the ordering in the variations of this bracha is that hashem is m'kadesh shabbat without yisrael being involved, but yisrael decides the month beginnings (by declaring rosh chodesh) so all holidays are declared by hashem & yisrael.)

Interesting! I like that.

stray thoughts on creation

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havdalah

Re: havdalah