stray thoughts on creation

[cellio]

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.)

Comments

[dvarin.livejournal.com]

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. :)

[cellio]

That works too. :-)