daf bit: Nedarim 39

[cellio]

The g'mara lists seven things that were created before the world:

• the torah: The Lord possessed me [sc. the Torah] in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. (Prov 8:22)
• repentance: Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world . . . Thou turnest man to destruction, and sayest, Repent, ye sons of men. (Ps 90:2)
• Gan Eden: And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden from aforetime. (Gen 2:8)
• Gehenna: For Tophet (another name for Gehenna) is ordained of old. (Is 30:33)
• the Throne of Glory: Thy Throne is established from of old. (Ps 93:2)
• the Temple: A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary. (Jer 17:12)
• the name of the Mashiach: His name [sc. of Messiah] shall endure for ever, and [has existed] before the sun! (Ps 72:17)¹

The g'mara is talking about this because of the punishment of Korach and his group; Moshe asked God for a miraculous punishment and the earth opened up and swallowed them. Surely we cannot say that God created Gehenna on the spot for this, because it already existed; therefore we understand that Moshe wasn't asking God to create Gehenna but, rather, to let its mouth draw near and open. (39b)

The Soncino translation has a note that elaborates the connections among these seven items (source unknown to me):

The general idea of this Baraitha is that these things are the indispensable prerequisites for the orderly progress of mankind upon earth. The Torah, the supreme source of instruction, the concept of repentance, in recognition that ‘to err is human’, and hence, if man falls, he needs the opportunity to rise again; the garden of Eden and the Gehenna symbolising reward and punishment, which, without conceding a purely utilitarian basis for ethical striving, are nevertheless powerful incentives thereto; the Throne of Glory and the Temple, indicating that the goal of creation is that the kingdom of God (represented by the Temple) should be established on earth as it is in Heaven; and finally, the name of Messiah, the assurance that God's purpose shall be eventually achieved.

¹ Before you ask: this last proof-text sounded unlikely to me, so I checked the text. As suggested above, "has existed" is interpretation, not in the text, and it seems pretty clear to me that the name being talked about is Solomon's, not the mashiach's. I don't know how the rabbis get from that verse to this interpretation.

Comments

[goljerp]

There's also my favorite[1] Mishnah in Pirke Avot (5:8), which lists the 10[2] things which G-d created on the first Friday evening, right before the first Shabbat.

They are[3]

The mouth of the donkey, the mouth of the well, the mouth of the earth, the rod, the tablets, the letters on the tablets, the rainbow, the manna, the ram, and Moshe's grave. Some also say, the demons, and the tongs which created the tongs.

No, that wasn't quite right. The actual Mishnah is:[4]

Ten things were created on the eve of the Sabbath, at twilight:

The mouth of the earth, the mouth of the well, the mouth of the donkey, the rainbow, the manna, the rod, the shamir, the script, the writing instrument, the tablets. Others add: the demons, the burial place of Moses, the ram for our father Abraham. Some add: the tongs made with tongs.

===

Now to unpack a bit, here's I think they meant (in em tags):
The mouth of the earth -- That swallowed up Korach and his friends
The mouth of the well -- This is the Miriam's well midrash
The mouth of the donkey -- This is the miracle of Bilam's donkey speaking
The rainbow after Noah's flood, The manna
the rod -- this is Moses' rod which turns into a snake, etc., in Egypt
the shamir -- used by Solomon to build the temple
the script the writing on the tablets of the ten commands
the writing instrument used to write the tablets
the tablets

====

Anyhow, in this Mishnah, the mouth of the earth which swallowed up Korach wasn't created before the world, but was created at the very beginning.


[1] Well, it's in my top 5 favorite mishniot in Pirke Avot.
[2] People who can count will realize that although the initial list is ten things, it gets expanded. Well, that's rather typical for rushing to get things done right before Shabbat. The Rabbis are also making a rather philosophical point, related to Soncino's gloss: that miracles aren't spontaneous; they were part of the plan from the beginning.
[3] From memory. Really.
[4] From the (old) Sim Shalom, Page 643.

[cellio]

Thanks for the great reminder! I've seen that list before but had forgotten about it when learning this bit from today's daf.

I hadn't realized (or remembered, perhaps) that the ram is a "some say" and not a first-order member of the list. Or maybe there's another version of this list elsewhere in the mishna; I haven't looked.

I believe the tongs are the tongs that allowed Lamech (or his son?) to make the tools with which to forge weapons. (You need tongs to make tongs, I'm told, so there's a bootstrapping problem -- unless God supplied them.)

[goljerp]

Yeah, I think of the Ram as a first-order member of the list, too -- perhaps because of the midrash I wrote about him. But I can see, from the Rabbi's point of view, the Ram wasn't as miraculous as the other miracles. After all, maybe the Ram was there all along, but Abraham just didn't see it. Or there's another midrash that the Ram got caught in the bushes just at the moment that Abraham needed it.

Tongs needing tongs: bootstrapping has been a problem since the first Shabbat. :-)

[amaebi.livejournal.com]

I really love the idea of the eternal Garden!