The best toy garages for road tripsLegends of the Jews

by Louis Ginzberg

TRANSLATED PROM THE GERMAN MANUSCRIPT BY
HENRIETTA SZOLD

VOLUME I
BIBLE TIMES AND CHARACTERS
FROM THE CREATION TO JACOB

To
MY BROTHER ASHER

Contents

PREFACE

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

The term Rabbinic was applied to the Jewish Literature of post-Biblical timesby those who conceived the Judaism of the later epoch to be something differentfrom the Judaism of the Bible, something actually opposed to it. Such observersheld that the Jewish nation ceased to exist with the moment when its politicalindependence was destroyed. For them the Judaism of the later epoch has been aJudaism of the Synagogue, the spokesmen of which have been the scholars, theRabbis. And what this phase of Judaism brought forth has been considered bythem to be the product of the schools rather than the product of practical,pulsating life. Poetic phantasmagoria, frequently the vaporings of morbidvisionaries, is the material out of which these scholars construct thetheologic system of the Rabbis, and fairy tales, the spontaneous creations ofthe people, which take the form of sacred legend in Jewish literature, aredenominated the Scriptural exegesis of the Rabbis, and condemned incontinentlyas nugae rabbinorum.

As the name of a man clings to him, so men cling to names. For the primitivesavage the name is part of the essence of a person or thing, and even in themore advanced stages of culture, judgments are not always formed in agreementwith facts as they are, but rather according to the names by which they arecalled. The current estimate of Rabbinic Literature is a case in point. Withthe label Rabbinic later ages inherited from former ages a certain distortedview of the literature so designated. To this day, and even among scholars thatapproach its investigation with unprejudiced minds, the opinion prevails thatit is purely a learned product. And yet the truth is that the most prominentfeature of Rabbinic Literature is its popular character.

The school and the home are not mutually opposed to each other in theconception of the Jews. They study in their homes, and they live in theirschools. Likewise there is no distinct class of scholars among them, a classthat withdraws itself from participation in the affairs of practical life. Evenin the domain of the Halakah, the Rabbis were not so much occupied withtheoretic 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 truewith greater emphasis of the Haggadah, which is popular in the double sense ofappealing to the people and being produced in the main by the people. To speakof the Haggadah of the Tannaim and Amoraim is as far from fact as to speak ofthe legends of Shakespeare and Scott. The ancient authors and their modernbrethren of the guild alike elaborate legendary material which they found athand.

It has been held by some that the Haggadah contains no popular legends, that itis wholly a factitious, academic product. A cursory glance at thepseudepigraphic literature of the Jews, which is older than the Haggadahliterature by several centuries, shows how untenable this view is. That the oneliterature 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 onlyessential difference is that the Midrashic form prevails in the Haggadah, andthe parenetic or apocalyptic form in the pseudepigrapha. The common elementmust therefore depart from the Midrash on the one hand and from parenesis onthe other.

Folklore, fairy tales, legends, and all forms of story telling akin to theseare comprehended, in the terminology of the post-Biblical literature of theJews, under the inclusive description Haggadah, a name that can be explained bya circumlocution, but cannot be translated. Whatever it is applied to isthereby characterized first as being derived from the Holy Scriptures, and thenas being of the nature of a story. And, in point of fact, this dualism sums upthe distinguishing features of Jewish Legend. More than eighteen centuries agothe Jewish historian Josephus observed that "though we be deprived of ourwealth, of our cities, or of the other advantages we have, our law continuesimmortal." The word he meant to use was not law, but Torah, only he could notfind an equivalent for it in Greek. A singer of the Synagogue a thousand yearsafter Josephus, who expressed his sentiments in Hebrew, uttered the samethought: "The Holy City and all her daughter cities are violated, they lie inruins, despoiled of their ornaments, their splendor darkened from sight. Naughtis left to us save one eternal treasure alone—the Holy Torah." The sadder thelife of the Jewish people, the more it felt the need of taking refuge in itspast. The Scripture, or, to use the Jewish term, the Torah, was the onlyremnant of its former national independence, and the Torah was the magic meansof making a sordid actuality recede before a glorious memory. To the Scripturewas 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 andthe Haggadah.

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

Men craved entertainment in later times as well as in the earlier, only insteadof resorting for its subject-matter to what happened under their eyes, theydrew from the fountain-head of the past. The events in the ancient history ofIsrael, which was not only studied, but lived over again daily, stimulated thedesire to criticize it. The religious reflections upon nature laid down in themyths 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 werewelded into one product. The fancy of the Jewish people was engaged by the pastreflected in the Bible, and all its creations wear a Biblical hue for thisreason. This explains the peculiar form of the Haggadah.

But what is spontaneously brought forth by the people is often preserved onlyin the form impressed upon it by the feeling and the thought of the poet, or bythe speculations of the learned. Also Jewish legends have rarely beentransmitted in their original shape. They have been perpetuated in the form ofMidrash, that is, Scriptural exegesis. The teachers of the Haggadah, calledRabbanan d'Aggadta in the Talmud, were no folklorists, from whom a faithfulreproduction of legendary material may be expected. Primarily they werehomilists, who used legends for didactic purposes, and their main object was toestablish a close connection between the Scripture and the creations of thepopular fancy, to give the latter a firm basis and secure a long term of lifefor them.

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

In the present work, "The Legends of the Jews," I have made the first attemptto gather from the original sources all Jewish legends, in so far as they referto Biblical personages and events, and reproduce them with the greatestattainable completeness and accuracy. I use the expression Jewish, rather thanRabbinic, because the sources from which I have levied contributions are notlimited to the Rabbinic literature. As I expect to take occasion elsewhere toenter into a description of the sources in detail, the following data mustsuffice 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 themajor part of the Jewish legendary material. Akin to this in content if notalways in form is that derived from the Targumim, of which the oldest versionswere produced not earlier than the fourth century, and the most recent notlater than the tenth. The Midrashic literature has been preserved only infragmentary form. Many Haggadot not found in our existing collections arequoted by the authors of the Middle Ages. Accordingly, a not inconsiderablenumber of the legends here printed are taken from medieval Bible commentatorsand homilists. I was fortunate in being able to avail myself also of fragmentsof Midrashim of which only manuscript copies are extant.

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

Furthermore, Jewish legends can be culled not from the writings of theSynagogue alone; they appear also in those of the Church. Certain Jewish worksrepudiated by the Synagogue were accepted and mothered by the Church. This isthe literature usually denominated apocryphal-pseudepigraphic. From the pointof view of legends, the apocryphal books are of subordinate importance, whilethe pseudepigrapha are of fundamental value. Even quantitatively the latter arean imposing mass. Besides the Greek writings of the Hellenist Jews, theycontain Latin, Syrian, Ethiopic, Aramean, Arabic, Persian, and Old Slavicproducts translated directly or indirectly from Jewish works of Palestinian orHellenistic origin. The use of these pseudepigrapha requires great caution.Nearly all of them are embellished with Christian interpolations, and in somecases the inserted portions have choked the original form so completely that itis impossible to determine at first sight whether a Jewish or a Christianlegend is under examination. I believe, however, that the pseudepigraphicmaterial made use of by me is Jewish beyond the cavil of a doubt, and thereforeit 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 thatshould form the point of departure, and not the pseudepigrapha. The formerrepresent the main stream of Jewish thought and feeling, the latter only anundercurrent. If the Synagogue cast out the pseudepigrapha, and the Churchadopted them with a great show of favor, these respective attitudes were notdetermined arbitrarily or by chance. The pseudepigrapha originated in circlesthat harbored the germs from which Christianity developed later on. The Churchcould thus appropriate them as her own with just reason.

In the use of some of the apocryphal and pseudepigraphic writings, I found itexpedient to quote the English translations of them made by others, in so faras they could be brought into accord with the general style of the book, forwhich purpose I permitted myself the liberty of slight verbal changes. Inparticulars, 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. Inthe rich literature of the Church Fathers many a Jewish legend lies embalmedwhich one would seek in vain in Jewish books. It was therefore my specialconcern to use the writings of the Fathers to the utmost.

The luxuriant abundance of the material to be presented made it impossible togive a verbal rendition of each legend. This would have required more thanthree times the space at my disposal. I can therefore claim completeness for mywork only as to content. In form it had to suffer curtailment. When severalconflicting 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, whenpracticable, they were fused into one typical legend, the component parts ofwhich are analyzed in the Notes. In other instances I resorted to the expedientof 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 asfew interruptions to the course of the narrative as possible. For this reason Iavoided such transitional phrases as "Some say," "It has been maintained," etc.That my method sometimes separates things that belong together cannot beconsidered a grave disadvantage, as the Index at the end of the work willpresent a logical rearrangement of the material for the benefit of theinterested student. I also did not hesitate to treat of the same personage indifferent chapters, as, for instance, many of the legends bearing upon Jacob,those connected with the latter years of the Patriarch, do not appear in thechapter 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 centralfigure, to which the life and deeds of the father are subordinated. Again, inconsideration of lack of space the Biblical narratives underlying the legendshad to be omitted—surely not a serious omission in a subject with whichwidespread acquaintance may be presupposed as a matter of course.

As a third consequence of the amplitude of the material, it was thoughtadvisable to divide it into several volumes. The references, the explanationsof the sources used, and the interpretations given, and, especially, numerousemendations of the text of the Midrashim and the pseudepigrapha, whichdetermined my conception of the passages so emended, will be found in the lastvolume, the fourth, which will contain also an Introduction to the History ofJewish Legends, a number of Excursuses, and the Index.

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

LOUIS GINZBERG.

NEW YORK, March 24, 1909

I
THE CREATION OF THE WORLD

THE FIRST THINGS CREATED

In the beginning, two thousand years before the heaven and the earth, seventhings were created: the Torah written with black fire on white fire, and lyingin the lap of God; the Divine Throne, erected in the heaven which later wasover the heads of the Hayyot; Paradise on the right side of God, Hell on theleft side; the Celestial Sanctuary directly in front of God, having a jewel onits 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 theTorah.[2] Her advice was this: "O Lord, a king without an army and withoutcourtiers and attendants hardly deserves the name of king, for none is nigh toexpress the homage due to him." The answer pleased God exceedingly. Thus did Heteach all earthly kings, by His Divine example, to undertake naught withoutfirst consulting advisers.[3]

The advice of the Torah was given with some reservations. She was skepticalabout the value of an earthly world, on account of the sinfulness of men, whowould be sure to disregard her precepts. But God dispelled her doubts. He toldher, that repentance had been created long before, and sinners would have theopportunity of mending their ways. Besides, the Temple service would beinvested with atoning power, and Paradise and hell were intended to do duty asreward 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 waspleased with none until He created ours.[5] But even this last world would havehad no permanence, if God had executed His original plan of ruling it accordingto the principle of strict justice. It was only when He saw that justice byitself would undermine the world that He associated mercy with justice, andmade them to rule jointly.[6] Thus, from the beginning of all things prevailedDivine goodness, without which nothing could have continued to exist. If notfor it, the myriads of evil spirits had soon put an end to the generations ofmen. But the goodness of God has ordained, that in every Nisan, at the time ofthe spring equinox, the seraphim shall approach the world of spirits, andintimidate them so that they fear to do harm to men. Again, if God in Hisgoodness had not given protection to the weak, the tame animals would have beenextirpated long ago by the wild animals. In Tammuz, at the time of the summersolstice, when the strength of behemot is at its height, he roars so loud thatall 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, atthe time of the autumnal equinox, the great bird ziz[7] flaps his wings andutters 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 fishhad quickly put an end to the little ones. But at the time of the wintersolstice, in the month of Tebet, the sea grows restless, for then leviathanspouts 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 peopleIsrael. It could not have survived the enmity of the Gentiles, if God had notappointed protectors for it, the archangels Michael and Gabriel.[8] WheneverIsrael disobeys God, and is accused of misdemeanors by the angels of the othernations, he is defended by his designated guardians, with such good result thatthe other angels conceive fear of them. Once the angels of the other nationsare terrified, the nations themselves venture not to carry out their wickeddesigns against Israel.

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

THE ALPHABET

When God was about to create the world by His word, the twenty-two letters ofthe alphabet[10] descended from the terrible and august crown of God whereonthey were engraved with a pen of flaming fire. They stood round about God, andone after the other spake and entreated, "Create the world through me!" Thefirst to step forward was the letter Taw. It said: "O Lord of the world! May itbe Thy will to create Thy world through me, seeing that it is through me thatThou 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, andsaid, "No!" Taw asked, "Why not?" and God answered: "Because in days to come Ishall place thee as a sign of death upon the foreheads of men." As soon as Tawheard these words issue from the mouth of the Holy One, blessed be He, itretired from His presence disappointed.

The Shin then stepped forward, and pleaded: "O Lord of the world, create Thyworld 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 pointedout that it was the initial letter of Ra', wicked, and Rasha' evil, and afterthat 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. Invain did Zadde call attention to Zaddik, the Righteous One; there was Zarot,the misfortunes of Israel, to testify against it. Pe had Podeh, redeemer, toits credit, but Pesha: transgression, reflected dishonor upon it. 'Ain wasdeclared unfit, because, though it begins 'Anawah, humility, it performs thesame service for 'Erwah, immorality. Samek said: "O Lord, may it be Thy will tobegin the creation with me, for Thou art called Samek, after me, the Upholderof all that fall." But God said: "Thou art needed in the place in which thouart;[11] thou must continue to uphold all that fall." Nun introduces Ner, "thelamp 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, aswell, it had no chance of accomplishing its desire. The claim of Lamed bore itsrefutation within itself. It advanced the argument that it was the first letterof Luhot, the celestial tables for the Ten Commandments; it forgot that thetables were shivered in pieces by Moses. Kaf was sure of victory Kisseh, thethrone of God, Kabod, His honor, and Keter, His crown, all begin with it. Godhad to remind it that He would smite together His hands, Kaf, in despair overthe misfortunes of Israel. Yod at first sight seemed the appropriate letter forthe beginning of creation, on account of its association with Yah, God, if onlyYezer ha-Ra' the evil inclination, had not happened to begin with it, too. Tetis 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 GraciousOne; 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, thedoer of mischief. Waw and He compose the Ineffable Name of God; they aretherefore too exalted to be pressed into the service of the mundane world. IfDalet had stood only for Dabar, the Divine Word, it would have been used, butit stands also for Din, justice, and under the rule of law without love theworld 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 beforethe Holy One, blessed be He, and pleaded before Him: "O Lord of the world! Mayit be Thy will to create Thy world through me, seeing that all the dwellers inthe world give praise daily unto Thee through me, as it is said, 'Blessed bethe Lord forever. Amen, and Amen.'" The Holy One, blessed be He, at oncegranted the petition of Bet. He said, "Blessed be he that cometh in the name ofthe Lord." And He created His world through Bet, as it is said, "Bereshit Godcreated the heaven and the earth." The only letter that had refrained fromurging its claims was the modest Alef, and God rewarded it later for itshumility 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 theearth, Tohu and Bohu, light and darkness, wind and water, the duration of theday[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 heavenswere fashioned from the light of God's garment, and the earth from the snowunder the Divine Throne.[18] Tohu is a green band which encompasses the wholeworld, and dispenses darkness, and Bohu consists of stones in the abyss, theproducers of the waters. The light created at the very beginning is not thesame as the light emitted by the sun, the moon, and the stars, which appearedonly on the fourth day. The light of the first day was of a sort that wouldhave 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 theTower of Babel, who were unworthy to enjoy the blessing of such light, Godconcealed it, but in the world to come it will appear to the pious in all itspristine glory.[19]

Several heavens were created,[20] seven in fact,[21] each to serve a purpose ofits own. The first, the one visible to man, has no function except that ofcovering up the light during the night time; therefore it disappears everymorning. The planets are fastened to the second of the heavens; in the thirdthe manna is made for the pious in the hereafter; the fourth contains thecelestial Jerusalem together with the Temple, in which Michael ministers ashigh priest, and offers the souls of the pious as sacrifices. In the fifthheaven, the angel hosts reside, and sing the praise of God, though only duringthe night, for by day it is the task of Israel on earth to give glory to God onhigh. The sixth heaven is an uncanny spot; there originate most of the trialsand visitations ordained for the earth and its inhabitants. Snow lies heaped upthere and hail; there are lofts full of noxious dew, magazines stocked withstorms, and cellars holding reserves of smoke. Doors of fire separate thesecelestial chambers, which are under the supervision of the archangel Metatron.Their pernicious contents defiled the heavens until David's time. The piousking prayed God to purge His exalted dwelling of whatever was pregnant withevil; 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 andbeautiful: right, justice, and mercy, the storehouses of life, peace, andblessing, 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, aboveall, the Divine Throne, surrounded by the seraphim, the ofanim, the holyHayyot, and the ministering angels.[22]

Corresponding to the seven heavens, God created seven earths, each separatedfrom 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] Thenthe sixth[24] earth is reached, the Adamah, the scene of the magnificence ofGod. 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 BeerShahat, and Tit ha-Yawen, and Abaddon, and Sheol,[25] and there the souls ofthe wicked are guarded by the Angels of Destruction. In the same way Arka isfollowed by Harabah, the dry, the place of brooks and streams in spite of itsname, as the next, called Yabbashah, the mainland, contains the rivers and thesprings. Tebel, the second earth, is the first mainland inhabited by livingcreatures, three hundred and sixty-five species,[26] all essentially differentfrom 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 ofthese animals. Besides, Tebel is inhabited by human beings with two heads andfour hands and feet, in fact with all their organs doubled excepting only thetrunk.[27] It happens sometimes that the parts of these double persons quarrelwith each other, especially while eating and drinking, when each claims thebest and largest portions for himself. This species of mankind is distinguishedfor great piety, another difference between it and the inhabitants of ourearth.

Our own earth is called Heled, and, like the others, it is separated from theTebel 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 overthe seventh earth the heavens are vaulted, from the first to the seventh, thelast of them attached to the arm of God. The seven heavens form a unity, theseven kinds of earth form a unity, and the heavens and the earth together alsoform a unity.[28]

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

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

Beyond the inhabited parts to the east is Paradise[33] with its sevendivisions, each assigned to the pious of a certain degree. The ocean issituated to the west, and it is dotted with islands upon islands, inhabited bymany different peoples. Beyond it, in turn, are the boundless steppes full ofserpents and scorpions, and destitute of every sort of vegetation, whetherherbs 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 ofdevils, demons, and malign spirits. Their dwelling-place is a great stretch ofland, it would take five hundred years to traverse it. Beyond lies hell. To thesouth is the chamber containing reserves of fire, the cave of smoke, and theforge of blasts and hurricanes.[34] Thus it comes that the wind blowing fromthe south brings heat and sultriness to the earth. Were it not for the angelBen Nez, the Winged, who keeps the south wind back with his pinions, the worldwould be consumed.[35] Besides, the fury of its blast is tempered by the northwind, which always appears as moderator, whatever other wind may beblowing.[36]

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

The construction of the earth was begun at the centre, with the foundationstone of the Temple, the Eben Shetiyah,[38] for the Holy Land is at the centralpoint of the surface of the earth, Jerusalem is at the central point ofPalestine, and the Temple is situated at the centre of the Holy City. In thesanctuary itself the Hekal is the centre, and the holy Ark occupies the centreof the Hekal, built on the foundation stone, which thus is at the centre of theearth.[39] Thence issued the first ray of light, piercing to the Holy Land, andfrom 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 oflight." Only after the light had been fashioned, darkness arose, the lightruling in the sky, the darkness on the earth.[42] The power of God displayeditself not only in the creation of the world of things, but equally in thelimitations which He imposed upon each. The heavens and the earth stretchedthemselves out in length and breadth as though they aspired to infinitude, andit 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 firstday. It is the crystal stretched forth over the heads of the Hayyot, from whichthe 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 theheavens; it forms the partition between the waters above and the watersbelow.[45] It was made to crystallize into the solid it is by the heavenlyfire, which broke its bounds, and condensed the surface of the firmament. Thusfire made a division between the celestial and the terrestrial at the time ofcreation, as it did at the revelation on Mount Sinai.[46] The firmament is notmore than three fingers thick,[47] nevertheless it divides two such heavybodies as the waters below, which are the foundations for the nether world, andthe waters above, which are the foundations for the seven heavens, the DivineThrone, and the abode of the angels.[48]

The separation of the waters into upper and lower waters was the only act ofthe sort done by God in connection with the work of creation.[49] All otheracts were unifying. It therefore caused some difficulties. When God commanded,"Let the waters be gathered together, unto one place, and let the dry landappear," certain parts refused to obey. They embraced each other all the moreclosely. In His wrath at the waters, God determined to let the whole ofcreation 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, andscorching 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. Theall, however, was still in danger of destruction. Then began the singer ofGod's praises: "O Lord of the world, in days to come Thy creatures will singpraises without end to Thee, they will bless Thee boundlessly, and they willglorify Thee without measure. Thou wilt set Abraham apart from all mankind asThine own; one of his sons Thou wilt call 'My first-born'; and his descendantswill take the yoke of Thy kingdom upon themselves. In holiness and purity Thouwilt 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 nowI beseech Thee, have pity upon Thy world, destroy it not, for if Thoudestroyest it, who will fulfil Thy will?" God was pacified; He withdrew thecommand ordaining the destruction of the world, but the waters He put under themountains, to remain there forever.[50] The objection of the lower waters todivision and Separation[51] was not their only reason for rebelling. The watershad been the first to give praise to God, and when their separation into upperand lower was decreed, the waters above rejoiced, saying, "Blessed are we whoare privileged to abide near our Creator and near His Holy Throne." Jubilatingthus, they flew upward, and uttered song and praise to the Creator of theworld. Sadness fell upon the waters below. They lamented: "Woe unto us, we havenot been found worthy to dwell in the presence of God, and praise Him togetherwith our companions." Therefore they attempted to rise upward, until Godrepulsed them, and pressed them under the earth.[52] Yet they were not leftunrewarded for their loyalty. Whenever the waters above desire to give praiseto 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 respectthat it introduced a breach where before there had been nothing but unity; forit was the day that saw also the creation of hell. Therefore God could not sayof this day as of the others, that He "saw that it was good." A division may benecessary, but it cannot be called good, and hell surely does not deserve theattribute 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 theheight, or the width, or the depth of each division, and it would take sixthousand three hundred[37] years to go over a tract of land equal in extent tothe seven divisions.[38]

Each of the seven divisions in turn has seven subdivisions, and in eachcompartment there are seven rivers of fire and seven of hail. The width of eachis one thousand ells, its depth one thousand, and its length three hundred, andthey flow one from the other, and are supervised by ninety thousand Angels ofDestruction. There are, besides, in every compartment seven thousand caves, inevery cave there are seven thousand crevices, and in every crevice seventhousand scorpions. Every scorpion has three hundred rings, and in every ringseven 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 alsofive different kinds of fire in hell. One devours and absorbs, another devoursand does not absorb, while the third absorbs and does not devour, and there isstill another fire, which neither devours nor absorbs, and furthermore a firewhich 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 arerivers of pitch and sulphur flowing and seething like live coals.[60]

The third creation of the second day was the angel hosts, both the ministeringangels and the angels of praise. The reason they had not been called into beingon the first day was, lest men believe that the angels assisted God in thecreation of the heavens and the earth.[61] The angels that are fashioned fromfire have forms of fire,[62] but only so long as they remain in heaven. Whenthey descend to earth, to do the bidding of God here below, either they arechanged into wind, or they assume the guise of men.[63] There are ten ranks ordegrees 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 thearchangels Michael, Gabriel, Uriel, and Raphael.[65]

All the celestial beings praise God with the words, "Holy, holy, holy, is theLord of hosts," but men take precedence of the angels herein. They may notbegin their song of praise until the earthly beings have brought their homageto God.[66] Especially Israel is preferred to the angels. When they encirclethe Divine Throne in the form of fiery mountains and flaming hills, and attemptto raise their voices in adoration of the Creator, God silences them with thewords, "Keep quiet until I have heard the songs, praises, prayers, and sweetmelodies of Israel." Accordingly, the ministering angels and all the othercelestial hosts wait until the last tones of Israel's doxologies rising aloftfrom 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 theangels draws nigh, the august Divine herald, the angel Sham'iel, steps to thewindows[67] of the lowest heaven to hearken to the songs, prayers, and praisesthat ascend from the synagogues and the houses of learning, and when they arefinished, he announces the end to the angels in all the heavens. Theministering angels, those who come in contact with the sublunary world,[68] nowrepair to their chambers to take their purification bath. They dive into astream of fire and flame seven times, and three hundred and sixty-five timesthey examine themselves carefully, to make sure that no taint clings to theirbodies.[69] Only then they feel privileged to mount the fiery ladder and jointhe angels of the seventh heaven, and surround the throne of God with Hashmaland all the holy Hayyot. Adorned with millions of fiery crowns, arrayed infiery garments, all the angels in unison, in the same words, and with the samemelody, intone songs of praise to God.[70]

THE THIRD DAY

Up to this time the earth was a plain, and wholly covered with water. Scarcelyhad the words of God, "Let the waters be gathered together," made themselvesheard, when mountains appeared all over and hills,[71] and the water collectedin the deep-lying basins. But the water was recalcitrant, it resisted the orderto occupy the lowly spots, and threatened to overflow the earth, until Godforced it back into the sea, and encircled the sea with sand. Now, whenever thewater is tempted to transgress its bounds, it beholds the sand, andrecoils.[72]

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

The main creation of the third day was the realm of plants, the terrestrialplants as well as the plants of Paradise. First of all the cedars of Lebanonand 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 amongplants. 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 withwhich trees are felled down. The trees began to weep, and when God asked thereason of their tears, they said: "We cry because Thou hast created the iron touproot us therewith. All the while we had thought ourselves the highest of theearth, and now the iron, our destroyer, has been called into existence." Godreplied: "You yourselves will furnish the axe with a handle. Without yourassistance 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 thevarious sorts of grass reasoned, that if God had not desired divisionsaccording to classes, He would not have instructed the trees to bear fruitafter their kind with the seed thereof in it, especially as trees are inclinedof their own accord to divide themselves into species. The grasses thereforereproduced themselves also after their kinds. This prompted the exclamation ofthe Prince of the World, "Let the glory of the Lord endure forever; let theLord rejoice in His works."[75]

The most important work done on the third day was the creation of Paradise. Twogates of carbuncle form the entrance to Paradise,[76] and sixty myriads ofministering angels keep watch over them. Each of these angels shines with thelustre of the heavens. When the just man appears before the gates, the clothesin which he was buried are taken off him, and the angels array him in sevengarments of clouds of glory, and place upon his head two crowns, one ofprecious stones and pearls, the other of gold of Parvaim,[77] and they puteight 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 ofrivers, surrounded by eight hundred kinds of roses and myrtles. Each one has acanopy 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 canopyis overgrown by a vine of gold, and thirty pearls hang from it, each of themshining like Venus. Under each canopy there is a table of precious stones andpearls, 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 grapesince the six days of creation,[79] for thou hast busied thyself with theTorah, and she is compared to wine." The least fair of the just is beautiful asJoseph and Rabbi Johanan, and as the grains of a silver pomegranate upon whichfall the rays of the sun.[80] There is no light, "for the light of therighteous is the shining light." And they undergo four transformations everyday, passing through four states. In the first the righteous is changed into achild. 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, withwhom he enjoys the delights of youth. Next he becomes an adult, in the prime oflife, 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, andenjoys the pleasures of age.

There are eighty myriads of trees in every corner of Paradise, the meanestamong them choicer than all the spice trees. In every corner there are sixtymyriads of angels singing with sweet voices, and the tree of life stands in themiddle and shades the whole of Paradise.[81] It has fifteen thousand tastes,each different from the other, and the perfumes thereof vary likewise. Over ithang seven clouds of glory, and winds blow upon it from all four sides,[82] sothat its odor is wafted from one end of the world to the other. Underneath sitthe 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 gloryseparates the one canopy from the other.[83] Beyond Paradise begins Eden,containing three hundred and ten worlds[84] and seven compartments for sevendifferent classes of the pious. In the first are "the martyr victims of thegovernment," like Rabbi Akiba and his colleagues;[85] in the second those whowere 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 thefifth the penitents, who occupy a place which even a perfectly pious man cannotobtain; in the sixth are the youths[89] who have not tasted of sin in theirlives; in the seventh are those poor who studied Bible and Mishnah, and led alife of self-respecting decency. And God sits in the midst of them and expoundsthe Torah to them.[90]

As for the seven divisions of Paradise, each of them is twelve myriads of milesin width and twelve myriads of miles in length. In the first division dwell theproselytes 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 seconddivision is built of silver, and the wainscoting thereof is of cedar. Heredwell those who have repented, and Manasseh, the penitent son of Hezekiah,presides over them. The third division is built of silver and gold. Here dwellAbraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the Israelites who came out of Egypt, andthe whole generation that lived in the desert.[92] Also David is there,together with all his sons[93] except Absalom, one of them, Chileab, stillalive. 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 ofsilver and gold and jewels and canopies and beds and thrones and lamps, ofgold, of precious stones, and of pearls, the best of everything there is inheaven.[94] The fourth division is built of beautiful rubies,[95] and itswainscoting is of olive wood. Here dwell the perfect and the steadfast infaith, and their wainscoting is of olive wood, because their lives were bitteras olives to them. The fifth division is built of silver and gold and refinedgold,[96] and the finest of gold and glass and bdellium, and through the midstof it flows the river Gihon. The wainscoting is of silver and gold, and aperfume breathes through it more exquisite than the perfume of Lebanon. Thecoverings of the silver and gold beds are made of purple and blue, woven byEve, and of scarlet and the hair of goats, woven by angels. Here dwells theMessiah on a palanquin made of the wood of Lebanon, "the pillars thereof ofsilver, the bottom of gold, the seat of it purple." With him is Elijah. Hetakes the head of Messiah, and places it in his bosom, and says to him, "Bequiet, for the end draweth nigh." On every Monday and Thursday and on Sabbathsand holidays, the Patriarchs come to him, and the twelve sons of Jacob, andMoses, Aaron, David, Solomon, and all the kings of Israel and of Judah, andthey weep with him and comfort him, and say unto him, "Be quiet and put trustin thy Creator, for the end draweth nigh." Also Korah and his company, andDathan, Abiram, and Absalom come to him on every Wednesday, and ask him: "Howlong 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 toyour fathers and ask them"; and when they hear this, they are ashamed, and donot ask their fathers.

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

THE FOURTH DAY

The fourth day of creation produced the sun, the moon, and the stars. Theseheavenly spheres were not actually fashioned on this day; they were created onthe first day, and merely were assigned their places in the heavens on thefourth.[98] At first the sun and the moon enjoyed equal powers andprerogatives.[99] The moon spoke to God, and said: "O Lord, why didst Thoucreate the world with the letter Bet?" God replied: "That it might be madeknown unto My creatures that there are two worlds." The moon: "O Lord: which ofthe two worlds is the larger, this world or the world to come?" God: "The worldto come is the larger." The moon: "O Lord, Thou didst create two worlds, agreater and a lesser world; Thou didst create the heaven and the earth, theheaven exceeding the earth; Thou didst create fire and water, the waterstronger than the fire, because it can quench the fire; and now Thou hastcreated the sun and the moon, and it is becoming that one of them should begreater than the other." Then spake God to the moon: "I know well, thou wouldsthave me make Thee greater than the sun. As a punishment I decree that thoumayest keep but one-sixtieth of thy light." The moon made supplication: "ShallI be punished so severely for having spoken a single word?" God relented: "Inthe future world I will restore thy light, so that thy light may again be asthe light of the sun." The moon was not yet satisfied. "O Lord," she said, "andthe light of the sun, how great will it be in that day?" Then the wrath of Godwas once more enkindled: "What, thou still plottest against the sun? As thoulivest, in the world to come his light shall be sevenfold the light he nowsheds."[100] The Sun runs his course like a bridegroom. He sits upon a thronewith a garland on his head.[101] Ninety-six angels accompany him on his dailyjourney, in relays of eight every hour, two to the left of him, and two to theright, two before Him, and two behind. Strong as he is, he could complete hiscourse from south to north in a single instant, but three hundred andsixty-five angels restrain him by means of as many grappling-irons. Every dayone looses his hold, and the sun must thus spend three hundred and sixty-fivedays on his course. The progress of the sun in his circuit is an uninterruptedsong 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 himto 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, andone of hail, toward heaven, to cool off the prodigious heat that streams fromthe other face, else the earth would catch afire. In winter the sun turns hisfiery face upward, and thus the cold is produced.[103] When the sun descends inthe west in the evening, he dips down into the ocean and takes a bath, his fireis extinguished, and therefore he dispenses neither light nor warmth during thenight. But as soon as he reaches the east in the morning, he laves himself in astream of flame, which imparts warmth and light to him, and these he sheds overthe earth. In the same way the moon and the stars take a bath in a stream ofhail 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, theyappear before God, and beseech him to relieve them of their task, so that theymay be spared the sight of sinning mankind. Only upon compulsion they proceedwith their daily course. Coming from the presence of God, they are blinded bythe 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 onaccount of the sinfulness of man, which the sun is forced to contemplate on hisrounds, that he grows weaker as the time of his going down approaches, for sinshave a defiling and enfeebling effect, and he drops from the horizon as asphere of blood, for blood is the sign of corruption.[105] As the sun setsforth on his course in the morning, his wings touch the leaves on the trees ofParadise, and their vibration is communicated to the angels and the holyHayyot, to the other plants, and also to the trees and plants on earth, and toall the beings on earth and in heaven. It is the signal for them all to casttheir eyes upward. As soon as they see the Ineffable Name, which is engraved inthe sun, they raise their voices in songs of praise to God. At the same momenta heavenly voice is heard to say, "Woe to the sons of men that consider not thehonor of God like unto these creatures whose voices now rise aloft inadoration."[106] These words, naturally, are not heard by men; as little asthey perceive the grating of the sun against the wheel to which all thecelestial bodies are attached, although the noise it makes is extraordinarilyloud.[107] This friction of the sun and the wheel produces the motes dancingabout in the sunbeams. They are the carriers of healing to the sick,[108] theonly health-giving creations of the fourth day, on the whole an unfortunateday, especially for children, afflicting them with disease.[109] When Godpunished the envious moon by diminishing her light and splendor, so that sheceased to be the equal of the sun as she had been originally,[110] shefell,[111] and tiny threads were loosed from her body. These are thestars.[112]

THE FIFTH DAY

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

The ruler over the sea-animals is leviathan.[116] With all the other fishes hewas made on the fifth day.[117] Originally he was created male and female likeall the other animals. But when it appeared that a pair of these monsters mightannihilate the whole earth with their united strength, God killed thefemale.[119] So enormous is leviathan that to quench his thirst he needs allthe water that flows from the Jordan into the sea.[119] His food consists ofthe 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 seaseething hot. Formidable though behemot, the other monster, is, he feelsinsecure until he is certain that leviathan has satisfied his thirst.[121] Theonly thing that can keep him in check is the stickleback, a little fish whichwas created for the purpose, and of which he stands in great awe.[122] Butleviathan 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 alsohis eyes shed such splendor that frequently the sea is illuminated suddenly byit.[121] No wonder that this marvellous beast is the plaything of God, in whomHe takes His pastime.[124]

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

The real purpose of leviathan is to be served up as a dainty to the pious inthe world to come. The female was put into brine as soon as she was killed, tobe preserved against the time when her flesh will be needed.[126] The male isdestined 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 combatwith the monster. But no sooner will leviathan cast his glance at them thanthey will flee in fear and dismay from the field of battle. They will return tothe charge with swords, but in vain, for his scales can turn back steel likestraw. They will be equally unsuccessful when they attempt to kill him bythrowing darts and slinging stones; such missiles will rebound without leavingthe least impression on his body. Disheartened, the angels will give up thecombat, and God will command leviathan and behemot to enter into a duel witheach other. The issue will be that both will drop dead, behemot slaughtered bya 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 thepious while they enjoy the dishes made of his flesh. The amount assigned toeach of the pious will be in proportion to his deserts, and none will envy orbegrudge the other his better share. What is left of leviathan's skin will bestretched out over Jerusalem as a canopy, and the light streaming from it willillumine the whole world, and what is left of his flesh after the pious haveappeased their appetite, will be distributed among the rest of men, to carry ontraffic therewith.[127]

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

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

It once happened that travellers on a vessel noticed a bird. As he stood in thewater, it merely covered his feet, and his head knocked against the sky. Theonlookers thought the water could not have any depth at that point, and theyprepared 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 sevenyears to touch bottom." The bird the travellers saw was none other than theziz.[132] His wings are so huge that unfurled they darken the sun.[133] Theyprotect the earth against the storms of the south; without their aid the earthwould not be able to resist the winds blowing thence.[134] Once an egg of theziz fell to the ground and broke. The fluid from it flooded sixty cities, andthe shock crushed three hundred cedars. Fortunately such accidents do not occurfrequently. As a rule the bird lets her eggs slide gently into her nest. Thisone mishap was due to the fact that the egg was rotten, and the bird cast itaway carelessly. The ziz has another name, Renanin,[135] because he is thecelestial singer.[136] On account of his relation to the heavenly regions he isalso 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 bythe mother bird; they spring directly from the nest, as it were.[138] Likeleviathan, 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 fowlsimposed upon them.[139]

THE SIXTH DAY

As the fish were formed out of water, and the birds out of boggy earth wellmixed with water, so the mammals were formed out of solid earth,[140] and asleviathan is the most notable representative of the fish kind, and ziz of thebird kind, so behemot is the most notable representative of the mammal kind.Behemot matches leviathan in strength, and he had to be prevented, likeleviathan, from multiplying and increasing, else the world could not havecontinued to exist; after God had created him male and female, He at oncedeprived him of the desire to propagate his kind.[141] He is so monstrous thathe requires the produce of a thousand mountains for his daily food. All thewater that flows through the bed of the Jordan in a year suffices him exactlyfor one gulp. It therefore was necessary to give him one stream entirely forhis 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 beforethey enjoy his flesh, they will be permitted to view the mortal combat betweenleviathan and behemot, as a reward for having denied themselves the pleasuresof 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 hardlyhave maintained itself against them. The act of copulation occurs but once inseventy years between them, for God has so ordered it that the male and femalereem are at opposite ends of the earth, the one in the east, the other in thewest. The act of copulation results in the death of the male. He is bitten bythe female and dies of the bite. The female becomes pregnant and remains inthis state for no less than twelve years. At the end of this long period shegives birth to twins, a male and a female. The year preceding her delivery sheis not able to move. She would die of hunger, were it not that her own spittleflowing copiously from her mouth waters and fructifies the earth near her, andcauses it to bring forth enough for her maintenance. For a whole year theanimal can but roll from side to side, until finally her belly bursts, and thetwins issue forth. Their appearance is thus the signal for the death of themother reem. She makes room for the new generation, which in turn is destinedto suffer the same fate as the generation that went before. Immediately afterbirth, the one goes eastward and the other westward, to meet only after thelapse of seventy years, propagate themselves, and perish.[144] A traveller whoonce saw a reem one day old described its height to be four parasangs, and thelength of its head one parasang and a half.[145] Its horns measure one hundredells, 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 isfastened 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 isproduced by the soil around about him as far as his tether permits him tocrawl. No creature may venture to approach within the radius of his cord, forhe seizes and demolishes whatever comes in his reach. To kill him, one may notgo near to him, the navel-string must be severed from a distance by means of adart, and then he dies amid groans and moans.[143] Once upon a time a travellerhappened in the region where this animal is found. He overheard his hostconsult 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 ranas fast as his feet could carry him from his entertainer, who sought vainly torestrain him. Afterward, he found out that there had been no intention ofregaling him with human flesh, but only with the flesh of the strange animalcalled "man."[146] As the "man of the mountain" is fixed to the ground by hisnavel-string, so the barnacle-goose is grown to a tree by its bill. It is hardto say whether it is an animal and must be slaughtered to be fit for food, orwhether it is a plant and no ritual ceremony is necessary before eatingit.[150]

Among the birds the phoenix is the most wonderful. When Eve gave all theanimals some of the fruit of the tree of knowledge, the phoenix was the onlybird that refused to eat thereof, and he was rewarded with eternal life. Whenhe 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 runswith the sun on his circuit, and he spreads out his wings and catches up thefiery rays of the sun.[152] If he were not there to intercept them, neither mannor any other animate being would keep alive. On his right wing the followingwords 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. Hisexcrement is a worm, whose excrement in turn is the cinnamon used by kings andprinces.[152] Enoch, who saw the phoenix birds when he was translated,describes them as flying creatures, wonderful and strange in appearance, withthe feet and tails of lions, and the heads of crocodiles; their appearance isof a purple color like the rainbow; their size nine hundred measures. Theirwings are like those of angels, each having twelve, and they attend the chariotof 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 thechalkidri[154] sing, and every bird flaps its wings, rejoicing the Giver oflight, and they sing a song at the command of the Lord.[155] Among reptiles thesalamander and the shamir are the most marvellous. The salamander originatesfrom a fire of myrtle wood[156] which has been kept burning for seven yearssteadily by means of magic arts. Not bigger than a mouse, it yet is investedwith peculiar properties. One who smears himself with its blood isinvulnerable,[157] and the web woven by it is a talisman against fire.[158] Thepeople who lived at the deluge boasted that, were a fire flood to come, theywould 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 hismother not painted him with the blood of the salamander, so that the fire coulddo him no harm.[160]

The shamir was made at twilight on the sixth day of creation together withother extraordinary things.[161] It is about as large as a barley corn, and itpossesses the remarkable property of cutting the hardest of diamonds. For thisreason 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 beset into the breastplate, then the shamir was passed over the lines, and thusthey were graven. The wonderful circumstance was that the friction wore noparticles from the stones. The shamir was also used for hewing into shape thestones from which the Temple was built, because the law prohibited iron toolsto be used for the work in the Temple.[162] The shamir may not be put in aniron vessel for safe-keeping, nor in any metal vessel, it would burst such areceptacle asunder. It is kept wrapped up in a woollen cloth, and this in turnis placed in a lead basket filled with barley bran.[163] The shamir was guardedin Paradise until Solomon needed it. He sent the eagle thither to fetch theworm.[164] With the destruction of the Temple the shamir vanished.[165] Asimilar fate overtook the tahash, which had been created only that its skinmight be used for the Tabernacle. Once the Tabernacle was completed, the tahashdisappeared. It had a horn on its forehead, was gaily colored like theturkey-cock, and belonged to the class of clean animals.[166] Among the fishesthere are also wonderful creatures, the sea-goats and the dolphins, not tomention leviathan. A sea-faring man once saw a sea-goat on whose horns thewords were inscribed: "I am a little sea-animal, yet I traversed three hundredparasangs to offer myself as food to the leviathan."[167] The dolphins are halfman 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 representthe human kind in the waters.[163]

Though every species in the animal world was created during the last two daysof the six of creation,[169] yet many characteristics of certain animalsappeared later. Cats and mice, foes now, were friends originally. Their laterenmity had a distinct cause. On one occasion the mouse appeared before God andspoke: "I and the cat are partners, but now we have nothing to eat." The Lordanswered: "Thou art intriguing against thy companion, only that thou mayestdevour her. As a punishment, she shall devour thee." Thereupon the mouse: "OLord of the world, wherein have I done wrong?" God replied: "O thou uncleanreptile, thou shouldst have been warned by the example of the moon, who lost apart of her light, because she spake ill of the sun, and what she lost wasgiven to her opponent.[170] The evil intentions thou didst harbor against thycompanion shall be punished in the same way. Instead of thy devouring her, sheshall devour thee." The mouse: "O Lord of the world! Shall my whole kind bedestroyed?" God: "I will take care that a remnant of thee is spared." In herrage 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 themouse stands in such awe of the cat that she does not even attempt to defendherself against her enemy's attacks, and always keeps herself in hiding.[171]Similarly dogs and cats maintained a friendly relation to each other, and onlylater on became enemies. A dog and a cat were partners, and they shared witheach other whatever they had. It once happened that neither could find anythingto eat for three days. Thereupon the dog proposed that they dissolve theirpartnership. The cat should go to Adam, in whose house there would surely beenough for her to eat, while the dog should seek his fortune elsewhere. Beforethey separated, they took an oath never to go to the same master. The cat tookup her abode with Adam, and she found sufficient mice in his house to satisfyher 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. Thefirst night after their separation he spent in the cave of the wolf, who hadgranted him a night's lodging. At night the dog caught the sound of steps, andhe reported it to his host, who bade him repulse the intruders. They were wildanimals. Little lacked and the dog would have lost his life. Dismayed, the dogfled from the house of the wolf, and took refuge with the monkey. But he wouldnot grant him even a single night's lodging; and the fugitive was forced toappeal to the hospitality of the sheep. Again the dog heard steps in the middleof the night. Obeying the bidding of his host, he arose to chase away themarauders, who turned out to be wolves. The barking of the dog apprised thewolves of the presence of sheep, so that the dog innocently caused the sheep'sdeath. Now he had lost his last friend. Night after night he begged forshelter, without ever finding a home. Finally, he decided to repair to thehouse of Adam, who also granted him refuge for one night. When wild animalsapproached the house under cover of darkness, the dog began to bark, Adamawoke, and with his bow and arrow he drove them away. Recognizing the dog'susefulness, he bade him remain with him always. But as soon as the cat espiedthe dog in Adam's house, she began to quarrel with him, and reproach him withhaving broken his oath to her. Adam did his best to pacify the cat. He told herhe had himself invited the dog to make his home there, and he assured her shewould in no wise be the loser by the dog's presence; he wanted both to staywith him. But it was impossible to appease the cat. The dog promised her not totouch anything intended for her. She insisted that she could not live in oneand the same house with a thief like the dog. Bickerings between the dog andthe 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 welcomedkindly, and from Seth's house, he continued to make efforts at reconciliationwith the cat. In vain. Yes, the enmity between the first dog and the first catwas transmitted to all their descendants until this very day.[172]

Even the physical peculiarities of certain animals were not original featureswith them, but owed their existence to something that occurred subsequent tothe days of creation. The mouse at first had quite a different mouth from itspresent mouth. In Noah's ark, in which all animals, to ensure the preservationof every kind, lived together peaceably, the pair of mice were once sittingnext to the cat. Suddenly the latter remembered that her father was in thehabit of devouring mice, and thinking there was no harm in following hisexample, she jumped at the mouse, who vainly looked for a hole into which toslip out of sight. Then a miracle happened; a hole appeared where none had beenbefore, and the mouse sought refuge in it. The cat pursued the mouse, andthough she could not follow her into the hole, she could insert her paw and tryto pull the mouse out of her covert. Quickly the mouse opened her mouth in thehope that the paw would go into it, and the cat would be prevented fromfastening her claws in her flesh. But as the cavity of the mouth was not bigenough, the cat succeeded in clawing the cheeks of the mouse. Not that thishelped her much, it merely widened the mouth of the mouse, and her prey afterall escaped the cat.[173] After her happy escape, the mouse betook herself toNoah and said to him, "O pious man, be good enough to sew up my cheek where myenemy, the cat, has torn a rent in it." Noah bade her fetch a hair out of thetail of the swine, and with this he repaired the damage. Thence the littleseam-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 inthe ark. When Noah desired to send him forth to find out about the state of thewaters, he hid under the wings of the eagle. Noah found him, however, and saidto 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: "Mypower extends no further than over thee and the dove."[175] But the raven wasnot satisfied. He said to Noah with great insolence: "Thou sendest me forthonly that I may meet my death, and thou wishest my death that my wife may be atthy service."[176] Thereupon Noah cursed the raven thus: "May thy mouth, whichhas spoken evil against me, be accursed, and thy intercourse with thy wife beonly through it."[177] All the animals in the ark said Amen. And this is thereason why a mass of spittle runs from the mouth of the male raven into themouth of the female during the act of copulation, and only thus the female isimpregnated.[178] Altogether the raven is an unattractive animal. He is unkindtoward his own young so long as their bodies are not covered with blackfeathers,[179] though as a rule ravens love one another.[180] God thereforetakes the young ravens under His special protection. From their own excrementmaggots come forth,[181] which serve as their food during the three days thatelapse after their birth, until their white feathers turn black and theirparents recognize them as their offspring and care for them.[182]

The raven has himself to blame also for the awkward hop in his gait. Heobserved the graceful step of the dove, and envious of her tried to enmulateit. The outcome was that he almost broke his bones without in the leastsucceeding in making himself resemble the dove, not to mention that he broughtthe scorn of the other animals down upon himself. His failure excited theirridicule. Then he decided to return to his own original gait, but in theinterval he had unlearnt it, and he could walk neither the one way nor theother properly. His step had become a hop betwixt and between. Thus we see howtrue it is, that he who is dissatisfied with his small portion loses the littlehe has in striving for more and better things.[163]

The steer is also one of the animals that have suffered a change in the courseof time. Originally his face was entirely overgrown with hair, but now there isnone on his nose, and that is because Joshua kissed him on his nose during thesiege of Jericho. Joshua was an exceedingly heavy man. Horses, donkeys, andmules, none could bear him, they all broke down under his weight. What theycould not do, the steer accomplished. On his back Joshua rode to the siege ofJericho, 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 wasthe cleverest of all animals created, and in form it resembled man closely. Itstood upright, and was of extraordinary size.[185] Afterward, it lost themental advantages it had possessed as compared with other animals, and itdegenerated physically, too; it was deprived of its feet, so that it could notpursue other animals and kill them. The mole and the frog had to be madeharmless 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 itslife.[186]

While the cunning of the serpent wrought its own undoing, the cunning of thefox stood him in good stead in many an embarrassing situation. After Adam hadcommitted the sin of disobedience, God delivered the whole of the animal worldinto the power of the Angel of Death, and He ordered him to cast one pair ofeach kind into the water. He and leviathan together thus have dominion over allthat has life. When the Angel of Death was in the act of executing the Divinecommand upon the fox, he began to weep bitterly. The Angel of Death asked himthe reason of his tears, and the fox replied that he was mourning the sad fateof 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 arepresentative 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 ofDeath.[187] So it happened that neither cats nor foxes are represented in thewater, while all other animals are.[188]

When leviathan passed the animals in review, and missing the fox was informedof the sly way in which he had eluded his authority, he dispatched great andpowerful fish on the errand of enticing the truant into the water. The foxwalking along the shore espied the large number of fish, and he exclaimed, "Howhappy 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 beappeased. 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 toinstall 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 thethrone, which stood upon a huge rock. The fox yielded to these persuasions, anddescended into the water. Presently an uncomfortable feeling took possession ofhim. He began to suspect that the tables were turned; he was being made game ofinstead of making game of others as usual. He urged the fish to tell him thetruth, and they admitted that they had been sent out to secure his person forleviathan, who wanted his heart,[189] that he might become as knowing as thefox, whose wisdom he had heard many extol. The fox said reproachfully: "Why didyou not tell me the truth at once? Then I could have brought my heart alongwith 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 keepthem 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 hisheart. No sooner did he feel dry land under his feet than he began to jump andshout, 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 nothad my heart with me? Or exists there a creature able to go abroad without hisheart?" 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 wasit to make game of you?" So they had to return, their errand undone, andleviathan could not but confirm the taunting judgment of the fox: "In verytruth, 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 seemuseless and noxious at first sight have a vocation to fulfil. The snailtrailing 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-flycrushed and applied to the wound. The gnat, feeble creature, taking in food butnever secreting it, is a specific against the poison of a viper, and thisvenomous reptile itself cures eruptions, while the lizard is the antidote tothe scorpion.[191] Not only do all creatures serve man, and contribute to hiscomfort, but also God "teacheth us through the beasts of the earth, and makethus wise through the fowls of heaven." He endowed many animals with admirablemoral 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 coversher excrement with earth; regard for the property of others from the ants, whonever encroach upon one another's stores; and regard for decorous conduct fromthe cock, who, when he desires to unite with the hen, promises to buy her acloak long enough to reach to the ground, and when the hen reminds him of hispromise, he shakes his comb and says, "May I be deprived of my comb, if I donot buy it when I have the means." The grasshopper also has a lesson to teachto man. All the summer through it sings, until its belly bursts, and deathclaims it. Though it knows the fate that awaits it, yet it sings on. So manshould do his duty toward God, no matter what the consequences. The storkshould be taken as a model in two respects. He guards the purity of his familylife zealously, and toward his fellows he is compassionate and merciful. Eventhe frog can be the teacher of man. By the side of the water there lives aspecies of animals which subsist off aquatic creatures alone. When the frognotices that one of them is hungry, he goes to it of his own accord, and offershimself 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] andeach creature has its own hymn of praise wherewith to extol the Creator. Heavenand earth, Paradise and hell, desert and field, rivers and seas—all have theirown way of paying homage to God. The hymn of the earth is, "From the uttermostpart of the earth have we heard songs, glory to the Righteous." The seaexclaims, "Above the voices of many waters, the mighty breakers of the sea, theLord on high is mighty."

Also the celestial bodies and the elements proclaim the praise of theirCreator—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 lightof Thine arrows as they went, at the shining of Thy glittering spear"; and thestars sing, "Thou art the Lord, even Thou alone; Thou hast made heaven, theheaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all things that arethereon, the seas and all that is in them, and Thou preservest them all; andthe host of heaven worshippeth Thee."

Every plant, furthermore, has a song of praise. The fruitful tree sings, "Thenshall 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 withcorn; they shout for joy, they also sing."

Great among singers of praise are the birds, and greatest among them is thecock. When God at midnight goes to the pious in Paradise, all the trees thereinbreak out into adoration, and their songs awaken the cock, who begins in turnto praise God. Seven times he crows, each time reciting a verse. The firstverse is: "Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlastingdoors, and the King of glory shall come in. Who is the King of glory? The Lordstrong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle." The second verse: "Lift up yourheads, O ye gates; yea, lift them up, ye everlasting doors, and the King ofglory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, He is theKing of glory." The third: "Arise, ye righteous, and occupy yourselves with theTorah, that your reward may be abundant in the world hereafter." The fourth: "Ihave waited for Thy salvation, O Lord!" The fifth: "How long wilt thou sleep, Osluggard? 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 withbread." And the seventh verse sung by the cock runs: "It is time to work forthe Lord, for they have made void Thy law."

The song of the vulture is: "I will hiss for them, and gather them; for I haveredeemed them, and they shall increase as they have increased"—the same versewith 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 uponthe ground and sing his verse, while at all other times he is seated elsewherewhen he sings it.

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

Yea, the dumb fishes know how to proclaim the praise of their Lord. "The voiceof the Lord is upon the waters," they say, "the God of glory thundereth, eventhe Lord upon many waters"; while the frog exclaims, "Blessed be the name ofthe 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 comeupon me; for Thou hast dealt truly, but I have done wickedly." And the catsings: "Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye theLord."[194]

II
ADAM

MAN AND THE WORLD

With ten Sayings God created the world, although a single Saying would havesufficed. God desired to make known how severe is the punishment to be metedout to the wicked, who destroy a world created with as many as ten Sayings, andhow goodly the reward destined for the righteous, who preserve a world createdwith 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 whoprepared dainty dishes, set the table, and then led His guest to his seat. Atthe same time man's late appearance on earth is to convey an admonition tohumility. Let him beware of being proud, lest he invite the retort that thegnat is older than he.[2]

The superiority of man to the other creatures is apparent in the very manner ofhis creation, altogether different from theirs. He is the only one who wascreated by the hand of God.[3] The rest sprang from the word of God. The bodyof man is a microcosm, the whole world in miniature, and the world in turn is areflex 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 theball of his eye: the ocean that encircles the earth is like unto the white ofthe eye, the dry land is the iris, Jerusalem the pupil, and the Temple theimage mirrored in the pupil of the eye.[5] But man is more than a mere image ofthis world. He unites both heavenly and earthly qualities within himself. Infour he resembles the angels, in four the beasts. His power of speech, hisdiscriminating intellect, his upright walk, the glance of his eye—they all makean angel of him. But, on the other hand, he eats and drinks, secretes the wastematter 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 notpropagated, but they are immortal; the beings on earth are propagated, but theydie. I will create man to be the union of the two, so that when he sins, whenhe 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 earthcontribute to the creation of man, and He Himself took part in it. Thus theyall will love man, and if he should sin, they will be interested in hispreservation.[7]

The whole world naturally was created for the pious, the God-fearing man, whomIsrael 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 timeman was made. All other creatures were instructed to change their nature, ifIsrael should ever need their help in the course of his history. The sea wasordered to divide before Moses, and the heavens to give ear to the words of theleader; the sun and the moon were bidden to stand still before Joshua, theravens to feed Elijah, the fire to spare the three youths in the furnace, thelion to do no harm to Daniel, the fish to spew forth Jonah, and the heavens toopen before Ezekiel.[9]

In His modesty, God took counsel with the angels, before the creation of theworld, 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 overthe land, and the children of Israel shall have light in their dwellings; as Ishall make a separation between the waters under the firmament and the watersabove the firmament, so I will do for Israel—I will divide the waters for himwhen he crosses the Red Sea; as on the third day I shall create plants, so Iwill do for Israel—I will bring forth manna for him in the wilderness; as Ishall create luminaries to divide day from night, so I will do for Israel—Iwill go before him by day in a pillar of cloud and by night in a pillar offire; as I shall create the fowl of the air and the fishes of the sea, so Iwill do for Israel—I will bring quails for him from the sea; and as I shallbreathe the breath of life into the nostrils of man, so I will do for Israel—Iwill give the Torah unto him, the tree of life." The angels marvelled that somuch love should be lavished upon this people of Israel, and God told them: "Onthe first day of creation, I shall make the heavens and stretch them out; sowill Israel raise up the Tabernacle as the dwelling-place of My glory. On thesecond day, I shall put a division between the terrestrial waters and theheavenly waters; so will he hang up a veil in the Tabernacle to divide the HolyPlace and the Most Holy. On the third day, I shall make the earth put forthgrass and herb; so will he, in obedience to My commands, eat herbs on the firstnight of the Passover, and prepare showbread for Me. On the fourth day, I shallmake the luminaries; so will he make a golden candlestick for Me. On the fifthday, I shall create the birds; so will he fashion the cherubim withoutstretched wings. On the sixth day, I shall create man; so will Israel setaside 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 Hemade on the first six days: "If Israel accepts the Torah, you will continue andendure; otherwise, I shall turn everything back into chaos again." The wholeworld was thus kept in suspense and dread until the day of the revelation onSinai, when Israel received and accepted the Torah, and so fulfilled thecondition 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 aroundHim before He proceeded to execute His purpose—an example to man, be he neverso 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 hadcreated, and last upon the angels.

The angels were not all of one opinion. The Angel of Love favored the creationof man, because he would be affectionate and loving; but the Angel of Truthopposed it, because he would be full of lies. And while the Angel of Justicefavored 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 toearth, and when the others cried out against such contemptuous treatment oftheir companion, He said, "Truth will spring back out of the earth."

The objections of the angels would have been much stronger, had they known thewhole truth about man. God had told them only about the pious, and hadconcealed from them that there would be reprobates among mankind, too. And yet,though they knew but half the truth, the angels were nevertheless prompted tocry out: "What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? And the son of man, thatThou 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, ourLord, how excellent is Thy name in all the earth! Do as is pleasing in Thysight."[12]

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

The third band consulted was commanded by the archangel Labbiel. Taught by thehorrible fate of his predecessors, he warned his troop: "You have seen whatmisfortune overtook the angels who said 'What is man, that Thou art mindful ofhim?' Let us have a care not to do likewise, lest we suffer the same direpunishment. 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, theangels spoke: "Lord of the world, it is well that Thou hast thought of creatingman. Do Thou create him according to Thy will. And as for us, we will be hisattendants and his ministers, and reveal unto him all our secrets." ThereuponGod changed Labbiel's name to Raphael, the Rescuer, because his host of angelshad been rescued by his sage advice. He was appointed the Angel of Healing, whohas in his safe-keeping all the celestial remedies, the types of the medicalremedies used on earth.[12]

THE CREATION OF ADAM

When at last the assent of the angels to the creation of man was given, Godsaid to Gabriel: "Go and fetch Me dust from the four corners of the earth, andI 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 ofthe Lord, who founded thee upon the waters without props or pillars?" The earthreplied, and said: "I am destined to become a curse, and to be cursed throughman, and if God Himself does not take the dust from me, no one else shall everdo it." When God heard this, He stretched out His hand, took of the dust of theground, and created the first man therewith.[14] Of set purpose the dust wastaken from all four corners of the earth, so that if a man from the east shouldhappen to die in the west, or a man from the west in the east, the earth shouldnot 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 hereturn to the earth from which he sprang. Also, the dust was of variouscolors—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: "OLord of the world! The world is Thine, Thou canst do with it as seemeth good inThine eyes. But the man Thou art now creating will be few of days and full oftrouble and sin. If it be not Thy purpose to have forbearance and patience withhim, it were better not to call him into being." God replied, "Is it for naughtI am called long-suffering and merciful?"[15]

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

THE SOUL OF MAN

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

This spirit, or, to call it by its usual name, the soul of man, possesses fivedifferent powers. By means of one of them she escapes from the body everynight, 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 theyare 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 decreeswhat manner of human being shall become of it—whether it shall be male orfemale, strong or weak, rich or poor, beautiful or ugly, long or short, fat orthin, and what all its other qualities shall be. Piety and wickedness alone areleft to the determination of man himself. Then God makes a sign to the angelappointed over the souls, saying, "Bring Me the soul so-and-so, which is hiddenin Paradise, whose name is so-and-so, and whose form is so-and-so." The angelbrings the designated soul, and she bows down when she appears in the presenceof God, and prostrates herself before Him. At that moment, God issues thecommand, "Enter this sperm." The soul opens her mouth, and pleads: "O Lord ofthe world! I am well pleased with the world in which I have been living sincethe day on which Thou didst call me into being. Why dost Thou now desire tohave me enter this impure sperm, I who am holy and pure, and a part of Thyglory?" God consoles her: "The world which I shall cause thee to enter isbetter than the world in which thou hast lived hitherto, and when I createdthee, it was only for this purpose." The soul is then forced to enter the spermagainst her will, and the angel carries her back to the womb of the mother. Twoangels 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 theworld to the other. In the morning an angel carries her to Paradise, and showsher 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 inthe negative, and the angel goes on: "These whom thou beholdest here wereformed, like unto thee, in the womb of their mother. When they came into theworld, they observed God's Torah and His commandments. Therefore they becamethe partakers of this bliss which thou seest them enjoy. Know, also thou wiltone day depart from the world below, and if thou wilt observe God's Torah, thenwilt thou be found worthy of sitting with these pious ones. But if not, thouwilt be doomed to the other place."

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

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

When the time arrives for her to emerge from the womb into the open world, thesame angel addresses the soul, "The time has come for thee to go abroad intothe open world." The soul demurs, "Why dost thou want to make me go forth intothe open world?" The angel replies: "Know that as thou wert formed against thywill, so now thou wilt be born against thy will, and against thy will thoushalt die, and against thy will thou shalt give account of thyself before theKing of kings, the Holy One, blessed be He." But the soul is reluctant to leaveher place. Then the angel fillips the babe on the nose, extinguishes the lightat his head, and brings him forth into the world against his will. Immediatelythe child forgets all his soul has seen and learnt, and he comes into the worldcrying, 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 andasks him, "Dost thou recognize me?" And man replies, "Yes; but why dost thoucome to me to-day, and thou didst come on no other day?" The angel says, "Totake thee away from the world, for the time of thy departure has arrived." Thenman falls to weeping, and his voice penetrates to all ends of the world, yet nocreature hears his voice, except the cock alone. Man remonstrates with theangel, "From two worlds thou didst take me, and into this world thou didstbring me." But the angel reminds him: "Did I not tell thee that thou wertformed against thy will, and thou wouldst be born against thy will, and againstthy will thou wouldst die? And against thy will thou wilt have to give accountand 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 handsof the Creator fully and completely developed. He was not like a child, butlike a man of twenty years of age.[21] The dimensions of his body weregigantic, reaching from heaven to earth, or, what amounts to the same, fromeast to west.[22] Among later generations of men, there were but few who in ameasure resembled Adam in his extraordinary size and physical perfections.Samson possessed his strength, Saul his neck, Absalom his hair, Asahel hisfleetness of foot, Uzziah his forehead, Josiah his nostrils, Zedekiah his eyes,and Zerubbabel his voice. History shows that these physical excellencies wereno blessings to many of their possessors; they invited the ruin of almost all.Samson's extraordinary strength caused his death; Saul killed himself bycutting his neck with his own sword; while speeding swiftly, Asahel was piercedby Abner's spear; Absalom was caught up by his hair in an oak, and thussuspended met his death; Uzziah was smitten with leprosy upon his forehead; thedarts that killed Josiah entered through his nostrils, and Zedekiah's eyes wereblinded.[23]

The generality of men inherited as little of the beauty as of the portentoussize of their first father. The fairest women compared with Sarah are as apescompared 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 thevery sole of his foot obscured the splendor of the sun.[24]

His spiritual qualities kept pace with his personal charm, for God hadfashioned his soul with particular care. She is the image of God, and as Godfills the world, so the soul fills the human body; as God sees all things, andis 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 whichpoint shall I breathe the soul into him? Into the mouth? Nay, for he will useit to speak ill of his fellow-man. Into the eyes? With them he will winklustfully. Into the ears? They will hearken to slander and blasphemy. I willbreathe her into his nostrils; as they discern the unclean and reject it, andtake in the fragrant, so the pious will shun sin, and will cleave to the wordsof 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 betweenbreathing a soul into the first man and his becoming alive, God revealed thewhole history of mankind to him. He showed him each generation and its leaders;each generation and its prophets; each generation and its teachers; eachgeneration and its scholars; each generation and its statesmen; each generationand its judges; each generation and its pious members; each generation and itsaverage, commonplace members; and each generation and its impious members. Thetale 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. Hisappointed span was to be a thousand years, one of the Lord's days. But he sawthat 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 ninehundred and thirty.'

The wisdom of Adam displayed itself to greatest advantage when he gave names tothe animals. Then it appeared that God, in combating the arguments of theangels that opposed the creation of man, had spoken well, when He insisted thatman would possess more wisdom than they themselves. When Adam was barely anhour 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 notequal to the task. Adam, however, spoke without hesitation: "O Lord of theworld! The proper name for this animal is ox, for this one horse, for this onelion, for this one camel." And so he called all in turn by name, suiting thename to the peculiarity of the animal. Then God asked him what his name was tobe, and he said Adam, because he had been created out of Adamah, dust of theearth. Again, God asked him His own name, and he said: "Adonai, Lord, becauseThou art Lord over all creatures"—the very name God had given unto Himself, thename by which the angels call Him, the name that will remain immutableevermore.[29] But without the gift of the holy spirit, Adam could not havefound names for all; he was in very truth a prophet, and his wisdom a propheticquality.[30]

The names of the animals were not the only inheritance handed down by Adam tothe generations after him, for mankind owes all crafts to him, especially theart of writing, and he was the inventor of all the seventy languages.[31] Andstill another task he accomplished for his descendants. God showed Adam thewhole earth, and Adam designated what places were to be settled later by men,and what places were to remain waste.[32]

THE FALL OF SATAN

The extraordinary qualities with which Adam was blessed, physical and spiritualas well, aroused the envy of the angels. They attempted to consume him withfire, and he would have perished, had not the protecting hand of God restedupon him, and established peace between him and the heavenly host.[33] Inparticular, Satan was jealous of the first man, and his evil thoughts finallyled to his fall. After Adam had been endowed with a soul, God invited all theangels to come and pay him reverence and homage. Satan, the greatest of theangels in heaven, with twelve wings, instead of six like all the others,refused to pay heed to the behest of God, saying, "Thou didst create us angelsfrom the splendor of the Shekinah, and now Thou dost command us to castourselves down before the creature which Thou didst fashion out of the dust ofthe ground!" God answered, "Yet this dust of the ground has more wisdom andunderstanding than thou." Satan demanded a trial of wit with Adam, and Godassented thereto, saying: "I have created beasts, birds, and reptiles, I shallhave them all come before thee and before Adam. If thou art able to give themnames, I shall command Adam to show honor unto thee, and thou shalt rest nextto the Shekinah of My glory. But if not, and Adam calls them by the names Ihave assigned to them, then thou wilt be subject to Adam, and he shall have aplace in My garden, and cultivate it." Thus spake God, and He betook Himself toParadise, Satan following Him. When Adam beheld God, he said to his wife, "Ocome, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker." NowSatan attempted to assign names to the animals. He failed with the first twothat presented themselves, the ox and the cow. God led two others before him,the camel and the donkey, with the same result. Then God turned to Adam, andquestioned him regarding the names of the same animals, framing His questionsin such wise that the first letter of the first word was the same as the firstletter of the name of the animal standing before him. Thus Adam divined theproper name, and Satan was forced to acknowledge the superiority of the firstman. Nevertheless he broke out in wild outcries that reached the heavens, andhe refused to do homage unto Adam as he had been bidden.[34] The host of angelsled by him did likewise, in spite of the urgent representations of Michael, whowas the first to prostrate himself before Adam in order to show a good exampleto the other angels. Michael addressed Satan: "Give adoration to the image ofGod! But if thou doest it not, then the Lord God will break out in wrathagainst thee." Satan replied: "If He breaks out in wrath against me, I willexalt my throne above the stars of God, I will be like the Most High!" At onceGod flung Satan and his host out of heaven, down to the earth, and from thatmoment dates the enmity between Satan and man.'

WOMAN

When Adam opened his eyes the first time, and beheld the world about him, hebroke into praise of God, "How great are Thy works, O Lord!" But his admirationfor the world surrounding him did not exceed the admiration all creaturesconceived for Adam. They took him to be their creator, and they all came tooffer him adoration. But he spoke: "Why do you come to worship me? Nay, you andI together will acknowledge the majesty and the might of Him who hath createdus all. 'The Lord reigneth,'" he continued, "'He is apparelled withmajesty.'"[36]

And not alone the creatures on earth, even the angels thought Adam the lord ofall, and they were about to salute him with "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord ofhosts," when God caused sleep to fall upon him, and then the angels knew thathe was but a human being.[37]

The purpose of the sleep that enfolded Adam was to give him a wife, so that thehuman race might develop, and all creatures recognize the difference betweenGod and man. When the earth heard what God had resolved to do, it began totremble and quake. "I have not the strength," it said, "to provide food for theherd of Adam's descendants." But God pacified it with the words, "I and thoutogether, we will find food for the herd." Accordingly, time was dividedbetween God and the earth; God took the night, and the earth took the day.Refreshing sleep nourishes and strengthens man, it affords him life and rest,while the earth brings forth produce with the help of God, who waters it. Yetman must work the earth to earn his food.[38]

The Divine resolution to bestow a companion on Adam met the wishes of man, whohad been overcome by a feeling of isolation when the animals came to him inpairs to be named.[39] To banish his loneliness, Lilith was first given to Adamas wife. Like him she had been created out of the dust of the ground. But sheremained with him only a short time, because she insisted upon enjoying fullequality with her husband. She derived her rights from their identical origin.With the help of the Ineffable Name, which she pronounced, Lilith flew awayfrom Adam, and vanished in the air. Adam complained before God that the wife Hehad given him had deserted him, and God sent forth three angels to capture her.They found her in the Red Sea, and they sought to make her go back with thethreat that, unless she went, she would lose a hundred of her demon childrendaily by death. But Lilith preferred this punishment to living with Adam. Shetakes her revenge by injuring babes—baby boys during the first night of theirlife, while baby girls are exposed to her wicked designs until they are twentydays old. The only way to ward off the evil is to attach an amulet bearing thenames of her three angel captors to the children, for such had been theagreement between them.[40]

The woman destined to become the true companion of man was taken from Adam'sbody, for "only when like is joined unto like the union is indissoluble."[41]The creation of woman from man was possible because Adam originally had twofaces, which were separated at the birth of Eve.[42]

When God was on the point of making Eve, He said: "I will not make her from thehead of man, lest she carry her head high in arrogant pride; not from the eye,lest she be wanton-eyed; not from the ear, lest she be an eavesdropper; notfrom the neck, lest she be insolent; not from the mouth, lest she be a tattler;not from the heart, lest she be inclined to envy; not from the hand, lest shebe a meddler; not from the foot, lest she be a gadabout. I will form her from achaste portion of the body," and to every limb and organ as He formed it, Godsaid, "Be chaste! Be chaste!" Nevertheless, in spite of the great caution used,woman has all the faults God tried to obviate. The daughters of Zion werehaughty and walked with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes; Sarah was aneavesdropper in her own tent, when the angel spoke with Abraham; Miriam was atalebearer, accusing Moses; Rachel was envious of her sister Leah; Eve put outher hand to take the forbidden fruit, and Dinah was a gadabout.[43]

The physical formation of woman is far more complicated than that of man, as itmust be for the function of child-bearing, and likewise the intelligence ofwoman matures more quickly than the intelligence of man.[44] Many of thephysical and psychical differences between the two sexes must be attributed tothe fact that man was formed from the ground and woman from bone. Women needperfumes, while men do not; dust of the ground remains the same no matter howlong it is kept; flesh, however, requires salt to keep it in good condition.The voice of women is shrill, not so the voice of men; when soft viands arecooked, no sound is heard, but let a bone be put in a pot, and at once itcrackles. A man is easily placated, not so a woman; a few drops of watersuffice to soften a clod of earth; a bone stays hard, and if it were to soak inwater for days. The man must ask the woman to be his wife, and not the womanthe man to be her husband, because it is man who has sustained the loss of hisrib, and he sallies forth to make good his loss again. The very differencesbetween the sexes in garb and social forms go back to the origin of man andwoman for their reasons. Woman covers her hair in token of Eve's having broughtsin into the world; she tries to hide her shame; and women precede men in afuneral cortege, because it was woman who brought death into the world. And thereligious commands addressed to women alone are connected with the history ofEve. Adam was the heave offering of the world, and Eve defiled it. Asexpiation, all women are commanded to separate a heave offering from the dough.And because woman extinguished the light of man's soul, she is bidden to kindlethe Sabbath light.[45]

Adam was first made to fall into a deep sleep before the rib for Eve was takenfrom his side. For, had he watched her creation, she would not have awakenedlove in him. To this day it is true that men do not appreciate the charms ofwomen whom they have known and observed from childhood up. Indeed, God hadcreated a wife for Adam before Eve, but he would not have her, because she hadbeen made in his presence. Knowing well all the details of her formation, hewas repelled by her.[46] But when he roused himself from his profound sleep,and saw Eve before him in all her surprising beauty and grace, he exclaimed,"This is she who caused my heart to throb many a night!" Yet he discerned atonce what the nature of woman was. She would, he knew, seek to carry her pointwith man either by entreaties and tears, or flattery and caresses. He said,therefore, "This is my never-silent bell!"[47]

The wedding of the first couple was celebrated with pomp never repeated in thewhole course of history since. God Himself, before presenting her to Adam,attired and adorned Eve as a bride. Yea, He appealed to the angels, saying:"Come, let us perform services of friendship for Adam and his helpmate, for theworld rests upon friendly services, and they are more pleasing in My sight thanthe sacrifices Israel will offer upon the altar." The angels accordinglysurrounded the marriage canopy, and God pronounced the blessings upon thebridal couple, as the Hazan does under the Huppah. The angels then danced andplayed upon musical instruments before Adam and Eve in their ten bridalchambers of gold, pearls, and precious stones, which God had prepared for them.

Adam called his wife Ishah, and himself he called Ish, abandoning the nameAdam, which he had borne before the creation of Eve, for the reason that Godadded His own name Yah to the names of the man and the woman—Yod to Ish and Heto Ishah—to indicate that as long as they walked in the ways of God andobserved His commandments, His name would shield them against all harm. But ifthey went astray, His name would be withdrawn, and instead of Ish there wouldremain Esh, fire, a fire issuing from each and consuming the other.[48]

ADAM AND EVE IN PARADISE

The Garden of Eden was the abode of the first man and woman, and the souls ofall men must pass through it after death, before they reach their finaldestination. For the souls of the departed must go through seven portals beforethey arrive in the heaven 'Arabot. There the souls of the pious are transformedinto angels, and there they remain forever, praising God and feasting theirsight upon the glory of the Shekinah. The first portal is the Cave ofMachpelah, in the vicinity of Paradise, which is under the care and supervisionof Adam. If the soul that presents herself at the portal is worthy, he callsout, "Make room! Thou art welcome!" The soul then proceeds until she arrives atthe gate of Paradise guarded by the cherubim and the flaming sword. If she isnot found worthy, she is consumed by the sword; otherwise she receives apass-bill, which admits her to the terrestrial Paradise. Therein is a pillar ofsmoke and light extending from Paradise to the gate of heaven, and it dependsupon the character of the soul whether she can climb upward on it and reachheaven. The third portal, Zebul, is at the entrance of heaven. If the soul isworthy, the guard opens the portal and admits her 'to the heavenly Temple.Michael presents her to God, and conducts her to the seventh portal, 'Arabot,within which the souls of the pious, changed to angels, praise the Lord, andfeed on the glory of the Shekinah.[49]

In Paradise stand the tree of life and the tree of knowledge, the latterforming a hedge about the former. Only he who has cleared a path for himselfthrough the tree of knowledge can come close to the tree of life, which is sohuge that it would take a man five hundred years to traverse a distance equalto the diameter of the trunk, and no less vast is the space shaded by its crownof branches. From beneath it flows forth the water that irrigates the wholeearth,[50] parting thence into four streams, the Ganges, the Nile, the Tigris,and the Euphrates.[51] But it was only during the days of creation that therealm of plants looked to the waters of the earth for nourishment. Later on Godmade the plants dependent upon the rain, the upper waters. The clouds rise fromearth to heaven, where water is poured into them as from a conduit.[52] Theplants began to feel the effect of the water only after Adam was created.Although they had been brought forth on the third day, God did not permit themto sprout and appear above the surface of the earth, until Adam prayed to Himto give food unto them, for God longs for the prayers of the pious.[53]

Paradise being such as it was, it was, naturally, not necessary for Adam towork the land. True, the Lord God put the man into the Garden of Eden to dressit and to keep it, but that only means he is to study the Torah there andfulfil the commandments of God.[54] There were especially six commandmentswhich every human being is expected to heed: man should not worship idols; norblaspheme God; nor commit murder, nor incest, nor theft and robbery; and allgenerations have the duty of instituting measures of law and order.[55] Onemore such command there was, but it was a temporary injunction. Adam was to eatonly the green things of the field. But the prohibition against the use ofanimals for food was revoked in Noah's time, after the deluge. Nevertheless,Adam was not cut off from the enjoyment of meat dishes. Though he was notpermitted to slaughter animals for the appeasing of his appetite, the angelsbrought him meat and wine, serving him like attendants.[56] And as the angelsministered to his wants, so also the animals. They were wholly under hisdominion, and their food they took out of his hand and out of Eve's.[57] In allrespects, the animal world had a different relation to Adam from their relationto his descendants. Not only did they know the language of man,[58] but theyrespected the image of God, and they feared the first human couple, all ofwhich changed into the opposite after the fall of man.[59]

THE FALL OF MAN

Among the animals the serpent was notable. Of all of them he had the mostexcellent qualities, in some of which he resembled man. Like man he stoodupright upon two feet, and in height he was equal to the camel. Had it not beenfor the fall of man, which brought misfortune to them, too, one pair ofserpents would have sufficed to perform all the work man has to do, and,besides, they would have supplied him with silver, gold, gems, and pearls. As amatter of fact, it was the very ability of the serpent that led to the ruin ofman and his own ruin. His superior mental gifts caused him to become aninfidel. It likewise explains his envy of man, especially of his conjugalrelations. Envy made him meditate ways and means of bringing about the death ofAdam.[60] He was too well acquainted with the character of the man to attemptto exercise tricks of persuasion upon him, and he approached the woman, knowingthat women are beguiled easily. The conversation with Eve was cunninglyplanned, she could not but be caught in a trap. The serpent began, "Is it truethat God hath said, Ye shall not eat of every tree in the garden?" "We may,"rejoined Eve, "eat of the fruit of all the trees in the garden, except thatwhich is in the midst of the garden, and that we may not even touch, lest we bestricken with death." She spoke thus, because in his zeal to guard her againstthe transgressing of the Divine command, Adam had forbidden Eve to touch thetree, though God had mentioned only the eating of the fruit. It remains atruth, what the proverb says, "Better a wall ten hands high that stands, than awall a hundred ells high that cannot stand." It was Adam's exaggeration thatafforded the serpent the possibility of persuading Eve to taste of theforbidden fruit. The serpent pushed Eve against the tree, and said: "Thou seestthat touching the tree has not caused thy death. As little will it hurt thee toeat the fruit of the tree. Naught but malevolence has prompted the prohibition,for as soon as ye eat thereof, ye shall be as God. As He creates and destroysworlds, so will ye have the power to create and destroy. As He doth slay andrevive, so will ye have the power to slay and revive.[61] He Himself ate firstof the fruit of the tree, and then He created the world. Therefore doth Heforbid you to eat thereof, lest you create other worlds. Everyone knows that'artisans of the same guild hate one another.' Furthermore, have ye notobserved that every creature hath dominion over the creature fashioned beforeitself? The heavens were made on the first day, and they are kept in place bythe firmament made on the second day. The firmament, in turn, is ruled by theplants, the creation of the third day, for they take up all the water of thefirmament. The sun and the other celestial bodies, which were created on thefourth day, have power over the world of plants. They can ripen their fruitsand flourish only through their influence. The creation of the fifth day, theanimal world, rules over the celestial spheres. Witness the ziz, which candarken the sun with its pinions. But ye are masters of the whole of creation,because ye were the last to be created. Hasten now and eat of the fruit of thetree in the midst of the garden, and become independent of God, lest He bringforth still other creatures to bear rule over you."[62]

To give due weight to these words, the serpent began to shake the treeviolently and bring down its fruit. He ate thereof, saying: "As I do not die ofeating the fruit, so wilt thou not die." Now Eve could not but say to herself,"All that my master"—so she called Adam—"commanded me is but lies," and shedetermined to follow the advice of the serpent.[63] Yet she could not bringherself to disobey the command of God utterly. She made a compromise with herconscience. First she ate only the outside skin of the fruit, and then, seeingthat death did not fell her, she ate the fruit itself.[64] Scarce had shefinished, when she saw the Angel of Death before her. Expecting her end to comeimmediately, she resolved to make Adam eat of the forbidden fruit, too, lest heespouse another wife after her death.[65] It required tears and lamentations onher part to prevail upon Adam to take the baleful step. Not yet satisfied, shegave of the fruit to all other living beings, that they, too, might be subjectto death.[66] All ate, and they all are mortal, with the exception of the birdmalham, who refused the fruit, with the words: "Is it not enough that ye havesinned against God, and have brought death to others? Must ye still come to meand seek to persuade me into disobeying God's command, that I may eat and diethereof? I will not do your bidding." A heavenly voice was heard then to say toAdam and Eve: "To you was the command given. Ye did not heed it; ye didtransgress it, and ye did seek to persuade the bird malham. He was steadfast,and he feared Me, although I gave him no command. Therefore he shall nevertaste of death, neither he nor his descendants—they all shall live forever inParadise."[67]

Adam spoke to Eve: "Didst thou give me of the tree of which I forbade thee toeat? Thou didst give me thereof, for my eyes are opened, and the teeth in mymouth are set on edge." Eve made answer, "As my teeth were set on edge, so maythe teeth of all living beings be set on edge."[68] The first result was thatAdam and Eve became naked. Before, their bodies had been overlaid with a hornyskin, and enveloped with the cloud of glory. No sooner had they violated thecommand given them than the cloud of glory and the horny skin dropped fromthem, and they stood there in their nakedness, and ashamed.[69] Adam tried togather leaves from the trees to cover part of their bodies, but he heard onetree after the other say: "There is the thief that deceived his Creator. Nay,the foot of pride shall not come against me, nor the hand of the wicked touchme. Hence, and take no leaves from me!" Only the fig-tree granted himpermission to take of its leaves. That was because the fig was the forbiddenfruit itself. Adam had the same experience as that prince who seduced one ofthe maid-ser vants in the palace. When the king, his father, chased him out, hevainly sought a refuge with the other maid-servants, but only she who hadcaused his disgrace would grant him assistance.[70]

THE PUNISHMENT

As long as Adam stood naked, casting about for means of escape from hisembarrassment, God did not appear unto him, for one should not "strive to see aman in the hour of his disgrace." He waited until Adam and Eve had coveredthemselves with fig leaves.[71] But even before God spoke to him, Adam knewwhat was impending. He heard the angels announce, "God betaketh Himself untothose that dwell in Paradise." He heard more, too. He heard what the angelswere saying to one another about his fall, and what they were saying to God. Inastonishment the angels exclaimed: "What! He still walks about in Paradise? Heis not yet dead?" Whereupon God: "I said to him, 'In the day that thou eatestthereof, thou shalt surely die!' Now, ye know not what manner of day Imeant—one of My days of a thousand years, or one of your days. I will give himone of My days. He shall have nine hundred and thirty years to live, andseventy to leave to his descendants."[72]

When Adam and Eve heard God approaching, they hid among the trees—which wouldnot have been possible before the fall. Before he committed his trespass,Adam's height was from the heavens to the earth, but afterward it was reducedto one hundred ells.[73] Another consequence of his sin was the fear Adam feltwhen he heard the voice of God: before his fall it had not disquieted him inthe least.[74] Hence it was that when Adam said, "I heard Thy voice in thegarden, and I was afraid," God replied, "Aforetime thou wert not afraid, andnow thou art afraid?"[75]

God refrained from reproaches at first. Standing at the gate of Paradise, Hebut asked, "Where art thou, Adam?" Thus did God desire to teach man a rule ofpolite behavior, never to enter the house of another without announcinghimself.[76] It cannot be denied, the words "Where art thou?" were pregnantwith meaning. They were intended to bring home to Adam the vast differencebetween his latter and his former state—between his supernatural size then andhis shrunken size now; between the lordship of God over him then and thelordship of the serpent over him now.[77] At the same time, God wanted to giveAdam the opportunity of repenting of his sin, and he would have received Divineforgiveness for it. But so far from repenting of it, Adam slandered God, anduttered blasphemies against Him.[78] When God asked him, "Hast thou eaten ofthe tree whereof I commanded thee thou shouldst not eat?" he did not confesshis sin, but excused himself with the words: "O Lord of the world! As long as Iwas alone, I did not fall into sin, but as soon as this woman came to me, shetempted me." God replied: "I gave her unto thee as a help, and thou artungrateful when thou accusest her, saying, 'She gave me of the tree.' Thoushouldst not have obeyed her, for thou art the head, and not she."[79] God, whoknows all things, had foreseen exactly this, and He had not created Eve untilAdam had asked Him for a helpmate, so that he might not have apparently goodreason for reproaching God with having created woman.[80]

As Adam tried to shift the blame for his misdeed from himself, so also Eve.She, like her husband, did not confess her transgression and pray for pardon,which would have been granted to her.[81] Gracious as God is, He did notpronounce the doom upon Adam and Eve until they showed themselves stiff-necked.Not so with the serpent. God inflicted the curse upon the serpent withouthearing his defense; for the serpent is a villain, and the wicked are gooddebaters. If God had questioned him, the serpent would have answered: "Thoudidst give them a command, and I did contradict it. Why did they obey me, andnot Thee?"[82] Therefore God did not enter into an argument with the serpent,but straightway decreed the following ten punishments: The mouth of the serpentwas closed, and his power of speech taken away; his hands and feet were hackedoff; the earth was given him as food; he must suffer great pain in sloughinghis skin; enmity is to exist between him and man; if he eats the choicestviands, or drinks the sweetest beverages, they all change into dust in hismouth; the pregnancy of the female serpent lasts seven years; men shall seek tokill him as soon as they catch sight of him; even in the future world, whereall beings will be blessed, he will not escape the punishment decreed for him;he will vanish from out of the Holy Land if Israel walks in the ways ofGod.[83]

Furthermore, God spake to the serpent: "I created thee to be king over allanimals, cattle and the beasts of the field alike; but thou wast not satisfied.Therefore thou shalt be cursed above all cattle and above every beast of thefield. I created thee of upright posture; but thou wast not satisfied.Therefore thou shalt go upon thy belly. I created thee to eat the same food asman; but thou wast not satisfied. Therefore thou shalt eat dust all the days ofthy life. Thou didst seek to cause the death of Adam in order to espouse hiswife. Therefore I will put enmity between thee and the woman." How true itis—he who lusts after what is not his due, not only does he not attain hisdesire, but he also loses what he has!

As angels had been present when the doom was pronounced upon the serpent—forGod had convoked a Sanhedrin of seventy-one angels when He sat in judgment uponhim—so the execution of the decree against him was entrusted to angels. Theydescended from heaven, and chopped off his hands and feet. His suffering was sogreat that his agonized cries could be heard from one end of the world to theother.[84]

The verdict against Eve also consisted of ten curses, the effect of which isnoticeable to this day in the physical, spiritual, and social state ofwoman.[85] It was not God Himself who announced her fate to Eve. The only womanwith whom God ever spoke was Sarah. In the case of Eve, He made use of theservices of an interpreter.[86]

Finally, also the punishment of Adam was tenfold: he lost his celestialclothing—God stripped it off him; in sorrow he was to earn his daily bread; thefood he ate was to be turned from good into bad; his children were to wanderfrom land to land; his body was to exude sweat; he was to have an evilinclination; in death his body was to be a prey of the worms; animals were tohave power over him, in that they could slay him; his days were to be few andfull of trouble; in the end he was to render account of all his doings onearth.

These three sinners were not the only ones to have punishment dealt out tothem. The earth fared no better, for it had been guilty of variousmisdemeanors. In the first place, it had not entirely heeded the command of Godgiven on the third day, to bring forth "tree of fruit." What God had desiredwas a tree the wood of which was to be as pleasant to the taste as the fruitthereof. The earth, however, produced a tree bearing fruit, the tree itself notbeing edible.[88] Again, the earth did not do its whole duty in connection withthe sin of Adam. God had appointed the sun and the earth witnesses to testifyagainst Adam in case he committed a trespass. The sun, accordingly, had growndark the instant Adam became guilty of disobedience, but the earth, not knowinghow to take notice of Adam's fall, disregarded it altogether.[89] The earthalso had to suffer a tenfold punishment: independent before, she was hereafterto wait to be watered by the rain from above; sometimes the fruits of the earthfail; the grain she brings forth is stricken with blasting and mildew; she mustproduce all sorts of noxious vermin; thenceforth she was to be divided intovalleys and mountains; she must grow barren trees, bearing no fruit; thorns andthistles sprout from her; much is sown in the earth, but little is harvested;in time to come the earth will have to disclose her blood, and shall no morecover her slain; and, finally, she shall, one day, "wax old like agarment."[90]

When Adam heard the words, "Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth,"concerning the ground, a sweat broke out on his face, and he said: "What! ShallI and my cattle eat from the same manger?" The Lord had mercy upon him, andspoke, "In view of the sweat of thy face, thou shalt eat bread."[91]

The earth is not the only thing created that was made to suffer through the sinof Adam. The same fate overtook the moon. When the serpent seduced Adam andEve, and exposed their nakedness, they wept bitterly, and with them wept theheavens, and the sun and the stars, and all created beings and things up to thethrone of God. The very angels and the celestial beings were grieved by thetrans gression of Adam. The moon alone laughed, wherefore God grew wroth, andobscured her light. Instead of shining steadily like the sun, all the length ofthe day, she grows old quickly, and must be born and reborn, again andagain.[92] The callous conduct of the moon offended God, not only by way ofcontrast with the compassion of all other creatures, but because He Himself wasfull of pity for Adam and his wife. He made clothes for them out of the skinstripped from the serpent.[93] He would have done even more. He would havepermitted them to remain in Paradise, if only they had been penitent. But theyrefused to repent, and they had to leave, lest their godlike understanding urgethem to ravage the tree of life, and they learn to live forever. As it was,when God dismissed them from Paradise, He did not allow the Divine quality ofjustice to prevail entirely. He associated mercy with it. As they left, Hesaid: "O what a pity that Adam was not able to observe the command laid uponhim for even a brief span of time!"

To guard the entrance to Paradise, God appointed the cherubim, called also theever-turning sword of flames, because angels can turn themselves from one shapeinto another at need.[94] Instead of the tree of life, God gave Adam the Torah,which likewise is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her, and he waspermitted to take up his abode in the vicinity of Paradise in the east.[95]

Sentence pronounced upon Adam and Eve and the serpent, the Lord commanded theangels to turn the man and the woman out of Paradise. They began to weep andsupplicate bitterly, and the angels took pity upon them and left the Divinecommand unfulfilled, until they could petition God to mitigate His severeverdict. But the Lord was inexorable, saying, "Was it I that committed atrespass, or did I pronounce a false judgment?" Also Adam's prayer, to be givenof the fruit of the tree of life, was turned aside, with the promise, however,that if he would lead a pious life, he would be given of the fruit on the dayof resurrection, and he would then live forever.

Seeing that God had resolved unalterably, Adam began to weep again and implorethe angels to grant him at least permission to take sweet-scented spices withhim out of Paradise, that outside, too, he might be able to bring offeringsunto God, and his prayers be accepted before the Lord. Thereupon the angelscame before God, and spake: "King unto everlasting, command Thou us to giveAdam sweet-scented spices of Paradise," and God heard their prayer. Thus Adamgathered saffron, nard, calamus, and cinnamon, and all sorts of seeds besidesfor his sustenance. Laden with these, Adam and Eve left Paradise, and came uponearth.[96] They had enjoyed the splendors of Paradise but a brief span oftime—but a few hours. It was in the first hour of the sixth day of creationthat God conceived the idea of creating man; in the second hour, He tookcounsel with the angels; in the third, He gathered the dust for the body ofman; in the fourth, He formed Adam; in the fifth, He clothed him with skin; inthe sixth, the soulless shape was complete, so that it could stand upright; inthe seventh, a soul was breathed into it; in the eighth, man was led intoParadise; in the ninth, the Divine command prohibiting the fruit of the tree inthe midst of the garden was issued to him; in the tenth, he transgressed thecommand; in the eleventh, he was judged; and in the twelfth hour of the day, hewas cast out of Paradise, in atonement for his sin.

This eventful day was the first of the month of Tishri. Therefore God spoke toAdam: "Thou shalt be the prototype of thy children. As thou hast been judged byMe on this day and absolved, so thy children Israel shall be judged by Me onthis New Year's Day, and they shall be absolved."[97]

Each day of creation brought forth three things: the first, heaven, earth, andlight; the second, the firmament, Gehenna, and the angels; the third, trees,herbs, and Paradise; the fourth, sun, moon, and stars; and the fifth, fishes,birds, and leviathan. As God intended to rest on the seventh day, the Sabbath,the sixth day had to do double duty. It brought forth six creations: Adam, Eve,cattle, reptiles, the beasts of the field, and demons. The demons were madeshortly before the Sabbath came in, and they are, therefore, incorporealspirits—the Lord had no time to create bodies for them.[98]

In the twilight, between the sixth day and the Sabbath, ten creations were,brought forth: the rainbow, invisible until Noah's time; the manna;watersprings, whence Israel drew water for his thirst in the desert; thewriting upon the two tables of stone given at Sinai; the pen with which thewriting was written; the two tables themselves; the mouth of Balaam's she-ass;the grave of Moses; the cave in which Moses and Elijah dwelt; and the rod ofAaron, with its blossoms and its ripe almonds.[99]

SABBATH IN HEAVEN

Before the world was created, there was none to praise God and know Him.Therefore He created the angels and the holy Hayyot, the heavens and theirhost, and Adam as well. They all were to praise and glorify their Creator.During the week of creation, however, there was no suitable time to proclaimthe splendor and praise of the Lord. Only on the Sabbath, when all creationrested, the beings on earth and in heaven, all together, broke into song andadoration when God ascended His throne and sate upon it.[100] It was the Throneof Joy upon which He sate, and He had all the angels pass before Him—the angelof the water, the angel of the rivers, the angel of the mountains, the angel ofthe hills, the angel of the abysses, the angel of the deserts, the angel of thesun, the angel of the moon, the angel of the Pleiades, the angel of Orion, theangel of the herbs, the angel of Paradise, the angel of Gehenna, the angel ofthe trees, the angel of the reptiles, the angel of the wild beasts, the angelof the domestic animals, the angel of the fishes, the angel of the locusts, theangel of the birds, the chief angel of the angels, the angel of each heaven,the chief angel of each division of the heavenly hosts, the chief angel of theholy Hayyot, the chief angel of the cherubim, the chief angel of the ofanim,and all the other splendid, terrible, and mighty angel chiefs. They allappeared before God with great joy, laved in a stream of joy, and they rejoicedand danced and sang, and extolled the Lord with many praises and manyinstruments. The ministering angels began, "Let the glory of the Lord endureforever!" And the rest of the angels took up the song with the words, "Let theLord rejoice in His works!" 'Arabot, the seventh heaven, was filled with joyand glory, splendor and strength, power and might and pride and magnificenceand grandeur, praise and jubilation, song and gladness, steadfastness andrighteousness, honor and adoration.

Then God bade the Angel of the Sabbath seat himself upon a throne of glory, andHe brought before him the chiefs of the angels of all the heavens and all theabysses, and bade them dance and rejoice, saying, "Sabbath it is unto theLord!" and the exalted princes of the heavens responded, "Unto the Lord it isSabbath!" Even Adam was permitted to ascend to the highest heaven, to take partin the rejoicing over the Sabbath.

By bestowing Sabbath joy upon all beings, not excepting Adam, thus did the Lorddedicate His creation. Seeing the majesty of the Sabbath, its honor andgreatness, and the joy it conferred upon all, being the fount of all joy, Adamintoned a song of praise for the Sabbath day. Then God said to him, "Thousingest a song of praise to the Sabbath day, and singest none to Me, the God ofthe Sabbath?" Thereupon the Sabbath rose from his seat, and prostrated himselfbefore God, saying, "It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord," and thewhole of creation added, "And to sing praises unto Thy Name, O Most High!"[101]

This was the first Sabbath, and this its celebration in heaven by God and theangels. The angels were informed at the same time that in days to come Israelwould hallow the day in similar manner. God told them: "I will set aside forMyself a people from among all the peoples. This people will observe theSabbath, and I will sanctify it to be My people, and I will be God unto it.From all that I have seen, I have chosen the seed of Israel wholly, and I haveinscribed him as My first-born son, and I sanctified him unto Myself unto alleternity, him and the Sabbath, that he keep the Sabbath and hallow it from allwork."[102]

For Adam the Sabbath had a peculiar significance. When he was made to departout of Paradise in the twilight of the Sabbath eve, the angels called afterhim, "Adam did not abide in his glory overnight!" Then the Sabbath appearedbefore God as Adam's defender, and he spoke: "O Lord of the world! During thesix working days no creature was slain. If Thou wilt begin now by slaying Adam,what will become of the sanctity and the blessing of the Sabbath?" In this wayAdam was rescued from the fires of hell, the meet punishment for his sins, andin gratitude he composed a psalm in honor of the Sabbath, which David laterembodied in his Psalter.[103]

Still another opportunity was given to Adam to learn and appreciate the valueof the Sabbath. The celestial light, whereby Adam could survey the world fromend to end, should properly have been made to disappear immediately after hissin. But out of consideration for the Sabbath, God had let this light continueto shine, and the angels, at sundown on the sixth day, intoned a song of praiseand thanksgiving to God, for the radiant light shining through the night. Onlywith the going out of the Sabbath day the celestial light ceased, to theconsternation of Adam, who feared that the serpent would attack him in thedark. But God illumined his understanding, and he learned to rub two stonesagainst each other and produce light for his needs.[104]

The celestial light was but one of the seven precious gifts enjoyed by Adambefore the fall and to be granted to man again only in the Messianic time. Theothers are the resplendence of his countenance; life eternal; his tall stature;the fruits of the soil; the fruits of the tree; and the luminaries of the sky,the sun and the moon, for in the world to come the light of the moon shall beas the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold.[105]

ADAM'S REPENTANCE

Cast out of Paradise, Adam and Eve built a hut for themselves, and for sevendays they sat in it in great distress, mourning and lamenting. At the end ofthe seven days, tormented by hunger, they came forth and sought food. For sevenother days, Adam journeyed up and down in the land, looking for such daintiesas he had enjoyed in Paradise. In vain; he found nothing. Then Eve spoke to herhusband: "My lord, if it please thee, slay me. Mayhap God will then take theeback into Paradise, for the Lord God became wroth with thee only on account ofme." But Adam rejected her plan with abhorrence, and both went forth again onthe search for food. Nine days passed, and still they found naught resemblingwhat they had had in Paradise. They saw only food fit for cattle and beasts.Then Adam proposed: "Let us do penance, mayhap the Lord God will forgive us andhave pity on us, and give us something to sustain our life." Knowing that Evewas not vigorous enough to undergo the mortification of the flesh which hepurposed to inflict upon himself, he prescribed a penance for her differentfrom his own. He said to her: "Arise, and go to the Tigris, take a stone andstand upon it in the deepest part of the river, where the water will reach ashigh as thy neck. And let no speech issue forth from thy mouth, for we areunworthy to supplicate God, our lips are unclean by reason of the forbiddenfruit of the tree. Remain in the water for thirty-seven days."

For himself Adam ordained forty days of fasting, while he stood in the riverJordan in the same way as Eve was to take up her stand in the waters of theTigris. After he had adjusted the stone in the middle of the Jordan, andmounted it, with the waters surging up to his neck, he said: "I adjure thee, Othou water of the Jordan! Afflict thyself with me, and gather unto me allswimming creatures that live in thee. Let them surround me and sorrow with me,and let them not beat their own breasts with grief, but let them beat me. Notthey have sinned, only I alone!" Very soon they all came, the dwellers in theJordan, and they encompassed him, and from that moment the water of the Jordanstood still and ceased from flowing.

The penance which Adam and Eve laid upon themselves awakened misgivings inSatan. He feared God might forgive their sin, and therefore essayed to hinderEve in her purpose. After a lapse of eighteen days he appeared unto her in theguise of an angel. As though in distress on account of her, he began to cry,saying: "Step up out of the river, and weep no longer. The Lord God hath heardyour mourning, and your penitence hath been accepted by Him. All the angelssupplicated the Lord in your behalf, and He hath sent me to fetch you out ofthe water and give you the sustenance that you enjoyed in Paradise, and forwhich you have been mourning." Enfeebled as she was by her penances andmortifications, Eve yielded to the solicitations of Satan, and he led her towhere her husband was. Adam recognized him at once, and amid tears he criedout: "O Eve, Eve, where now is thy penitence? How couldst thou let ouradversary seduce thee again—him who robbed us of our sojourn in Paradise andall spiritual joy?" Thereupon Eve, too, began to weep and cry out: "Woe untothee, O Satan! Why strivest thou against us without any reason? What have wedone unto thee that thou shouldst pursue us so craftily?" With a deep-fetchedsigh, Satan told them how that Adam, of whom he had been jealous, had been thereal reason of his fall. Having lost his glory through him, he had intrigued tohave him driven from Paradise.

When Adam heard the confession of Satan, he prayed to God: "O Lord my God! InThy hands is my life. Remove from me this adversary, who seeks to deliver mysoul to destruction, and grant me the glory he has forfeited." Satandisappeared forthwith, but Adam continued his penance, standing in the watersof the Jordan for forty days.[106]

While Adam stood in the river, he noticed that the days were growing shorter,and he feared the world might be darkened on account of his sin, and go undersoon. To avert the doom, he spent eight days in prayer and fasting. But afterthe winter solstice, when he saw that the days grew longer again, he spenteight days in rejoicing, and in the following year he celebrated both periods,the one before and the one after the solstice. This is why the heathencelebrate the calends and the saturnalia in honor of their gods, though Adamhad consecrated those days to the honor of God.[107]

The first time Adam witnessed the sinking of the sun be was also seized withanxious fears. It happened at the conclusion of the Sabbath, and Adam said,"Woe is me! For my sake, because I sinned, the world is darkened, and it willagain become void and without form. Thus will be executed the punishment ofdeath which God has pronounced against me!" All the night he spent in tears,and Eve, too, wept as she sat opposite to him. When day began to dawn, heunderstood that what he had deplored was but the course of nature, and hebrought an offering unto God, a unicorn whose horn was created before hishoofs,[108] and he sacrificed it on the spot on which later the altar was tostand in Jerusalem.[109]

THE BOOK OF RAZIEL

After Adam's expulsion from Paradise, he prayed to God in these words: "O God,Lord of the world! Thou didst create the whole world unto the honor and gloryof the Mighty One, and Thou didst as was pleasing unto Thee. Thy kingdom isunto all eternity, and Thy reign unto all generations. Naught is hidden fromThee, and naught is concealed from Thine eyes. Thou didst create me as Thyhandiwork, and didst make me the ruler over Thy creatures, that I might be thechief of Thy works. But the cunning, accursed serpent seduced me with the treeof desire and lusts, yea, he seduced the wife of my bosom. But Thou didst notmake known unto me what shall befall my children and the generations after me.I know well that no human being can be righteous in Thine eyes, and what is mystrength that I should step before Thee with an impudent face? I have no mouthwherewith to speak and no eye wherewith to see, for I did sin and commit atrespass, and, by reason of my sins, I was driven forth from Paradise. I mustplough the earth whence I was taken, and the other inhabitants of the earth,the beasts, no longer, as once, stand in awe and fear of me. From the time Iate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, wisdom departed from me, and Iam a fool that knoweth naught, an ignorant man that understandeth not. Now, Omerciful and gracious God, I pray to Thee to turn again Thy compassion to thehead of Thy works, to the spirit which Thou didst instil into him, and the soulThou didst breathe into him. Meet me with Thy grace, for Thou art gracious,slow to anger, and full of love. O that my prayer would reach unto the throneof Thy glory, and my supplication unto the throne of Thy mercy, and Thouwouldst incline to me with lovingkindness. May the words of my mouth beacceptable, that Thou turn not away from my petition. Thou wert fromeverlasting, and Thou wilt be unto everlasting; Thou wert king, and Thou wiltever be king. Now, have Thou mercy upon the work of Thy hands. Grant meknowledge and understanding, that I may know what shall befall me, and myposterity, and all the generations that come after me, and what shall befall meon every day and in every month, and mayest Thou not withhold from me the helpof Thy servants and of Thy angels."

On the third day after he had offered up this prayer, while he was sitting onthe banks of the river that flows forth out of Paradise, there appeared to him,in the heat of the day, the angel Raziel, bearing a book in his hand. The angeladdressed Adam thus: "O Adam, why art thou so fainthearted? Why art thoudistressed and anxious? Thy words were heard at the moment when thou didstutter thy supplication and entreaties, and I have received the charge to teachthee pure words and deep understanding, to make thee wise through the contentsof the sacred book in my hand, to know what will happen to thee until the dayof thy death. And all thy descendants and all the later generations, if theywill but read this book in purity, with a devout heart and an humble mind, andobey its precepts, will become like unto thee. They, too, will foreknow whatthings shall happen, and in what month and on what day or in what night. Allwill be manifest to them—they will know and understand whether a calamity willcome, a famine or wild beasts, floods or drought; whether there will beabundance of grain or dearth; whether the wicked will rule the world; whetherlocusts will devastate the land; whether the fruits will drop from the treesunripe; whether boils will afflict men; whether wars will prevail, or diseasesor plagues among men and cattle; whether good is resolved upon in heaven, orevil; whether blood will flow, and the death-rattle of the slain be heard inthe city. And now, Adam, come and give heed unto what I shall tell theeregarding the manner of this book and its holiness."

Raziel, the angel, then read from the book, and when Adam heard the words ofthe holy volume as they issued from the mouth of the angel, he fell downaffrighted. But the angel encouraged him. "Arise, Adam," he said, "be of goodcourage, be not afraid, take the book from me and keep it, for thou wilt drawknowledge from it thyself and become wise, and thou wilt also teach itscontents to all those who shall be found worthy of knowing what it contains."

In the moment when Adam took the book, a flame of fire shot up from near theriver, and the angel rose heavenward with it. Then Adam knew that he who hadspoken to him was an angel of God, and it was from the Holy King Himself thatthe book had come, and he used it in holiness and purity. It is the book out ofwhich all things worth knowing can be learnt, and all mysteries, and it teachesalso how to call upon the angels and make them appear before men, and answerall their questions. But not all alike can use the book, only he who is wiseand God-fearing, and resorts to it in holiness. Such an one is secure againstall wicked counsels, his life is serene, and when death takes him from thisworld, he finds repose in a place where there are neither demons nor evilspirits, and out of the hands of the wicked he is quickly rescued.[110]

THE SICKNESS OF ADAM

When Adam had lived to be nine hundred and thirty years old, a sickness seizedhim, and he felt that his days were drawing to an end. He summoned all hisdescendants, and assembled them before the door of the house of worship inwhich he had always offered his prayers to God, to give them his last blessing.His family were astonished to find him stretched out on the bed of sickness,for they did not know what pain and suffering were.[111] They thought he wasovercome with longing after the fruits of Paradise, and for lack of them wasdepressed. Seth announced his willingness to go to the gates of Paradise andbeg God to let one of His angels give him of its fruits. But Adam explained tothem what sickness and pain are, and that God had inflicted them upon him as apunishment for his sin.[112] Adam suffered violently; tears and groans werewrung from him. Eve sobbed, and said, "Adam, my lord, give me the half of thysickness, I will gladly bear it. Is it not on account of me that this hath comeupon thee? On account of me thou undergoest pain and anguish."

Adam bade Eve go with Seth to the gates of Paradise and entreat God to havemercy upon him, and send His angel to catch up some of the oil of life flowingfrom the tree of His mercy and give it to his messengers. The ointment wouldbring him rest, and banish the pain consuming him. On his way to Paradise, Sethwas attacked by a wild beast. Eve called out to the assailant, "How durst thoulay hand on the image of God?" The ready answer came: "It is thine own fault.Hadst thou not opened thy mouth to eat of the forbidden fruit, my mouth wouldnot be opened now to destroy a human being." But Seth remonstrated: "Hold thytongue! Desist from the image of God until the day of judgment." And the beastgave way, saying, "See, I refrain myself from the image of God," and it slunkaway to its covert.[113]

Arrived at the gates of Paradise, Eve and Seth began to cry bitterly, and theybesought God with many lamentations to give them oil from the tree of Hismercy. For hours they prayed thus. At last the archangel Michael appeared, andinformed them that he came as the messenger of God to tell them that theirpetition could not be granted. Adam would die in a few days, and as he wassubject to death, so would be all his descendants. Only at the time of theresurrection, and then only to the pious, the oil of life would be dispensed,together with all the bliss and all the delights of Paradise.[114] Returned toAdam, they reported what had happened, and he said to Eve: "What misfortunedidst thou bring upon us when thou didst arouse great wrath! See, death is theportion of all our race! Call hither our children and our children's children,and tell them the manner of our sinning." And while Adam lay prostrate upon thebed of pain, Eve told them the story of their fall.[115]

EVE'S STORY OF THE FALL

After I was created, God divided Paradise and all the animals therein betweenAdam and me. The east and the north were assigned to Adam, together with themale animals. I was mistress of the west and the south and all the femaleanimals. Satan, smarting under the disgrace of having been dismissed from theheavenly host, resolved to bring about our ruin and avenge himself upon thecause of his discomfiture. He won the serpent over to his side, and pointed outto him that before the creation of Adam the animals could enjoy all that grewin Paradise, and now they were restricted to the weeds. To drive Adam fromParadise would therefore be for the good of all. The serpent demurred, for hestood in awe of the wrath of God. But Satan calmed his fears, and said, "Dothou but become my vessel,[117] and I shall speak a word through thy mouthwherewith thou wilt succeed in seducing man."

The serpent thereupon suspended himself from the wall surrounding Paradise, tocarry on his conversation with me from without. And this happened at the verymoment when my two guardian angels had betaken themselves to heaven tosupplicate the Lord. I was quite alone therefore, and when Satan assumed theappearance of an angel, bent over the wall of Paradise, and intoned seraphicsongs of praise, I was deceived, and thought him an angel. A conversation washeld between us, Satan speaking through the mouth of the serpent:

"Art thou Eve?"

"Yes, it is I."

"What art thou doing in Paradise?"

"The Lord has put us here to cultivate it and eat of its fruits."

"That is good. Yet you eat not of all the trees."

"That we do, excepting a single one, the tree that stands in the midst ofParadise. Concerning it alone, God has forbidden us to eat of it, else, theLord said, ye will die."

The serpent made every effort to persuade me that I had naught to fear—that Godknew that in the day that Adam and I ate of the fruit of the tree, we should beas He Himself. It was jealousy that had made Him say,[118] "Ye shall not eat ofit." In spite of all his urging, I remained steadfast and refused to touch thetree. Then the serpent engaged to pluck the fruit for me. Thereupon I openedthe gate of Paradise, and he slipped in. Scarcely was he within, when he saidto me, "I repent of my words, I would rather not give thee of the fruit of theforbidden tree." It was but a cunning device to tempt me more. He consented togive me of the fruit only after I swore to make my husband eat of it, too. Thisis the oath he made me take: "By the throne of God, by the cherubim, and by thetree of life, I shall give my husband of this fruit, that he may eat, too."Thereupon the serpent ascended the tree and injected his poison, the poison ofthe evil inclination, into the fruit,[119] and bent the branch on which it grewto the ground. I took hold of it, but I knew at once that I was stripped of therighteousness in which I had been clothed.[120] I began to weep, because of itand because of the oath the serpent had forced from me.

The serpent disappeared from the tree, while I sought leaves wherewith to covermy nakedness, but all the trees within my reach had cast off their leaves atthe moment when I ate of the forbidden fruit.[121] There was only one thatretained its leaves, the fig-tree, the very tree the fruit of which had beenforbidden to me.[122] I summoned Adam, and by means of blasphemous words Iprevailed upon him to eat of the fruit. As soon as it had passed his lips, heknew his true condition, and he exclaimed against me: "Thou wicked woman, whatbast thou brought down upon me? Thou hast removed me from the glory of God."

At the same time Adam and I heard the archangel Michael[123] blow his trumpet,and all the angels cried out: "Thus saith the Lord, Come ye with Me to Paradiseand hearken unto the sentence which I will pronounce upon Adam."[124]

We hid ourselves because we feared the judgment of God. Sitting in his chariotdrawn by cherubim, the Lord, accompanied by angels uttering His praise,appeared in Paradise. At His coming the bare trees again put forth leaves.[125]His throne was erected by the tree of life, and God addressed Adam: "Adam,where dost thou keep thyself in hiding? Thinkest thou I cannot find thee? Can ahouse conceal itself from its architect?"[126]

Adam tried to put the blame on me, who had promised to hold him harmless beforeGod. And I in turn accused the serpent. But God dealt out justice to all threeof us. To Adam He said: "Because thou didst not obey My commands, but didsthearken unto the voice of thy wife, cursed is the ground in spite of thy work.When thou dost cultivate it, it will not yield thee its strength. Thorns andthistles shall it bring forth to thee, and in the sweat of thy face shalt thoueat bread. Thou wilt suffer many a hardship, thou wilt grow weary, and yet findno rest. Bitterly oppressed, thou shalt never taste of any sweetness. Thoushalt be scourged by heat, and yet pinched by cold. Thou shalt toil greatly,and yet not gain wealth. Thou shalt grow fat, and yet cease to live. And theanimals over which thou art the master will rise up against thee, because thoudidst not keep my command."[127]

Upon me God pronounced this sentence: "Thou shalt suffer anguish in childbirthand grievous torture. In sorrow shalt thou bring forth children, and in thehour of travail, when thou art near to lose thy life, thou wilt confess andcry, 'Lord, Lord, save me this time, and I will never again indulge in carnalpleasure,' and yet thy desire shall ever and ever be unto thy husband."[128]

At the same time all sorts of diseases were decreed upon us. God said to Adam:"Because thou didst turn aside from My covenant, I will inflict seventy plaguesupon thy flesh. The pain of the first plague shall lay hold on thy eyes; thepain of the second plague upon thy hearing, and one after the other all theplagues shall come upon thee."[129] The serpent God addressed thus: "Becausethou becamest the vessel of the Evil One,[130] deceiving the innocent, cursedart thou above all cattle and above every beast of the field. Thou shalt berobbed of the food thou wast wont to eat, and dust shalt thou eat all the daysof thy life. Upon thy breast and thy belly shalt thou go, and of thy hands andthy feet thou shalt be deprived. Thou shalt not remain in possession of thyears, nor of thy wings, nor of any of thy limbs wherewith thou didst seduce thewoman and her husband, bringing them to such a pass that they must be drivenforth from Paradise. And I will put enmity between thee and the seed of man. Itshall bruise thy head, and, thou shalt bruise his heel until the day ofjudgment."[131]

THE DEATH OF ADAM

On the last day of Adam's life, Eve said to him, "Why should I go on living,when thou art no more? How long shall I have to linger on after thy death? Tellme this!" Adam assured her she would not tarry long. They would die together,and be buried together in the same place. He commanded her not to touch hiscorpse until an angel from God had made provision regarding it, and she was tobegin at once to pray to God until his soul escaped from his body.

While Eve was on her knees in prayer, an angel came,[132] and bade her rise."Eve, arise from thy penance," he commanded. "Behold, thy husband hath left hismortal coil. Arise, and see his spirit go up to his Creator, to appear beforeHim." And, lo, she beheld a chariot of light, drawn by four shining eagles, andpreceded by angels. In this chariot lay the soul of Adam, which the angels weretaking to heaven. Arrived there, they burnt incense until the clouds of smokeenveloped the heavens. Then they prayed to God to have mercy upon His image andthe work of His holy hands. In her awe and fright, Eve summoned Seth, and shebade him look upon the vision and explain the celestial sights beyond herunderstanding. She asked, "Who may the two Ethiopians be, who are adding theirprayers to thy father's?" Seth told her, they were the sun and the moon, turnedso black because they could not shine in the face of the Father of light.[133]Scarcely had he spoken, when an angel blew a trumpet, and all the angels criedout with awful voices, "Blessed be the glory of the Lord by His creatures, forHe has shown mercy unto Adam, the work of His hands!" A seraph then seizedAdam, and carried him off to the river Acheron, washed him three times, andbrought him before the presence of God, who sat upon His throne, and,stretching out His hand, lifted Adam up and gave him over to the archangelMichael, with the words, "Raise him to the Paradise of the third heaven, andthere thou shalt leave him until the great and fearful day ordained by Me."Michael executed the Divine behest, and all the angels sang a song of praise,extolling God for the pardon He had accorded Adam.

Michael now entreated God to let him attend to the preparation of Adam's bodyfor the grave. Permission being given, Michael repaired to earth, accompaniedby all the angels. When they entered the terrestrial Paradise, all the treesblossomed forth, and the perfume wafted thence lulled all men into slumberexcept Seth alone. Then God said to Adam, as his body lay on the ground: "Ifthou hadst kept My commandment, they would not rejoice who brought thee hither.But I tell thee, I will turn the joy of Satan and his consorts into sorrow, andthy sorrow shall be turned into joy. I will restore thee to thy dominion, andthou shalt sit upon the throne of thy seducer, while he shall be damned, withthose who hearken unto him."[134]

Thereupon, at the bidding of God, the three great archangels[135] covered thebody of Adam with linen, and poured sweet-smelling oil upon it. With it theyinterred also the body of Abel, which had lain unburied since Cain had slainhim, for all the murderer's efforts to hide it had been in vain. The corpseagain and again sprang forth from the earth, and a voice issued thence,proclaiming, "No creature shall rest in the earth until the first one of allhas returned the dust to me of which it was formed."[136] The angels carriedthe two bodies to Paradise, Adam's and Abel's—the latter had all this time beenlying on a stone on which angels had placed it—and they buried them both on thespot whence God had taken the dust wherewith to make Adam.[137]

God called unto the body of Adam, "Adam! Adam!" and it answered, "Lord, here amI!" Then God said: "I told thee once, Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thoureturn. Now I promise thee resurrection. I will awaken thee on the day ofjudgment, when all the generations of men that spring from thy loins, shallarise from the grave." God then sealed up the grave, that none might do himharm during the six days to elapse until his rib should be restored to himthrough the death of Eve.[138]

THE DEATH OF EVE

The interval between Adam's death and her own Eve spent in weeping. She wasdistressed in particular that she knew not what had become of Adam's body, fornone except Seth had been awake while the angel interred it. When the hour ofher death drew nigh, Eve supplicated to be buried in the selfsame spot in whichthe remains of her husband rested. She prayed to God: "Lord of all powers!Remove not Thy maid-servant from the body of Adam, from which Thou didst takeme, from whose limbs Thou didst form me. Permit me, who am an unworthy andsinning woman, to enter into his habitation. As we were together in Paradise,neither separated from the other; as together we were tempted to transgress Thylaw, neither separated from the other, so, O Lord, separate us not now." To theend of her prayer she added the petition, raising her eyes heavenward, "Lord ofthe world! Receive my spirit!" and she gave up her soul to God.

The archangel Michael came and taught Seth how to prepare Eve for burial, andthree angels descended and interred her body in the grave with Adam and Abel.Then Michael spoke to Seth, "Thus shalt thou bury all men that die until theresurrection day." And again, having given him this command, he spoke: "Longerthan six days ye shall not mourn.[139] The repose of the seventh day is thetoken of the resurrection in the latter day, for on the seventh day the Lordrested from all the work which He had created and made."[140]

Though death was brought into the world through Adam, yet he cannot be heldresponsible for the death of men. Once on a time he said to God: "I am notconcerned about the death of the wicked, but I should not like the pious toreproach me and lay the blame for their death upon me. I pray Thee, make nomention of my guilt." And God promised to fulfil his wish. Therefore, when aman is about to die, God appears to him, and bids him set down in writing allhe has done during his life, for, He tells him, "Thou art dying by reason ofthy evil deeds." The record finished, God orders him to seal it with his seal.This is the writing God will bring out on the judgment day, and to each will bemade known his deeds.[141] As soon as life is extinct in a man, he is presentedto Adam, whom he accuses of having caused his death. But Adam repudiates thecharge: "I committed but one trespass. Is there any among you, and be he themost pious, who has not been guilty of more than one?"[142]

III
THE TEN GENERATIONS

THE BIRTH OF CAIN

There were ten generations from Adam to Noah, to show how long-suffering is theLord, for all the generations provoked Him unto wrath, until He brought thedeluge upon them.[1] By reason of their impiousness God changed His plan ofcalling one thousand generations into being between the creation of the worldand the revelation of the law at Mount Sinai; nine hundred and seventy-four Hesuppressed before the flood.[2]

Wickedness came into the world with the first being born of woman, Cain, theoldest son of Adam. When God bestowed Paradise upon the first pair of mankind,He warned them particularly against carnal intercourse with each other. Butafter the fall of Eve, Satan, in the guise of the serpent, approached her, andthe fruit of their union was Cain, the ancestor of all the impious generationsthat were rebellious toward God, and rose up against Him. Cain's descent fromSatan, who is the angel Samael, was revealed in his seraphic appearance. At hisbirth, the exclamation was wrung from Eve, "I have gotten a man through anangel of the Lord."[3]

Adam was not in the company of Eve during the time of her pregnancy with Cain.After she had succumbed a second time to the temptations of Satan, andpermitted herself to be interrupted in her penance,[4] she left her husband andjourneyed westward, because she feared her presence might continue to bring himmisery. Adam remained in the east. When the days of Eve to be delivered werefulfilled, and she began to feel the pangs of travailing, she prayed to God forhelp. But He hearkened not unto her supplications. "Who will carry the reportto my lord Adam?" she asked herself. "Ye luminaries in the sky, I beg you, tellit to my master Adam when ye return to the east!" In that self same hour, Adamcried out: "The lamentation of Eve has pierced to my ear! Mayhap the serpenthas again assaulted her," and he hastened to his wife. Finding her in grievouspain, he besought God in her behalf, and twelve angels appeared, together withtwo heavenly powers.[5] All these took up their post to right of her and toleft of her, while Michael, also standing on her right side, passed his handover her, from her face downward to her breast, and said to her, "Be thoublessed, Eve, for the sake of Adam. Because of his solicitations and hisprayers I was sent to grant thee our assistance. Make ready to give birth tothy child!" Immediately her son was born, a radiant figure.[6] A little whileand the babe stood upon his feet, ran off, and returned holding in his hands astalk of straw, which he gave to his mother. For this reason he was named Cain,the Hebrew word for stalk of straw.

Now Adam took Eve and the boy to his home in the east. God sent him variouskinds of seeds by the hand of the angel Michael, and he was taught how tocultivate the ground and make it yield produce and fruits, to sustain himselfand his family and his posterity.[7]

After a while, Eve bore her second son, whom she named Hebel, because, shesaid, he was born but to die.

FRATRICIDE

The slaying of Abel by Cain did not come as a wholly unexpected event to hisparents. In a dream Eve had seen the blood of Abel flow into the mouth of Cain,who drank it with avidity, though his brother entreated him not to take all.When she told her dream to Adam, he said, lamenting, "O that this may notportend the death of Abel at the hand of Cain!" He separated the two lads,assigning to each an abode of his own, and to each he taught a differentoccupation. Cain became a tiller of the ground, and Abel a keeper of sheep. Itwas all in vain. In spite of these precautions, Cain slew his brother.[9]

His hostility toward Abel had more than one reason. It began when God hadrespect unto the offering of Abel, and accepted it by sending heavenly firedown to consume it, while the offering of Cain was rejected.[10] They broughttheir sacrifices on the fourteenth day of Nisan, at the instance of theirfather, who had spoken thus to his sons: "This is the day on which, in times tocome, Israel will offer sacrifices. Therefore, do ye, too, bring sacrifices toyour Creator on this day, that He may take pleasure in you." The place ofoffering which they chose was the spot whereon the altar of the Temple atJerusalem stood later.[11] Abel selected the best of his flocks for hissacrifice, but Cain ate his meal first, and after he had satisfied hisappetite, he offered unto God what was left over, a few grains of flax seed. Asthough his offense had not been great enough in offering unto God fruit of theground which had been cursed by God![12] What wonder that his sacrifice was notreceived with favor! Besides, a chastisement was inflicted upon him. His faceturned black as smoke.[13] Nevertheless, his disposition underwent no change,even when God spoke to him thus: "If thou wilt amend thy ways, thy guilt willbe forgiven thee; if not, thou wilt be delivered into the power of the evilinclination. It coucheth at the door of thy heart, yet it depends upon theewhether thou shalt be master over it, or it shall be master over thee."[14]

Cain thought he had been wronged, and a dispute followed between him and Abel."I believed," he said, "that the world was created through goodness,[15] but Isee that good deeds bear no fruit. God rules the world with arbitrary power,else why had He respect unto thy offering, and not unto mine also?" Abelopposed him; he maintained that God rewards good deeds, without having respectunto persons. If his sacrifice had been accepted graciously by God, and Cain'snot, it was because his deeds were good, and his brother's wicked.[16]

But this was not the only cause of Cain's hatred toward Abel. Partly love for awoman brought about the crime. To ensure the propagation of the human race, agirl, destined to be his wife, was born together with each of the sons of Adam.Abel's twin sister was of exquisite beauty, and Cain desired her.[17] Thereforehe was constantly brooding over ways and means of ridding himself of hisbrother.

The opportunity presented itself ere long. One day a sheep belonging to Abeltramped over a field that had been planted by Cain. In a rage, the lattercalled out, "What right hast thou to live upon my land and let thy sheeppasture yonder?" Abel retorted: "What right hast thou to use the products of mysheep, to make garments for thyself from their wool? If thou wilt take off thewool of my sheep wherein thou art arrayed, and wilt pay me for the flesh of theflocks which thou hast eaten, then I will quit thy land as thou desirest, andfly into the air, if I can do it." Cain thereupon said, "And if I were to killthee, who is there to demand thy blood of me?" Abel replied: "God, who broughtus into the world, will avenge me. He will require my blood at thine hand, ifthou shouldst slay me. God is the Judge, who will visit their wicked deeds uponthe wicked, and their evil deeds upon the evil. Shouldst thou slay me, God willknow thy secret, and He will deal out punishment unto thee."

These words but added to the anger of Cain, and he threw himself upon hisbrother.[18] Abel was stronger than he, and he would have got the worst of it,but at the last moment he begged for mercy, and the gentle Abel released hishold upon him. Scarcely did he feel himself free, when he turned against Abelonce more, and slew him. So true is the saying, "Do the evil no good, lest evilfall upon thee."[19]

THE PUNISHMENT OF CAIN

The manner of Abel's death was the most cruel conceivable. Not knowing whatinjury was fatal, Cain pelted all parts of his body with stones, until onestruck him on the neck and inflicted death.

After committing the murder, Cain resolved to flee, saying, "My parents willdemand account of me concerning Abel, for there is no other human being onearth." This thought had but passed through his mind when God appeared untohim, and addressed him in these words: "Before thy parents thou canst flee, butcanst thou go out from My presence, too? 'Can any hide himself in secret placesthat I shall not see him?' Alas for Abel that he showed thee mercy, andrefrained from killing thee, when he had thee in his power! Alas that hegranted thee the opportunity of slaying him!"

Questioned by God, "Where is Abel thy brother?" Cain answered: "Am I mybrother's keeper? Thou art He who holdest watch over all creatures, and yetThou demandest account of me! True, I slew him, but Thou didst create the evilinclination in me. Thou guardest all things; why, then, didst Thou permit me toslay him? Thou didst Thyself slay him, for hadst Thou looked with a favorablecountenance toward my offering as toward his, I had had no reason for envyinghim, and I had not slain him." But God said, "The voice of thy brother's bloodissuing from his many wounds crieth out against thee,[20] and likewise theblood of all the pious who might have sprung from the loins of Abel."

Also the soul of Abel denounced the murderer, for she could find rest nowhere.She could neither soar heavenward, nor abide in the grave with her body, for nohuman soul had done either before.[21] But Cain still refused to confess hisguilt. He insisted that he had never seen a man killed, and how was he tosuppose that the stones which he threw at Abel would take his life? Then, onaccount of Cain, God cursed the ground, that it might not yield fruit untohim.[22] With a single punishment both Cain and the earth were chastised, theearth because it retained the corpse of Abel, and did not cast it aboveground.[23]

In the obduracy of his heart, Cain spake: "O Lord of the world! Are thereinformers who denounce men before Thee? My parents are the only living humanbeings, and they know naught of my deed. Thou abidest in the heavens, and howshouldst Thou know what things happen on earth?" God said in reply: "Thou fool!I carry the whole world. I have made it, and I will bear it"—a reply that gaveCain the opportunity of feigning repentance. "Thou bearest the whole world," hesaid, "and my sin Thou canst not bear?[24] Verily, mine iniquity is too greatto be borne! Yet, yesterday Thou didst banish my father from Thy presence,to-day Thou dost banish me. In sooth, it will be said, it is Thy way tobanish."[25]

Although this was but dissimulation, and not true repentance, yet God grantedCain pardon, and removed the half of his chastisement from him. Originally, thedecree had condemned him to be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth. Now hewas no longer to roam about forever, but a fugitive he was to remain. And somuch was hard enough to have to suffer, for the earth quaked under Cain, andall the animals, the wild and the tame, among them the accursed serpent,gathered together and essayed to devour him in order to avenge the innocentblood of Abel. Finally Cain could bear it no longer, and, breaking out intears, he cried: "Whither shall I go from Thy spirit? Or whither shall I fleefrom Thy presence?"[26] To protect him from the onslaught of the beasts, Godinscribed one letter of His Holy Name upon his forehead, and furthermore Headdressed the animals: "Cain's punishment shall not be like unto the punishmentof future murderers. He has shed blood, but there was none to give himinstruction. Henceforth, however, he who slays another shall himself be slain."Then God gave him the dog as a protection against the wild beasts, and to markhim as a sinner, He afflicted him with leprosy.

Cain's repentance, insincere though it was, bore a good result. When Adam methim, and inquired what doom had been decreed against him, Cain told how hisrepentance had propitiated God, and Adam exclaimed, "So potent is repentance,and I knew it not!" Thereupon he composed a hymn of praise to God, beginningwith the words, "It is a good thing to confess thy sins unto the Lord!"[29]

The crime committed by Cain had baneful consequences, not for himself alone,but for the whole of nature also. Before, the fruits which the earth bore untohim when he tilled the ground had tasted like the fruits of Paradise. Now hislabor produced naught but thorns and thistles.[29] The ground changed anddeteriorated at the very moment of Abel's violent end. The trees and the plantsin the part of the earth whereon the victim lived refused to yield theirfruits, on account of their grief over him, and only at the birth of Seth thosethat grew in the portion belonging to Abel began to flourish and bear again.But never did they resume their former powers. While, before, the vine hadborne nine hundred and twenty-six different varieties of fruit, it now broughtforth but one kind. And so it was with all other species. They will regaintheir pristine powers only in the world to come.[30]

Nature was modified also by the burial of the corpse of Abel. For a long timeit lay there exposed, above ground, because Adam and Eve knew not what to dowith it. They sat beside it and wept, while the faithful dog of Abel kept guardthat birds and beasts did it no harm. On a sudden, the mourning parentsobserved how a raven scratched the earth away in one spot, and then hid a deadbird of his own kind in the ground. Adam, following the example of the raven,buried the body of Abel, and the raven was rewarded by God. His young are bornwith white feathers, wherefore the old birds desert them, not recognizing themas their offspring. They take them for serpents. God feeds them until theirplumage turns black, and the parent birds return to them. As an additionalreward, God grants their petition when the ravens pray for rain.[31]

THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEVEN EARTHS

When Adam was cast out of Paradise, he first reached the lowest of the sevenearths, the Erez, which is dark, without a ray of light, and utterly void. Adamwas terrified, particularly by the flames of the ever-turning sword, which ison this earth. After he had done penance, God led him to the second earth, theAdamah, where there is light reflected from its own sky and from itsphantom-like stars and constellations. Here dwell the phantom-like beings thatissued from the union of Adam with the spirits. They are always sad; theemotion of joy is not known to them. They leave their own earth and repair tothe one inhabited by men, where they are changed into evil spirits. Then theyreturn to their abode for good, repent of their wicked deeds, and till theground, which, however, bears neither wheat nor any other of the sevenspecies.[34] In this Adamah, Cain, Abel, and Seth were born. After the murderof Abel, Cain was sent back to the Erez, where he was frightened intorepentance by its darkness and by the flames of the ever-turning sword.Accepting his penitence, God permitted him to ascend to the third earth, theArka, which receives some light from the sun. The Arka was surrendered to theCainites forever, as their perpetual domain. They till the ground, and planttrees, but they have neither wheat nor any other of the seven species.

Some of the Cainites are giants, some of them are dwarfs. They have two heads,wherefore they can never arrive at a decision; they are always at loggerheadswith themselves.[34] It may happen that they are pious now, only to be inclinedto do evil the next moment.

In the Ge, the fourth earth, live the generation of the Tower of Babel andtheir descendants. God banished them thither because the fourth earth is notfar from Gehenna, and therefore close to the flaming fire.[35] The inhabitantsof the Ge are skilful in all arts, and accomplished in all departments ofscience and knowledge, and their abode overflows with wealth. When aninhabitant of our earth visits them, they give him the most precious thing intheir possession, but then they lead him to the Neshiah, the fifth earth, wherehe becomes oblivious of his origin and his home. The Neshiah is inhabited bydwarfs without noses; they breathe through two holes instead. They have nomemory; once a thing has happened, they forget it completely, whence theirearth is called Neshiah, "forgetting." The fourth and fifth earths are like theArka; they have trees, but neither wheat nor any other of the seven species.

The sixth earth, the Ziah, is inhabited by handsome men, who are the owners ofabundant wealth, and live in palatial residences, but they lack water, as thename of their territory, Ziah, "drought," indicates. Hence vegetation is sparsewith them, and their tree culture meets with indifferent success. They hastento any waterspring that is discovered, and sometimes they succeed in slippingthrough it up to our earth, where they satisfy their sharp appetite for thefood eaten by the inhabitants of our earth. For the rest, they are men ofsteadfast faith, more than any other class of mankind.[36]

Adam remained in the Adamah until after the birth of Seth. Then, passing thethird earth, the Arka, the abiding place of the Cainites, and the next threeearths as well, the Ge, the Neshiah, and the Ziah, God transported him to theTebel, the seventh earth, the earth inhabited by men.

THE DESCENDANTS OF CAIN

Cain knew only too well that his blood-guiltiness would be visited upon him inthe seventh generation. Thus had God decreed against him.[37] He endeavored,therefore, to immortalize his name by means of monuments,[38] and he became abuilder of cities. The first of them he called Enoch, after his son, because itwas at the birth of Enoch that he began to enjoy a measure of rest andpeace.[39] Besides, he founded six other cities.[40] This building of citieswas a godless deed, for he surrounded them with a wall, forcing his family toremain within. All his other doings were equally impious. The punishment Godhad ordained for him did not effect any improvement. He sinned in order tosecure his own pleasure, though his neighbors suffered injury thereby. Heaugmented his household substance by rapine and violence; he excited hisacquaintances to procure pleasures and spoils by robbery, and he became a greatleader of men into wicked courses. He also introduced a change in the ways ofsimplicity wherein men had lived before, and he was the author of measures andweights. And whereas men lived innocently and generously while they knewnothing of such arts, he changed the world into cunning craftiness.[41]

Like unto Cain were all his descendants, impious and godless, wherefore Godresolved to destroy them.[42]

The end of Cain overtook him in the seventh generation of men, and it wasinflicted upon him by the hand of his great-grandson Lamech. This Lamech wasblind, and when he went a-hunting, he was led by his young son, who wouldapprise his father when game came in sight, and Lamech would then shoot at itwith his bow and arrow. Once upon a time he and his son went on the chase, andthe lad discerned something horned in the distance. He naturally took it to bea beast of one kind or another, and he told the blind Lamech to let his arrowfly. The aim was good, and the quarry dropped to the ground. When they cameclose to the victim, the lad exclaimed: "Father, thou hast killed somethingthat resembles a human being in all respects, except it carries a horn on itsforehead!" Lamech knew at once what had happened—he had killed his ancestorCain, who had been marked by God with a horn.[43] In despair he smote his handstogether, inadvertently killing his son as he clasped them. Misfortune stillfollowed upon misfortune. The earth opened her mouth and swallowed up the fourgenerations sprung from Cain—Enoch, Irad, Mehujael, and Methushael. Lamech,sightless as he was, could not go home; he had to remain by the side of Cain'scorpse and his son's. Toward evening, his wives, seeking him, found him there.When they heard what he had done, they wanted to separate from him, all themore as they knew that whoever was descended from Cain was doomed toannihilation. But Lamech argued, "If Cain, who committed murder of maliceaforethought, was punished only in the seventh generation, then I, who had nointention of killing a human being, may hope that retribution will be avertedfor seventy and seven generations." With his wives, Lamech repaired to Adam,who heard both parties, and decided the case in favor of Lamech.[44]

The corruptness of the times, and especially the depravity of Cain's stock,appears in the fact that Lamech, as well as all the men in the generation ofthe deluge, married two wives, one with the purpose of rearing children, theother in order to pursue carnal indulgences, for which reason the latter wasrendered sterile by artificial means. As the men of the time were intent uponpleasure rather than desirous of doing their duty to the human race, they gaveall their love and attention to the barren women, while their other wives spenttheir days like widows, joyless and in gloom.

The two wives of Lamech, Adah and Zillah, bore him each two children, Adah twosons, Jabal and Jubal, and Zillah a son, Tubal-cain, and a daughter, Naamah.Jabal was the first among men to erect temples to idols, and Jubal invented themusic sung and played therein. Tubal-cain was rightly named, for he completedthe work of his ancestor Cain. Cain committed murder, and Tubal-cain, the firstwho knew how to sharpen iron and copper, furnished the instruments used in warsand combats. Naamah, "the lovely," earned her name from the sweet sounds whichshe drew from her cymbals when she called the worshippers to pay homage toidols.[45]

THE DESCENDANTS OF ADAM AND LILITH

When the wives of Lamech heard the decision of Adam, that they were to continueto live with their husband, they turned upon him, saying, "O physician, healthine own lameness!" They were alluding to the fact that he himself had beenliving apart from his wife since the death of Abel, for he had said, "Whyshould I beget children, if it is but to expose them to death?"[46]

Though he avoided intercourse with Eve, he was visited in his sleep by femalespirits, and from his union with them sprang shades and demons of variouskinds,[47] and they were endowed with peculiar gifts.

Once upon a time there lived in Palestine a very rich and pious man, who had ason named Rabbi Hanina. He knew the whole of the Torah by heart. When he was atthe point of death, he sent for his son, Rabbi Hanina, and bade him, as hislast request, to study the Torah day and night, fulfil the commands of the law,and be a faithful friend to the poor. He also told him that he and his wife,the mother of Rabbi Hanina, would die on the selfsame day, and the seven daysof mourning for the two would end on the eve of the Passover. He enjoined himnot to grieve excessively, but to go to market on that day, and buy the firstarticle offered to him, no matter how costly it might be. If it happened to bean edible, he was to prepare it and serve it with much ceremony. His expenseand trouble would receive their recompense. All happened as foretold: the manand his wife died upon the same day, and the end of the week of mourningcoincided with the eve of the Passover. The son in turn carried out hisfather's behest: he repaired to market, and there he met an old man who offereda silver dish for sale. Although the price asked was exorbitant, yet he boughtit, as his father had bidden. The dish was set upon the Seder table, and whenRabbi Hanina opened it, he found a second dish within, and inside of this alive frog, jumping and hopping around gleefully. He gave the frog food anddrink, and by the end of the festival he was grown so big that Rabbi Haninamade a cabinet for him, in which he ate and lived. In the course of time, thecabinet became too small, and the Rabbi built a chamber, put the frog within,and gave him abundant food and drink. All this he did that he might not violatehis father's last wish. But the frog waxed and grew; he consumed all his hostowned, until, finally, Rabbi Hanina was stripped bare of all his possessions.Then the frog opened his mouth and began to speak. "My dear Rabbi Hanina," hesaid, "do not worry! Seeing thou didst raise me and care for me, thou mayestask of me whatever thy heart desireth, and it shall be granted thee." RabbiHanina made reply, "I desire naught but that thou shouldst teach me the wholeof the Torah." The frog assented, and he did, indeed, teach him the whole ofthe Torah, and the seventy languages of men besides.[48] His method was towrite a few words upon a scrap of paper, which he had his pupil swallow. Thushe acquired not alone the Torah and the seventy tongues, but also the languageof beasts and birds. Thereupon the frog spoke to the wife of Rabbi Hanina:"Thou didst tend me well, and I have given thee no recompense. But thy rewardwill be paid thee before I depart from you, only you must both accompany me tothe woods. There you shall see what I shall do for you." Accordingly, they wentto the woods with him. Arrived there, the frog began to cry aloud, and at thesound all sorts of beasts and birds assembled. These he commanded to produceprecious stones, as many as they could carry. Also they were to bring herbs androots for the wife of Rabbi Hanina, and he taught her how to use them asremedies for all varieties of disease. All this they were bidden to take homewith them. When they were about to return, the frog addressed them thus: "Maythe Holy One, blessed be He, have mercy upon you, and requite you for all thetrouble you took on my account, without so much as inquiring who I am. Now Ishall make my origin known to you. I am the son of Adam, a son whom he begotduring the hundred and thirty years of his separation from Eve. God has endowedme with the power of assuming any form or guise I desire." Rabbi Hanina and hiswife departed for their home, and they became very rich, and enjoyed therespect and confidence of the king.[49]

SETH AND HIS DESCENDANTS

The exhortations of the wives of Lamech took effect upon Adam. After aseparation of one hundred and thirty years, he returned to Eve, and the love henow bore her was stronger by far than in the former time. She was in histhoughts even when she was not present to him bodily. The fruit of theirreunion was Seth, who was destined to be the ancestor of the Messiah.[50]

Seth was so formed from birth that the rite of circumcision could be dispensedwith. He was thus one of the thirteen men born perfect in a way.[51] Adam begothim in his likeness and image, different from Cain, who had not been in hislikeness and image. Thus Seth became, in a genuine sense, the father of thehuman race, especially the father of the pious, while the depraved and godlessare descended from Cain.[52]

Even during the lifetime of Adam the descendants of Cain became exceedinglywicked, dying successively, one after another, each more wicked than theformer. They were intolerable in war, and vehement in robberies, and if any onewere slow to murder people, yet was he bold in his profligate behavior inacting unjustly and doing injury for gain.

Now as to Seth. When he was brought up, and came to those years in which hecould discern what was good, he became a virtuous man, and as he was himself ofexcellent character, so he left children behind him who imitated his virtues.All these proved to be of good disposition. They also inhabited one and thesame country without dissensions, and in a happy condition, without anymisfortune's falling upon them, until they died. They also were the inventorsof that peculiar sort of wisdom which is concerned with the heavenly bodies andtheir order. And that their inventions might not be lost before they weresufficiently known, they made two pillars, upon Adam's prediction that theworld was to be destroyed at one time by the force of fire and at another timeby the violence and quantity of water. The one was of brick, the other ofstone, and they inscribed their discoveries on both, that in case the pillar ofbrick should be destroyed by the flood, the pillar of stone might remain, andexhibit these discoveries to mankind, and also inform them that there wasanother pillar, of brick, erected by them.[53]

ENOSH

Enosh was asked who his father was, and he named Seth. The questioners, thepeople of his time, continued: "Who was the father of Seth?" Enosh:"Adam."—"And who was the father of Adam?"—"He had neither father nor mother,God formed him from the dust of the earth."—"But man has not the appearance ofdust!"—"After death man returns to dust, as God said, 'And man shall turn againunto dust;' but on the day of his creation, man was made in the image ofGod."—"How was the woman created?"—"Male and female He created them."—"Buthow?"—"God took water and earth, and moulded them together in the form ofman."—"But how?" pursued the questioners.

Enosh took six clods of earth, mixed them, and moulded them, and formed animage of dust and clay. "But," said the people, "this image does not walk, nordoes it possess any breath of life." He then essayed to show them how Godbreathed the breath of life into the nostrils of Adam, but when he began toblow his breath into the image he had formed, Satan entered it, and the figurewalked, and the people of his time who had been inquiring these matters ofEnosh went astray after it, saying, "What is the difference between bowing downbefore this image and paying homage to a man?"[54]

The generation of Enosh were thus the first idol worshippers, and thepunishment for their folly was not delayed long. God caused the sea totransgress its bounds, and a portion of the earth was flooded. This was thetime also when the mountains became rocks, and the dead bodies of men began todecay. And still another consequence of the sin of idolatry was that thecountenances of the men of the following generations were no longer in thelikeness and image of God, as the countenances of Adam, Seth, and Enosh hadbeen. They resembled centaurs and apes, and the demons lost their fear ofmen.[55]

But there was a still more serious consequence from the idolatrous practicesintroduced in the time of Enosh. When God drove Adam forth from Paradise, theShekinah remained behind, enthroned above a cherub under the tree of life. Theangels descended from heaven and repaired thither in hosts, to receive theirinstructions, and Adam and his descendants sat by the gate to bask in thesplendor of the Shekinah, sixty-five thousand times more radiant than thesplendor of the sun. This brightness of the Shekinah makes all upon whom itfalls exempt from disease, and neither insects nor demons can come nigh untothem to do them harm.

Thus it was until the time of Enosh, when men began to gather gold, silver,gems, and pearls from all parts of the earth, and made idols thereof a thousandparasangs high. What was worse, by means of the magic arts taught them by theangels Uzza and Azzael, they set themselves as masters over the heavenlyspheres, and forced the sun, the moon, and the stars to be subservient tothemselves instead of the Lord. This impelled the angels to ask God: "'What isman, that Thou art mindful of him?' Why didst Thou abandon the highest of theheavens, the seat of Thy glory and Thy exalted Throne in 'Arabot, and descendto men, who pay worship to idols, putting Thee upon a level with them?" TheShekinah was induced to leave the earth and ascend to heaven, amid the blareand flourish of the trumpets of the myriads of angel hosts.[56]

THE FALL OF THE ANGELS

The depravity of mankind, which began to show itself in the time of Enosh, hadincreased monstrously in the time of his grandson Jared, by reason of thefallen angels. When the angels saw the beautiful, attractive daughters of men,they lusted after them, and spoke: "We will choose wives for ourselves onlyfrom among the daughters of men, and beget children with them." Their chiefShemhazai said, "I fear me, ye will not put this plan of yours into execution,and I alone shall have to suffer the consequences of a great sin." Then theyanswered him, and said: "We will all swear an oath, and we will bind ourselves,separately and together, not to abandon the plan, but to carry it through tothe end."

Two hundred angels descended to the summit of Mount Hermon, which owes its nameto this very occurrence, because they bound themselves there to fulfil theirpurpose, on the penalty of Herem, anathema. Under the leadership of twentycaptains they defiled themselves with the daughters of men, unto whom theytaught charms, conjuring formulas, how to cut roots, and the efficacy ofplants. The issue from these mixed marriages was a race of giants, threethousand ells tall, who consumed the possessions of men. When all had vanished,and they could obtain nothing more from them, the giants turned against men anddevoured many of them, and the remnant of men began to trespass against thebirds, beasts, reptiles, and fishes, eating their flesh and drinking theirblood.

Then the earth complained about the impious evil-doers. But the fallen angelscontinued to corrupt mankind. Azazel taught men how to make slaughteringknives, arms, shields, and coats of mail. He showed them metals and how to workthem, and armlets and all sorts of trinkets, and the use of rouge for the eyes,and how to beautify the eyelids, and how to ornament themselves with the rarestand most precious jewels and all sorts of paints. The chief of the fallenangels, Shemhazai, instructed them in exorcisms and how to cut roots; Armarostaught them how to raise spells; Barakel, divination from the stars; Kawkabel,astrology; Ezekeel, augury from the clouds; Arakiel, the signs of the earth;Samsaweel, the signs of the sun; and Seriel, the signs of the moon.[57]

While all these abominations defiled the earth, the pious Enoch lived in asecret place. None among men knew his abode, or what had become of him, for hewas sojourning with the angel watchers and holy ones. Once he heard the calladdressed to him: "Enoch, thou scribe of justice, go unto the watchers of theheavens, who have left the high heavens, the eternal place of holiness,defiling themselves with women, doing as men do, taking wives unto themselves,and casting themselves into the arms of destruction upon earth. Go and proclaimunto them that they shall find neither peace nor pardon. For every time theytake joy in their offspring, they shall see the violent death of their sons,and sigh over the ruin of their children. They will pray and supplicateevermore, but never shall they attain to mercy or peace."

Enoch repaired to Azazel and the other fallen angels, to announce the doomuttered against them. They all were filled with fear. Trembling seized uponthem, and they implored Enoch to set up a petition for them and read it to theLord of heaven, for they could not speak with God as aforetime, nor even raisetheir eyes heavenward, for shame on account of their sins. Enoch granted theirrequest, and in a vision he was vouchsafed the answer which he was to carryback to the angels. It appeared to Enoch that he was wafted into heaven uponclouds, and was set down before the throne of God. God spake: "Go forth and sayto the watchers of heaven who have sent thee hither to intercede for them:Verily, it is you who ought to plead in behalf of men, not men in behalf of youI Why did ye forsake the high, holy, and eternal heavens, to pollute yourselveswith the daughters of men, taking wives unto yourselves, doing like the racesof the earth, and begetting giant sons? Giants begotten by flesh and spiritswill be called evil spirits on earth, and on the earth will be theirdwelling-place. Evil spirits proceed from their bodies, because they arecreated from above, and from the holy watchers is their beginning and primalorigin; they will be evil spirits on earth, and evil spirits they will benamed. And the spirits of heaven have their dwelling in heaven, but the spiritsof the earth, which were born upon the earth, have their dwelling on the earth.And the spirits of the giants will devour, oppress, destroy, attack, do battle,and cause destruction on the earth, and work affliction. They will take no kindof food, nor will they thirst, and they will be invisible. And these spiritswill rise up against the children of men and against the women, because theyhave proceeded from them. Since the days of murder and destruction and thedeath of the giants, when the spirits went forth from the soul of their flesh,in order to destroy without incurring judgment—thus will they destroy until theday when the great consummation of the great world be consummated. And now asto the watchers who have sent thee to intercede for them, who had beenaforetime in heaven, say to them: You have been in heaven, and though thehidden things had not yet been revealed to you, you know worthless mysteries,and in the hardness of your hearts you have recounted these to the women, andthrough these mysteries women and men work much evil on earth. Say to themtherefore: You have no peace!"[58]

ENOCH, RULER AND TEACHER

After Enoch had lived a long time secluded from men, he once heard the voice ofan angel calling to him: "Enoch, Enoch, make thyself ready and leave the houseand the secret place wherein thou hast kept thyself hidden, and assume dominionover men, to teach them the ways in which they shall walk, and the deeds whichthey shall do, in order that they may walk in the ways of God."

Enoch left his retreat and betook himself to the haunts of men. He gatheredthem about him, and instructed them in the conduct pleasing to God. He sentmessengers all over to announce, "Ye who desire to know the ways of God andrighteous conduct, come ye to Enoch!" Thereupon a vast concourse of peoplethronged about him, to hear the wisdom he would teach and learn from his mouthwhat is good and right. Even kings and princes, no less than one hundred andthirty in number, assembled about him, and submitted themselves to hisdominion, to be taught and guided by him, as he taught and guided all theothers. Peace reigned thus over the whole world all the two hundred andforty-three years during which the influence of Enoch prevailed.

At the expiration of this period, in the year in which Adam died, and wasburied with great honors by Seth, Enosh, Enoch, and Methuselah, Enoch resolvedto retire again from intercourse with men, and devote himself wholly to theservice of God. But he withdrew gradually. First he would spend three days inprayer and praise of God, and on the fourth day he would return to hisdisciples and grant them instruction. Many years passed thus, then he appearedamong them but once a week, later, once a month, and, finally, once a year. Thekings, princes, and all others who were desirous of seeing Enoch and hearkeningto his words did not venture to come close to him during the times of hisretirement. Such awful majesty sat upon his countenance, they feared for theirvery life if they but looked at him. They therefore resolved that all menshould prefer their requests before Enoch on the day he showed himself untothem.

The impression made by the teachings of Enoch upon all who heard them waspowerful. They prostrated themselves before him, and cried "Long live the king!Long live the king!" On a certain day, while Enoch was giving audience to hisfollowers, an angel appeared and made known unto him that God had resolved toinstall him as king over the angels in heaven, as until then he had reignedover men. He called together all the inhabitants of the earth, and addressedthem thus: "I have been summoned to ascend into heaven, and I know not on whatday I shall go thither. Therefore I will teach you wisdom and righteousnessbefore I go hence." A few days yet Enoch spent among men, and all the time leftto him he gave instruction in wisdom, knowledge, God-fearing conduct, andpiety, and established law and order, for the regulation of the affairs of men.Then those gathered near him saw a gigantic steed descend from the skies, andthey told Enoch of it, who said, "The steed is for me, for the time has comeand the day when I leave you, never to be seen again." So it was. The steedapproached Enoch, and he mounted upon its back, all the time instructing thepeople, exhorting them, enjoining them to serve God and walk in His ways. Eighthundred thousand of the people followed a day's journey after him. But on thesecond day Enoch urged his retinue to turn back: "Go ye home, lest deathovertake you, if you follow me farther." Most of them heeded his words and wentback, but a number remained with him for six days, though he admonished themdaily to return and not bring death down upon themselves. On the sixth day ofthe journey, he said to those still accompanying him, "Go ye home, for on themorrow I shall ascend to heaven, and whoever will then be near me, he willdie." Nevertheless, some of his companions remained with him, saying:"Whithersoever thou goest, we will go. By the living God, death alone shallpart us."

On the seventh day Enoch was carried into the heavens in a fiery chariot drawnby fiery chargers. The day thereafter, the kings who had turned back in goodtime sent messengers to inquire into the fate of the men who had refused toseparate themselves from Enoch, for they had noted the number of them. Theyfound snow and great hailstones upon the spot whence Enoch had risen, and, whenthey searched beneath, they discovered the bodies of all who had remainedbehind with Enoch. He alone was not among them; he was on high in heaven.[59]

THE ASCENSION OF ENOCH

This was not the first time Enoch had been in heaven. Once before, while hesojourned among men, he had been permitted to see all there is on earth and inthe heavens. On a time when he was sleeping, a great grief came upon his heart,and he wept in his dream, not knowing what the grief meant, nor what wouldhappen to him. And there appeared to him two men, very tall. Their faces shonelike the sun, and their eyes were like burning lamps, and fire came forth fromtheir lips; their wings were brighter than gold, their hands whiter than snow.They stood at the head of Enoch's bed, and called him by his name. He awokefrom his sleep, and hastened and made obeisance to them, and was terrified. Andthese men said to him: "Be of good cheer, Enoch, be not afraid; the everlastingGod hath sent us to thee, and lo! to-day thou shalt ascend with us into heaven.And tell thy sons and thy servants, and let none seek thee, till the Lord bringthee back to them."

Enoch did as he was told, and after he had spoken to his sons, and instructedthem not to turn aside from God, and to keep His judgment, these two mensummoned him, and took him on their wings, and placed him on the clouds, whichmoved higher and higher, till they set him down in the first heaven. Here theyshowed him the two hundred angels who rule the stars, and their heavenlyservice. Here he saw also the treasuries of snow and ice, of clouds and dew.

From there they took him to the second heaven, where he saw the fallen angelsimprisoned, they who obeyed not the commandments of God, and took counsel oftheir own will. The fallen angels said to Enoch, "O man of God! Pray for us tothe Lord," and he answered: "Who am I, a mortal man, that I should pray forangels? Who knows whither I go, or what awaits me?"

They took him from thence to the third heaven, where they showed him Paradise,with all the trees of beautiful colors, and their fruits, ripe and luscious,and all kinds of food which they produced, springing up with delightfulfragrance. In the midst of Paradise he saw the tree of life, in that place inwhich God rests when He comes into Paradise. This tree cannot be described forits excellence and sweet fragrance, and it is beautiful, more than any createdthing, and on all its sides it is like gold and crimson in appearance, andtransparent as fire, and it covers everything. From its root in the gardenthere go forth four streams, which pour out honey, milk, oil, and wine, andthey go down to the Paradise of Eden, that lies on the confines between theearthly region of corruptibility and the heavenly region of incorruptibility,and thence they go along the earth. He also saw the three hundred angels whokeep the garden, and with never-ceasing voices and blessed singing they servethe Lord every day. The angels leading Enoch explained to him that this placeis prepared for the righteous, while the terrible place prepared for thesinners is in the northern regions of the third heaven. He saw there all sortsof tortures, and impenetrable gloom, and there is no light there, but a gloomyfire is always burning. And all that place has fire on all sides, and on allsides cold and ice, thus it burns and freezes. And the angels, terrible andwithout pity, carry savage weapons, and their torture is unmerciful.

The angels took him then to the fourth heaven, and showed him all the comingsin and goings forth, and all the rays of the light of the sun and the moon. Hesaw the fifteen myriads of angels who go out with the sun, and attend himduring the day, and the thousand angels who attend him by night. Each angel hassix wings, and they go before the chariot of the sun, while one hundred angelskeep the sun warm, and light it up. He saw also the wonderful and strangecreatures named phoenixes and chalkidri, who attend the chariot of the sun, andgo with him, bringing heat and dew. They showed him also the six gates in theeast of the fourth heaven, by which the sun goes forth, and the six gates inthe west where he sets, and also the gates by which the moon goes out, andthose by which she enters. In the middle of the fourth heaven he saw an armedhost, serving the Lord with cymbals and organs and unceasing voices.

In the fifth heaven he saw many hosts of the angels called Grigori. Theirappearance was like men, and their size was greater than the size of thegiants, their countenances were withered, and their lips silent. On hisquestion who they were, the angels leading him answered, "These are theGrigori, who with their prince Salamiel rejected the holy Lord." Enoch thensaid to the Grigori, "Why wait ye, brethren, and serve ye not before the faceof the Lord, and why perform ye not your duties before the face of the Lord,and anger not your Lord to the end?" The Grigori listened to the rebuke, andwhen the trumpets resounded together with a loud call, they also began to singwith one voice, and their voices went forth before the Lord with sadness andtenderness.

In the seventh heaven he saw the seven bands of archangels who arrange andstudy the revolutions of the stars and the changes of the moon and therevolution of the sun, and superintend the good or evil conditions of theworld. And they arrange teachings and instructions and sweet speaking andsinging and all kinds of glorious praise. They hold in subjection all livingthings, both in heaven and on earth. In the midst of them are seven phoenixes,and seven cherubim, and seven six-winged creatures, singing with one voice.

When Enoch reached the seventh heaven, and saw all the fiery hosts of greatarchangels and incorporeal powers and lordships and principalities and powers,he was afraid and trembled with a great terror. Those leading him took hold ofhim, and brought him into the midst of them, and said to him, "Be of goodcheer, Enoch, be not afraid," and they showed him the Lord from afar, sittingon His lofty throne, while all the heavenly hosts, divided in ten classes,having approached, stood on the ten steps according to their rank, and madeobeisance to the Lord. And so they proceeded to their places in joy and mirthand boundless light, singing songs with low and gentle voices, and gloriouslyserving Him. They leave not nor depart day or night, standing before the faceof the Lord, working His will, cherubim and seraphim, standing around Histhrone. And the six-winged creatures overshadow all His throne, singing with asoft voice before the face of the Lord, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord ofhosts; heaven and earth are full of His glory." When he had seen all these, theangels leading him said to him, "Enoch, up to this time we were ordered toaccompany thee." They departed, and he saw them no more. Enoch remained at theextremity of the seventh heaven, in great terror, saying to himself, "Woe isme! What has come upon me!" But then Gabriel came and said unto him, "Enoch, benot afraid, stand up and come with me, and stand up before the face of the Lordforever." And Enoch answered: "O my lord, my spirit has departed from me withfear and trembling. Call the men to me who have brought me to the place! Uponthem I have relied, and with them I would go before the face of the Lord." AndGabriel hurried him away like a leaf carried off by the wind, and set himbefore the face of the Lord. Enoch fell down and worshipped the Lord, who saidto him: "Enoch, be not afraid! Rise up and stand before My face forever." AndMichael lifted him up, and at the command of the Lord took his earthly robefrom him, and anointed him with the holy oil, and clothed him, and when hegazed upon himself, he looked like one of God's glorious ones, and fear andtrembling departed from him. God called then one of His archangels who was morewise than all the others, and wrote down all the doings of the Lord, and Hesaid to him, "Bring forth the books from My store-place, and give a reed toEnoch, and interpret the books to him." The angel did as he was commanded, andhe instructed Enoch thirty days and thirty nights, and his lips never ceasedspeaking, while Enoch was writing down all the things about heaven and earth,angels and men, and all that is suitable to be instructed in. He also wrotedown all about the souls of men, those of them which are not born, and theplaces prepared for them forever. He copied all accurately, and he wrote threehundred and sixty-six books. After he had received all the instructions fromthe archangel, God revealed unto him great secrets, which even the angels donot know. He told him how, out of the lowest darkness, the visible and theinvisible were created, how He formed heaven, light, water, and earth, and alsothe fall of Satan and the creation and sin of Adam He narrated to him, andfurther revealed to him that the duration of the world will be seven thousandyears, and the eighth millennium will be a time when there is no computation,no end, neither years, nor months, nor weeks, nor days, nor hours.

The Lord finished this revelation to Enoch with the words: "And now I give theeSamuil and Raguil, who brought thee to Me. Go with them upon the earth, andtell thy sons what things I have said to thee, and what thou hast seen from thelowest heaven up to My throne. Give them the works written out by thee, andthey shall read them, and shall distribute the books to their children'schildren and from generation to generation and from nation to nation. And Iwill give thee My messenger Michael for thy writings and for the writings ofthy fathers, Adam, Seth, Enosh, Kenan, Mahalalel, and Jared thy father. And Ishall not require them till the last age, for I have instructed My two angels,Ariuk and Mariuk, whom I have put upon the earth as their guardians, and I haveordered them in time to guard them, that the account of what I shall do in thyfamily may not be lost in the deluge to come. For on account of the wickednessand iniquity of men, I will bring a deluge upon the earth, and I will destroyall, but I will leave a righteous man of thy race with all his house, who shallact according to My will. From their seed will be raised up a numerousgeneration, and on the extinction of that family, I will show them the books ofthy writings and of thy father, and the guardians of them on earth will showthem to the men who are true and please Me. And they shall tell to anothergeneration, and they, having read them, shall be glorified at last more thanbefore."

Enoch was then sent to earth to remain there for thirty days to instruct hissons, but before he left heaven, God sent an angel to him whose appearance waslike snow, and his hands were like ice. Enoch looked at him, and his face waschilled, that men might be able to endure the sight of him. The angels who tookhim to heaven put him upon his bed, in the place where his son Methuselah wasexpecting him by day and by night. Enoch assembled his sons and all hishousehold, and instructed them faithfully about all things he had seen, heard,and written down, and he gave his books to his sons, to keep them and readthem, admonishing them not to conceal the books, but tell them to all desiringto know. When the thirty days had been completed, the Lord sent darkness uponthe earth, and there was gloom, and it hid the men standing with Enoch. And theangels hasted and took Enoch, and carried him to the highest heaven, where theLord received him and set him before His face, and the darkness departed fromthe earth, and there was light. And the people saw, and did not understand howEnoch was taken, and they glorified God.

Enoch was born on the sixth day of the month of Siwan, and he was taken toheaven in the same month, Siwan, on the same day and in the same hour when hewas born. And Methuselah hasted and all his brethren, the sons of Enoch, andbuilt an altar in the place called Achuzan, whence Enoch was taken up toheaven. The elders and all the people came to the festivity and brought theirgifts to the sons of Enoch, and made a great festivity, rejoicing and beingmerry for three days, praising God, who had given such a sign by means ofEnoch, who had found favor with them.[60]

THE TRANSLATION OF ENOCH

The sinfulness of men was the reason why Enoch was translated to heaven. ThusEnoch himself told Rabbi Ishmael. When the generation of the delugetransgressed, and spoke to God, saying, "Depart from us, for we do not desireto know Thy ways," Enoch was carried to heaven, to serve there as a witnessthat God was not a cruel God in spite of the destruction decreed upon allliving beings on earth.

When Enoch, under the guidance of the angel 'Anpiel, was carried from earth toheaven, the holy beings, the ofanim, the seraphim, the cherubim, all those whomove the throne of God, and the ministering spirits whose substance is ofconsuming fire, they all, at a distance of six hundred and fifty million andthree hundred parasangs, noticed the presence of a human being, and theyexclaimed: "Whence the odor of one born of woman? How comes he into the highestheaven of the fire-coruscating angels?" But God replied: "O My servants andhosts, ye, My cherubim, ofanim, and seraphim, let this not be an offense untoyou, for all the children of men denied Me and My mighty dominion, and theypaid homage to the idols, so that I transferred the Shekinah from earth toheaven. But this man Enoch is the elect of men. He has more faith, justice, andrighteousness than all the rest, and he is the only reward I have derived fromthe terrestrial world."

Before Enoch could be admitted to service near the Divine throne, the gates ofwisdom were opened unto him, and the gates of understanding, and ofdiscernment, of life, peace, and the Shekinah, of strength and power, of might,loveliness, and grace, of humility and fear of sin. Equipped by God withextraordinary wisdom, sagacity, judgment, knowledge, learning,compassionateness, love, kindness, grace, humility, strength, power, might,splendor, beauty, shapeliness, and all other excellent qualities, beyond theendowment of any of the celestial beings, Enoch received, besides, manythousand blessings from God, and his height and his breadth became equal to theheight and the breadth of the world, and thirty-six wings were attached to hisbody, to the right and to the left, each as large as the world, and threehundred and sixty-five thousand eyes were bestowed upon him, each brilliant asthe sun. A magnificent throne was erected for him beside the gates of theseventh celestial palace, and a herald proclaimed throughout the heavensconcerning him, who was henceforth to be called Metatron in the celestialregions: "I have appointed My servant Metatron as prince and chief over all theprinces in My realm, with the exception only of the eight august and exaltedprinces that bear My name. Whatever angel has a request to prefer to Me, shallappear before Metatron, and what he will command at My bidding, ye must observeand do, for the prince of wisdom and the prince of understanding are at hisservice, and they will reveal unto him the sciences of the celestials and theterrestrials, the knowledge of the present order of the world and the knowledgeof the future order of the world. Furthermore, I have made him the guardian ofthe treasures of the palaces in the heaven 'Arabot, and of the treasures oflife that are in the highest heaven."

Out of the love He bore Enoch, God arrayed him in a magnificent garment, towhich every kind of luminary in existence was attached, and a crown gleamingwith forty-nine jewels, the splendor of which pierced to all parts of the sevenheavens and to the four corners of the earth. In the presence of the heavenlyfamily, He set this crown upon the head of Enoch, and called him "the littleLord." It bears also the letters by means of which heaven and earth werecreated, and seas and rivers, mountains and valleys, planets andconstellations, lightning and thunder, snow and hail, storm and whirlwind—theseand also all things needed in the world, and the mysteries of creation. Eventhe princes of the heavens, when they see Metatron, tremble before him, andprostrate themselves; his magnificence and majesty, the splendor and beautyradiating from him overwhelm them, even the wicked Samael, the greatest ofthem, even Gabriel the angel of the fire, Bardiel the angel of the hail, Ruhielthe angel of the wind, Barkiel the angel of the lightning, Za'miel the angel ofthe hurricane, Zakkiel the angel of the storm, Sui'el the angel of theearthquake, Za'fiel the angel of the showers, Ra'miel the angel of the thunder,Ra'shiel the angel of the whirlwind, Shalgiel the angel of the snow, Matrielthe angel of the rain, Shamshiel the angel of the day, Leliel the angel of thenight, Galgliel the angel of the solar system, Ofaniel the angel of the wheelof the moon, Kokabiel the angel of the stars, and Rahtiel the angel of theconstellations.

When Enoch was transformed into Metatron, his body was turned into celestialfire—his flesh became flame, his veins fire, his bones glimmering coals, thelight of his eyes heavenly brightness, his eyeballs torches of fire, his hair aflaring blaze, all his limbs and organs burning sparks, and his frame aconsuming fire. To right of him sparkled flames of fire, to left of him burnttorches of fire, and on all sides he was engirdled by storm and whirlwind,hurricane and thundering.[61]

METHUSELAH

After the translation of Enoch, Methuselah was proclaimed ruler of the earth byall the kings. He walked in the footsteps of his father, teaching truth,knowledge, and fear of God to the children of men all his life, and deviatingfrom the path of rectitude neither to the right nor the left.[62] He deliveredthe world from thousands of demons, the posterity of Adam which he had begottenwith Lilith, that she-devil of she-devils. These demons and evil spirits, asoften as they encountered a man, had sought to injure and even slay him, untilMethuselah appeared, and supplicated the mercy of God. He spent three days infasting, and then God gave him permission to write the Ineffable Name upon hissword, wherewith he slew ninety-four myriads of the demons in a minute, untilAgrimus, the first-born of them, came to him and entreated him to desist, atthe same time handing the names of the demons and imps over to him. And soMethuselah placed their kings in iron fetters, while the remainder fled awayand hid themselves in the innermost chambers and recesses of the ocean. And itis on account of the wonderful sword by means of which the demons were killedthat he was called Methuselah.[63]

He was so pious a man that he composed two hundred and thirty parables inpraise of God for every word he uttered. When he died, the people heard a greatcommotion in the heavens, and they saw nine hundred rows of mournerscorresponding to the nine hundred orders of the Mishnah which he had studied,and tears flowed from the eyes of the holy beings down upon the spot where hedied. Seeing the grief of the celestials, the people on earth also mourned overthe demise of Methuselah, and God rewarded them therefor. He added seven daysto the time of grace which He had ordained before bringing destruction upon theearth by a flood of waters.[64]

IV
NOAH

THE BIRTH OF NOAH

Methuselah took a wife for his son Lamech, and she bore him a man child. Thebody of the babe was white as snow and red as a blooming rose, and the hair ofhis head and his long locks were white as wool, and his eyes like the rays ofthe sun. When he opened his eyes, he lighted up the whole house, like the sun,and the whole house was very full of light.[1] And when he was taken from thehand of the midwife, he opened his mouth and praised the Lord ofrighteousness.[2] His father Lamech was afraid of him, and fled, and came tohis own father Methuselah. And he said to him: "I have begotten a strange son;he is not like a human being, but resembles the children of the angels ofheaven, and his nature is different, and he is not like us, and his eyes are asthe rays of the sun, and his countenance is glorious.[3] And it seems to methat he is not sprung from me, but from the angels, and I fear that in his daysa wonder may be wrought on the earth. And now, my father, I am here to petitionthee and implore thee, that thou mayest go to Enoch, our father, and learn fromhim the truth, for his dwelling place is among the angels."

And when Methuselah heard the words of his son, he went to Enoch, to the endsof the earth, and he cried aloud, and Enoch heard his voice, and appearedbefore him, and asked him the reason of his coming. Methuselah told him thecause of his anxiety, and requested him to make the truth known to him. Enochanswered, and said: "The Lord will do a new thing in the earth. There will comea great destruction on the earth, and a deluge for one year. This son who isborn unto thee will be left on the earth, and his three children will be savedwith him, when all mankind that are on the earth shall die. And there will be agreat punishment on the earth, and the earth will be cleansed from allimpurity. And now make known to thy son Lamech that he who was born is in truthhis son, and call his name Noah, for he will be left to you, and he and hischildren will be saved from the destruction which will come upon the earth."When Methuselah had heard the words of his father, who showed him all thesecret things, he returned home, and he called the child Noah, for he wouldcause the earth to rejoice in compensation for all destruction.[4]

By the name Noah he was called only by his grandfather Methuselah; his fatherand all others called him Menahem. His generation was addicted to sorcery, andMethuselah apprehended that his grandson might be bewitched if his true namewere known, wherefore he kept it a secret. Menahem, Comforter, suited him aswell as Noah; it indicated that he would be a consoler, if but the evil-doersof his time would repent of their misdeeds.[5] At his very birth it was feltthat he would bring consolation and deliverance. When the Lord said to Adam,"Cursed is the ground for thy sake," he asked, "For how long a time?" and theanswer made by God was, "Until a man child shall be born whose conformation issuch that the rite of circumcision need not be practiced upon him." This wasfulfilled in Noah, he was circumcised from his mother's womb.

Noah had scarcely come into the world when a marked change was noticeable.Since the curse brought upon the earth by the sin of Adam, it happened thatwheat being sown, yet oats would sprout and grow. This ceased with theappearance of Noah: the earth bore the products planted in it. And it was Noahwho, when he was grown to manhood, invented the plough, the scythe, the hoe,and other implements for cultivating the ground. Before him men had worked theland with their bare hands.[6]

There was another token to indicate that the child born unto Lamech wasappointed for an extraordinary destiny. When God created Adam, He gave himdominion over all things: the cow obeyed the ploughman, and the furrow waswilling to be drawn. But after the fall of Adam all things rebelled againsthim: the cow refused obedience to the ploughman, and also the furrow wasrefractory. Noah was born, and all returned to its state preceding the fall ofman.

Before the birth of Noah, the sea was in the habit of transgressing its boundstwice daily, morning and evening, and flooding the land up to the graves. Afterhis birth it kept within its confines. And the famine that afflicted the worldin the time of Lamech, the second of the ten great famines appointed to comeupon it, ceased its ravages with the birth of Noah.[7]

THE PUNISHMENT OF THE FALLEN ANGELS

Grown to manhood, Noah followed in the ways of his grandfather Methuselah,while all other men of the time rose up against this pious king. So far fromobserving his precepts, they pursued the evil inclination of their hearts, andperpetrated all sorts of abominable deeds.[8] Chiefly the fallen angels andtheir giant posterity caused the depravity of mankind. The blood spilled by thegiants cried unto heaven from the ground, and the four archangels accused thefallen angels and their sons before God, whereupon He gave the following ordersto them: Uriel was sent to Noah to announce to him that the earth would bedestroyed by a flood, and to teach him how to save his own life. Raphael wastold to put the fallen angel Azazel into chains, cast him into a pit of sharpand pointed stones in the desert Dudael, and cover him with darkness, and sowas he to remain until the great day of judgment, when he would be thrown intothe fiery pit of hell, and the earth would be healed of the corruption he hadcontrived upon it. Gabriel was charged to proceed against the bastards and thereprobates, the sons of the angels begotten with the daughters of men, andplunge them into deadly conflicts with one another. Shemhazai's ilk were handedover to Michael, who first caused them to witness the death of their childrenin their bloody combat with each other, and then he bound them and pinned themunder the hills of the earth, where they will remain for seventy generations,until the day of judgment, to be carried thence to the fiery pit of hell.[9]

The fall of Azazel and Shemhazai came about in this way. When the generation ofthe deluge began to practice idolatry, God was deeply grieved. The two angelsShemhazai and Azazel arose, and said: "O Lord of the world! It has happened,that which we foretold at the creation of the world and of man, saying, 'Whatis man, that Thou art mindful of him?'" And God said, "And what will become ofthe world now without man?" Whereupon the angels: "We will occupy ourselveswith it." Then said God: "I am well aware of it, and I know that if you inhabitthe earth, the evil inclination will overpower you, and you will be moreiniquitous than ever men." The angels pleaded, "Grant us but permission todwell among men, and Thou shalt see how we will sanctify Thy Name." God yieldedto their wish, saying, "Descend and sojourn among men!"

When the angels came to earth, and beheld the daughters of men in all theirgrace and beauty, they could not restrain their passion. Shemhazai saw a maidennamed Istehar, and he lost his heart to her. She promised to surrender herselfto him, if first he taught her the Ineffable Name, by means of which he raisedhimself to heaven. He assented to her condition. But once she knew it, shepronounced the Name, and herself ascended to heaven, without fulfilling herpromise to the angel. God said, "Because she kept herself aloof from sin, wewill place her among the seven stars, that men may never forget her," and shewas put in the constellation of the Pleiades.

Shemhazai and Azazel, however, were not deterred from entering into allianceswith the daughters of men, and to the first two sons were born. Azazel began todevise the finery and the ornaments by means of which women allure men.Thereupon God sent Metatron to tell Shemhazai that He had resolved to destroythe world and bring on a deluge. The fallen angel began to weep and grieve overthe fate of the world and the fate of his two sons. If the world went under,what would they have to eat, they who needed daily a thousand camels, athousand horses, and a thousand steers?

These two sons of Shemhazai, Hiwwa and Hiyya by name, dreamed dreams. The onesaw a great stone which covered the earth, and the earth was marked all overwith lines upon lines of writing. An angel came, and with a knife obliteratedall the lines, leaving but four letters upon the stone. The other son saw alarge pleasure grove planted with all sorts of trees. But angels approachedbearing axes, and they felled the trees, sparing a single one with three of itsbranches.

When Hiwwa and Hiyya awoke, they repaired to their father, who interpreted thedreams for them, saying, "God will bring a deluge, and none will escape withhis life, excepting only Noah and his sons." When they heard this, the twobegan to cry and scream, but their father consoled them: "Soft, soft! Do notgrieve. As often as men cut or haul stones, or launch vessels, they shallinvoke your names, Hiwwa! Hiyya!" This prophecy soothed them.

Shemhazai then did penance. He suspended himself between heaven and earth, andin this position of a penitent sinner he hangs to this day. But Azazelpersisted obdurately in his sin of leading mankind astray by means of sensualallurements. For this reason two he-goats were sacrificed in the Temple on theDay of Atonement, the one for God, that He pardon the sins of Israel, the otherfor Azazel, that he bear the sins of Israel.[10]

Unlike Istehar, the pious maiden, Naamah, the lovely sister of Tubal-cain, ledthe angels astray with her beauty, and from her union with Shamdon sprang thedevil Asmodeus.[11] She was as shameless as all the other descendants of Cain,and as prone to bestial indulgences. Cainite women and Cainite men alike werein the habit of walking abroad naked, and they gave themselves up to everyconceivable manner of lewd practices. Of such were the women whose beauty andsensual charms tempted the angels from the path of virtue. The angels, on theother hand, no sooner had they rebelled against God and descended to earth thanthey lost their transcendental qualities, and were invested with sublunarybodies, so that a union with the daughters of men became possible. Theoffspring of these alliances between the angels and the Cainite women were thegiants,[12] known for their strength and their sinfulness; as their very name,the Emim, indicates, they inspired fear. They have many other names. Sometimesthey go by the name Rephaim, because one glance at them made one's heart growweak; or by the name Gibborim, simply giants, because their size was soenormous that their thigh measured eighteen ells; or by the name Zamzummim,because they were great masters in war; or by the name Anakim, because theytouched the sun with their neck; or by the name Ivvim, because, like the snake,they could judge of the qualities of the soil; or finally, by the nameNephilim, because, bringing the world to its fall, they themselves fell.[13]

THE GENERATION OF THE DELUGE

While the descendants of Cain resembled their father in his sinfulness anddepravity, the descendants of Seth led a pious, well-regulated life, and thedifference between the conduct of the two stocks was reflected in theirhabitations. The family of Seth was settled upon the mountains in the vicinityof Paradise, while the family of Cain resided in the field of Damascus, thespot whereon Abel was slain by Cain.

Unfortunately, at the time of Methuselah, following the death of Adam, thefamily of Seth became corrupted after the manner of the Cainites. The twostrains united with each other to execute all kinds of iniquitous deeds. Theresult of the marriages between them were the Nephilim, whose sins brought thedeluge upon the world. In their arrogance they claimed the same pedigree as theposterity of Seth, and they compared themselves with princes and men of nobledescent.[14]

The wantonness of this generation was in a measure due to the ideal conditionsunder which mankind lived before the flood. They knew neither toil nor care,and as a consequence of their extraordinary prosperity they grew insolent. Intheir arrogance they rose up against God. A single sowing bore a harvestsufficient for the needs of forty years, and by means of magic arts they couldcompel the very sun and moon to stand ready to do their service.[15] Theraising of children gave them no trouble. They were born after a few days'pregnancy, and immediately after birth they could walk and talk; theythemselves aided the mother in severing the navel string. Not even demons coulddo them harm. Once a new-born babe, running to fetch a light whereby his mothermight cut the navel string, met the chief of the demons, and a combat ensuedbetween the two. Suddenly the crowing of a cock was heard, and the demon madeoff, crying out to the child, "Go and report unto thy mother, if it had notbeen for the crowing of the cock, I had killed thee!" Whereupon the childretorted, "Go and report unto thy mother, if it had not been for my uncut navelstring, I had killed thee!"[16]

It was their care-free life that gave them space and leisure for theirinfamies. For a time God, in His long-suffering kindness, passed by theiniquities of men, but His forbearance ceased when once they began to leadunchaste lives, for "God is patient with all sins save only an immorallife."[17]

The other sin that hastened the end of the iniquitous generation was theirrapacity. So cunningly were their depredations planned that the law could nottouch them. If a countryman brought a basket of vegetables to market, theywould edge up to it, one after the other, and abstract a bit, each in itself ofpetty value, but in a little while the dealer would have none left to sell.[18]

Even after God had resolved upon the destruction of the sinners, He stillpermitted His mercy to prevail, in that He sent Noah unto them, who exhortedthem for one hundred and twenty years to amend their ways, always holding theflood over them as a threat. As for them, they but derided him. When they sawhim occupying himself with the building of the ark, they asked, "Wherefore thisark?"

Noah: "God will bring a flood upon you."

The sinners: "What sort of flood? If He sends a fire flood, against that weknow how to protect ourselves. If it is a flood of waters, then, if the watersbubble up from the earth, we will cover them with iron rods, and if theydescend from above, we know a remedy against that, too."

Noah: "The waters will ooze out from under your feet, and you will not be ableto ward them off."

Partly they persisted in their obduracy of heart because Noah had made known tothem that the flood would not descend so long as the pious Methuselah sojournedamong them. The period of one hundred and twenty years which God had appointedas the term of their probation having expired, Methuselah died, but out ofregard for the memory of this pious man God gave them another week's respite,the week of mourning for him. During this time of grace, the laws of naturewere suspended, the sun rose in the west and set in the east. To the sinnersGod gave the dainties that await man in the future world, for the purpose ofshowing them what they were forfeiting.[19] But all this proved unavailing,and, Methuselah and the other pious men of the generation having departed thislife, God brought the deluge upon the earth.[20]

THE HOLY BOOK

Great wisdom was needed for building the ark, which was to have space for allbeings on earth, even the spirits. Only the fishes did not have to be providedfor.[21] Noah acquired the necessary wisdom from the book given to Adam by theangel Raziel, in which all celestial and all earthly knowledge is recorded.

While the first human pair were still in Paradise, it once happened thatSamael, accompanied by a lad, approached Eve and requested her to keep awatchful eye upon his little son until he should return. Eve gave him thepromise. When Adam came back from a walk in Paradise, he found a howling,screaming child with Eve, who, in reply to his question, told him it wasSamael's. Adam was annoyed, and his annoyance grew as the boy cried andscreamed more and more violently. In his vexation he dealt the little one ablow that killed him. But the corpse did not cease to wail and weep, nor did itcease when Adam cut it up into bits. To rid himself of the plague, Adam cookedthe remains, and he and Eve ate them. Scarcely had they finished, when Samaelappeared and demanded his son. The two malefactors tried to deny everything;they pretended they had no knowledge of his son. But Samael said to them:"What! You dare tell lies, and God in times to come will give Israel the Torahin which it is said, 'Keep thee far from a false word'?"

While they were speaking thus, suddenly the voice of the slain lad was heardproceeding from the heart of Adam and Eve, and it addressed these words toSamael: "Go hence! I have penetrated to the heart of Adam and the heart of Eve,and never again shall I quit their hearts, nor the hearts of their children, ortheir children's children, unto the end of all generations."

Samael departed, but Adam was sore grieved, and he put on sackcloth and ashes,and he fasted many, many days, until God appeared unto him, and said: "My son,have no fear of Samael. I will give thee a remedy that will help thee againsthim, for it was at My instance that he went to thee." Adam asked, "And what isthis remedy?" God: "The Torah." Adam: "And where is the Torah?" God then gavehim the book of the angel Raziel, which he studied day and night. After sometime had passed, the angels visited Adam, and, envious of the wisdom he haddrawn from the book, they sought to destroy him cunningly by calling him a godand prostrating themselves before him, in spite of his remonstrance, "Do notprostrate yourselves before me, but magnify the Lord with me, and let us exaltHis Name together." However, the envy of the angels was so great that theystole the book God had given Adam from him, and threw it in the sea. Adamsearched for it everywhere in vain, and the loss distressed him sorely. Againhe fasted many days, until God appeared unto him, and said: "Fear not! I willgive the book back to thee," and He called Rahab, the Angel of the Sea, andordered him to recover the book from the sea and restore it to Adam. And so hedid.[22]

Upon the death of Adam, the holy book disappeared, but later the cave in whichit was hidden was revealed to Enoch in a dream. It was from this book thatEnoch drew his knowledge of nature, of the earth and of the heavens, and hebecame so wise through it that his wisdom exceeded the wisdom of Adam. Once hehad committed it to memory, Enoch hid the book again.

Now, when God resolved upon bringing the flood on the earth, He sent thearchangel Raphael to Noah, as the bearer of the following message: "I give theeherewith the holy book, that all the secrets and mysteries written therein maybe made manifest unto thee, and that thou mayest know how to fulfil itsinjunction in holiness, purity, modesty, and humbleness. Thou wilt learn fromit how to build an ark of the wood of the gopher tree, wherein thou, and thysons, and thy wife shall find protection."

Noah took the book, and when he studied it, the holy spirit came upon him, andhe knew all things needful for the building of the ark and the gatheringtogether of the animals. The book, which was made of sapphires, he took withhim into the ark, having first enclosed it in a golden casket. All the time hespent in the ark it served him as a time-piece, to distinguish night from day.Before his death, he entrusted it to Shem, and he in turn to Abraham. FromAbraham it descended through Jacob, Levi, Moses, and Joshua to Solomon, wholearnt all his wisdom from it, and his skill in the healing art, and also hismastery over the demons.[23]

THE INMATES OF THE ARK

The ark was completed according to the instructions laid down in the Book ofRaziel. Noah's next task was gathering in the animals. No less than thirty-twospecies of birds and three hundred and sixty-five of reptiles he had to takealong with him. But God ordered the animals to repair to the ark, and theytrooped thither, and Noah did not have to do so much as stretch out afinger.[24] Indeed, more appeared than were required to come, and Godinstructed him to sit at the door of the ark and note which of the animals laydown as they reached the entrance and which stood. The former belonged in theark, but not the latter. Taking up his post as he had been commanded, Noahobserved a lioness with her two cubs. All three beasts crouched. But the twoyoung ones began to struggle with the mother, and she arose and stood up nextto them. Then Noah led the two cubs into the ark. The wild beasts, and thecattle, and the birds which were not accepted remained standing about the arkall of seven days, for the assembling of the animals happened one week beforethe flood began to descend. On the day whereon they came to the ark, the sunwas darkened, and the foundations of the earth trembled, and lightning flashed,and the thunder boomed, as never before. And yet the sinners remainedimpenitent. In naught did they change their wicked doings during those lastseven days.

When finally the flood broke loose, seven hundred thousand of the children ofmen gathered around the ark, and implored Noah to grant them protection. With aloud voice he replied, and said: "Are ye not those who were rebellious towardGod, saying, 'There is no God'? Therefore He has brought ruin upon you, toannihilate you and destroy you from the face of the earth. Have I not beenprophesying this unto you these hundred and twenty years, and you would notgive heed unto the voice of God? Yet now you desire to be kept alive!" Then thesinners cried out: "So be it! We all are ready now to turn back to God, if onlythou wilt open the door of thy ark to receive us, that we may live and notdie." Noah made answer, and said: "That ye do now, when your need presses hardupon you. Why did you not turn to God during all the hundred and twenty yearswhich the Lord appointed unto you as the term of repentance? Now do ye come,and ye speak thus, because distress besets your lives. Therefore God will nothearken unto you and give you ear; naught will you accomplish!"

The crowd of sinners tried to take the entrance to the ark by storm, but thewild beasts keeping watch around the ark set upon them, and many were slain,while the rest escaped, only to meet death in the waters of the flood.[25] Thewater alone could not have made an end of them, for they were giants in statureand strength. When Noah threatened them with the scourge of God, they wouldmake reply: "If the waters of the flood come from above, they will never reachup to our necks; and if they come from below, the soles of our feet are largeenough to dam up the springs." But God bade each drop pass through Gehennabefore it fell to earth, and the hot rain scalded the skin of the sinners. Thepunishment that overtook them was befitting their crime. As their sensualdesires had made them hot, and inflamed them to immoral excesses, so they werechastised by means of heated water.[26]

Not even in the hour of the death struggle could the sinners suppress theirvile instincts. When the water began to stream up out of the springs, theythrew their little children into them, to choke the flood.[27]

It was by the grace of God, not on account of his merits, that Noah foundshelter in the ark before the overwhelming force of the waters.[28] Although hewas better than his contemporaries, he was yet not worthy of having wondersdone for his sake. He had so little faith that he did not enter the ark untilthe waters had risen to his knees. With him his pious wife Naamah, the daughterof Enosh, escaped the peril, and his three sons, and the wives of his threesons.

Noah had not married until he was four hundred and ninety-eight years old. Thenthe Lord had bidden him to take a wife unto himself. He had not desired tobring children into the world, seeing that they would all have to perish in theflood, and he had only three sons, born unto him shortly before the delugecame.[30] God had given him so small a number of offspring that he might bespared the necessity of building the ark on an overlarge scale in case theyturned out to be pious. And if not, if they, too, were depraved like the restof their generation, sorrow over their destruction would but be increased inproportion to their number.[31]

As Noah and his family were the only ones not to have a share in thecorruptness of the age, so the animals received into the ark were such as hadled a natural life. For the animals of the time were as immoral as the men: thedog united with the wolf, the cock with the pea-fowl, and many others paid noheed to sexual purity. Those that were saved were such as had kept themselvesuntainted.[32]

Before the flood the number of unclean animals had been greater than the numberof the clean. Afterward the ratio was reversed, because while seven pairs ofclean animals were preserved in the ark, but two pairs of the unclean werepreserved.[33]

One animal, the reem, Noah could not take into the ark. On account of its hugesize it could not find room therein. Noah therefore tied it to the ark, and itran on behind.[34] Also, he could not make space for the giant Og, the king ofBashan. He sat on top of the ark securely, and in this way escaped the flood ofwaters. Noah doled out his food to him daily, through a hole, because Og hadpromised that he and his descendants would serve him as slaves inperpetuity.[35]

Two creatures of a most peculiar kind also found refuge in the ark. Among thebeings that came to Noah there was Falsehood asking for shelter. He was deniedadmission, because he had no companion, and Noah was taking in the animals onlyby pairs. Falsehood went off to seek a partner, and he met Misfortune, whom heassociated with himself on the condition that she might appropriate whatFalsehood earned. The pair were then accepted in the ark. When they left it,Falsehood noticed that whatever he gathered together disappeared at once, andhe betook himself to his companion to seek an explanation, which she gave himin the following words, "Did we not agree to the condition that I might takewhat you earn?" and Falsehood had to depart empty-handed.

THE FLOOD

The assembling of the animals in the ark was but the smaller part of the taskimposed upon Noah. His chief difficulty was to provide food for a year andaccommodations for them. Long afterward Shem, the son of Noah, related toEliezer, the servant of Abraham, the tale of their experiences with the animalsin the ark. This is what he said: "We had sore troubles in the ark. The dayanimals had to be fed by day, and the night animals by night. My father knewnot what food to give to the little zikta. Once he cut a pomegranate in half,and a worm dropped out of the fruit, and was devoured by the zikta. Thenceforthmy father would knead bran, and let it stand until it bred worms, which werefed to the animal. The lion suffered with a fever all the time, and thereforehe did not annoy the others, because he did not relish dry food. The animalurshana my father found sleeping in a corner of the vessel, and he asked himwhether he needed nothing to eat. He answered, and said: 'I saw thou wast verybusy, and I did not wish to add to thy cares.' Whereupon my father said, 'Mayit be the will of the Lord to keep thee alive forever,' and the blessing wasrealized."[37]

The difficulties were increased when the flood began to toss the ark from sideto side. All inside of it were shaken up like lentils in a pot. The lions beganto roar, the oxen lowed, the wolves howled, and all the animals gave vent totheir agony, each through the sounds it had the power to utter.

Also Noah and his sons, thinking that death was nigh, broke into tears. Noahprayed to God: "O Lord, help us, for we are not able to bear the evil thatencompasses us. The billows surge about us, the streams of destruction make usafraid, and death stares us in the face. O hear our prayer, deliver us, inclineThyself unto us, and be gracious unto us! Redeem us and save us!"[38]

The flood was produced by a union of the male waters, which are above thefirmament, and the female waters issuing from the earth.[39] The upper watersrushed through the space left when God removed two stars out of theconstellation Pleiades. Afterward, to put a stop to the flood, God had totransfer two stars from the constellation of the Bear to the constellation ofthe Pleiades. That is why the Bear runs after the Pleiades. She wants her twochildren back, but they will be restored to her only in the future world.[40]

There were other changes among the celestial spheres during the year of theflood. All the time it lasted, the sun and the moon shed no light, whence Noahwas called by his name, "the resting one," for in his life the sun and the moonrested. The ark was illuminated by a precious stone, the light of which wasmore brilliant by night than by day, so enabling Noah to distinguish betweenday and night.[41]

The duration of the flood was a whole year. It began on the seventeenth day ofHeshwan, and the rain continued for forty days, until the twenty-seventh ofKislew. The punishment corresponded to the crime of the sinful generation. Theyhad led immoral lives, and begotten bastard children, whose embryonic statelasts forty days. From the twenty seventh of Kislew until the first of Siwan, aperiod of one hundred and fifty days, the water stood at one and the sameheight, fifteen ells above the earth. During that time all the wicked weredestroyed, each one receiving the punishment due to him.[42] Cain was amongthose that perished, and thus the death of Abel was avenged.[43] So powerfulwere the waters in working havoc that the corpse of Adam was not spared in itsgrave.[44]

On the first of Siwan the waters began to abate, a quarter of an ell a day, andat the end of sixty days, on the tenth day of Ab, the summits of the mountainsshowed themselves. But many days before, on the tenth of Tammuz, Noah had sentforth the raven, and a week later the dove, on the first of her three sallies,repeated at intervals of a week. It took from the first of Ab until the firstof Tishri for the waters to subside wholly from the face of the earth. Eventhen the soil was so miry that the dwellers in the ark had to remain withinuntil the twenty-seventh day of Heshwan, completing a full sun year, consistingof twelve moons and eleven days.[45]

Noah had experienced difficulty all along in ascertaining the state of thewaters. When he desired to dispatch the raven, the bird said: "The Lord, thyMaster, hates me, and thou dost hate me, too. Thy Master hates me, for He badethee take seven pairs of the clean animals into the ark, and but two pairs ofthe unclean animals, to which I belong. Thou hatest me, for thou dost notchoose, as a messenger, a bird of one of the kinds of which there are sevenpairs in the ark, but thou sendest me, and of my kind there is but one pair.Suppose, now, I should perish by reason of heat or cold, would not the world bethe poorer by a whole species of animals? Or can it be that thou hast cast alustful eye upon my mate, and desirest to rid thyself of me?" Where unto Noahmade answer, and said: "Wretch! I must live apart from my own wife in the ark.How much less would such thoughts occur to my mind as thou imputest to me!"[46]

The raven's errand had no success, for when he saw the body of a dead man, heset to work to devour it, and did not execute the orders given to him by Noah.Thereupon the dove was sent out. Toward evening she returned with an olive leafin her bill, plucked upon the Mount of Olives at Jerusalem, for the Holy Landhad not been ravaged by the deluge. As she plucked it, she said to God: "O Lordof the world, let my food be as bitter as the olive, but do Thou give it to mefrom Thy hand, rather than it should be sweet, and I be delivered into thepower of men."[47]

NOAH LEAVES THE ARK

Though the earth assumed its old form at the end of the year of punishment,Noah did not abandon the ark until he received the command of God to leave it.He said to himself, "As I entered the ark at the bidding of God, so I willleave it only at His bidding." Yet, when God bade Noah go out of the ark, herefused, because he feared that after he had lived upon the dry land for sometime, and begotten children, God would bring another flood. He therefore wouldnot leave the ark until God swore He would never visit the earth with a floodagain.[48]

When he stepped out from the ark into the open, he began to weep bitterly atsight of the enormous ravages wrought by the flood, and he said to God: "O Lordof the world! Thou art called the Merciful, and Thou shouldst have had mercyupon Thy creatures." God answered, and said: "O thou foolish shepherd, now thouspeakest to Me. Thou didst not so when I addressed kind words to thee, saying:'I saw thee as a righteous man and perfect in thy generation, and I will bringthe flood upon the earth to destroy all flesh. Make an ark for thyself ofgopher wood.' Thus spake I to thee, telling thee all these circumstances, thatthou mightest entreat mercy for the earth. But thou, as soon as thou didst hearthat thou wouldst be rescued in the ark, thou didst not concern thyself aboutthe ruin that would strike the earth. Thou didst but build an ark for thyself,in which thou wast saved. Now that the earth is wasted, thou openest thy mouthto supplicate and pray."

Noah realized that he had been guilty of folly. To propitiate God andacknowledge his sin, he brought a sacrifice.[49] God accepted the offering withfavor, whence he is called by his name Noah.[50] The sacrifice was not offeredby Noah with his own hands; the priestly services connected with it wereperformed by his son Shem. There was a reason for this. One day in the ark Noahforgot to give his ration to the lion, and the hungry beast struck him soviolent a blow with his paw that he was lame forever after, and, having abodily defect, he was not permitted to do the offices of a priest.[51]

The sacrifices consisted of an ox, a sheep, a goat, two turtle doves, and twoyoung pigeons. Noah had chosen these kinds because he supposed they wereappointed for sacrifices, seeing that God had commanded him to take seven pairsof them into the ark with him. The altar was erected in the same place on whichAdam and Cain and Abel had brought their sacrifices, and on which later thealtar was to be in the sanctuary at Jerusalem.[52]

After the sacrifice was completed, God blessed Noah and his sons. He made themto be rulers of the world as Adam had been,[53] and He gave them a command,saying, "Be fruitful and multiply upon the earth," for during their sojourn inthe ark, the two sexes, of men and animals alike, had lived apart from eachother, because while a public calamity rages continence is becoming even tothose who are left unscathed. This law of conduct had been violated by none inthe ark except by Ham, by the dog, and by the raven. They all received apunishment. Ham's was that his descendants were men of dark-hued skin.[54]

As a token that He would destroy the earth no more, God set His bow in thecloud. Even if men should be steeped in sin again, the bow proclaims to themthat their sins will cause no harm to the world. Times came in the course ofthe ages when men were pious enough not to have to live in dread of punishment.In such times the bow was not visible.[55]

God accorded permission to Noah and his descendants to use the flesh of animalsfor food, which had been forbidden from the time of Adam until then. But theywere to abstain from the use of blood. He ordained the seven Noachian laws, theobservance of which is incumbent upon all men, not upon Israel alone. Godenjoined particularly the command against the shedding of human blood. Whosowould shed man's blood, his blood would be shed. Even if human judges let theguilty man go free, his punishment would overtake him. He would die anunnatural death, such as he had inflicted upon his fellow-man. Yea, even beaststhat slew men, even of them would the life of men be required.[56]

THE CURSE OF DRUNKENNESS

Noah lost his epithet "the pious" when he began to occupy himself with thegrowing of the vine. He became a "man of the ground," and this first attempt toproduce wine at the same time produced the first to drink to excess, the firstto utter curses upon his associates, and the first to introduce slavery. Thisis the way it all came about. Noah found the vine which Adam had taken with himfrom Paradise, when he was driven forth. He tasted the grapes upon it, and,finding them palatable, he resolved to plant the vine and tend it.[57] On theselfsame day on which he planted it, it bore fruit, he put it in thewine-press, drew off the juice, drank it, became drunken, and wasdishonored—all on one day. His assistant in the work of cultivating the vinewas Satan, who had happened along at the very moment when he was engaged inplanting the slip he had found. Satan asked him: "What is it thou art plantinghere?"

Noah: "A vineyard."

Satan: "And what may be the qualities of what it produces?"

Noah: "The fruit it bears is sweet, be it dry or moist. It yields wine thatrejoiceth the heart of man."

Satan: "Let us go into partnership in this business of planting a vineyard."

Noah: "Agreed!"

Satan thereupon slaughtered a lamb, and then, in succession, a lion, a pig, anda monkey. The blood of each as it was killed he made to flow under the vine.Thus he conveyed to Noah what the qualities of wine are: before man drinks ofit, he is innocent as a lamb; if he drinks of it moderately, he feels as strongas a lion; if he drinks more of it than he can bear, he resembles the pig; andif he drinks to the point of intoxication, then he behaves like a monkey, hedances around, sings, talks obscenely, and knows not what he is doing.[58]

This deterred Noah no more than did the example of Adam, whose fall had alsobeen due to wine, for the forbidden fruit had been the grape, with which he hadmade himself drunk.[59]

In his drunken condition Noah betook himself to the tent of his wife. His sonHam saw him there, and he told his brothers what he had noticed, and said: "Thefirst man had but two sons, and one slew the other; this man Noah has threesons, yet he desires to beget a fourth besides.