On the first day of creation God produced ten things:[13] the heavens
and the earth, Tohu and Bohu, light and darkness, wind and water, the
duration of the day[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 heavens were fashioned from the light of God's garment,
and the earth from the snow under the Divine Throne.[18] Tohu is a
green band which encompasses the whole world, and dispenses darkness,
and Bohu consists of stones in the abyss, the producers of the waters.
The light created at the very beginning is not the same as the light
emitted by the sun, the moon, and the stars, which appeared only on the
fourth day. The light of the first day was of a sort that would have
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
the Tower of Babel, who were unworthy to enjoy the blessing of such
light, God concealed it, but in the world to come it will appear to the
pious in all its pristine glory.[19]
Several heavens were created,[20] seven in fact,[21] each to serve a
purpose of its own. The first, the one visible to man, has no function
except that of covering up the light during the night time; therefore
it disappears every morning. The planets are fastened to the second of
the heavens; in the third the manna is made for the pious in the
hereafter; the fourth contains the celestial Jerusalem together with
the Temple, in which Michael ministers as high priest, and offers the
souls of the pious as sacrifices. In the fifth heaven, the angel hosts
reside, and sing the praise of God, though only during the night, for
by day it is the task of Israel on earth to give glory to God on high.
The sixth heaven is an uncanny spot; there originate most of the trials
and visitations ordained for the earth and its inhabitants. Snow lies
heaped up there and hail; there are lofts full of noxious dew,
magazines stocked with storms, and cellars holding reserves of smoke.
Doors of fire separate these celestial chambers, which are under the
supervision of the archangel Metatron. Their pernicious contents
defiled the heavens until David's time. The pious king prayed God to
purge His exalted dwelling of whatever was pregnant with evil; 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
and beautiful: right, justice, and mercy, the storehouses of life,
peace, and blessing, 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, above all, the Divine Throne, surrounded by the
seraphim, the ofanim, the holy Hayyot, and the ministering angels.[22]
Corresponding to the seven heavens, God created seven earths, each
separated from 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] Then the sixth[24] earth is reached, the Adamah,
the scene of the magnificence of God. 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 Beer Shahat, and Tit ha-Yawen,
and Abaddon, and Sheol,[25] and there the souls of the wicked are
guarded by the Angels of Destruction. In the same way Arka is followed
by Harabah, the dry, the place of brooks and streams in spite of its
name, as the next, called Yabbashah, the mainland, contains the rivers
and the springs. Tebel, the second earth, is the first mainland
inhabited by living creatures, three hundred and sixty-five
species,[26] all essentially different from 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 of these
animals. Besides, Tebel is inhabited by human beings with two heads and
four hands and feet, in fact with all their organs doubled excepting
only the trunk.[27] It happens sometimes that the parts of these double
persons quarrel with each other, especially while eating and drinking,
when each claims the best and largest portions for himself. This
species of mankind is distinguished for great piety, another difference
between it and the inhabitants of our earth.
Our own earth is called Heled, and, like the others, it is separated
from the Tebel 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 over the seventh earth the heavens are vaulted, from the first to
the seventh, the last of them attached to the arm of God. The seven
heavens form a unity, the seven kinds of earth form a unity, and the
heavens and the earth together also form a unity.[28]
When God made our present heavens and our present earth, "the new
heavens and the new earth"[29] were also brought forth, yea, and the
hundred and ninety-six thousand worlds which God created unto His Own
glory.[30]
It takes five hundred years to walk from the earth to the heavens, and
from one end of a heaven to the other, and also from one heaven to the
next,[31] and it takes the same length of time to travel from the east
to the west, or from the south to the north.[32] Of all this vast world
only one-third is inhabited, the other two-thirds being equally divided
between water and waste desert land.
Beyond the inhabited parts to the east is Paradise[33] with its seven
divisions, each assigned to the pious of a certain degree. The ocean is
situated to the west, and it is dotted with islands upon islands,
inhabited by many different peoples. Beyond it, in turn, are the
boundless steppes full of serpents and scorpions, and destitute of
every sort of vegetation, whether herbs 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 of devils, demons,
and malign spirits. Their dwelling-place is a great stretch of land, it
would take five hundred years to traverse it. Beyond lies hell. To the
south is the chamber containing reserves of fire, the cave of smoke,
and the forge of blasts and hurricanes.[34] Thus it comes that the wind
blowing from the south brings heat and sultriness to the earth. Were it
not for the angel Ben Nez, the Winged, who keeps the south wind back
with his pinions, the world would be consumed.[35] Besides, the fury of
its blast is tempered by the north wind, which always appears as
moderator, whatever other wind may be blowing.[36]
In the east, the west, and the south, heaven and earth touch each
other, but the north God left unfinished, that any man who announced
himself as a god might be set the task of supplying the deficiency, and
stand convicted as a pretender.[37]
The construction of the earth was begun at the centre, with the
foundation stone of the Temple, the Eben Shetiyah,[38] for the Holy
Land is at the central point of the surface of the earth, Jerusalem is
at the central point of Palestine, and the Temple is situated at the
centre of the Holy City. In the sanctuary itself the Hekal is the
centre, and the holy Ark occupies the centre of the Hekal, built on the
foundation stone, which thus is at the centre of the earth.[39] Thence
issued the first ray of light, piercing to the Holy Land, and from
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 of light." Only after the light had been fashioned, darkness
arose, the light ruling in the sky, the darkness on the earth.[42] The
power of God displayed itself not only in the creation of the world of
things, but equally in the limitations which He imposed upon each. The
heavens and the earth stretched themselves out in length and breadth as
though they aspired to infinitude, and it required the word of God to
call a halt to their encroachments.[43]