Up to this time the earth was a plain, and wholly covered with water.
Scarcely had the words of God, "Let the waters be gathered together,"
made themselves heard, when mountains appeared all over and hills,[71]
and the water collected in the deep-lying basins. But the water was
recalcitrant, it resisted the order to occupy the lowly spots, and
threatened to overflow the earth, until God forced it back into the
sea, and encircled the sea with sand. Now, whenever the water is
tempted to transgress its bounds, it beholds the sand, and recoils.[72]
The waters did but imitate their chief Rahab, the Angel of the Sea, who
rebelled at the creation of the world. God had commanded Rahab to take
in the water. But he refused, saying, "I have enough." The punishment
for his disobedience was death. His body rests in the depths of the
sea, the water dispelling the foul odor that emanates from it.[73]
The main creation of the third day was the realm of plants, the
terrestrial plants as well as the plants of Paradise. First of all the
cedars of Lebanon and 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 among plants. 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 with which trees are felled down.
The trees began to weep, and when God asked the reason of their tears,
they said: "We cry because Thou hast created the iron to uproot us
therewith. All the while we had thought ourselves the highest of the
earth, and now the iron, our destroyer, has been called into
existence." God replied: "You yourselves will furnish the axe with a
handle. Without your assistance 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 the various sorts of grass reasoned, that if God had not desired
divisions according to classes, He would not have instructed the trees
to bear fruit after their kind with the seed thereof in it, especially
as trees are inclined of their own accord to divide themselves into
species. The grasses therefore reproduced themselves also after their
kinds. This prompted the exclamation of the Prince of the World, "Let
the glory of the Lord endure forever; let the Lord rejoice in His
works."[75]
The most important work done on the third day was the creation of
Paradise. Two gates of carbuncle form the entrance to Paradise,[76] and
sixty myriads of ministering angels keep watch over them. Each of these
angels shines with the lustre of the heavens. When the just man appears
before the gates, the clothes in which he was buried are taken off him,
and the angels array him in seven garments of clouds of glory, and
place upon his head two crowns, one of precious stones and pearls, the
other of gold of Parvaim,[77] and they put eight 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 of rivers,
surrounded by eight hundred kinds of roses and myrtles. Each one has a
canopy 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 canopy is overgrown by a vine of gold, and thirty pearls
hang from it, each of them shining like Venus. Under each canopy there
is a table of precious stones and pearls, 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 grape since the six
days of creation,[79] for thou hast busied thyself with the Torah, and
she is compared to wine." The least fair of the just is beautiful as
Joseph and Rabbi Johanan, and as the grains of a silver pomegranate
upon which fall the rays of the sun.[80] There is no light, "for the
light of the righteous is the shining light." And they undergo four
transformations every day, passing through four states. In the first
the righteous is changed into a child. 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, with whom he enjoys the
delights of youth. Next he becomes an adult, in the prime of life, 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, and enjoys the pleasures of age.
There are eighty myriads of trees in every corner of Paradise, the
meanest among them choicer than all the spice trees. In every corner
there are sixty myriads of angels singing with sweet voices, and the
tree of life stands in the middle and shades the whole of Paradise.[81]
It has fifteen thousand tastes, each different from the other, and the
perfumes thereof vary likewise. Over it hang seven clouds of glory, and
winds blow upon it from all four sides,[82] so that its odor is wafted
from one end of the world to the other. Underneath sit the 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 glory
separates the one canopy from the other.[83] Beyond Paradise begins
Eden, containing three hundred and ten worlds[84] and seven
compartments for seven different classes of the pious. In the first are
"the martyr victims of the government," like Rabbi Akiba and his
colleagues;[85] in the second those who were 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 the fifth the
penitents, who occupy a place which even a perfectly pious man cannot
obtain; in the sixth are the youths[89] who have not tasted of sin in
their lives; in the seventh are those poor who studied Bible and
Mishnah, and led a life of self-respecting decency. And God sits in the
midst of them and expounds the Torah to them.[90]
As for the seven divisions of Paradise, each of them is twelve myriads
of miles in width and twelve myriads of miles in length. In the first
division dwell the proselytes 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 second division is built of silver, and the
wainscoting thereof is of cedar. Here dwell those who have repented,
and Manasseh, the penitent son of Hezekiah, presides over them. The
third division is built of silver and gold. Here dwell Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob, and all the Israelites who came out of Egypt, and the whole
generation that lived in the desert.[92] Also David is there, together
with all his sons[93] except Absalom, one of them, Chileab, still
alive. 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 of silver and gold and jewels and canopies
and beds and thrones and lamps, of gold, of precious stones, and of
pearls, the best of everything there is in heaven.[94] The fourth
division is built of beautiful rubies,[95] and its wainscoting is of
olive wood. Here dwell the perfect and the steadfast in faith, and
their wainscoting is of olive wood, because their lives were bitter as
olives to them. The fifth division is built of silver and gold and
refined gold,[96] and the finest of gold and glass and bdellium, and
through the midst of it flows the river Gihon. The wainscoting is of
silver and gold, and a perfume breathes through it more exquisite than
the perfume of Lebanon. The coverings of the silver and gold beds are
made of purple and blue, woven by Eve, and of scarlet and the hair of
goats, woven by angels. Here dwells the Messiah on a palanquin made of
the wood of Lebanon, "the pillars thereof of silver, the bottom of
gold, the seat of it purple." With him is Elijah. He takes the head of
Messiah, and places it in his bosom, and says to him, "Be quiet, for
the end draweth nigh." On every Monday and Thursday and on Sabbaths and
holidays, the Patriarchs come to him, and the twelve sons of Jacob, and
Moses, Aaron, David, Solomon, and all the kings of Israel and of Judah,
and they weep with him and comfort him, and say unto him, "Be quiet and
put trust in thy Creator, for the end draweth nigh." Also Korah and his
company, and Dathan, Abiram, and Absalom come to him on every
Wednesday, and ask him: "How long 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 to your fathers and ask them";
and when they hear this, they are ashamed, and do not ask their
fathers.
In the sixth division dwell those who died in performing a pious act,
and in the seventh division those who died from illness inflicted as an
expiation for the sins of Israel.[97]