We have already remarked that when we treat in this work of homonyms,
we have not the intention to exhaust the meanings of a word (for this
is not a philological treatise); we shall mention no other
significations but those which bear on our subject. We shall thus
proceed in our treatment of the terms ʻalah and yarad.
These two words, ʻalah, “he went up,” and yarad, “he went down,” are
Hebrew terms used in the sense of ascending and descending. When a body
moves from a higher to a lower place, the verb yarad, “to go down,” is
used; when it moves from a lower to a higher place, ʻalah, “to go up,”
is applied. These two verbs were afterwards employed with regard to
greatness and power. When a man falls from his high position, we say
“he has come down,” and when he rises in station “he has gone up.” Thus
the Almighty says, “The stranger that is within thee shall get up above
thee very high, and thou shalt come down very low” (Deut. xxviii. 43).
Again, “The Lord thy God will set thee on high (ʻelyon) above all
nations of the earth” (Deut. xxviii. 1): “And the Lord magnified
Solomon exceedingly” (lemaʻalah) (1 Chron. xxix. 25). The Sages often
employ these expressions, as: “In holy matters men must ascend
(maʻalin) and not descend (moridin).” The two words are also applied to
intellectual processes, namely, when we reflect on something beneath
ourselves we are said to go down, and when our attention is raised to a
subject above us we are said to rise.
Now, we occupy a lowly position, both in space and rank in comparison
with the heavenly sphere, and the Almighty is Most High not in space,
but with respect to absolute existence, greatness and power. When it
pleased the Almighty to grant to a human being a certain degree of
wisdom or prophetic inspiration, the divine communication thus made to
the prophet and the entrance of the Divine Presence into a certain
place is termed yeridah, “descending,” while the termination of the
prophetic communication or the departure of the divine glory from a
place is called ʻaliyah, “ascending.”
The expressions “to go up” and “to go down,” when used in reference to
God, must be interpreted in this sense. Again, when, in accordance with
the divine will, some misfortune befalls a nation or a region of the
earth, and when the biblical account of that misfortune is preceded by
the statement that the Almighty visited the actions of the people, and
that He punished them accordingly, then the prophetic author employs
the term “to descend”: for man is so low and insignificant that his
actions would not be visited and would not bring punishment on him,
were it not for the divine will: as is clearly stated in the Bible,
with regard to this idea, “What is man that thou shouldst remember him,
and the son of man that thou shouldst visit him” (Ps. viii. 5).
The design of the Deity to punish man is, therefore, introduced by the
verb “to descend”; comp. “Go to, let us go down and there confound
their language” (Gen. xi. 7); “And the Lord came down to see” (Gen. xi.
5); “I will go down now and see” (Gen. xviii. 21). All these instances
convey the idea that man here below is going to be punished.
More numerous, however, are the instances of the first case, viz., in
which these verbs are used in connection with the revelation of the
word and of the glory of God, e.g., “And I will come down and talk with
thee there” (Num. xi. 17); “And the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai”
(Exod. xix. 20); “The Lord will come down in the sight of all the
people” (Exod. xix. 11); “And God went up from him” (Gen. xxxv. 13);
“And God went up from Abraham” (Gen. xvii. 22). When, on the other
hand, it says, “And Moses went up unto God” (Exod. xix. 3), it must be
taken in the third signification of these verbs, in addition to its
literal meaning that Moses also ascended to the top of the mount, upon
which a certain material light (the manifestation of God’s glory) was
visible; but we must not imagine that the Supreme Being occupies a
place to which we can ascend, or from which we can descend. He is far
from what the ignorant imagine.