When Moses reached heaven, he found God occupied ornamenting the
letters in which the Torah was written, with little crown-like
decorations, and he looked on without saying a word. God then said to
him: "In thy home, do not people know the greeting of peace?" Moses:
"Does it behoove a servant to address his Master?" God: "Thou mightest
at least have wished Me success in My labors." Moses hereupon said:
"Let the power of my Lord be great according as Thou hast spoken."
[249] Then Moses inquired as the significance of the crowns upon the
letter, and was answered: "Hereafter there shall live a man called
Akiba, son of Joseph, who will base in interpretation a gigantic
mountain of Halakot upon every dot of these letters." Moses said to
God: "Show me this man." God: "Go back eighteen ranks." Moses went
where he was bidden, and could hear the discussions of the teacher
sitting with his disciples in the eighteenth rank, but was not able to
follow these discussions, which greatly grieved him. But just then he
heard the disciples questioning their master in regard to a certain
subject: "Whence dost thou know this?" And he answered, "This is a
Halakah given to Moses on Mount Sinai," and not Moses was content.
Moses returned to God and said to Him: "Thou has a man like Akiba, and
yet dost Thou give the Torah to Israel through me!" But God answered:
"Be silent, so has it been decreed by Me." Moses then said: "O Lord of
the world! Thou has permitted me to behold this man's learning, let see
also the reward which will be meted out to him." God said: "Go, return
and see." Moses saw them sell the flesh of the martyr Akiba at the meat
market. He said to God: "Is this the reward for such erudition?" But
God replied: "Be silent, thus have I decreed." [250]
Moses then saw how God wrote the word "long-suffering" in the Torah,
and asked: "Does this mean that Thou hast patience with the pious?" But
God answered: "Nay, with sinners also am I long-suffering." "What!"
exclaimed Moses, "Let the sinners perish!" God said no more, but when
Moses implored God's mercy, begging Him to forgive the sin of the
people of Israel, God answered him: "Thou thyself didst advice Me to
have no patience with sinners and to destroy them." "Yea," said Moses,
"but Thou didst declare that Thou art long-suffering with sinners also,
let now the patience of the Lord be great according as Thou has
spoken." [251]
The forty days that Moses spent in heaven were entirely devoted to the
study of the Torah, he learned the written as well as the oral
teaching, yea, even the doctrines that an able scholar would some day
propound were revealed to him. [252] He took an especial delight in
hearing the teachings of the Tanna Rabbi Eliezer, and received the
joyful message that this great scholar would be one of his descendants.
[253]
The study of Moses was so planned for the forty days, that by day God
studied with him the written teachings, and by night the oral. In this
way was he enabled to distinguish between night and day, for in heaven
"the night shineth as the day." There were other signs also by which he
could distinguish night from day; for if he heard the angels praise God
with "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts," he knew that it was day;
but if they praised Him with "Blessed be the Lord to whom blessing is
due," he knew it was night. Then, too, if he saw the sun appear before
God and cast itself down before Him, he knew that it was night; if,
however, the moon and the stars cast themselves at His feet, he knew
that it was day. He could also tell time by the occupation of the
angels, for by day they prepared manna for Israel, and by night they
sent it down to earth. The prayers he heard in heaven served him as
another token whereby he might know the time, for if he heard the
recitation of the Shema' precede prayer, he knew that it was day, but
if the prayer preceded the recitation of the Shema', then it was night.
[254]
During his stay with Him, God showed Moses all the seven heavens, and
the celestial temple, and the four colors that he was to employ to fit
up the tabernacle. Moses found it difficult to retain the color,
whereupon God said to him: "Turn to the right," and as he turned, he
saw a host of angels in garments that had the color of the sea. "This,"
said God, "is violet." Then He bade Moses turn to the left, and there
he saw angels dressed in red, and God said: "This is royal purple."
Moses hereupon turned around to the rear, and saw angels robed in a
color that was neither purple nor violet, and God said to him: "This
color is crimson." Moses then turned about and saw angels robed in
white, and God said to him: "This is the color of twisted linen." [255]
Although Moses now devoted both night and day to the study of the
Torah, he still learned nothing, for hardly had he learned something
from God when he forgot it again. Moses thereupon said to God: "O Lord
of the world! Forty days have I devoted to studying the Torah, without
having profited anything by it." God therefore bestowed the Torah upon
Moses, and now he could descend to Israel, for now he remembered all
that he had learned. [256]
Hardly had Moses descended from heaven with the Torah, when Satan
appeared before the Lord and said: "Where, forsooth, is the place where
the Torah is kept?" For Satan knew nothing of the revelation of God on
Sinai, as God had employed him elsewhere on purposes, that he might not
appear before him as an accuser, saying: "Wilt Thou give the Torah to a
people that forty days later will worship the Golden Calf?" In answer
to Satan's question regarding the whereabouts of the Torah, God said:
"I gave the Torah to Earth." To earth, then, Satan betook himself with
his query: "Where is the Torah?" Earth said: "God knows of its course,
He knoweth its abiding-place, for 'He looketh to the ends of the earth,
and seeth under the whole heaven.'" Satan now passed on to the sea to
seek for the Torah, but the sea also said: "It is not with me," and the
abyss said: "It is not in me." Destruction and death said: "We have
heard the fame thereof with our ears." Satan now returned to God and
said: "O Lord of the world! Everywhere have I sought the Torah, but I
found it not." God replied: "Go, seek the son of Amram." Satan now
hastened to Moses and asked him: "Where is the Torah that God hath
given thee?" Whereupon Moses answered: "Who am I, that the Holy One,
blessed be He, should have given me the Torah?" God hereupon spoke to
Moses: "O Moses, thou utterest a falsehood." But Moses answered: "O
Lord of the world! Thou hast in Thy possession a hidden treasure that
daily delights Thee. Dare I presume to declare it my possession?" Then
God said: "As a reward for thy humility, the Torah shall be named for
thee, and it shall henceforth be known as the Torah of Moses." [257]
Moses departed from the heavens with the two tables on which the Ten
Commandments were engraved, and just the words of it are by nature
Divine, so too are the tables on which they are engraved. These were
created by God's own hand in the dusk of the first Sabbath at the close
of the creation, and were made of a sapphire-like stone. On each of the
two tables are the Ten Commandments, four times repeated, and in such
wise were they engraved that the letters were legible on both sides,
for, like the tables, the writing and the pencils for inscription, too,
were of heavenly origin. Between the separate commandments were noted
down all the precepts of the Torah in all their particulars, although
the tables were not more than six hands in length and as much in width.
[258] It is another of the attributes of the tables, that although they
are fashioned out of the hardest stone, they can still be rolled up
like a scroll. [259] When God handed the tables to Moses, He seized
them by the top third, whereas Moses took hold of the bottom third, but
on third remained open, and it was in this way that the Divine radiance
was shed upon Moses' face. [260]