parshat bereshit – genesis 1 – 3
Join Geoffrey Stern and Rabbi Adam Mintz for their YouTube video debut. There are those who would have us believe that in Creation, God made unity from chaos and that the Torah’s end game is to find that unity, tikkun or nirvana once again. We explore an alternative, counterfactual approach, where God created through division and with a goal of creating a world where divisions are emphasized, managed but definitely not erased. So, join us for our first podcast of the year.
Sefaria Source Sheet: www.sefaria.org/sheets/598674
Transcript:
Welcome to Madlik. My name is Geoffrey Stern and at Madlik we light a spark or shed some light on a Jewish Text or Tradition. Along with Rabbi Adam Mintz we host the Madlik Disruptive Torah podcast on your favorite platform. This week’s parsha is Bereshit. There are those who would have us believe that in Creation, God made unity from chaos and that the Torah’s end game is to find that unity once again. We explore an alternative, counterfactual approach, where God created through division and with a goal of creating a world where divisions are emphasized, managed but definitely not erased. So, join us for our first podcast of the year: Splitting the Adam.
more
And Rabbi Mintz, as I said that, I realize that you are Adam Mintz. We are Splitting the Adam
Adam Mintz (01:23.406)
So, that’s why I was especially excited about this one, because I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I’m getting nervous.
Geoffrey Stern (01:29.749)
Well, first of all, as I said in the intro, this is our first broadcast on YouTube. So, it’ll be on all the other platforms, but also, on video on YouTube. And I was setting it up and looking at putting down our bios and stuff. And I had the most amazing experience. I stumbled upon your new, www.rabbimintz.com your new website.
I think it’s new because I’ve never seen it before and it says the premier Orthodox conversion rabbi and that is So, So, Exciting and hopefully during the course of the year. We will talk a little bit more about that I’ll definitely put a link rabbimitz.com in the show notes So, that is So, So, exciting but meanwhile, we have a new Torah to start reading all from the
Adam Mintz (02:01.143)
It is new. It is new.
Geoffrey Stern (02:29.753)
the start again. It’s truly amazing that we’re here. So, I have to tell you, I was in my shul and I was davening. Because we go visual now, I’m holding up the machzur that I was reading. And on the second day of Rosh Hashanah, I came across the following prayer that is made at the end of the Amidah where traditionally you’re supposed to add a personal supplication.
You can ad-lib a little bit. And I have put it in the Sefaria show notes that I am also, going to share. And it says,
It’s an absolutely beautiful prayer. It was translated by the Jules Harlow. It’s a little bit of a synopsis of the longer prayer which I do show.
from Rabbi Nathan Ben Moshe Hanover, who wrote an amazing collection of prayers. It’s called Sha’arei tzion. It was written in 1662. This is not a new book. And Gershon Sholom, in his great book, on the Kabbalah, really says this was an extremely influential
book and it was infused with the Lurianic doctrines of man’s mission on earth, his connections with power of the upper worlds, the transmigrations of his soul, and his striving to achieve tikkun were woven into prayers. So, Rabbi, certainly when you look at this beautiful prayer, and I must have used this machzor So, many times before, but I never really noticed it, it talks about this
Geoffrey Stern (04:59.065)
of the different species. And certainly, my first inclination was God created the world out of Tohu and Vohu, out of chaos, and therefore this man saw the unity in it. But he clearly is looking at it from a perspective which we might consider kind of modern. This tikkun, this being able to fix the fragments, to bring everything together. So, Rabbi, have you seen this prayer before? Just reading it
Now, what are your thoughts? I just found it was charming and of course because Russia Shun is the birth of the world and we are discussing in our pasha the birth of the world, it’s also very relevant.
Adam Mintz (05:43.023)
So, the answer is, thank you, Geoffrey. I am not familiar with this prayer, but it is a wonderful prayer. You’re right, it’s a beautiful prayer. And the idea of uniting fragments into a universe or uniting fragments to create the human being, right? It says uniting fragments into a universe, uniting fragments to create the human being.
I think that’s a great idea because as we know, and this is what we’re gonna talk about, the story of creation has five days of creation. Everything is created. Then the human being, and it turns out to be man and woman, are created on the sixth day. So, the creation of humans is the culmination of the creation process. So, this prayer sees that as
taking the first five days of creation and uniting them all together and then creating the human. And that that’s uniting fragments into a universe. means that you unify everything in the world. take everything and we as humans represent a unified world. That’s really a beautiful idea.
Geoffrey Stern (07:09.961)
It is, and I love that you bring it all the way to Adam and Eve, because of course, I think at the end of the posture when we talk about the Garden of Eden, there’s a book called Return to Eden. This whole concept of how the world began and where it ends up is So, critical to Judaism, to any religion who has its Genesis myth. So, as I said in the intro, I’m going to take, I’m gonna disrupt this prayer today.
into an absolutely opposite direction. Because when I thought about it for a second, it seems to me that there is a totally different read that you could read of all of creation, which has less to do with unity and more to do with division. And we are, because we are a disruptive toa, going to actually kind of follow that thread of what happens if you read the Pasha not from the basis of a tikkun.
or love and of course what I didn’t say is this prayer seems So, modern. It was written in the 1600s and 1700s but it is So, apropos of the way people think of religion as a unifying force. But I think that there is a second just as critical message that is as powerful if not more powerful in terms of a force of division and creation through division. So, let’s
begin. are in Genesis 1, 1, when God began to create the universe. The world was just full of unformed and void. And of course, the interesting thing here is the correct translation is not So, much when God began to create
or in the beginning kind of like God there is nothing there ex nihilo yesh meh ayin. If you look at the text itself it’s God’s creating to move around the pieces. He’s beginning to deal with Tohu and Vohu. And So, what does he do? There was darkness on the face of the deep and a wind was blowing and in verse three it says God said let there be light and there was light and God saw
Geoffrey Stern (09:39.405)
that the light was good and God separated the light from the darkness. So, here up until now we only have one verb, Barak, that God was creating. The second verb that we get is Vayavdel, that God separated. And what did he do by way of separating? He separated light from darkness. God called the light day, called the darkness night,
there was evening, there was a morning, a first day. So, Rabbi, you cannot but ignore the fact that Havdalah, something that we do once a week at the end of Shabbat, becomes a star player here. God has really not So, much created as divided between night and day. As we… Yep.
Adam Mintz (10:31.849)
So, let me, So, you ask. So, my question is, why is it so important that God separated between night and day? Why couldn’t we have lived for the past 5,785 years with 24 hours of twilight? Why would that have been So, terrible? Means there seems to be this idea of separation. Now actually in the next day,
God separated the water, the water on top and the water on bottom, and you get to that afterwards. So, this idea of separation isn’t just night and day. It seems to be that creation is partially about separation.
Geoffrey Stern (11:19.271)
separation or putting objects into order. In other words, if we don’t project, and this is what I was trying to say before, that God somehow created matter out of nothing. If we don’t project onto the text, it seems that the most creative thing that God is doing, and you’ve gone ahead already to the second day, is separating things. And that is where he, she shows his creativity. And that’s
Adam Mintz (11:25.021)
Yeah.
Geoffrey Stern (11:49.167)
where the value add is. So, as you say in verse 6 it says, said let there be an expanse in the midst of the water that it may separate water from water. I think it as much as anything else it is showing something about the creative process. And first and foremost, in the creative process if we forget about the Big Bang for a second and say no matter
what was before. Once creation starts, God is putting things into order. He is separating one thing from another. He’s creating clarity, if you will, but that clarity is mostly created by dividing stuff. You have a messy desk, you start making order. So, if we go on and we go into verse 14, God said,
the sky to separate day from night, they shall serve as signs for the set times, the days and the years, and they shall serve as lights in the expanse of the sky to shine upon the earth.” And it was so. And then it goes on to say, God made the two great lights, the greater light to dominate the day and the lesser light to dominate the night and the stars. And God set them in the expanse of the sky to shine unto the earth, to dominate the day
day and the night and to separate light from darkness and God saw that it was a good.” So, here too, and this of course is a continuation of what he did on day one, but now he’s not only separating, he is not separating equally. He’s making value judgments. He’s assigning tasks and utilities in terms of serve as signs for set times for days and years.
It’s really he is getting very creative in terms of what he’s putting into different place. He’s giving jobs. He’s giving Characteristics to these things if you look at Rashi on 116 great luminaries, they were created of equal size but that of the moon was diminished because she complained and says it is Impossible for two kings to make use of one craft
Geoffrey Stern (14:18.377)
This is such a precious and beautiful and kind of poignant commentary that I am going to go to the So,urces because now already we’re starting to get into how do you orchestrate,
How do you work with different beings that have different functions and maybe those functions aren’t equal? Crisis control all of a sudden, interpersonal relationships. We are personalizing these things but all we are is we are what? 16 verses into Genesis and we already have crisis management. We already have the
The problem with making havdalah, which is jealousy, which is competition, isn’t that fascinating?
Adam Mintz (15:26.505)
Well, that’s fascinating. So, I just want to say before we look at the Gemara, which tells us a tale, a legend, know, God creates two, the sun and the moon, and he creates them unequal.
It’s almost as if within creation, God wants to teach us exactly like what you said, is that not everything can be equal. We need to figure out how to manage with things that are unequal. Now, the Gemara and the Rashi are concerned with it’s not fair. And that’s one of the problems of being unequal.
But you made the most important point of all is, that is, life is not fair. Life is unequal. So, therefore, right there in the fourth day of creation, we have this issue as if we’re already dealing not only with creation, but with how to deal with the different pieces of creation. Like we deal with different people. Not everything can be equal, which is remarkable.
Geoffrey Stern (16:32.951)
I mean it’s conflict resolution and we cannot look at human beings and put the blame there. This is part of God’s plan. So, first he goes ahead and divides and then he starts creating inequity and divisions and even attributing to these inanimate objects jealousy and competition. It is truly amazing because I think you have to make the argument that it’s part of his or her plan. It’s not
And So, when we start from the perspective of that beautiful meditation where everything is about unity and sholeimmut and this sense of nirvana, here we have a creator who’s creating differences from the get-go in a very profound way. So, yes, you have the Gomorrah in Hulun that talks about the moon said before the Holy One, blessed master of the universe.
possible for two kings to serve with one crown? I mean, God could have answered yes, but he clearly, as you say, recognizes that that is going to be a problem. And of course, here it almost rings up much later on with Haven, where he says, came up with the question, you should now go ahead and diminish yourself. You were the one who brought this up. Then we get to Bereshit-Rabab, and again,
it goes into the same thing but here it starts to say that
one of the payoffs, one of the dividends that the moon gets is because the moon will have an ally with the Jewish people. And So, all of a sudden, as again, as I said in verse 16, we’re talking not only about inanimate objects, we’re talking about God’s chosen people, or should I say differentiated people, the people that were segmented out, and they have an ally with this diminished moon.
Geoffrey Stern (18:40.185)
So, he’s almost already saying that he might even have a preference for the minority, for the diminished. It’s pretty amazing if you think about it here in verse 16, we’re getting into all of this stuff.
Adam Mintz (18:55.607)
Well, you know, it always reflects back to the Jewish people. And in the Book of Devarim, now it seems very far away, but in the Book of Devarim, Moses tells the people that God loves you, because you are the smallest of all the nations. So, clearly there’s a preference. Now in Bereshit, we’re gonna have every story where the younger son,
is the one who’s the favored son. So, that this idea that being the moon is actually maybe to the benefit of the moon. That means the moon is going to be favored. And of course, in Jewish history, we’re about to start the holiday of Simchat Torah, which is a lunar holiday, which means that it’s based on the…
on the month of the moon rather than the month of the sun. The whole world goes on the month of the sun, but we follow the month of the moon. So, actually there’s a benefit by being in second place.
Geoffrey Stern (20:05.175)
I love what you said and of course if you look and I really recommend that everybody look at the source sheet in Bereshit Rabah 6-4 after talking about the moon it talks about Menashe and Ephraim that Joseph or Jacob puts his hands he switches his hands and he favors the small So, it truly is the Midrash is not missing the point here it understands that God creates not only
by differentiating, not only in assigning different tasks, different characteristics to things, but then starts to show a little bit of his affection for the underdog, for the smaller. And then we go to Genesis 2.
that God had done. The Chaveh Rav really rang true to me. The seventh day is, didn’t have a mate, didn’t have a pair. It’s an uneven number. God again started to divide between days of the week and he had this odd, day. This odd man out called
called Shabbat, and he separated it from the rest of the week. So, this concept of separating doesn’t stop with the six days of creation. It even enters into creating what could be considered the Jewish greatest contribution to the world, which is the seventh day. So, that then we can start
to think of the Midrashim. I mentioned earlier Rabbi that we’re using a word Havdalah that most Jews knows because of the Havdalah ceremony. It is the ceremony that we do at the end of Shabbat. But normally I dare to say we don’t combine it with this concept of Havdalah that happens throughout creation. But I’m gonna try to do that. I think the Midrash do it very well in terms of the
Geoffrey Stern (22:34.505)
There’s a direct connection between the creativity that God effected using this Havdalah, making Shabbat which was different and lehavdil ben all of the other work days and how it married this into the narrative. What thinks you?
Adam Mintz (22:54.822)
Yes, I mean, that you see that the difference between Shabbat and the week is a very interesting thing. Let’s talk about this week. I know we’re now going on video. So, it’s not only right now that people are listening, but we can refer to what this week is. This week is Simchat Torah. And we in the diaspora,
have celebrated, observed over the past month, three long weekends that go from Chag to Shabbat, right? Thursday, Friday, and then Shabbat. Now, when we go from Friday to Shabbat, we do something interesting. And that is we just make regular kiddish for Shabbat. It’s like a straight line from the Chag to Shabbat. But if the Chag…
were to fall out on Saturday night, we actually would recite Havdalah on Saturday night going into the chag, because Shabbat is considered to be special. So, I’m just pointing that out because that’s, see, when you talk about separation Havdalah, Shabbat from the rest of the week, that has come to identify what separation means, what Havdalah means.
And the fact that even when we go from Shabbat to a Chag, we still say separation. Separation is something that is really, you know, is something that’s So, fundamental. And I’ll just tell you this last thing. And that is if you make Havdalah from Shabbat to a Chag, and those people who want to look forward to the next Chag, the next Chag is Pesach. And Pesach is going to fall out on Saturday night this year. So, we’re going to recite this Havdalah. And the Havdalah that you make is Baruch Atah Hashem,
HaMavdiel b’in kodesh le kodesh. Exactly what you have right here. Now that’s remarkable, Geoffrey, because usually we say HaMavdiel b’in kodesh lechol, God who separates from holy to mundane to everyday. That’s a distinction. But in our tradition, we understand even the subtlest of separations.
Adam Mintz (25:15.751)
And that is Hamavdil Benkodesh Lekodesh. I’ll just tell you a funny story by Joseph Soloveitchik, who was probably the greatest Orthodox mind in the second half of the 20th century, said that when he was a little boy, five years old, and for the first time he heard this Havdalah of Hamavdil Benkodesh Lekodesh, he said he couldn’t sleep the whole night because he couldn’t understand what it meant to make havdalah Benkodesh Lekodesh.
Geoffrey Stern (25:42.283)
You know, it’s kind of like they say about the Eskimos that they have 50 words for snow. We Jews at least have two different types, two different madregot; levels of Kiddusha. But I love that you brought that up because it appeared to me in that special Kiddush that you mentioned, at a certain point it says, And it seems to me that the word Kiddusha
Adam Mintz (25:52.242)
That’s very good.
Geoffrey Stern (26:12.497)
can mean almost Havdalah. In other words, when the verse says, kadochim tihi you, that you should be holy, the rabbis, the Pharisees who are called in Hebrew the perushim, says kadochim tihi you, perushim tihi you. So, if you want to talk about the power of separation, perush means to divide, to separate, because holiness at the end of the day is to take something
and divide between Chulin and Kedushin. And so, when I am saying that we are reading this lens today of the beginning of Bereshit from a whole new lens, not one of homogeny, not one of Nirvana where all of the sharp edges are sanded down and everything becomes unified. If anything, we’re finding a very strong
element of the power of differences, of the power of separation. And that, in fact, is the source of Kiddushah. So, getting back to that first Shabbat, yes, by making it separate from the rest of the week, by making one last havdalah between when he worked and when he stopped working, God was continuing the process of creation and created this amazing Shabbat.
If you look at the source sheet, you’ll see Bereshit Rabot. There are Midrashim that believe that Adam and Eve, and we’re going to get to that hopefully in a few seconds, when they sinned was the afternoon of Friday. So, the first, there was 12 hours in the afternoon of that day where they sinned. Then there was Shabbat, and then they were kicked out of the Garden of Eden. They were expelled.
known rabbi as Havdalah. They were separated out of Eden and the tradition is that God gave them Shabbat So, that they could experience the hidden light of creation. But more importantly or as importantly, he gave Adam the first invention. He gave him fire and he taught him how to make fire after he cast
Geoffrey Stern (28:41.761)
him out of the garden in Eden and that is why we say, Bo-reh, Ma-o-reh Ha-esh at the Havdalah ceremony. So, now already we have invention as well as creation. And so, what I want to finish up with Rabbi is the story of in chapter 2 of the creation of Eve. Because here too there is this sense
that Adam was unified, was one person, and he is the only element of creation who was Lo tov. Lo tov, lehiyot ha’adam levad. And So, he had to go through that division as well. And So, in Genesis 221, God cast a deep sleep upon the human, and while he slept, God took one of his sides.
Again, another verb that has to do with separating. And he made Eve. Normally we think of this as a unifying element, that it was flesh of my flesh, but I emphasize on the me’atsmi. It was flesh taken from, kind of like when you take challah.
Rabbi. And then what is he called? then it says, and therefore a man should what? Separate from his parents. And I would argue not only from his parents on earth, who Adam actually did not have, but also, maybe his parents. I think if you look at the story of the sin of, we call it a
Adam Mintz (30:22.368)
Separate.
Geoffrey Stern (30:41.233)
sin, but if you look at the story of the eating of the tree, the apple of the tree of the knowledge, and then the expulsion from the Garden of Eden, it again, it is this necessary separation. And it puts into a whole new guise, I believe, what is necessary, the necessary elements in this creation myth. And when I say creation now, we’re talking about humanity as hell.
As well, we’re talking about splitting the atom. Bye-bye, Mints.
Adam Mintz (31:14.667)
That’s great. So, I’ll just finish up by saying everything you said is fantastic. The best thing you said was that Adam was the one thing that was not tov, lo tov heyot ha’adam livadoh, and therefore he needed to go through separation. Adam himself, and there he’s only a man, himself needed to be divided because division is the process of creation. That’s a fantastic idea.
Creation means division. You can only create by separating. And that’s what the Torah comes to tell us. And it’s separation for the sake of ultimate unity. think that’s…
Make your point even stronger. It’s the separation for the sake of ultimate unity. Because that’s what we try to do. We try to take opposites. We try to take separated things and we try to make them work together. They’re not equals, but we try to make them work together. This is a fantastic way to begin. I can’t wait for the rest of the Torah.
Geoffrey Stern (32:17.201)
I love it. Give me one last word though, because as you know, and we love this, it says, that he built Eve from this rib, we know from there that according to the Talmud and other sources, that women have bina. And what is bina? It’s a type of wisdom. If you think, Rabbi, in terms of science, how do scientists
Adam Mintz (32:20.013)
Yes.
Geoffrey Stern (32:47.337)
things. They separate phenomenon So, that they can analyze one phenomenon not mixed up with another. Without that separation you have nothing. So, we really have this true source of Bina, of understanding. And to your point, I love this further Midrash which says when in Genesis 3 6 and when the woman saw that the tree was good and it was a delight to the eyes…
She took of its fruit and did eat and gave also to her husband with her and he did eat and So, Rashi says that she was afraid if she ate it and he did not that she would die and he would go get married to somebody else it almost is a story of Romeo and Juliet and It’s a story of Romeo and Juliet and this Emma rabbi is Exactly what you were saying
It’s this cleaving of two different people together who can survive the rejection of their parents on earth, their parents in heaven, create their new life together. And I think that becomes then an amazing narrative of creation that starts with the heavens and ends with a couple, two human beings that are “imo”, that are together with each other. Fascinating read.
Adam Mintz (34:14.233)
Amazing. Yasher Koach to you. Shabbat shalom to everybody. Chag sameach. And can’t wait for next week. Chag sameach, Geoffrey. Enjoy. Bye bye.
Geoffrey Stern (34:21.185)
Chag sameach, all the best, bye bye.
Seventy Faces
parshat vayigash, genesis 46
Join Geoffrey Stern and Rabbi Adam Mintz recorded on Clubhouse on December 29, 2022. Even if you are not a proponent of numerology you cannot ignore the repeated claim of the Torah that seventy souls went down to Egypt. The implied significance of the number 7 and its variants 70 and 49 provide a unique lens to view the Biblical narrative. Join us as we explore Gematria, rules of Biblical interpretation and the number Seventy in the Bible.
Sefaria Source Sheet: www.sefaria.org/sheets/455577
Transcript:
Welcome to Madlik. My name is Geoffrey Stern and at Madlik we light a spark or shed some light on a Jewish Text or Tradition. Along with Rabbi Adam Mintz, we host Madlik Disruptive Torah on clubhouse every Thursday and share it as the Madlik podcast on your favorite platform. This week’s Torah portion is Vayigash. Even if you are not a proponent of numerology you can’t ignore the repeated claim of the Torah that seventy souls went down to Egypt. The implied significance of the number 7 and its variants 70 and 49 provide a unique lens to view the Biblical narrative. So join us as we explore Gematria, rules of Biblical interpretation and the number Seventy in the Bible. Seventy Faces.
more
Well, welcome back to Madlik and just as we have finished Hanukah where we added a candle every night and counted to eight, we are going to spend a half hour today doing something that I typically don’t like to do, I am not into numerology, I am not into this gematria where you assign a value to each letter of the alphabet and you build high mountains of interpretation based on those types of things. Typically, I look at those things and I find them artificial, I find them impugned and ultimately, I feel that they’re almost an insult to the text itself, which has so much richness, why would you need to add numerology to it Rabbi is your take on gematria and numerology before we take off here?
Adam Mintz 01:58
I’m with you. I’m an old-fashioned traditionalists just like you. I don’t really like numerology. But numerology is one of those things you have to understand because it’s so much a part of our tradition. Now, there’s numerology. And then there’s some times where the Torah gives us numbers. I would also make that distinction. If the Torah gives us a number 70. Probably that number 70 means something.
Geoffrey Stern 02:25
So that literally was my point of departure. So in Genesis 46: 27, it says, And Joseph’s sons who were born to him in Egypt, were two in number. Thus, the total of Jacob’s household who came to Egypt was 70 persons. כׇּל־הַנֶּ֧פֶשׁ לְבֵֽית־יַעֲקֹ֛ב הַבָּ֥אָה מִצְרַ֖יְמָה שִׁבְעִֽים. And, as I said before, it is repeated in Exodus, it says, Exodus 1: 5 the total number of persons that were up Jacob’s issue came to 70, Joseph being already in Egypt, שִׁבְעִ֣ים נָ֑פֶשׁ. So again, when it repeats it twice, and of course, in the reference in our parsha. In our portion, it is preceded by what we found many times before a genealogy, and the genealogy has this is a child of Leah. This is the children of, of Rachel, these are the children of the two handmaidens. And then it says, and therefore everything added up to 70. So you can’t ignore the fact that it was important to the text that it added up to 70. And this actually is the most obvious most in your faced version of this, but it actually, according to the rabbi’s has happened before. At the end of the story of Noah, in Genesis 10. It gives all of his genealogy, he had three sons Shem, Ham and Japhet, and then in the beginning of Genesis 11, it says everyone on Earth had the same language and the same words. And the rabbis learned from this, first of all the rabbi’s go ahead and they count up each one of the members of Noah’s house, and lo and behold, in our source sheet I have quoted the Chizkuni, but he is not alone, where he adds them all up. And sure enough, there are 70 and from this comes the tradition that there are 70 nations, and that those 70 nations spoke one language before the Tower of Babel. And they spoke 70 languages after the Tower of Babel. So it’s seems to me if you look at both the Jews coming down from Canaan into Egypt, and you look at the end of the, the portion of the flood, and you talk about moving into a new basis for humanity at both of those junctures you have this group of 70. And you have a wonderful implication, I think the idea that there were 70 nations, and that they were 70 languages, had beautiful implications for us. The most beautiful is that according to the rabbi’s in the tractate of Shabbat, 88b, when the Torah was given, each utterance of God’s mouth was divided into 70 languages. So, I’ll stop here, do you believe as now we start to explore the texts or the Bible’s sense of 70? Does it have to do with transition? What do you make of 70 Languages? What was the implications for the generation of the Exodus?
Adam Mintz 06:11
Well, I mean, there are so many different pieces of this. First of all, seventy comes from seven, and seven is the number in the Torah of a cycle, because that’s seven days. How do I know that? I know that from the story of creation, the very first cycle in the history of the Torah, in the history of the world, is the cycle of seven, God works for six days, and he rests on the seventh. So, I know from Genesis chapter one, that the key number in the Torah is going to be the number seven, and therefore 70, and therefore 49. And all of those variations of seven, sorry, so right that we know from the beginning. So therefore 70 languages, and 70 people fit in. Now, we’re not talking about this yet. But Rashi points out that if you count the numbers, the numbers are wrong, that actually, it’s only 69. And that, we have to get a 78 from somewhere. And Rashi suggests that number seventy is Yochevet, Yochevet is the mother of Moses, the daughter of Levi, who’s a grandson of Jacob, and the Rabbis say, she was וְנִתּוֹסְפָה לָהֶם יוֹכֶבֶד בֵּין הַחוֹמוֹת she was literally born on the way between Canaan and Egypt. Now that that is very important in its own, because she’s the mother of Moses. Moses is the one who took the Jews from Egypt to Canaan, he asked to have been born from a mother, who also knew both cultures, she was born between Canaan and Egypt.
Geoffrey Stern 08:07
So how does that relate to the number seventy?
Adam Mintz 08:11
Well, that’s number 70. If you just count up the numbers in this week’s Parasha, you don’t get to 70 You need a seventy. So, Rashi has this idea that these 70th is someone who was born on the way, so she didn’t make it into the genealogy in the Torah, but she’s counted as number 70. But obviously, that’s significant because you need 70. So where are you gonna get 70 from?
Geoffrey Stern 08:38
So that’s, that’s amazing. They really had to work at it. And I think what’s interesting about coming to this number of 70, for the generation of the Exodus, is it wasn’t all that neat. They make a point, the verse makes a point of saying, and you have to add Joseph who was already there, or you have to add Joseph and his sons who were already there. So although it’s this sense of 70 came down, it’s not as if they came down all at once. And even a few verses earlier in Genesis 45: 7 it uses the word וַיִּשְׁלָחֵ֤נִי אֱלֹהִים֙ לִפְנֵיכֶ֔ם לָשׂ֥וּם לָכֶ֛ם שְׁאֵרִ֖ית בָּאָ֑רֶץ וּלְהַחֲי֣וֹת לָכֶ֔ם לִפְלֵיטָ֖ה גְּדֹלָֽה, which means in later Judaism, we would have congregations who were formed that left Spain, and they were called like the one in New York City Shei’rit Yisrael the leftover the remnants of Israel, Pelatah, has the same meaning. You almost get a sense that maybe there were more people in Canaan left behind who, as would happen in a famine didn’t make the boat, weren’t so lucky. But here was this remnant who reunited with their estranged son/brother and became this whole. But it was it’s part of survival too, which is fascinating to me. And that’s the בֵּין הַחוֹמוֹת you we’re talking about between the walls.
Adam Mintz 09:46
I think all that’s true. By the way, when the Jews left Egypt, they didn’t leave with a number that was a multiple of 70. 600,000. Jews left Egypt. It’s not connected to 70. I can’t explain it. I’m just telling you that that’s a fact.
Geoffrey Stern 10:20
So that that becomes kind of interesting.
Adam Mintz 10:22
I can’t explain it. I’m just telling you that that’s a fact.
Geoffrey Stern 10:27
Yeah. I want to pick up a little bit on what you were saying about the number seven. Obviously, seven times 10 is 70 times seven is 49. We count that for the years of the Shemita, the Sabbatical Year that in the 50th year then becomes the Jubilee Year, the Yovel. When I was looking at the texts, I came across a comment by Everett Fox, who we’ve come across before and he says shivim; 70. Related to sever, it has to do with completeness with something that is perfection. And then he says, I’ve written more on this, but also see a certain scholar named Umberto Cassuto and Umberto Cassuto was an Italian Jewish scholar, who, because of the persecution moved to Israel, and join the Hebrew University, and because of Everett Fox’s reference, I went ahead and I opened up my book on Genesis by Cassuto. And for someone who doesn’t like numbers, this was like a mind opener to me. And he lists, I think, seven or eight ways in which the number seven plays a part in the creation of the world. And obviously, the most obvious one is seven days of creation. But he talks about the fact that the divine name in one of its forms occurs 70 times in the first four chapters, he says, And there was evening and there was morning, is seven times he says there were seven chapters who the Masoratim, the people that gave punctuation to the Torah scroll, if you look at a Torah Scroll, there is no punctuation. They created seven paragraphs. He said, The Seven times you have this divine fiat “let there be”. Then he talks about the terms light and day are found seven times in the first paragraph, and seven references to light in the fourth paragraph, he goes on water is mentioned seven times in paragraphs two and three. He says the expression good appears seven times. The first verse of the Torah about a set has seven words, the second verse contains 14 words. And at the end, he says, to suppose that all this is a mere coincidence is not possible. Full disclosure, I think that Cassuto, was arguing with what’s called high a biblical criticism, or form criticism, which implies that the Bible, especially the first chapters of Genesis, were written by different sources. And what he is arguing is, if you believe that the numerology of seven, and seven, and 14, and what built into the text, it’s pretty difficult to assume that the multiple edited texts would be able to convey this, it’s almost looking more like a Shakespearean sonnet that has certain rules to it, the rules are followed exactly, and his seven is pulling that up. But as a byproduct, …. if we buy into what Cassuto is trying to say, he’s trying to say that the original author of these texts was very mindful of the power of this seventh. And that, in the words of Cassuto, is very hard to believe is a mere coincidence. Have you ever seen this stuff from Cassuto? Before? This was the first I mean,
Adam Mintz 14:36
I’ve never seen it from Cassuto. But I’m very familiar with the idea. I mean, and you’re 100% right, because Cassuto was a scholar in the first half of the second half of the of the 1900s. And, you know, there was a big push towards scholarship, you know, Bible Scholarship, which says that the tau res, you know, written by multiple authors, and it’s a work of literature, and then what they I always do is they point out all these things that can’t be coincidence coincidences? And he points out that one of those big things is the number seven, seven is everywhere. You see, the Torah, even as God’s book has to be built on, you know, based on certain principles. And one of the principles, his argument is that one of the principles is seven. And he likes the fact that one of the principles is seven, because since there were seven days of creation, and that’s the first number, and that’s the first cycle. So it makes perfect sense that that should be the cycle around which the entire toe is creeping.
Geoffrey Stern 15:43
But it really I mean, it kind of you don’t have to buy one of his arguments, or two of his arguments, you can say, Well, that’s obvious. The weld was great in seven days. So, it says I was good seven times. But the cumulative power of all of these things, is fascinating. And it makes one say, okay, in our, in our profession, we have this, this sense of 70 people in the genealogy, it makes you look back at Noa where it doesn’t point out that it’s 70. And read it differently. And that’s my point. My point is that this then these numbers become a tool, a way of listening to the narrative in potentially a new way, which is kind of interesting.
Adam Mintz 16:34
Really interesting. And to think about why seven should be such an important number. So, I’m making a big deal about the fact that seven is the first number in the Torah; seven days of the week. But why is seven completeness? And why is 70 completeness. And why is 49 completeness. You know, it’s all based on God’s cycle. God determined that seven was the number. Since God determined that seven was the number, everything revolves around Gods sevens.
Geoffrey Stern 17:09
Yeah, and again, it’s not as though the tradition was not aware of 10. I mean, I think you can assume 10, and I’m no scholar in this regard. But 10 is 10 fingers, it’s the easiest way to count. We talk about the digital revolution, where everything is associated with a number digits come from our fingers. If you look up the word digit, it is a finger. So that I get and that is interesting, because that does appear we do have 70 is 10 times seven, which is fascinating. The Rabbi’s talk about the world being created in 10 phrases. And of course, Cassuto says well, he sees a combination there of the seven that he has identified, and three others, but I don’t have an answer to why seven is important other than the week and the importance of time. But that almost begs the question, how did we get to a seven-day week? It’s certainly one of the Jew’s greatest contributions to civilization, especially in terms of the seventh day, which is the holy day of rest, but I don’t have an answer. All I know is that this little exercise that we’re having today is sensitizing me and hopefully you to the numbers and the associations that the biblical author and or the rabbi’s later had with, with number associations.
Adam Mintz 18:49
I think I mentioned on this clubhouse Class A while ago, that there was a book written last year called The week. (The Week: A History of the Unnatural Rhythms That Made Us Who We Are by David M Henkin) And in the book, he traces this idea of the seven day week. And what I couldn’t believe but seems to be true, is that there have been attempts as recently as the 18 hundreds after the Civil War, to try to make the week simpler, you know, the week doesn’t work out with the month because the month is either 30 or 31 days. We all know, therefore it’s confusing. So, in December, December 10 was whatever day of the week it is. January 10 is going to be another day of the week and February 10 will be another day of the week. We’ve taken that for that we figure that out and we look it up on calendars. But before they had calendars that was complicated, one did have been easier had the week, and the month didn’t synch, meaning that the week been five or six stays. So that wouldn’t that have been easier? Yeah. And the answer is they tried it. And it didn’t work, because seven has been the number since the time of creation. And that really is interesting. You see, sometimes the fact that something wins, even though it doesn’t make sense, shows you the power of it. So, seven doesn’t make sense, it would have been better to do it the other way. But nevertheless, seven one, and I thought that was great.
Geoffrey Stern 20:32
And it speaks to the power the meaning that we humans also imbue something with it takes on a life of its own, which I think is fascinating. So, I wanted to take the discussion in a slightly different direction, because I did say that I had a kind of a bias against Gematria. And I did a little research the most preeminent scholar in Greco Roman influences on Judaism is Professor Saul Lieberman. And he wrote a book actually called a how much Hellenism in Jewish Palestine. And in it he talks about a Mishneh in Shekalim were they availed themselves the utility of putting Greek letters on jugs. The word Gematria itself… if it sounds like the word geometry there’s a reason. it’s a Greek word. we’ve all might have been exposed to the different forms of hermeneutics of Yishmael in terms of rules of interpretation, but there is a lesser-known rules of, interpretation for the Agada …. for the narrative portions, the moral the ethics, and that’s 33 Midot. There were 33 ways of doing it. And it was the first to cite one of these Midot is the numerical values of the text. And according to Lieberman, this was by Abulwalid ibn Ganah, and as you can tell by his name, this was anything but the rabbinic period. And in terms of our experience of Gematria. Here’s an interesting one, if you remember when we did our episode on Aramaic, and we talked about Eliezer, who was Abraham’s servant going down to find a bride for his son,….And I said, if you will call, while the Rabbi say it was Eliezer. The truth is, it never says Eliezer but the rabbi’s learn it and Rashi quotes from a gematria from the numerical value of 318, servants of Abraham, but it’s rare and late. And the interesting thing that Lieberman talks about is that this sense of even ascribing numerical value to letters comes very late. It’s he quotes in the Talmud that they got it from the Greeks in terms of a Mishnah in Shekalim, where they availed themselves the Greek alphabet. to put numbers on different jugs, the word Gematria itself, if it sounds like geometry, there’s a reason it’s a Greek word. So the first interesting thing is, the value of numbers is important. We’ve pointed that out. But giving these num numerical values to each letter is something that was much later as a tool of interpretation. What’s fascinating, is, we’ve all heard the Sofrim. Sofer is an author in modern day Hebrew, and the Sofrim were one of the earliest interpreters of the Bible. But if you know Hebrew, you know the word l’saper can mean to tell a story, Lispor can mean to count, and here Lieberman says something that after reading Cassuto, we all of a sudden, can recognize. And he quotes two pieces of Talmud, where they talk about the lost art of counting verses, counting words, and that they ascribe to the Sofrim. So on the one hand, Gematria might be something late, but I think doing something along the lines that we just saw Umberto Cassuto do with some maybe a lost art.
Adam Mintz 24:55
That selection from the Talmud. Sofrim, shows that there are actually was an entire profession of people who counted the words and the letters of the Torah, exactly what Cassuto did. That’s what they did. Now you understand, in those days, they didn’t have books, the only book they had was the Torah, and the Torah was a holy book. So, if you have a holy book, you might as well turn it over and turn it over and turn it over again. And turning it over means reading it, and reading and reading it all the different ways you can read it. And they believed that counting the letters and the words of the Torah was a holy pursuit, I think that’s an important thing that needs to be said that in itself was a holy pursuit.
Geoffrey Stern 25:37
And it probably as Cassuto points out, helped with punctuation, helped with structuring the text. So when Cassuto says that there are seven paragraphs of creation, and Sofrim were great, the Mesoratim were great in terms of putting those little brackets. It fed itself. They were, you know, the question was, is how much were they projecting onto the text? And how much were they uncovering some rhythms, some patterns of the tax that were helpful in other regards, that to me, is kind of fascinating. And as much as it goes against my grain to admit this numerology, there is something there that makes it makes it fascinating. I think about 10 Years Ago, there was a book called the Bible Code. And that went a little a little bit far, and made almost a ……
Adam Mintz
A mockery of it
Geoffrey Stern
I think that’s exactly it. And so you have to walk a very interesting line here. And maybe you need to scholars like a Cassuto, who see it that way to listen to them to help that enrich your experience of reading the text, but not overcome it.
Adam Mintz 27:02
I think you’re making a very interesting point about the Sofrim. We know that they counted. What exactly did they count. So the Bible Code took the Sofrim and kind of exploded it. And everything was allowed, because Cassuto limits it. But it’s interesting to think about the fact that the minute you start counting things, it’s hard to create limits. And basically, to say it a little cynically, but probably truthfully, your ability to count is as good as your ability to come up with a Devar Torah. If you’re counting will give me a good Devar Torah, that I’m willing to count. But if you’re counting is not going to give me anything. What’s the point? And I think that’s what the Bible Code got, The Bible Code has these crazy things, you know, they predicted World War Two, and all these kinds of crazy things. So, the minute that they actually were able to predict things, people took them seriously now it was wrong to take them seriously. This goes back to the very first thing you said today, and that is your kind of hesitation towards these kinds of numerologies. I think that’s our general 21st century view of that the numerology is we’re not afraid to say what Cassuto said, what we’re afraid to do is to get carried away. That’s dangerous. And that’s what the Bible Code did.
Geoffrey Stern 28:38
So yeah, I totally agree. But now I want to focus out what we can learn from this number 70. And this sense of how the rabbi’s took it. You already described this sense of between the walls and I love that it becomes part of the birth of our nation at that exact moment of transferring from Canaan to Egypt, where people were born. We had that number 70. I talked about Noah having 70 children and then having this story about languages. And from this, the rabbis learned that there are 70 languages. I also mentioned that when the total was given, there’s this beautiful Talmud that says, Every utterance emerged from the mouth of the Almighty divided into 70 languages. What I didn’t give you is the metaphor that they took from that. And they said that each word was therefore like a hammer that shatters a rock, just as a hammer breaks a stone into several fragments. So every and each utterance that emerged from the mouth of the Holy One, blessed be He divided it into 70 languages ״וּכְפַטִּישׁ יְפֹצֵץ סָלַע״ and נֶחֱלָק לְכַמָּה נִיצוֹצוֹת so now we’re starting to see this kind of dynamism this kind of dialectic between 70 being a sense of complete, and perfection, and 70 being something that breaks outside of the boundary of completeness and perfection.. The Sparks when the hammer strikes the rock or the anvil. You know, this sense of language, we all know that you can’t translate perfectly, which maybe says something in a negative sense about translating. But the positive sense is that whenever you do translate, you’re seeing the original text in a new way, you’re taking it with new nuances. I’ll finish by saying that when the Bible was translated into Greek, the word that it was called, is this Septuagint for those of you who know Greek that comes from the word 70, because by rabbinic tradition, there was 70, scholars put in 70 different rooms, and they all translated the Bible the same, I would love to say that maybe they translated it the same, but by translating it, there was this spark this diversion and the rabbi’s understood that and that was manifest in this word. 70. Once again,
Adam Mintz 31:29
I think that’s great. And obviously, that legend about 70. It’s the same thing, you know, 70 is the round number 70 is the holy number. 70 is the special number. If you’re going to have it translated, obviously, it’s going to be 70. Right? It’s like if I were to wake you up in the middle night and say how many people translated the Torah, you will say, of course, it’s seventy.
Geoffrey Stern 31:51
What’s interesting is in the actual text, it says, it says some texts say 72, and some say 70.
Adam Mintz 32:00
We call it the Septuagint, which means the translation of the seventy. Yes,
Geoffrey Stern 32:05
And I would like to argue from that, that the word 70, was also taken in as a form as an expression. The other place that you have it, one of the reasons given for it being called the Septuagint, besides the 70 rooms, is that the text of the Greek translation was then sent to the Sanhedrin. How many people are members of the grand Sanhedrin? Rabbi?
Adam Mintz 32:34
Of course, 70, because that’s the only number it can be.
Geoffrey Stern 32:38
So here, too, we have this Sanhedrin, and that by the way, Kim was out of Numbers 11: 16, then God spoke to Moses gather to me 70 men of the elders of Israel, to whom you know that they are elders of the people and its officers. And that’s where he appointed his judges, you cannot mention the 70 members of the Sanhedrin without mentioning the unbelievable, mind-blowing piece of Talmud in Sanhedrin, 17a that says, if you have a Sanhedrin in a capital case, that has unanimity, each of the 70 judges says that this individual is guilty. He goes free. If there’s one or two of them that say no, I’m not convinced you can convict him of death. But I’d love to know what your takeaway is, my takeaway has always been in 70 people let alone 70. Jews can all agree about something there’s something wrong
Adam Mintz 33:45
There’s something wrong with the case. That’s correct. And that’s the way we’ve always interpreted it, right means you can have unanimity. There has to be some debate, There has to be a way to see it the other way. If you don’t give you can see it the other way. You haven’t tried hard enough to find the other argument. Isn’t that a great way to kind of pull the whole thing together?
Geoffrey Stern 34:06
It really speaks to this sense that seven might be complete and perfect. But perfection can never be unanimous. Universal. there has to be an outlier. There has to be something that’s open to discussion, whether it’s a translation or a judgement. And, you know, maybe if I knew more about numbers, I would be able to understand how seven is unique. It’s clearly not. It’s not divisible by whole numbers. So there’s something there, but I just think that the Sanhedrin and the Septuagint. And that a hammer hitting the anvil and making Sparks as a metaphor for Torah is a beautiful message of what those 70 individuals going down to Egypt had in store for themselves when they launched our nation.
Adam Mintz 35:04
What a great topic. So, thank you for talking about numerology, Shabbat Shalom, everybody enjoy 70. And think of all the other examples of seven and 70 and 49 that we have in our tradition, our tradition is full of them happy new year, and we look forward to continuing it’ll be 2023 but next Thursday night, we are going to continue with Vayechei and then we will bring it in to the book of Bereshit, the book of Genesis, Shabbat Shalom, everybody, Shabbat Shalom, Geoffrey, and everybody. And we look forward to next week be Well, everybody,
Geoffrey Stern 35:35
Shabbat Shalom that the force of 70 be with you all. And if any of you have any comments or suggestions or something that you want to share with us, please go ahead and raise your hand. And I would love to invite you up to the Bima. Hey, Michael.
Michael Stern 35:55
Hey, Geoffrey, thank you, I What a blessing to come on today. I’m driving, but I just wanted to add to the mix. That the year 2023 numerologically, adds up to seven.
Geoffrey Stern
Wow.
Michael Stern
Yeah, so I didn’t want to overlook it. And, of course, I believe and feels numerology. And I think that it’s very deep. And so I think there’s something going on, this is going to be a powerful time of alignment. Hanukkah and Christmas were also the same crescent moon rising. I check that out the last day of Hanukkah and the day of Christmas. So there’s something going on that I just wanted to share, and thanks for great Madlik today.
Geoffrey Stern 36:47
So Michael, I think that’s amazing that you are link our discussion today of Shivim of 70 the New Year, which adds up to seven because one of the sources that I had wanted to bring but I had neglected to bring was right out of the Haggadah. It says web Eliezer Ben Azaria said Behold, I am like a 70-year-old man, yet I have not merited to understand why the Exodus from Egypt should be said at night until Ben Zoma explained it to me. And from this, we learn that Shivim can also be related to time and more specifically years. And whether it means that he felt like he became an old person, which is the mainstream explanation because he was very young, when he was appointed to be the head of the Sanhedrin. Or maybe because he was from another generation. There was 70 years that the Jews were in captivity. in Babylonia there was 70 years plus or minus where the Second Temple was being rebuilt. So maybe he was saying, I I’m a man of a different generation of the generation of the galut of the destruction. And I didn’t know whether we should remember the Exodus from Egypt only during good times i.e., during the day, but also during bad times, but I love that he associates 70 with years, and we are about to celebrate a new year. And I’m also reminded of the Chinese that give every year a face every year is associated with a different animal. And that was why I called the podcast 70 faces Shivim panim because there is a tradition that every verse has 70 faces 70 different explanations at least. So, for this coming year, let us discover the face of the year let us discover the different textures of our texts and aspects of our friends and family and wishing you all a very happy New Year. Shabbat shalom.
Sefaria Source Sheet: www.sefaria.org/sheets/455577
Listen to last year’s fantastic Vayigash episode: Joseph – Tool of a Repressive Regime?
Leave a comment
Filed under Bible, haggadah, Judaism, kabbalah, Religion, Sabbath, Shabbat, shavuot, social commentary, Torah
Tagged as gematria, numerology, Torah