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Interpretations of Tohu Wa-Vohu As Matter and Form

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Interpretations of Tohu Wa-Vohu As Matter and Form 1 Hannu Töyrylä: Slimy Stones and Philosophy: Interpretations of tohu wa-vohu as Matter and Form 7.11.2000 Copyright Hannu Toyryla 2000, 2004 email: [email protected] 1. Introduction ..................................................................................................................................2 2. The Biblical and Rabbinic Basis for the Interpretations.................................................................2 2.1 The Biblical basis...................................................................................................................2 2.2 Relevant interpretations in Talmud and Midrash: Chaos or created entities...........................3 2.3 Green line, slimy stones.........................................................................................................4 2.4 From Sefer Yetzirah to the book Bahir ...................................................................................6 3. Medieval Concepts of Matter and Form........................................................................................9 4. Bar Hiyya's Discussion on Matter and Form...............................................................................11 4.1 Bar Hiyya's theory of matter and form..................................................................................11 4.2 Matter and form as tohu and bohu .......................................................................................12 4.3 Bar Hiyya's cosmogonic exegesis........................................................................................13 5. How did Bar Hiyya's idea become popular? ...............................................................................15 5.1 Nahmanides ........................................................................................................................15 5.2 Nahmanides' background: the Gerona school......................................................................16 5.3 Later kabbalists....................................................................................................................18 6. Opinions of the philosophers......................................................................................................20 6.1 Jewish philosophy until the Aristotelians ..............................................................................20 6.2 The first Aristotelians ...........................................................................................................21 6.3 Isaac Albalag .......................................................................................................................21 6.4 Gersonides ..........................................................................................................................23 6.5 Isaac Abravanel...................................................................................................................24 7. Philosophy and Kabbalism: The Physical and Spiritual Domains ...............................................25 8. Important themes and issues .....................................................................................................26 8.1 Chaos as the prime matter in late antiquity ..........................................................................27 8.2 The primordial nature of water .............................................................................................28 8.3 Comparison to a builder.......................................................................................................30 8.4 Bohu: form or composite?....................................................................................................31 8.5 Tohu as evil .........................................................................................................................34 9. Further questions .......................................................................................................................35 9.1 Sources and background for Bar Hiyya's equation...............................................................35 9.2 Dissemination and later development of Bar Hiyya's equation .............................................36 10. A Summary ................................................................................................................................37 Bibliography.......................................................................................................................................39 Primary Sources ............................................................................................................................39 Secondary Literature......................................................................................................................41 2 1. INTRODUCTION In the beginning of creation, the earth was empty, without form and void. The creation account in the first chapter of Genesis describes how, from this state called tohu wa- vohu (Uvcuuv,) in Hebrew, God created and formed the world in the course of six days. However, the world is not all that grew out of tohu wa-vohu, —these two words presented a challenge for Jewish thinkers and commentators who generated a tradition of ingenious interpretations. It may seem improbable that the image of utter emptiness of the Gen 1:2 could have anything to do with the sober philosophy of Aristotle. However, such a connection was made, when in medieval Jewish thought the interpretation of tohu and bohu as matter and form –important concepts in medieval philosophy and science– surfaced and even attained a level of popularity. This paper will trace the evolution of such interpretations, made in the Middle Ages using Biblical and Midrashic material as prooftexts. The focus of the investigation is in Abraham Bar Hiyya's interpretations from the 12th century, but attention is also given to earlier views as well as the later dissemination and development of Bar Hiyya's ideas. Finally, a couple of special issues arising from the evolution of the interpretations are handled in more detail. 2. THE BIBLICAL AND RABBINIC BASIS FOR THE INTERPRETATIONS In this chapter we will present and examine some particular passages from the Scriptures and the rabbinical literature, which are relevant to the study of the later development of interpretations of tohu and bohu. 2.1 The Biblical basis It is not within the scope of this paper to investigate the literal, Biblical meaning of tohu wa-vohu. Be it enough to note, that although the words are not very common in the Bible, there are still ample occurrences to allow us to compare the meanings1. Emptiness, chaos, void, but also 'lack of worth' and 'being in vain' match the context in all cases. Also the ancient Aramaic translations, targumim, translate the expression as 1 See Gen 1:2, Deut 32:10, Sam 1 12:21, Is 24:10, 29:21, 34:11, 40:17, 40:23, 41:29, 44:9, 45:18, 45:19, 49:4, 59:4, Jer 4:23, Ps 107:40, Job 6:18, 12:24, 26:7. 3 "waste and empty"2, or "waste of all people and empty of any cattle"3. Furthermore, in Biblical usage there does not seem to exist any kind of differentiation between tohu and bohu. In Gen 1:2 they appear together as a hendiadys. Otherwise, tohu appears usually alone whereas bohu never appears in a verse without tohu. The role played by the Biblical references to tohu in this survey of medieval interpretations is mainly that of prooftexts, i.e. verses stated to support an interpretation. Such verses are usually from Isaiah or Job. A particularly influential reference to tohu and bohu occurs in Isaiah 34:11, where the prophet describes God's revenge on Edom: "He shall stretch over it line of tohu and stones of bohu"4. The line and stones have later been interpreted as builder's tools: a measuring line and a plummet. A medieval example of such interpretation is provided by David Kimhi's (1160?–1235?) commentary on this verse: God shall stretch over it line of tohu and stones of bohu, because a builder stretches a line and a leaden weight; [here] the line and the weight are of tohu and bohu to state that the opposite of construction is done to them –that is, destruction.5 As we shall see, this verse will be used as a prooftext in Talmudic and medieval times to support new meanings given to tohu and bohu, and the analogy to construction builder will constantly reappear. 2.2 Relevant interpretations in Talmud and Midrash: Chaos or created entities In the Talmud and the Midrashim, tohu and bohu are most often used in their plain meaning. A typical example is of God reducing the world to tohu and bohu, for instance in case Israel would not have accepted the Torah (Exodus Rabbah 47:4). There are also allegorical interpretations like those dealing with the Jewish history: tohu and bohu are explained as the various exiles (Genesis Rabbah 2:4) and the whole history is divided into three periods of two thousand years each: a period of tohu, a period of Torah and a period of the Messiah (Tanna de-Vei Eliyahu Rabbah 2:1). 2 Targum Onkelos on Gen 1:2: thbehruthsm 3 Targum be Uzziel on Gen 1:2 rhgckfin thbehruabhbcnthsmthhvcuthhv, 4 uvc-hbctuuv,-uevhkgvybu 5 See also Ibn Ezra on the same verse. According to Wildberger, p. 1346, the original meaning would rather be that after the destruction, Edom will be divided, but the country is a desolate that even a measuring line of tohu will do. The 4 There are some more special passages, though. In Genesis Rabbah 10:3, the heaven and the earth are compared to two beautiful disks immersed in a pool of water. As long as the pool is filled with water, the
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