Genesis 1:9 to 1:10

Chapter 7, pp. 137-141, I:18b

-Genesis 1:9 וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֱלֹהִ֗ים יִקָּו֨וּ הַמַּ֜יִם מִתַּ֤חַת הַשָּׁמַ֙יִם֙ אֶל־מָק֣וֹם אֶחָ֔ד וְתֵרָאֶ֖ה הַיַּבָּשָׁ֑ה וַֽיְהִי־כֵֽן Va-yomer Elohim yiqqavu ha-mayim mitakhat ha-shamayim el makom echad v’tera’eh ha-yabbashah vayhi khen. God said, “Let the water below the sky be gathered into one area, that the dry land may appear.” And it was so.

-Genesis 1:10 וַיִּקְרָ֨א אֱלֹהִ֤ים ׀ לַיַּבָּשָׁה֙ אֶ֔רֶץ וּלְמִקְוֵ֥ה הַמַּ֖יִם קָרָ֣א יַמִּ֑ים וַיַּ֥רְא אֱלֹהִ֖ים כִּי־טֽוֹב Vayiqra Elohim la-yabbashah eretz ulmikveh ha-mayim qarah ya-mim va-yar Elohim ki tov. God called the dry land Earth—and called the gathering of waters Seas. And God saw that this was good.

As usual, this passage operates on a number of levels at once. First, it continues the account of creation as the emanation of God across the various sefirot: there had been (on day one) the invisible emanation across the top three sefirot (Keter, Hokhmah, and Binah); and then (on day two) the further emanation across the next three sefirot (Hesed, Gevurah, and Tif’eret). Now (on day three) the emanation continues onward all the way to Yesod, the penultimate sefirah, in which all the previous are “unifed…secretly concealed in a single desire,” namely to consummate the process in Shekhinah, the final sefirah, through whom the divine is finally revealed to (as) the world.

In a second narrative strand, the Zohar implies a passage in meditative prayer. The first hint of this we find in the line, “through contemplation the concealed one is perceived.” As the accompanying footnote tells us (fn 236, p. 138), the text specifically intends contemplation of Shekhinah through whom the concealed sefirot (all of the rest), or at least that unity expressed in Yesod, becomes palpable. This thread is taken up again in the reference (from Ezekiel 1:28) to the “surrounding radiance” that shimmers like a “[rain]bow in the cloud on a rainy day.” In prayer we perceive a “surrounding radiance” that hints at the awesome/awful fiery light that emanates directly from God. And this glimpse offers a “measure” of God, a “plumb of dark brilliance”–brilliant because it is a reflection of the divine; dark because it remains only the barest of glimpses even as it risks surpassing our miniscule capacity to tolerate, much less understand.

Finally, this passage offers a meditation on the word יִ'קָּווּ (yiqqavu, to make appear), pointing out the root word קַו (qav) which means “a line, following a straight path” (p. 137). This is interesting in relation to the usual English translations of the word, such as “gather” (above). It seems like quite a different image to “gather” the water “into one area,” which I picture as a more or less circular shape, than to arrange “in a line.” I wonder if this reflects the unique geography of the Levant which largely orients to the long and straightforwardly linear course of the Jordan River. (Perhaps even the beach along the Mediterranean could be seen as a line, ignoring the total shape of the sea as something closer to a circle.) But these considerations are far too prosaic to interest the Zohar! Here, linearity refers to the emergence of divine structure in the material world.

We are treated to a series of biblical references to God appearing in the world, each one an echo of the original appearance associated with Genesis 1:9, יִ'קָּווּ (yiqqavu, to make appear). They are each interesting, but let us just consider two excerpts from Zechariah. In 1:16 we read:

לָכֵ֞ן כֹּֽה־אָמַ֣ר יְהֹוָ֗ה שַׁ֤בְתִּי לִירוּשָׁלַ֙͏ִם֙ בְּֽרַחֲמִ֔ים בֵּיתִי֙ יִבָּ֣נֶה בָּ֔הּ נְאֻ֖ם יְהֹוָ֣ה צְבָא֑וֹת (וקוה) [וְקָ֥ו] יִנָּטֶ֖ה עַל־יְרוּשָׁלָֽ͏ִם

Assuredly, thus said GOD: I graciously return to Jerusalem. My House shall be built in her—declares GOD of Hosts—the measuring line is being applied to Jerusalem.

And in Zechariah 14:9 we read:

וְהָיָ֧ה יְהֹוָ֛ה לְמֶ֖לֶךְ עַל־כׇּל־הָאָ֑רֶץ בַּיּ֣וֹם הַה֗וּא יִהְיֶ֧ה יְהֹוָ֛ה אֶחָ֖ד וּשְׁמ֥וֹ אֶחָֽד

And GOD shall be sovereign over all the earth; in that day there shall be one GOD with one name.

In these short passages we see the echo: although in this case God is “returning” after the destruction of the first temple, we see the recapitulation of sexual congress with Shekhinah (“I will be built in her”) as the critical step toward becoming “sovereign over all the earth.” Although the word here is לְמֶ֖לֶךְ (l’melekh, king), the Zohar implies a much loftier kind of sovereignty, one that not only rules over the world but actually makes it–the intrinsic sovereignty of the creator. In Infinitism, the former idea (ruling over) dissolves into incoherence under the power of the latter (making the world). Because we see the evev as continuous, occurring freshly with each interaction, the act of creation (if that is even the right word) is ceaseless. The world at any moment is freshly made just then. In this sense we might perhaps say that God “rules over” the world. But if we subtract the implicit anthropomorphization of that construct and, moreover, read it in the sense of ‘freshly fashions the occurring and the whole implying as it implies itself changed,’ we arrive at an understanding that seems to leave the idea of ‘ruling over’ hopelessly far behind. But in this continuous fresh formation we nevertheless do affirm the basic logic of “I graciously return to Jerusalem” (in every moment); and the logic of a “God of Hosts” (יְהֹוָ֣ה צְבָא֑וֹת, Adonai tzeva’ot) which, incidentally, kabbalists associate with Yesod) as ‘that which convenes the powers of the cosmos’ to make the world anew in each moment.

Footnote: As an Infinitist, as you might have guessed, I read Jerusalem as a metaphor. In no way do I understand this line as endorsing the Zionist project, or in any way that God accords Jerusalem, the actual city in Palestine, any special status. Rather, I read Jerusalem as a symbol for the world as a whole–especially, the world of human endeavor. So, on a concrete level, this line affirms God's role as a principle of coherence that governs all of the natural world. But on a more personal level, it affirms God’s role as an idea that helps to orient human thinking, feeling, and action on moral–which is to say, altruistic–grounds. This offers a particularly rich way to interpret the words, “the measuring line is being applied to Jerusalem”–how we measure ourselves, and how we take the measure of God, as we busily construct the reality that we then must inhabit.