JUDAISM'S STORY OF CREATION THE BRILL REFERENCE LIBRARY OF ANCIENT JUDAISM Editors ALAN J. AVERY-PECK WILLIAM SCOTT GREEN GÜNTER STEMBERGER ITHAMAR GRUENWALD JOSÉ FAUR VOLUME 3 ' / 6 8V JUDAISM'S STORY OF CREATION Scripture, Halakhah, Aggadah BY JACOB NEUSNER BRILL LEIDEN · BOSTON · KÖLN 2000 This book is printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cata10ging-in-Pub1icatí0n Data Neusner, Jacob, 1932- Judaism's story of creation : scripture, halakhah, aggadah / by Jacob Neusner. p. cm. — (The Brill reference library of ancient Judaism, ISSN 1566-1237 ; vol. 3) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 9004118993 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Creation in rabbinical literature. 2. Bible. O.T. Genesis I-III—Criticism, interpretation, etc.,Jewish. 3. Jewish law—Interpretation and construction. 4. Aggada—History and criticism. 5. Rabbinical literature—History and criticism. I. Title. II. Series. BM509.C67 N48 2000 296.3'4—dc21 00-039778 CIP Die Deutsche Bibliothek - CIP-Einheitsaufhahme Neusner, Jacob : Judaism's story of creation : scripture, halakhah, aggadah / by Jacob Neusner. - Leiden ; Boston ; Köln : Brill, 2000 (The Brill reference library of ancient Judaism ; Vol. 3) ISBN 90-04-11899-3 ISSN 1566-1237 ISBN 90 04 11899 3 © Copyright 2000 by Koninklyke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Brill provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910 Dcmvers 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. PRINTED IN THE NETHERLANDS CONTENTS Preface vii Acknowledgements and Bibliography xvi Introduction 1 1. CREATION: "IN THE BEGINNING... " 21 ι. Where to Start? 21 π. The Aggadic and Halakhic Engagement with Scripture... 28 HI. Marks of Judaism's Creation-Story in the Halakhah 34 IV. Marks of Judaism's Creation-Story in the Aggadah 41 v. Reconfiguring Scripture's Account into Judaism's Story of Creation 44 vi. The Two Perspectives, Halakhic and Aggadic 48 2. THE HALAKHIC READING OF Creation: [1] WORK AND REST.. 49 ι. Sanctification of Creation: The Halakhic Starting Point... 49 IL Defining Work: The Halakhic Discourse 56 HI. The Principles of the Halakhah of Sabbath Repose 65 IV. What Is at Stake in the Halakhah of Eden's Sabbath Repose? 77 3. THE HALAKHIC READING OF CREATION: [2] OWNERSHIP AND POSSESSION, EDEN AND THE LAND 81 ι. Analogical-Contrastive Thinking: Eden and the Land .... 81 IL Ownership and Possession: The Story Told by Shebiit... 86 hi. Deeds of Regeneration: The Story Told by Orlah 110 IV. What Is at Stake in the Halakhah of Israel's Conduct in its Eden 118 4. THE HALAKHIC READING OF CREATION: [3] OWNERSHIP AND POSSESSION IN THE HOUSEHOLD 121 ι. Restoring Eden: The Dimension of Space 121 π. Private and Public Domain on the Sabbath: The Story told by Shabbat 124 πι. Ownership and Possession: The Story Told by Erubin... 136 IV. Giving up Ownership to Gain Possession 151 v. The Halakhic Reading of Creation 158 vi CONTENTS 5. THE AGGADIC READING OF CREATION: [1] THE SIX DAYS OF CREATION 163 ι. Rereading Genesis in Genesis Rabbah: The Aggadic Starting Point 163 π. Genesis Rabbah 169 m. Genesis Rabbah on the Six Days of Creation 174 rv. Genesis Rabbah on the Seventh of Repose 213 6. THE AGGADIC READING OF CREATION: [2] ADAM AND EVE.... 219 ι. "Let Us Make Man" 219 π. Adam and Eve in Eden 227 m. The Sin 245 rv. The Punishment 252 v. The Aggadic Reading of Creation 259 7. JUDAISM'S STORY OF CREATION: THE HALAKHIC AND THE AGGADIC RECONFIGURATION OF SCRIPTURE 265 ι. Scripture, the Halakhah, and the Aggadah: From Narrative to Paradigm 265 IL The Confluence of the Halakhah and the Aggadah: Paradigmatic Thinking 270 HI. Aggadic Exteriority, Halakhic Interiority 279 General Index 285 Scripture Index 289 PREFACE Religion is story, story before it is anything else, story after it is every- thing else, story born from experience, coded in symbol, reinforced in the self, and shared with others to explain life and death...Religious stories are elemental religion, religion pure and simple, religion raw and primordial. ANDREW M. GREELEY 1 Judaism's story of Creation sets forth the tale, jointly told in the Halakhah (law) and the Aggadah (lore), that in the rereading of Scripture by the Rabbinic sages of the formative age of Judaism, the first seven centuries C.E., conveys God's plan for world order. Here I show how Judaism tells the Creation-story through Scripture as re- capitulated in the law and lore of Judaism, the Halakhah and the Aggadah, respectively. At issue here is how Judaism's two media of discourse, each conveying, in its own native category-formations, its distinctive corpus of information, join together with Scripture in that common narrative. In the mythic terms of Rabbinic Judaism, which speaks of the revelation at Sinai of a Torah in writing and a Torah in memory, the written and the Oral Torah, we here see how the written Torah and the two components of the Oral Torah join to- gether in a common presentation of the fundamental narrative of Judaism: how things came to be, what they mean, where are they heading. The native categories of Rabbinic Judaism in its formative age and writings divide all discourse into the specified parts, Halakhah, analytical discourse concerning norms of behavior, and Aggadah, narrative, exegetical, or hortatory discourse concerning norms of be- lief. That explains the purpose of this project, to tell as a single tale, as much as possible in the Rabbinic sages' own words, that tripartite story, Scripture's the Halakhah's, and the Aggadah's. Here, then, I show that it is a tale embodied jointly and continuously in the Halakhic prescriptions of right action and the Aggadic rules of right attitude. Both respond to Scripture's account, Each finds its own points of emphasis and imparts its own proportions to the whole. Together the Halakhah and the Aggadah reconfigure Scripture's narrative into the paradigm that sages perceive in that narrative. 1 Andrew M. Greeley, Religion as Poetry (New Brunswick & London, Transaction Publishers, 1996), p, 40. Vlll PREFACE Through these two modes of discourse, each with its own class of facts, the sages made their statement, generally called "the Oral Torah," in dialogue with Scripture, "the written Torah." Thus, in partnership with Scripture but in their distinctive modes of discourse and their selection of their own particular bodies of information, the sages told the single story of all Mankind 2 from Creation to the end of days. The reconfiguration of Scripture's narrative into the Halakhic and the Aggadic paradigm forms the center of interest. For the paradox is, while Scripture takes a narrative form to record Creation, the Halakhah and the Aggadah do not. Recapitulating the received, written Torah, the Rabbinic sages read Scripture philo- sophically: systematically and critically. They elicited from Scripture governing principles, deemed implicit in Scripture's stories and ad hoc rules. They sought generalizations and subjected them to tests of coherence, universalizability, and cogency: laws derived from cases, a system and a structure from examples and details. Through ap- plied reason and practical logic they articulated an account of holy Israel's world order, its politics and culture. In their legal and ex- egetical literature in response to Scripture, they set forth the way of life (Halakhah) and world view (Aggadah) of that Israel that had come into being by reason of the Torah and that was subject to the divine imperative of Sinai. That account was comprised by politics and culture that all together cohered. The sages came up with not bits and pieces of this and that but a cogent account of the norma- tive action and attitude. These are to come to realization in the kingdom of priests and the holy people that God had told Moses Israel was to constitute as his abode. But the sages presented their political structure and cultural system only in its components, choos- ing a given medium for the expression of a given body of informa- tion. In the two media of discourse, Halakhah and Aggadah, the result of the Rabbinic reading of Scripture was set forth as a religious structure and system, one that was purposive and coherent, propor- donate and balanced. This account of theirs derived from Scripture read whole and in perspective. The sages framed their design for the human condition within a dynamic narrative, corresponding to that of Scripture, with a beginning, middle, and end. It was a generative recapitulation, not a mere reiteration, retelling and amplification. It was capable of encompassing the long future as much as the norma- 2 "Mankind" refers to all of humanity. "Man" with a capital M serves in the same way. Adam and Eve cover men and women. X1U PREFACE tive past. In their view, encompassing cases and rules, episodes and exhortations, the Torah of Moses demanded that very labor of gen- eralization and systematization that they undertook This they pro- vided out of the resources of their intellect and imagination. The Pentateuch, continued by the Prophets (Joshua through Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Twelve), accordingly, was to be reworked. It was to be reformed into a system of coherent guides to the construction of society animated by a structure of cogent convic- tions. That is what the Rabbinic sages accomplished in linking poli- tics to culture, Halakhah to Aggadah, the whole woven through a narrative of Mankind's story, start to finish. But how, in fact, do this way of life and the world view — those native categories, the Aggadah and the Halakhah — cohere? It is where they intersect. This takes place by each component's telling portions of a single story. Each mode of discourse and corpus of data takes up its share in the common narrative. Here, through their own words, I show how they accomplished a mighty act of intellect: the formulation of politics and culture within a single continuous, narrative-statement. The formulation rested on the story-line of Scripture properly rendered, meaning, what sages deemed critical in Scripture's tale. In the Halakhah, then, the Rabbinic sages formulât- ed rules that respond to Scripture's narrative. In the Aggadah they framed their reworking of that same narrative in quite other terms of exhortation and exposition, as we shall see. Scripture then did not dictate, but rather formed the occasion for, the recapitulation of matters, here in the Aggadah in terms of principles of belief and there in the Halakhah in the setting of norms of behavior. How did the sages accomplish this remarkable feat of generaliza- tion and universalization? I shall demonstrate in this book that it was by appeal to an implicit, continuous story that proceeds from Creation (for which "Eden" stands) through Revelation ("Sinai") to Redemption ("the world to come," the restoration of Man to Eden/ Paradise for eternal life). The whole is portrayed as not an occasion — a one-time event to be remembered — but a condition to be reca- pitulated: the generative condition of humanity. Persons exemplify virtues or vices, incidents embody the working of rules, and laws transcend their particular topics to realize abstract principles in con- crete form. It is a quality of attitude and action that Israel in the here and now [1] through the Halakhah realizes, and [2] through the Aggadah perceives. As to discourse, the sages in their own, not 4 Scripture's Hebrew, worked out their own modes of discourse, not imitating Scripture's. They moreover preserved the discursive au- tonomy of the Halakhah and of the Aggadah, respectively. This they