Pt1 King David, the Altar Drainpipes, and the Tehom: The Dramatic Tale of How He Nearly Unleashed a Global Flood but Successfully Averted It (Sukkah 49a; 53a-b)
David Story Version 1: Prevented a Gobal Flood by Chanting the Songs of Ascents
This is the first installment of a two-part series.1 Outline is below.
On the assumed cosmology in this sugya, see Wikipedia, “Early Hebrew Conception of the Universe”, with description:
“An artist's depiction of the early Hebrew conception of the cosmos. The firmament (raqia), Sheol, and Tehom are depicted”
This is essentially the flat earth Babylonian cosmology, which preceded the far more accurate Greek geocentric model, which then became the dominant cosmology for the next 1500 years, until the even more accurate Copernican heliocentrism became dominant.
And see Hebrew Wikipedia entry “Tehom” (תהום (יהדות)), section “In the Bible”, my translation:
In midrashic literature, it appears that the subterranean (tehom) waters have a tendency to rise, float, and cover the earth once again, as in the primordial state. Only the will of God and His command prevent this phenomenon.
In the Talmud (=our sugya), it is recounted that the tehom waters threatened to flood the world after King David dug deep foundations for the Temple on the Temple Mount. It was only after he, following the advice of Ahitophel, threw a piece of clay with the Ineffable Name written on it into the shittin (channels connected to the depths) that the waters sank to a great depth.
However, this endangered the fertility of the land, so David used the Songs of Ascents to raise the subterranean waters to the desired depth (Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Sukkah 53b, and a similar version in the Jerusalem Talmud, Tractate Sanhedrin, Chapter 10, page 29).
And in a footnote (f. 4), my translation:
In contrast to the Babylonian Talmud, where it is told that David accidentally pierced the tehom waters, in the Jerusalem Talmud, David is described as deliberately seeking out the tehom waters.
What both stories have in common is that David, the author of Psalms, is portrayed as the one who causes the waters to rise, while Ahitophel -- his advisor and a wise man -- causes the waters to descend.
It also seems that the mention of the tehom in connection with the building of the Temple is not coincidental.
Outline
Drainpipes of the Altar: A Creation from the Six Days of Genesis
David Story Version 1: Prevented a Gobal Flood by Chanting the Songs of Ascents
David Story Version 2: Prevented a Gobal Flood by Casting the Tetragrammaton
Ulla's Inference on Earth's Thickness and Euphrates River's Underground Water Flow
Drainpipes of the Altar: A Creation from the Six Days of Genesis
The passage: Sukkah.49a.2-3.
Rabba bar bar Ḥana, citing R' Yoḥanan
Rabba bar bar Ḥana, citing R' Yoḥanan, explains that Temple altar’s drainpipes (שיתין)2 were created during the six days of Creation (ששת ימי בראשית).
He supports this by homiletically interpreting a verse from Song of Songs’ third descriptive poem for the female (7:2) as referrring to these drainpipes: "the hidden of your thighs" refers to the drainpipes, "like links of a chain (חלאים)" means they are hollow (מחוללין) and descend deep, and "the handiwork of a skilled workman (אמן)" refers to God's creation.
אמר רבה בר בר חנה אמר רבי יוחנן:
שיתין, מששת ימי בראשית נבראו,
שנאמר:
״חמוקי ירכיך כמו חלאים,
מעשה ידי אמן״.
״חמוקי ירכיך״ — אלו השיתין.
״כמו חלאים״ — שמחוללין ויורדין עד התהום.
״מעשה ידי אמן״ — זו מעשה ידי אומנותו של הקדוש ברוך הוא.
Rabba bar bar Ḥana said that R’ Yoḥanan said:
The drainpipes [shittin] built into the altar and extending beneath it were created from the six days of Creation,
as it is stated:
“The hidden of your thighs are like the links of a chain,
the handiwork of a skilled workman” (Song of Songs 7:2).
The Gemara interprets the verse homiletically: “The hidden of your thighs”; these are the drainpipes that are concealed within the altar;
“are like the links of a chain [ḥala’im]”; they are hollow [meḥolalin] and descend to the depths;
“the handiwork of a skilled workman”; this is the handiwork of the Holy One, Blessed be He.
R’ Yishmael's school
R’ Yishmael's school (בי רבי ישמעאל) also interprets the first word in the Bible (Genesis 1:1) to imply that God created these pipelines at the beginning of the world.
תנא דבי רבי ישמעאל:
״בראשית״,
אל תיקרי ״בראשית״,
אלא ״ברא שית״.
On a similar note, it was taught in the school of R’ Yishmael that it is written:
“In the beginning [bereshith]” (Genesis 1:1);
do not read it as: Bereshith,
but rather as: Bara shith, meaning that God created the pipeline descending from the altar.
R’ Yosei
Similarly, R’ Yosei uses verses from Isaiah’s “Parable of the vineyard” (5:1–2),3 interpreting it homiletically as referring to the Temple: the “choicest vine” (שורק) symbolizes the Temple, the tower represents the altar, and the dug-out (חצב) wine vat (יקב) symbolizes the drainpipes, reinforcing the idea that they are part of God's natural creation.
תניא,
רבי יוסי אומר:
שיתין מחוללין ויורדין עד תהום,
שנאמר:
״אשירה נא לידידי
שירת דודי לכרמו
כרם היה לידידי
בקרן בן שמן.
ויעזקהו, ויסקלהו
ויטעהו שורק
ויבן מגדל בתוכו
וגם יקב חצב בו״.
״ויטעהו שורק״ — זה בית המקדש,
״ויבן מגדל בתוכו״ — זה מזבח,
״וגם יקב חצב בו״ — אלו השיתין.
R’ Yosei says:
These drainpipes are hollow and descend to the depths,
as it is stated:
“Let me sing of my well-beloved,
a song of my beloved about his vineyard.
My well-beloved had a vineyard
in a very fruitful hill (קרן בן שמן),
and he dug it, and cleared it of stones,
and planted it with the choicest vine,
and built a tower in the midst of it,
and also hewed out a vat therein” (Isaiah 5:1–2).
R’ Yosei interprets these verses homiletically as referring to the Temple. “He planted it with the choicest vine”; this is referring to the Temple;
“he built a tower therein”; this is referring to the altar;
“and hewed out a vat therein”; this is referring to the drainpipes. As the owner of the vineyard is a parable for God, this indicates that the drainpipes are a natural part of Creation.
The Passage
David Story Version 1: Prevented a Gobal Flood by Chanting the Songs of Ascents
Rav Ḥisda asked his aggada expert4 about the origin of the fifteen "Songs of Ascents" in Psalms, inquiring why David (the traditional author of Psalms) sang them.
The sage, citing R' Yoḥanan, explained that when David dug the Temple altar’s drainpipes, the waters of the deep (תהומא - tehom - “abyss”) rose up (קפא) and threatened to flood (למשטפיה) the world.
In response, David recited these fifteen Songs, which caused the waters to recede.
חמש עשרה מעלות.
אמר ליה רב חסדא לההוא מדרבנן דהוה קמסדר אגדתא קמיה, אמר ליה:
שמיע לך, הני חמש עשרה מעלות, כנגד מי אמרם דוד?
אמר ליה:
הכי אמר רבי יוחנן:
בשעה שכרה דוד שיתין,
קפא תהומא, ובעי למשטפיה לעלמא.
אמר דוד חמש עשרה מעלות, והורידן.
The mishna continues: The musicians would stand on the fifteen stairs that descend from the Israelites’ courtyard to the Women’s Courtyard, corresponding to the fifteen Songs of the Ascents in Psalms.
Rav Ḥisda said to one of the Sages who was organizing aggada before him:
Did you hear with regard to these fifteen Songs of Ascents in Psalms, corresponding to what did David say them?
He said to him that
this is what R' Yoḥanan said:
At the time that David dug the drainpipes in the foundation of the Temple,
the waters of the depths rose and sought to inundate the world.
Immediately, David recited the fifteen Songs of the Ascents and caused them to subside.
See my recent pieces on the previous parts of this sugya. On the Mishnah: “Sukkot in the Second Temple: Rituals of the Lulav, Willow, and Water Drawing Ceremony (Mishnah Sukkah 4:4-5:4)”, Pt1, Pt2, and the Talmud here: “Juggling, Acrobatics, and a Rigorous Schedule: Talmudic Stories from the Temple's Simchat Beit HaShoeivah (Sukkah 53a)“.
On the story in this sugya, see this study:
יהודה ברנדס, ”על פני תהום”, אקדמות גיליון ח', כסל"ו תש"ס, עמ' 161–178
For another extended talmudic story about David (also in Aramaic), see my piece: ““One day David went falcon-hunting”: The Demilitarized, Rabbinized, and Enchanted Story of Avishai Saving David From Yishbi-benov (II Samuel 21:15-17; Sanhedrin 95a)“.
These altar drainpipe is mentioned (in the singular - שית - shith) in Mishnah_Middot.3.3:
למטה ברצפה באותה הקרן,
מקום היה שם אמה על אמה,
וטבלא של שיש,
וטבעת היתה קבועה בה,
שבו יורדין לשית ומנקין אותו.
On the floor beneath at that corner
there was a place a cubit square
on which was a marble slab (טבלא - from Latin tabula)
with a ring fixed in it,
and through this they used to go down to the pit (שית) to clean it out.
Quoted in my reformatting of Mishnah Tractate Middot, pp. 23-24, section “Altar features”.
Generally understood to be an allusion of the people of Israel.
ההוא מדרבנן דהוה קמסדר אגדתא קמיה - literally: “the rabbi who would organize aggada before him”.