Pt2 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 2: Prevented a Gobal Flood by Casting the Tetragrammaton
This is the the second and final installment of a two-part series. First part is here, the outline can be found there.
David Story Version 2: Prevented a Gobal Flood by Casting the Tetragrammaton
Rav Ḥisda responded to his aggada expert’s version of the David story (David Story Version 1: Prevented a Gobal Flood by Chanting the Songs of Ascents): based on this event, the series of psalms should have been called "Songs of Descents" (יורדות - as opposed to “Ascents” - מעלות) since they made the waters subside rather than ascend.
Rav Ḥisda then recalled a different version of the story: As in the previous version, when David dug the Temple altar’s drainpipes, the waters of the depths began to rise and threatened to flood the world.
David then sought advice on whether it was permissible to write God's sacred name on an earthenware shard (חספא) and cast it into the waters to make them recede.1
No one responded, leading David to threaten: “Anyone who knows and doesn’t say will be strangled.”
Ahithophel the spoke up, saying it’s permitted to use God’s name in this manner, based on an “a fortiori” (קל וחומר) argument:2
If God's name (the Tetragrammaton) can be erased to establish peace between a husband and wife — in the curse that was dissolved into the potion administered by the priest during the ordeal of the bitter water in the case of a suspected adulteress (sotah) — certainly erasing God’s name should be allowed to preserve the entire world.3
David then wrote God’s name on a shard, threw it into the tehom waters, and the tehom waters subsided by 16,000 cubits (גרמידי).
David then realized that the tehom water had receded too much, saying: “The higher (מידלי) the waters, the moister (מירטב) the soil. “
David recited the fifteen Songs of Ascents to raise the waters by 15,000 cubits, leaving them at a depth of 1,000 cubits.
אי הכי, חמש עשרה ״מעלות״ — ״יורדות״ מיבעי ליה!
אמר ליה:
הואיל ואדכרתן (מלתא),
הכי אתמר:
בשעה שכרה דוד שיתין,
קפא תהומא, ובעא למשטפיה לעלמא.
אמר דוד:
מי איכא דידע אי שרי למכתב שם אחספא,
ונשדיה בתהומא ומנח!
ליכא דקאמר ליה מידי.
אמר דוד: כל דידע למימר ואינו אומר, יחנק בגרונו.
נשא אחיתופל קל וחומר בעצמו:
ומה לעשות שלום בין איש לאשתו, אמרה תורה: שמי שנכתב בקדושה ימחה על המים,
לעשות שלום לכל העולם כולו — על אחת כמה וכמה.
אמר ליה: שרי.
כתב שם אחספא, ושדי לתהומא,
ונחית תהומא שיתסר אלפי גרמידי.
כי חזי דנחית טובא, אמר: כמה דמידלי — טפי מירטב עלמא.
אמר חמש עשרה מעלות,
ואסקיה חמיסר אלפי גרמידי,
ואוקמיה באלפא גרמידי.
Rav Ḥisda asked: If so, should they be called fifteen Songs of the Ascents? They should have been called Songs of the Descents.
Rav Ḥisda continued and said to him:
Since you reminded me of this matter,
this is what was originally stated:
At the time that David dug the drainpipes,
the waters of the depths rose and sought to inundate the world.
David said:
Is there anyone who knows whether it is permitted to write the sacred name on an earthenware shard?
If it is permitted, we will write it and throw it into the depths, and they will subside.
There was no one who said anything to him.
David said: Anyone who knows what to say and does not say anything may he be strangled in his throat.
Then Ahithophel raised an a fortiori argument on his own and said:
And just as in order to make peace between a man and his wife in the case of sota, when the husband suspects his wife of having committed adultery, the Torah said: My Name that was written in sanctity will be erased on the water to establish peace
for the whole world in its entirety, all the more so it is permitted.
He said to David: It is permitted.
He wrote the sacred name on an earthenware shard and cast it into the depths,
and the waters in the depths subsided sixteen thousand cubits.
When he saw that they subsided excessively, he said: The higher the waters in the aquifers, the moister and more fertile the soil of the world.
He recited the fifteen Songs of the Ascents and elevated them fifteen thousand cubits,
and established them at a depth of one thousand cubits.
Ulla's Inference on Earth's Thickness and Euphrates River's Underground Water Flow
Ulla infers that this story implies that the “thickness of the earth”4 is 1,000 cubits.
The Talmud questions this, noting that water emerges after digging much less than that.5
Rav Mesharshiyya explains that this water (when digging in Babylonia) comes from the elevation (סולמא) of the Euphrates River.6
אמר עולא: שמע מינה, סומכא דארעא אלפא גרמידי.
והא חזינן דכרינן פורתא, ונפקי מיא!
אמר רב משרשיא: ההוא מסולמא דפרת.
Ulla said: Learn from here that the thickness of the earth above the waters of the depths is one thousand cubits.
The Gemara asks: But don’t we see that when we dig a little, significantly less than one thousand cubits, water emerges?
Rav Mesharshiyya said: That is from the ascent of the Euphrates River, which flows at a higher altitude than do other rivers. The water flows up through underground passages to reach the river. That is why water emerges when one digs in the hills of Babylonia.
The potential prohibition stems from the fact that God's name would end up being erased, and it is forbidden to erase God's name, see Hebrew Wikipedia, “מחיקת השם“.
See Wikipedia in his entry:
Ahitophel […] was a counselor of King David and a man greatly renowned for his wisdom.
For another mention of Ahitophel in rabbinic literature, see my piece here, quoting the Mishnah that states that he’s one of the four biblical commoners who have no share in the World-to-Come.
This part of the story is in Hebrew, unlike the rest, which is in Aramaic (indicating that it comes from an earlier source):
נשא אחיתופל קל וחומר בעצמו:
ומה לעשות שלום בין איש לאשתו, אמרה תורה: שמי שנכתב בקדושה ימחה על המים,
לעשות שלום לכל העולם כולו — על אחת כמה וכמה.
This water is what we'd refer to today as groundwater.
Meaning, it’s elevated higher than other rivers. Steinsaltz explains that the river's water travels through underground passages, causing water to emerge even when digging shallowly in the hills of Babylonia.