Pt2 Talmudic Cosmology (Ma'aseh Bereshit): Earth's Foundations, the Seven Heavens, and Cosmic Dimensions (Chagigah 12b-13a)
This is the second part of a three-part series. Part 1 is here; the outline of the series can be found there.
The Seven Heavens (Chagigah 12b, sections #5-7,10-14)
Reish Lakish lists seven heavenly firmaments, and the Talmud elaborates on the distinct roles and characteristics of each.
In addition, each firmament is linked to specific biblical verses that affirm its unique role and designation as "heaven."1
ריש לקיש אמר:
שבעה, ואלו הן:
וילון,
רקיע,
שחקים,
זבול,
מעון,
מכון,
ערבות.
Reish Lakish said:
There are seven firmaments, and they are as follows:
Vilon,
Rakia,
Sheḥakim,
Zevul,
Ma’on,
Makhon,
Aravot.
The Gemara proceeds to explain the role of each firmament:
Heaven 1 - Vilon (Isaiah 40:22): appears in the morning and departs at night
This firmament contains nothing. It appears in the morning and departs at night, renewing the act of Creation (מעשה בראשית) daily.3
The proof text cited is Isaiah 40:22, which states that “[God] stretches out the heavens as a curtain (דוק)".4
וילון —
אינו משמש כלום,
אלא נכנס שחרית, ויוצא ערבית,
ומחדש בכל יום מעשה בראשית,
שנאמר:
״הנוטה כדוק שמים,
וימתחם כאהל לשבת״.
Vilon, curtain,
is the firmament that does not contain anything,
but enters at morning and departs in the evening,
and renews the act of Creation daily,
as it is stated:
“Who stretches out the heavens as a curtain (דוק),
and spreads them out as a tent to dwell in” (Isaiah 40:22).
Heaven 2 - Rakia (Genesis 1:17): sun, moon, stars, and zodiac signs
Rakia (רקיע - “firmament”):
The realm where the sun, moon, stars, and zodiac signs (מזלות) are fixed.5 The prooftext is Genesis 1:17.
רקיע —
שבו
חמה
ולבנה
כוכבים
ומזלות
קבועין,
שנאמר: ״ויתן אותם אלהים ברקיע השמים״.
Rakia, firmament,
is the one in which the
sun,
moon,
stars,
and zodiac signs
are fixed,
as it is stated: “And God set them in the firmament [Rakia] of the heaven” (Genesis 1:17).
Heaven 3 - Sheḥakim (Psalms 78:23–24): mills that grind manna for the righteous
Sheḥakim (שחקים - “heights”):
A firmament with mills (רחיים) that grind manna for the righteous, as described in Psalms 78:23–24.
שחקים —
שבו רחיים עומדות וטוחנות מן לצדיקים,
שנאמר:
״ויצו שחקים ממעל
ודלתי שמים פתח.
וימטר עליהם מן לאכול וגו׳״.
Sheḥakim, heights,
is the one in which mills stand and grind manna for the righteous,
as it is stated:
“And He commanded the heights [Sheḥakim] above,
and opened the doors of heaven;
and He caused manna to rain upon them for food, and gave them of the corn of heaven” (Psalms 78:23–24).
Heaven 4 - Zevul (Isaiah 63:15): Jerusalem, Temple, Altar, and Michael
Zevul (זבול - “abode”):
The location of (the heavenly) Jerusalem, Temple, and altar, where the “great minister” (השר הגדול) Michael offers sacrifices.6
It is referred to as heaven in Isaiah 63:15.
זבול —
שבו
ירושלים
ובית המקדש,
ומזבח בנוי,
ומיכאל השר הגדול עומד ומקריב עליו קרבן,
שנאמר:
״בנה בניתי בית זבול לך
מכון לשבתך עולמים״.
ומנלן דאיקרי שמים?
דכתיב: ״הבט משמים וראה מזבול קדשך ותפארתך״.
Zevul, abode,
is the location of
the heavenly Jerusalem
and the heavenly Temple,
and there the heavenly altar is built,
and the angel Michael, the great minister, stands and sacrifices an offering upon it,
as it is stated: “I have surely built a house of Zevul for You, a place for You to dwell forever” (I Kings 8:13).
And from where do we derive that Zevul is called heaven?
As it is written: “Look down from heaven and see, from Your holy and glorious abode [Zevul]” (Isaiah 63:15).
Heaven 5 - Ma’on (Deuteronomy 26:15): ministering angels who sing at night
Ma’on (מעון - “habitation”):
A dwelling for groups (כיתות) of ministering angels (מלאכי השרת) who sing at night but remain silent during the day out of respect for Israel, as understood from Psalms 42:9.
The proof text for this heaven is Deuteronomy 26:15.
מעון —
שבו כיתות של מלאכי השרת,
שאומרות שירה בלילה
וחשות ביום, מפני כבודן של ישראל,
שנאמר:
״יומם יצוה ה׳ חסדו
ובלילה שירה עמי״
[...]
ומנלן דאיקרי שמים?
שנאמר: ״השקיפה ממעון קדשך, מן השמים״.
Ma’on, habitation,
is where there are groups of ministering angels
who recite song at night
and are silent during the day out of respect for Israel, in order not to compete with their songs,
as it is stated:
“By day the Lord will command His kindness,
and in the night His song is with me” (Psalms 42:9), indicating that the song of the angels is with God only at night.
[...]
And from where do we derive that Ma’on is called heaven?
As it is stated: “Look forth from Your holy Ma’on, from heaven” (Deuteronomy 26:15).
Heaven 6 - Makhon (I Kings 8:39): storehouses for snow, hail, harmful dews, storms, and mist
Makhon (מכון):7
Contains storehouses (אוצרות) for snow, hail, harmful dews,8 drops (אגלים), storms (סופה), and mist (קיטור).9 The doors to these chambers are fiery.
Deuteronomy 28:12 and I Kings 8:39 reference it as heaven.
מכון —
שבו
אוצרות שלג
ואוצרות ברד,
ועליית טללים רעים,
ועליית אגלים,
וחדרה של סופה [וסערה],
ומערה של קיטור.
ודלתותיהן אש
שנאמר: ״יפתח ה׳ לך את אוצרו הטוב״.
[...]
ומנלן דאיקרי ״שמים״?
דכתיב:
״ואתה תשמע השמים
מכון שבתך״.
Makhon, dwelling place,
is where there are
storehouses of snow
and storehouses of hail,
and the upper chamber of harmful dews,
and the upper chamber of drops,
and the room of tempests and storms,
and the cave of mist.
And the doors of all these are made of fire.
How do we know that there are storehouses for evil things? For it is stated: “The Lord will open for you His good storehouse, the heavens” (Deuteronomy 28:12), which indicates the existence of a storehouse that contains the opposite of good.
[...]
And from where do we derive that this place is called “heaven”?
As it is written:
“And You shall hear in heaven,
the Makhon of Your dwelling” (I Kings 8:39).
See Wikipedia, “Seven heavens“:
In mythological or religious cosmology, the seven heavens refer to seven levels or divisions of the Heavens. The concept, also found in the ancient Mesopotamian religions, can be found in Judaism and Islam. The […] Bible does not mention seven levels of heaven […]
The notion or belief in a cosmos structured or tiered into seven heavens likely originates or derives from the seven visible heavenly bodies (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, the Moon, and the Sun) […]
In the Talmud (=our sugya), it is suggested that the upper part of the universe is made up of seven heavens (Hebrew: shamayim) […]
The Jewish Merkavah and Hekhalot literature was devoted to discussing the details of these heavens, sometimes in connection with traditions relating to Enoch, such as the Third Book of Enoch […]
The Second Book of Enoch, also written in the first century CE, describes the mystical ascent of the patriarch Enoch through a hierarchy of Ten Heavens. Enoch passes through the Garden of Eden in the Third Heaven on his way to meet the Lord face-to-face in the Tenth (chapter 22). Along the way, he encounters vividly described populations of angels who torment wrongdoers; he sees homes, olive oil, and flowers.
From Latin velum: “a cloth, covering, curtain, veil, awning“.
This Heaven (Vilon), and the next one (Rakia) are mentioned in a passage quoted in my piece “Pt1 Celestial Phenomena: Comets and Constellations in the Talmud (Mishnah Berakhot 9:2; Berakhot 58b-59a)“, section “The World-Ending Danger of Passing of Comets Near Orion“, to explain the phenomenon of what appears to be comets passing the constellation Orion (כסלא), considered by the Talmud to be a world-ending (חרב עלמא) danger:
רב הונא בריה דרב יהושע אמר:
וילון הוא דמקרע,
דמגלגל ומחזי נהורא דרקיע.
Rav Huna son of Rav Yehoshua, said a different answer:
It is merely that Vilon, one of the firmaments, rips
and it furls (מגלגל) and the light of Rakia [the firmament above it] is seen, and this appears like a comet.
(Steinsaltz there imprecisely translates רקיע in the final line as firmaments; see the same issue in a different passage a forthcoming note.)
מחדש בכל יום מעשה בראשית.
This line appears as well in the liturgy, specifically from the weekday morning (Shacharit) prayers, in the blessing recited before the Shema (ברכת יוצר אור):
מחדש בכל יום תמיד מעשה בראשית
See Wikipedia, “Isaiah 40“, section “Here Is Your God! (40:9–31)“:
Verse 22
It is he who sits above the circle of the earth,
and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers;
who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
and spreads them like a tent to dwell in;
Westermann notes the similarity of parts of this verse to other Bible verses: verse 22a vs. Job 34:13b and verse 22b vs. Psalm 104:2b.
This verse contains several rare words – such as דֹּק֙, doq ("curtain"), and מָתַח, mathach ("spread, stretch"), which are only found here, as well as ח֣וּג, chug ("circle"), which are only found in a few other verses (Proverbs 8:27; Job 22:14; Job 26:10) – suggesting "well-defined, distinctive traditions."
"Circle" (of the earth): is translated from the Hebrew word חוּג, chug, which also denotes "horizon, circuit, vault of the heavens"; while the Gesenius Lexicon also adds "sphere". It can refer to
the full circuit – the seen and unseen halves – of the stars across the dome of the sky, or
the vault of heaven (Job 22:14) extending "in a half-circle from horizon to horizon", or
a circular observable horizon (cf. Proverbs 8:27; Job 26:10)
It is to emphasize the range of God’s authority "over everything the eye can see in every direction, even to the distant ends of the earth," but not necessarily refer to the "circular nature of the earth."
Compare a the usage of a different verse from this biblical section, in my piece here, section “Dialogue #11 - Heretic vs. R' Abbahu: Exodus 25:2 - “Take for Me an offering [teruma]” - God must be a priest to accept offerings, so He needed ritual immersion after burying Moses“, where a “heretic” asks in which ritual bath God could have immersed, as God’s vastness would prevent immersion in water, quoting the verse in Isaiah “Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand (שעלו)?” (Isaiah 40:12).
Compare the passage quoted in my piece “Pt2 Celestial Phenomena: Comets and Constellations in the Talmud (Mishnah Berakhot 9:2; Berakhot 58b-59a)”, section “Appendix - The Magnitude of Creation: God's Declaration to Israel of the Vast Celestial Order (Berakhot 32b)“, where the size and number of stars in the zodiac signs are described at length:
שנים עשר מזלות בראתי ברקיע
I created twelve zodiac signs in Rakia
(Steinsaltz there imprecisely translates: “I created twelve constellations in the firmament“.)
Compare the later kabbalistic medieval concept of "Jerusalem of Above" (ירושלים של מעלה), i.e. the "Heavenly Jerusalem"
טללים רעים. This expression is used elsewhere in the Talmud, in a passage that discusses the symbolism and purpose of waving rituals associated with offerings (תנופה) and the lulav (נענוע), in Sukkah.37b.10-38a.1:
אמר רבי יוחנן: מוליך ומביא למי שהארבע רוחות שלו, מעלה ומוריד למי שהשמים והארץ שלו.
במערבא מתנו הכי: אמר רבי חמא בר עוקבא, אמר רבי יוסי ברבי חנינא: מוליך ומביא כדי לעצור רוחות רעות, מעלה ומוריד כדי לעצור טללים רעים.
אמר רבי יוסי בר אבין, ואיתימא רבי יוסי בר זבידא: זאת אומרת, שירי מצוה מעכבין את הפורענות. שהרי תנופה שירי מצוה היא — ועוצרת רוחות וטללים רעים.
ואמר רבא: וכן בלולב.
רב אחא בר יעקב ממטי ליה ומייתי ליה, אמר: דין גירא בעיניה דסטנא.
ולאו מלתא היא, משום דאתי לאיגרויי ביה.
R' Yoḥanan said: He moves them to and fro to dedicate them to He Whom the four directions (רוחות - literally: “winds”) are His. He raises and lowers them to He Whom the heavens and earth are His.
In the West, Eretz Yisrael, they taught it as follows: R' Ḥama bar Ukva said that R' Yosei, son of R' Ḥanina, said: He moves them to and fro in order to request a halt to harmful winds (רוחות רעות), storms and tempests that come from all directions; he raises and lowers them in order to halt harmful dews (טללים רעים) and rains that come from above.
R' Yosei bar Avin said, and some say that it was R' Yosei bar Zevila who said: That is to say, non-essential aspects of a mitzva (שירי מצוה) avert calamity (פורענות), as waving is a non-essential aspect of the mitzva, since even if one failed to wave the loaves he fulfilled his obligation, and nevertheless it halts harmful winds and dews.
And Rava said: And likewise one should conduct himself the same way with a lulav, i.e., one should wave it to and fro and raise and lower it for the same reasons.
When Rav Aḥa bar Ya’akov would move the lulav to and fro, he would say: This is an arrow (גירא) in the eye of Satan, as despite his best efforts, the Jewish people continue to joyously fulfill mitzvot.
This list is likely based on the verse in Psalms.148.8, which mentions five of the seven the things listed here (fire - item #7; hail - #2; snow - #1; mist - #6; and storm - #5):
אש וברד
שלג וקיטור
רוח סערה עשה דברו
Fire and hail,
snow and vapour,
Stormy wind, fulfilling His word
(This verse is cited in our sugya immediately after by the Stam, as a question; I elide that part. See Chagigah.12b.11a.)