מַעְיַ֣ן גַּנִּ֔ים בְּאֵ֖ר מַ֣יִם חַיִּ֑ים וְנֹזְלִ֖ים מִן־לְבָנֽוֹן׃
Ты - источник садов, Колодец живых вод, И текущие потоки из Ливана.
Ezra ben Solomon
A garden locked is my own, my bride: The shekhinah is compared to a garden, since a person plants and fences it, bringing in water to irrigate it and producing all manner of lovely herbiage and plants. The shekhinah’s fence is the cherubim, the plants are the seventy nations, the trees are the angels. All these are supplied by that spring which proceeds from Wisdom’s paradise, within which souls flower in joy. It flows forth without ceasing either day or night; on its account the world is sustained. As our sages said in tractate Yoma:121b. Yoma 38b. “On account of the righteous one is the world created and sustained,” as it says: “The righteous one is the world’s foundation” [Prov. 10:25].122Zaddik or “the righteous” is yesod, the source of sefirotic energy as it flows into the shekhinah. Our sages also said concerning this: “The circumference of the tree of life is a journey of five hundred years and all of the waters of creation are divided forth from it.” Rabbi Yehudah said: “It is not the circumference of its bough, but its trunk that constitutes a journey of five hundred years.”123Genesis Rabbah 15:7.
“A river goes forth from Eden to water the garden” [Gen. 2:10]. The garden constitutes the beginning of the differentiated universe. As it says: “from there it divides and becomes four branches” [ibid.]. The verse is in present tense, the process is eternal. Thus it says: “There is a river whose streams gladden God’s city, the holy dwelling-place of the Most High” [Ps. 46:5]. And “You make springs gush forth in torrents; they make their way between the hills, giving drink to all the wild beasts” [Ps. 104:10–11].
Concerning this spring, it states: “a garden spring, a well of fresh water, flowing streams from Lebanon” [Cant. 4:15]. Our Sages of blessed memory said: “‘a garden spring’: this is Jacob who is a spring for the garden. ‘A well of fresh water’: this is Isaac. ‘Flowing streams’: this is Abraham.”124No such interpretation is found in the extant rabbinic sources. It is also found, however, in Zohar 1:135b, a passage possibly dependent upon R. Ezra. Everything is sated from that Lebanon which is divine Wisdom.125The three patriarchs represent ḥesed, gevurah, and tiferet, way-stations in the flow of life from Wisdom, the primal sefirotic font, to the shekhinah.
Contemplate the wonders of this symbolism and you will know and understand what our Sages wrote, the manner in which their words constitute the height of completeness and perfection. Such truly befits sages like these, whose every word was uttered through the holy spirit in allegoric allusion, so as to arouse the consciousness of the Kabbalistic illuminati, rather than the fools, idiots, and confused who treat their words as if they were fox fables! Thus we find in the tractate Sanhedrin: “‘As I looked upon, thrones were set down …’ [Dan. 7:9]—one for God and one for David: these are the words of R. Akiba. R. Yose the Galilean said to him: ‘Akiba, how long are you going to profane the shekhinah!? Rather, one throne is for justice and one is for righteousness.’ R. Elazar b. Azaryah said to Akiba: ‘What are you doing occupying yourself with words of aggadah!? Desist from your discourse and occupy yourself with the laws of leprosy and tents.126Return to your safe haven of halakhic expertise. Rather one is a throne and one is for a footstool: a throne upon which to sit, a footstool to rest the feet.’”127b. Sanhedrin 38b. Surely these sages had no essential argument with one another, but they differed on whether it was appropriate to reveal the secret meaning. This occurs in several places where the rabbis are in dispute.
“A river goes forth from Eden to water the garden” [Gen. 2:10]. The garden constitutes the beginning of the differentiated universe. As it says: “from there it divides and becomes four branches” [ibid.]. The verse is in present tense, the process is eternal. Thus it says: “There is a river whose streams gladden God’s city, the holy dwelling-place of the Most High” [Ps. 46:5]. And “You make springs gush forth in torrents; they make their way between the hills, giving drink to all the wild beasts” [Ps. 104:10–11].
Concerning this spring, it states: “a garden spring, a well of fresh water, flowing streams from Lebanon” [Cant. 4:15]. Our Sages of blessed memory said: “‘a garden spring’: this is Jacob who is a spring for the garden. ‘A well of fresh water’: this is Isaac. ‘Flowing streams’: this is Abraham.”124No such interpretation is found in the extant rabbinic sources. It is also found, however, in Zohar 1:135b, a passage possibly dependent upon R. Ezra. Everything is sated from that Lebanon which is divine Wisdom.125The three patriarchs represent ḥesed, gevurah, and tiferet, way-stations in the flow of life from Wisdom, the primal sefirotic font, to the shekhinah.
Contemplate the wonders of this symbolism and you will know and understand what our Sages wrote, the manner in which their words constitute the height of completeness and perfection. Such truly befits sages like these, whose every word was uttered through the holy spirit in allegoric allusion, so as to arouse the consciousness of the Kabbalistic illuminati, rather than the fools, idiots, and confused who treat their words as if they were fox fables! Thus we find in the tractate Sanhedrin: “‘As I looked upon, thrones were set down …’ [Dan. 7:9]—one for God and one for David: these are the words of R. Akiba. R. Yose the Galilean said to him: ‘Akiba, how long are you going to profane the shekhinah!? Rather, one throne is for justice and one is for righteousness.’ R. Elazar b. Azaryah said to Akiba: ‘What are you doing occupying yourself with words of aggadah!? Desist from your discourse and occupy yourself with the laws of leprosy and tents.126Return to your safe haven of halakhic expertise. Rather one is a throne and one is for a footstool: a throne upon which to sit, a footstool to rest the feet.’”127b. Sanhedrin 38b. Surely these sages had no essential argument with one another, but they differed on whether it was appropriate to reveal the secret meaning. This occurs in several places where the rabbis are in dispute.
Ezra ben Solomon
We have been taught by tradition that the following phrases refer to divine Wisdom:20Ḥokhmah, the second of the ten sefirot. “of wood from Lebanon” [Cant. 3:9], “the scent of Lebanon” [Cant. 4:11], “Come with me from Lebanon” [Cant. 4:8], “flowing streams from Lebanon” [Cant. 4:15]. This too was the intention of our sages when they interpreted “of wood from Lebanon” [Cant. 3:9] as referring to the counsel of Torah, which is refined [ha-melubbenet] in its words. The Aramaic translation also took this tact “From this goodly mountain and Lebanon” as “that goodly mountain and sanctuary” [Deut. 3:25].
Rabbeinu Bahya
A Midrashic approach based on Mechilta: the words “the waters split” (instead of the sea split) mean that the waters throughout the universe split at that time. The reason we must understand the words in that way is because had it been a local phenomenon only the Torah should have written ויבקעו מימיו, “its waters split.”
There is another dimension to the splitting of the sea which will make you understand that it was essential that all the water in the world be split at that time and that a total change in the behaviour of natural law occur at that time. Our sages (Avot 5,3) have accepted as axiomatic that at the time when this miracle occurred there occurred altogether ten miracles simultaneously. All of these miracles may be derived from the wording of this paragraph.
1) The first one is that the waters were split (into a number of fissures, separate paths) as is evident from the simple reading of the text.
2) after the waters were split they became like a “hat,” like the shape of a roof stretched out from the top, with normal water to the left and to the right. The path was in the center. This is the meaning of the words והמים להם חומה מימינם ומשמאלם, “and the waters were a wall for them to their right and to their left.”
3) the ground under the sea did not remain like the river bed of rivers which run dry in the summer, etc. i.e. muddy, but turned into solid dry ground. This is why the Torah wrote: “they walked on dry land” (verse 29).
4) the path traveled by the Egyptians had remained wet, like mud, loam. This is what is meant by “they were mired in the Sea of Reeds” (15,4). The word טביעה is always a reference to someone sinking into mud. We have another example of this in Psalms 69,3: טבעתי ביון מצולה ואין מעמד, “I am sinking in the slimy deep and find no foothold.” Jeremiah 38,6 means the same thing. This disaster which struck the Egyptians was a great miracle and this is why it is considered one of the ten miracles which were performed for the Israelites at the sea. Chabakuk 3,15 describes graphically how G’d performed this miracle saying: “You will make Your steeds tread the sea, stirring the mighty waters.”
5) the fifth miracle was the fact that all these waters froze (solidified). This is the meaning of the words “the deep froze (congealed)” (15,8). The word is taken from Job 10,10 וכגבינה תקפיאני, “You congealed me like cheese.” The water became hard as stone. This is spelled out in 15,5: “they went down into the depths like a stone. The Torah means that just as the depths are hard as stones so the waters became hard as stone. This causes one to break one’s head on impact as mentioned by David in Psalms 74,13: “who smashed the head of the monsters in the water.” Unless the water had become hard as stone this is hard to understand.
6) the waters did not solidify into one giant chunk such as an iceberg, but into many smaller blocks. This is the meaning of the wordsנצבו כמו נד , “they stood arranged like a wall” (15,8). The waters were arranged like blocks of stone one upon the other forming a wall. David explained the term in greater detail when he said (Psalms 74,13) “it was You who smashed into pieces the sea with Your might.”
7) the sea parted into 12 parts to provide 12 lanes, one each for the tribes. This is based on the word זה in זה אל-י ואנוהו “this is my Lord and I wish to exalt Him.” The numerical value of the word זה=12 (15,2). David also speaks of G’d having divided the sea into numerous sections (Psalms 136,10).
8) “the waters even when congealed remained transparent like glass,” so that the “bricks” we just mentioned were like clear bricks so that members of one tribe could see the members of the next tribe in the adjoining lane. This is the meaning of the words קפאו תהומות בלב ים, “the deep waters congealed in the heart of the sea” (15,8). The word appears also in Zecharyah 14,6 where it appears to mean “freezing time,” neither cold nor sunshine, a suspension of normal changes from night to day. [The author understands it also there as relating to the transparency of ice. Ed.]
9) G’d extracted sweet waters for drinking by the Israelites from the salty sea water. This is the meaning of the word נוזלים, (15,8) where Moses describes this sweet water as dripping forth from the blocks of frozen sea-water. The expression נוזלים occurs in Song of Songs 4,15 as an attribute of מים חיים, pure spring-water gushing forth from the mountains of Lebanon.
10) This sweet water froze again as soon as the Israelites had made use of it for their needs. This explains the peculiar sequence in 15,8: “straight as a wall stood the running water, the deep waters congealed in the heart of the sea.” The verse tells us that something which had been dripping, running, subsequently froze in the middle of the sea. This concludes the list of the ten miracles G’d performed at the Sea.
There is another dimension to the splitting of the sea which will make you understand that it was essential that all the water in the world be split at that time and that a total change in the behaviour of natural law occur at that time. Our sages (Avot 5,3) have accepted as axiomatic that at the time when this miracle occurred there occurred altogether ten miracles simultaneously. All of these miracles may be derived from the wording of this paragraph.
1) The first one is that the waters were split (into a number of fissures, separate paths) as is evident from the simple reading of the text.
2) after the waters were split they became like a “hat,” like the shape of a roof stretched out from the top, with normal water to the left and to the right. The path was in the center. This is the meaning of the words והמים להם חומה מימינם ומשמאלם, “and the waters were a wall for them to their right and to their left.”
3) the ground under the sea did not remain like the river bed of rivers which run dry in the summer, etc. i.e. muddy, but turned into solid dry ground. This is why the Torah wrote: “they walked on dry land” (verse 29).
4) the path traveled by the Egyptians had remained wet, like mud, loam. This is what is meant by “they were mired in the Sea of Reeds” (15,4). The word טביעה is always a reference to someone sinking into mud. We have another example of this in Psalms 69,3: טבעתי ביון מצולה ואין מעמד, “I am sinking in the slimy deep and find no foothold.” Jeremiah 38,6 means the same thing. This disaster which struck the Egyptians was a great miracle and this is why it is considered one of the ten miracles which were performed for the Israelites at the sea. Chabakuk 3,15 describes graphically how G’d performed this miracle saying: “You will make Your steeds tread the sea, stirring the mighty waters.”
5) the fifth miracle was the fact that all these waters froze (solidified). This is the meaning of the words “the deep froze (congealed)” (15,8). The word is taken from Job 10,10 וכגבינה תקפיאני, “You congealed me like cheese.” The water became hard as stone. This is spelled out in 15,5: “they went down into the depths like a stone. The Torah means that just as the depths are hard as stones so the waters became hard as stone. This causes one to break one’s head on impact as mentioned by David in Psalms 74,13: “who smashed the head of the monsters in the water.” Unless the water had become hard as stone this is hard to understand.
6) the waters did not solidify into one giant chunk such as an iceberg, but into many smaller blocks. This is the meaning of the wordsנצבו כמו נד , “they stood arranged like a wall” (15,8). The waters were arranged like blocks of stone one upon the other forming a wall. David explained the term in greater detail when he said (Psalms 74,13) “it was You who smashed into pieces the sea with Your might.”
7) the sea parted into 12 parts to provide 12 lanes, one each for the tribes. This is based on the word זה in זה אל-י ואנוהו “this is my Lord and I wish to exalt Him.” The numerical value of the word זה=12 (15,2). David also speaks of G’d having divided the sea into numerous sections (Psalms 136,10).
8) “the waters even when congealed remained transparent like glass,” so that the “bricks” we just mentioned were like clear bricks so that members of one tribe could see the members of the next tribe in the adjoining lane. This is the meaning of the words קפאו תהומות בלב ים, “the deep waters congealed in the heart of the sea” (15,8). The word appears also in Zecharyah 14,6 where it appears to mean “freezing time,” neither cold nor sunshine, a suspension of normal changes from night to day. [The author understands it also there as relating to the transparency of ice. Ed.]
9) G’d extracted sweet waters for drinking by the Israelites from the salty sea water. This is the meaning of the word נוזלים, (15,8) where Moses describes this sweet water as dripping forth from the blocks of frozen sea-water. The expression נוזלים occurs in Song of Songs 4,15 as an attribute of מים חיים, pure spring-water gushing forth from the mountains of Lebanon.
10) This sweet water froze again as soon as the Israelites had made use of it for their needs. This explains the peculiar sequence in 15,8: “straight as a wall stood the running water, the deep waters congealed in the heart of the sea.” The verse tells us that something which had been dripping, running, subsequently froze in the middle of the sea. This concludes the list of the ten miracles G’d performed at the Sea.