ליטעראַטור פֿון בית שני אויף בראשית 2:10

The theme of Gen. 2:10–14 is the Rivers. The four Rivers are the particular Virtues, effluxes of generic Virtue, the River that issues from “Eden,” which is the Wisdom or Reason of God. “Heads” implies the sovereignty of the Virtues: “separated”; their limited, defining, action. “Pheison” is Prudence, God’s fairest treasure, gleaming like gold, and encircling “Evilat” or Graciousness. “Geon” is Courage, beleaguering Ethiopia, which is Lowness or Cowardice. “Tigris” is Self-mastery, set against “Assyria,” the directing force claimed by Desire. Prudence, Courage, and Self-mastery occupy places in the soul corresponding to their spheres of action in the body, head, breast, and abdomen, the seats of Reason, High Spirit, and Lust. “Euphrates” (= fruitfulness) is Justice, or the harmony of the three parts of the soul.

[63] “A river goes forth from Eden to water the garden: thence it is separated into four heads; the name of the one is Pheison; this is that which encircles all the land of Evilat, there where the gold is; and the gold of that land is good; and there is the ruby and the emerald. And the name of the second river is Geon; this encompasses all the land of Aethiopia. And the third river is Tigris; this is that whose course is in front of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates” (Gen. 2:10–14). By these rivers his purpose is to indicate the particular virtues. These are four in number, prudence, self-mastery, courage, justice. The largest river, of which the four are effluxes, is generic virtue, which we have called “goodness.” The four effluxes are the virtues of the same number.