Bar-Ilan University

Parshat Hashavua Study Center

Parshat Pekudei 5774/March 1, 2014

This series of faculty lectures on the weekly Parsha is made possible by the Department of Basic Jewish Studies, the Paul and Helene Shulman Basic Jewish Studies Center, the Office of the Campus Rabbi, Bar-Ilan University's International Center for Jewish Identity and the Computer Center Staff at Bar-Ilan University. For inquiries, please contact Avi Woolf at: .

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Chaos and the Book of Exodus

By Eli Merzbach[*]

What connection is there between chaos, the chemist van Helmont and parashat Pekudei in the book of Exodus?

At the end of Exodus is a short paragraph of five verses in which a certain word—`anan or cloud—is repeated in each verse: "the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting"; "the cloud had settled upon it"; "when the cloud lifted from the Tabernacle"; "but if the cloud did not lift"; "for over the Tabernacle a cloud of the Lord rested by day" (Ex. 40:34-38).

Generally this word is quite rare in Scripture. In Genesis it is mentioned once with regard to the rainbow: "I have set My bow in the clouds" (Gen. 9:13). In Exodus it always occurs as a transcendental concept: "in a pillar of cloud by day, to guide them along the way" (Ex. 13:21); "and there, in a cloud, appeared the Presence of the Lord" (Ex. 16:10); "The Lord came down in a cloud" (Ex. 34:5). The word "cloud" appears with especially great frequency when Moses ascends Mount Sinai (at the end of parashat Mishpatim) and in all the readings dealing with the Tabernacle. The cloud alludes to divine providence and to the Holy One, blessed be He, caring for all His people's needs. The presence of the Lord in the world ostensibly hampers man's free choice, and the cloud serves to conceal G-d's intervention in the course of history. The last verses of Exodus stress this divine providence, thus summing up the book which describes the making of the people of Israel.

Only in Leviticus is the cloud associated with human actions, in the expression, "the cloud from the incense" (Lev. 16:13). Also, bear in mind that throughout the forty years of nomadic life in the wilderness the Israelites were always accompanied and led by a cloud by day and a pillar of fire (smoke) by night.

In the philosophy of science Jean-Baptiste van Helmont (1579-1644), a scientist and physician, is considered to be the bridge between alchemy and modern chemistry. He wrote many books, and among his innovative ideas was a linguistic innovation: he invented the word "gas," derived from the ancient Greek word chaos. For van Helmont, gas was essentially without any geometric form, without order, with no possibility of mathematical measurement, assuming totally random forms and especially having unpredictable shape. This was the origin of the word "gas," which spread to all European languages.

Chaos in ancient Greek is the same as our tohu va-vohu (in the New JPS: "unformed and void") and was used to render this word in later translations of the Bible into Greek by the Church Fathers. It denotes disorder (the opposite of a well-ordered cosmos), characterized by our inability to measure it. The Greek chaos signifies the absence of G-d, whereas the Jewish chaos means deliberate concealment of the Divine. In modern science and philosophy chaos can be deterministic or random, but it is always characterized by unpredictability.

What word was used for gas in biblical Hebrew? A homonym appears in Psalms (Ki gaz hish va-na`ufa = "They dissipate swiftly and we fly away," Ps. 90:10), but it has a different meaning. The concept of gas did not actually exist; it only began to be investigated in the 16th century. The closest concept in the Torah, however, is cloud or smoke (a cloud within a fire; as in "the smoke rose like the smoke of a kiln," Ex. 19:18).

The cloud and the smoke allude to divine providence, as we mentioned above, but providence which is unpredictable, a sort of concealed providence. The cloud hints at a connection between Israel and the Holy One, blessed be He, who took them out of Egypt, a sheltered connection whose results can change, thus leaving free choice to the individual and the nation. The cloud of incense smoke symbolizes randomness, enabling providence to exist alongside free choice for mankind.

There is a difference between the cloud and smoke. The cloud comes from above and descends on human beings, whereas smoke indicates the opposite direction, coming from below and ascending on high. Smoke, which rises by the agency of human beings, expresses immanence, denoting thought processes and existence following an inner essence imprinted and included in the world according to clear and determined laws, the laws of the physical world. This is in contrast to thought which is external to existence, thought which is both flexible and abstract, transcendent, and hinted to us by the divine cloud that comes down to us.

The term coined by the chemist van Helmont, four centuries ago, helps us obtain a better understanding of the concepts of providence and free choice. These are not contradictory, for that same unpredictable cloud makes it possible for human beings to function, to make progress, innovate and renew. Indeed, divine providence and free choice can go hand in hand.

This approach thoroughly explains the weekly readings in the second half of Exodus, describing the construction of the Tabernacle, and an obscure remark in the Zohar. The Zohar (Va-Yakhel 472) asks why the word "altar" is used in connection with incense in the expression "incense altar"? The explanation given is that the smoke from the incense does away with the sitra ahra, the darker side, and therefore the incense is like an altar on which blessings abound.

Therefore this is an internal altar, for it must be hidden from the eye. Further on the Zohar stresses that the incense is what maintains the world on earth and the world in heaven. It repairs and binds together, makes light and purifies the Tabernacle (according to the Sulam). In other words, the function of the incense smoke is to maintain the world in good repair. The incense smoke by its nature is not clearly seen and therefor it is imbued with blessing, the opposite of the evil eye. The incense smoke symbolizes the randomness that makes divine providence possible.

The Israelites built the Tabernacle in the wilderness by force of the tohu:[1] everything was built in accordance with commands, according to prescribed quantities and measures. The readings about the Tabernacle are full of numbers, both for the Tabernacle itself and its implements. But the Divine Presence does not rest on that which can be counted, rather only on that which is concealed from the eye. Hence we have the incense smoke, the remedy to the quantification of the Tabernacle, a correction for all the numbers involved in making the Tabernacle and for all the statistics of Parashat Pekudei. Construction of the Tabernacle, like creation of the world, must include a quantifiable tangible base but also requires randomness and lack of order, symbolized by the incense smoke, which has no shape.

The division of the Torah into five books is mentioned as far back as the Jerusalem Talmud[2] and in several discussions in the Babylonian Talmud.[3] This division was accepted everywhere, and even in the Christian world the Torah goes by the Greek name, Pentateukhos, meaning "Five Books."

What is the essence of the book of Exodus, also known by many commentators[4] as "The Second Book" (the only one of the five whose name is an ordinal number), as if it did not contain anything of particular importance? The boundaries of the book of Exodus can be explained as follows: Genesis ends when, at long last, after much quarrel and strife, true brotherhood is reached within the clan. Only then can the process of forging the Israelite people begin, and this is the beginning of Exodus.

The last verse of Exodus, at the end of all the readings on the Tabernacle—after the great detail concerning all its parts, its manner of construction, and the inventory of materials used—emphatically refers to the cloud (the smoke without the fire): "For over the Tabernacle a cloud of the Lord rested by day, and fire would appear in it by night, in the view of all the house of Israel throughout their journeys" (Ex. 40:38). This verse completes the circle of making the Tabernacle and enables Israel to achieve the highest level of unity: the "House of Israel."

This notion is especially prominent in the passage on the lots cast on the Day of Atonement (Lev. 16:2): "for I appear in the cloud over the cover" (Rashi: "I always appear there with My pillar of cloud"), and further on: "so that the cloud from incense screens the cover that is over [the Ark of] the Pact, lest he die" (Lev. 16:13). The Torah's first reference to the command to place lots on he-goats on the Day of Atonement—stressing the Lord's involvement in this act[5]—is precisely where mention of the cloud reappears.

Only after direct divine providence is described can one begin the book of Leviticus. That book lends expression to the next stage: the actions taken by human beings in an attempt to draw closer to their Maker by offering sacrifices and performing other commandments. The chosen people and the Lord's providence over them by means of the cloud comprise the fundamental essence of the book of Exodus, the Second Book and the complement to the story of Creation.

Edited by Rabbi Dr. Hayyim Talbi

Linguistic editing by Dr. Yitzhak Hilman

Translated by Rachel Rowen

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[*] Prof. Eli Merzbach is a member of the Mathematic Department at Bar Ilan University, author of The Big Bang, and editor of the religious-academic journal BDD.

[1] Symbolizing order, as we read in Tractate Hagigah 12, that being the opposite of bohu, the proto-type of disorder.

[2] Sanhedrin 10.1.

[3] Megillah 15a; Hagigah 14a; Nedarim 22b; Sanhedrin 44a.

[4] For example, Sotah 36b, and Netziv in his introduction to Exodus: "The author of Halakhot Gedolot, at the end of his sacred book, calls it The Second Book."

[5] Cf. "Choosing the Scapegoat," Bar Ilan University's Parashat Hashavua Study Center, Parashat Aharei-Mot—Kedoshim 5770/April 24, 2010.