God Consulted the Torah and Built the World in One Act

A parable of a king of flesh and blood who builds a palace. Before he reaches the boards and prepares the beams, he first brings a scroll and ink and sketches the chamber by itself, the upper room by itself, and the privy by itself, and only afterward builds according to what he had sketched. So the Holy One, blessed be He, gazed into the Torah and created the world. But a king of flesh and blood builds each part one at a time, which is not so with the work of heaven and earth, for the Holy One, blessed be He, created them all at once, as it is said, "My hand also has laid the foundation of the earth, and My right hand has spanned the heavens; when I call to them, they stand up together" (Isaiah 48:13). How did the Holy One, blessed be He, sit and create His world? In five eras. In the first era the Holy One, blessed be He, created two thousand myriads of cherubim and two thousand myriads of ophanim, and all the seraphim and erelim, and likewise the other ministering angels without number. Above them are the holy living creatures, and above them a firmament like the awesome ice, and above it the throne of glory, and above it the Holy One, blessed be He, sits in the highest heaven of heavens. Were it not written in Scripture it would be impossible to say it, as it is said, "And I looked, and behold, a stormy wind came out of the north... and a brightness was about it, and out of its midst as the color of electrum, out of the midst of the fire... and out of its midst came the likeness of four living creatures... and there was a likeness over the heads of the living creature, a firmament like the awesome ice... and above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone, and upon the likeness of the throne was a likeness as the appearance of a man upon it above" (Ezekiel 1). But the Sages said that seven things preceded the world: the Torah, repentance, Gehinnom, the Garden of Eden, the throne of glory, the name of the son of David, and the Temple. The Torah, from where? As it is said, "The LORD made me the beginning of His way, the first of His works of old" (Proverbs 8:22). Repentance, from where? As it is said, "Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the earth" (Psalms 90:2), and after it is written, "You turn man to contrition, and say, Return, O children of men" (Psalms 90:3). Gehinnom, from where? As it is said, "For Tophet has been ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared, He has made it deep and large; its pile is fire and much wood, the breath of the LORD, like a stream of brimstone, kindles it" (Isaiah 30:33). And Tophet is nothing but Gehinnom, which is a creation that preceded all. And when the Holy One, blessed be He, created Gehinnom, He stood and praised all the works of His hands, as it is said, "And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good" (Genesis 1:31). What is "yea, for the king it is prepared"? The king is nothing but the evil inclination, as it is said, "Better is a poor and wise child than an old and foolish king" (Ecclesiastes 4:13). This is the evil inclination, which is called an old and foolish king. Another interpretation: "Better is a poor and wise child," this is Rabbi Akiva; "than an old and foolish king," this is the wicked Tineius Rufus. And what is "He has made it deep and large"? That the angel of death has deepened and widened it so that it should hold his full height, and in it a pile of fire and wood. The Garden of Eden, from where? As it is said, "And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden" (Genesis 2:8). The throne of glory, from where? As it is said, "Your throne is established of old" (Psalms 93:2). The Temple, from where? As it is said, "A throne of glory, exalted from the beginning, is the place of our sanctuary" (Jeremiah 17:12). The name of the son of David, from where? As it is said, "Before the sun his name shall be continued [Yinnon]" (Psalms 72:17). And afterward the Holy One, blessed be He, created the heavens and the earth and all that is in them, and He completed them and flattened them and founded them and spanned them and contracted them and stretched them and set them in place. "Completed and flattened them," from where? As it is said, "And the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their host" (Genesis 2:1). "Founded and spanned and contracted them," from where? As it is written, "My hand also has laid the foundation of the earth, and My right hand has spanned the heavens; when I call to them, they stand up together" (Isaiah 48:13). "Stretched and set them," from where? As it is said, "It is He who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in" (Isaiah 40:22). And after all the creatures of the world were created, they were all in great joy, as if they were eating and drinking and satisfied and rejoicing with great joy. And the matter is an argument from minor to major: if those standing outside, who do not see the face of the Divine Presence within, were in such joy as if they were eating and drinking and satisfied and rejoicing with great joy, how much more so the angels and the host of heaven, whom the Holy One, blessed be He, brought inside beneath the throne of glory, who were in great joy as if they were eating and drinking and satisfied and rejoicing with great joy. And when the Holy One, blessed be He, had created the whole world, He stood and thrust them and brought them outside, and they were all crying and wailing and weeping a great weeping, and they said before Him: Master of the universe, why have You brought us out from a measure of contentment? What did the Holy One, blessed be He, do to appease them? Of all four kinds that the Holy One, blessed be He, created in His world, He brought them and fixed their form in His throne of glory: the face of a man from among humankind, the face of a lion from among the wild beasts, the face of an ox from among the cattle, and the face of an eagle from among the birds. At that hour the Holy One, blessed be He, said: I have taken My reward from all that I created in My world. I have taken My reward, the face of the man on the chariot, because I created all the humans on the earth; and I have taken as reward the face of the ox on the chariot, because I created all the cattle on the earth; and I have taken as reward the face of the lion on the chariot, because I created all the wild beasts on the earth; and I have taken as reward the face of the eagle on the chariot, because I created all the birds on the earth. Immediately the Holy One, blessed be He, wrote the matter and sealed the matter, that it should be so forever. But when Israel sinned with the calf, the Holy One, blessed be He, brought the face of the cherub and set it in place of the face of the ox. For one time it is said, "As for the likeness of their faces, they had the face of a man, and the four had the face of a lion on the right side, and the four had the face of an ox on the left side, and the four had the face of an eagle" (Ezekiel 1:10), and another time it is said, "And each one had four faces: the first face was the face of the cherub, and the second face the face of a man, and the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle" (Ezekiel 10:14). But this was before Israel sinned with the calf, and that was after Israel sinned with the calf. And the Sages taught: to whom does one transmit the work of the chariot? If you have seen a man who masters his impulse and loves his neighbors and speaks gently with people and conducts all his affairs with law and justice, his eyes downward and his heart upward, and even in his youth no evil report came out against him, and he never sinned before God all his days, to such a one they transmit the headings of the chapters. And from when the first man was formed until the Flood was one thousand six hundred and fifty-six years, and all who came into the world kept provoking before Him until He brought upon them the waters of the Flood. And then the Holy One, blessed be He, ceased from reading and from repeating and from doing any work. And what work did the Holy One, blessed be He, do from the day He created the world until that hour? I wonder! Rather, from the day the Holy One, blessed be He, created the world until that hour, each and every day He sat upon His throne of glory: a third of the day He read and repeated, a third of the day He judged judgment, and a third of the day He did charity and nourished and sustained and provided for all who came into the world and all the works of His hands that He had created in the world. And when He brought the Flood to the world, then the Holy One, blessed be He, ceased from reading and from repeating and from doing all those works, and that measure was before Him like the measure of a mourner. And when Noah came into the world and did the will of the Holy One, blessed be He, the Holy One, blessed be He, said to him, "Come, you and all your household, into the ark, you and your sons alone, and your wife and your sons' wives alone" (compare Genesis 7:1). And when the Flood departed from the world, the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Noah, "Go forth from the ark, you and your wife and your sons and your sons' wives with you" (Genesis 8:16). At that hour the ministering angels took counsel and were lodging a complaint before the Holy One, blessed be He, just as they had made accusation when the Holy One, blessed be He, created the first man, when they were saying before the Holy One, blessed be He: Master of the universe, "What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You take note of him?" (Psalms 8:5). At that hour the Holy One, blessed be He, said to the ministering angels: Set your eyes upon the chariot, and it is enough for you, accuse it no more; for even if I had of them nothing but one of the four kinds that I fixed in My throne of glory, I have already decreed concerning them that they shall consume this world.