Parshat Shemot5 min read

Moses Climbed to Heaven and Met What Holds the World Together

When Moses ascended to receive the Torah, he traveled through seven heavens. In the highest, he met the living creatures that carry the divine throne.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. What the Torah Does Not Say About the Ascent
  2. The Angel of Torah in the Seventh Heaven
  3. The Serpent That Hunted Moses Across Creation
  4. The Night God Sent a Serpent Against Moses

What the Torah Does Not Say About the Ascent

The Torah says Moses went up to God. It does not say where God was, or how far up that was, or what Moses crossed to get there. The tradition had no interest in leaving those questions unanswered.

In the seventh heaven, the highest of the celestial realms, Moses found the Hayyot. These were not angels in the sense of messengers or servants. They were structural. The Hayyot support the throne of God itself, carrying it the way the earth carries everything standing on its surface. Remove them and the throne would have nothing beneath it. They were the load-bearing creatures of the created order, the beings at the foundation of everything that exists above the human world.

Ezekiel had described them from below, in vision. Four faces each: human, lion, ox, eagle. Four wings. Legs like straight pillars, feet like burnished bronze. Between them something like burning coals, torches moving back and forth, lightning coming out. They moved without turning because when you face in all four directions simultaneously, turning is unnecessary. The wheels that accompanied them had eyes around their entire circumference. The sound of their wings was the sound of many waters, the voice of the Almighty, thunder.

The Angel of Torah in the Seventh Heaven

In the seventh heaven Moses also encountered Zagzagel, the prince of the Torah. His function was specific: to teach the Torah in seventy languages to the souls of human beings. Not to scholars already in their bodies. To souls before incarnation, so that whatever wisdom they would carry into the world had been deposited before they arrived. Moses, receiving the Torah to bring back to Israel, was meeting the being who had already taught Torah to every soul Israel would ever produce.

The tradition in the Legends of the Jews describes Moses looking around the seventh heaven and seeing, stored there, all the divine gifts that would eventually descend to the world: Torah, commandments, understanding, the deep structures that make wisdom possible. They were not created for the occasion of Sinai. They had been prepared from before creation, held in the seventh heaven waiting for the human moment when they could be received.

The Serpent That Hunted Moses Across Creation

Before the ascent, something had been hunting him. A serpent moved through creation searching for the son of Amram, asking each primordial being in sequence whether it had seen him. The serpent went to the Tree of Knowledge first. The Tree had seen Moses: he had come to it to get a writing reed to write the Torah with. The Tree said so plainly and offered nothing further. No sympathy for the serpent's search.

The Midrash of Philo, the first-century Alexandrian philosopher's interpretive reflections on Torah, grapples with why Moses calls the serpent the craftiest of all creatures in Genesis. The answer the tradition settles on is that the serpent's cunning was precisely its ability to misuse what it knew. It had access to knowledge of the created world, had spoken with the first humans in the garden, had watched history from its beginning. All of that knowledge and it had used it to introduce the first lie into the world. Its pursuit of Moses was continuous with that original project: find the source of the Torah and stop it before it reaches Israel.

The Night God Sent a Serpent Against Moses

The most disturbing version of the serpent's intersection with Moses comes from Exodus Rabbah. On the road back to Egypt, after God had appointed Moses at the burning bush and given him his mission, the text says that God sought to kill him at a night encampment. The Rabbis read this through a serpent: God sent the angel Uriel disguised as a giant serpent, which swallowed Moses whole, up to his thighs, then released him, then swallowed him again. The interpretation the tradition offers is that Gershom, Moses's son, had not been circumcised. A servant of the Exodus could not stand before Pharaoh with an uncircumcised son. The serpent was enforcing the covenant rather than threatening it.

Moses had just been told he was the instrument of Israel's liberation. He arrived at the first night's rest and nearly died. The tradition reads this sequence with precision: the man who would ascend to the seventh heaven and see the creatures that hold up the universe was also the man who nearly did not survive the first evening of his mission. Both things were true simultaneously. Greatness and vulnerability were not in competition. They were concurrent conditions of anyone entrusted with something this significant.

MosesCreationCreaturesHeavenTorahAngelsSinai
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From the tradition

Sources

4 sources

The texts this telling draws on, in full. Open a card to read inline, or expand it for a wider, quieter read.

Legends of the Jews 4:174Legends of the Jews

Some of the Jewish mystical tradition points to a pretty incredible source: the heavens themselves.

Moses, not just receiving the Torah on Mount Sinai, but first journeying through all seven heavens. What did he see there? Ginzberg’s Legends of the Jews paints a breathtaking picture.

In the seventh heaven, the highest of them all, Moses beholds the Hayyot, the holy living creatures that support the very throne of God. It’s a vision of immense power and majesty, a glimpse into the divine engine room. But it gets even more fascinating.

He also encounters Zagzagel. Who is Zagzagel? Well, he’s described as the prince of the Torah, the angel of wisdom. And his job? To teach the Torah in seventy languages to the souls of humankind. Think of it! Before we even get here, our souls are already learning the divine precepts.

The Zohar tells us that everything has a spiritual counterpart, a celestial blueprint. Zagzagel embodies that for the Torah, ensuring its wisdom permeates all of creation. And according to Ginzberg's retelling, it was from this very angel, this celestial teacher, that Moses himself learned "all the ten mysteries." Moses, the great lawgiver, the prophet who spoke face to face with God, was taught by an angel! It adds another layer to the story, doesn't it? It's not just about divine dictation; it’s about a process of learning, of transmission, of celestial education.

So, Moses has seen these wonders, absorbed these teachings. He’s standing in the presence of God in the highest heaven. And what does he do? He negotiates! "I will not leave the heavens unless Thou grantest me a gift," he says. Talk about chutzpah!

But God, of course, understands. And what does He offer? "I will give thee the Torah, and men shall call it the Law of Moses."

It’s a beautiful exchange. Moses, having witnessed the celestial origins of wisdom, now brings that wisdom down to earth. He doesn't just receive it; he earns it, through his journey, his vision, and his bold request.

And that Torah, that Law of Moses, isn't just a set of rules. It's a gift from the heavens, filtered through the soul of a prophet, and accessible to us all. Perhaps, when we study it, we're not just reading words on a page, but reconnecting with that celestial wisdom, that spark of divine knowledge that Zagzagel planted within us long ago.

Full source
Legends of the Jews 7:80Legends of the Jews

Legends of the Jews turns to The Serpent Searches Creation for Moses Son of Amram.

So, where does he begin his search? He starts with the tree of knowledge. Remember that tree? The one that bore the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil? He figures, surely, this ancient being must have seen MOSES.

"Hast thou seen the son of Amram?" he asks, dripping with venom, no doubt.

The tree replies, "Since the day on which he came to me to get a writing reed, wherewith to write the Torah, I have not seen him."

Wow. Even the Tree of Knowledge acknowledges MOSES' importance. He needed a reed from it to write the Torah! And the tree, despite its own history with deception, offers no help to the serpent. It's almost… respectful.

Undeterred, or perhaps even more agitated, the serpent turns to the mountains. Surely, they have witnessed the passage of this MOSES. These colossal, ancient formations, witnesses to millennia, must hold the answer.

"Have you seen the son of Amram?" he hisses at the silent peaks.

But the mountains echo the tree's response. "Since he hewed the two tables out of us, we have not seen him."

Again, the response is telling. The mountains acknowledge MOSES' profound impact. He carved the luchot (tablets) of the covenant from their very being! The tablets containing the Aseret haDibrot (Ten Commandments). Yet, they offer no further information, no clue to his whereabouts.

Finally, in desperation, the serpent slithers into the vast, unforgiving deserts. If anyone has seen MOSES, it would be the desert. The place where the Israelites wandered for forty years, led by none other than – you guessed it – MOSES.

"Have ye seen the son of Amram?" he demands of the shifting sands.

And the deserts reply, "Since he has ceased to lead Israel to pasture upon us, we have not seen him."

The desert's response is particularly poignant. It speaks of MOSES as a shepherd, a leader guiding his flock. He provided for them, even in the most desolate of places. And now, that presence is gone.

What are we to make of all this? The serpent's desperate search, the world's consistent, almost reverent, deflection? It highlights MOSES' unparalleled significance. He's not just a man; he's a force of nature, a figure whose actions resonate throughout creation. The tree, the mountains, the desert – they all bear witness to his impact, yet they guard his secret.

Perhaps the real lesson here is that true greatness, true righteousness, can't be found through malice or deceit. The serpent’s quest is doomed from the start, not because MOSES is hidden, but because the serpent’s very nature prevents him from understanding what he seeks.

Full source
The Midrash of Philo 1:1The Midrash of Philo

Why does Moses, in the book of Genesis, specifically call out the serpent as being the craftiest of them all?

That question, in fact, is the very starting point of a fascinating exploration in The Midrash of Philo. Now, before you get intimidated, don't worry! Midrash (מדרש) simply means “interpretation” or "inquiry." It's how ancient rabbis and scholars dug deep into the text of the Torah, searching for hidden meanings and lessons. And Philo? He was a Jewish philosopher who lived in Alexandria, Egypt, way back in the first century CE. He tried to bridge the gap between Jewish tradition and Greek philosophy. So, The Midrash of Philo isn't a midrash in the traditional rabbinic sense, but rather a collection of interpretations and reflections on the Torah, attributed to him.

So, back to our snake. What makes him so darn clever?

Well, The Midrash of Philo doesn't give us a simple, straightforward answer. Instead, it invites us to think critically about the nature of temptation, deception, and the power of persuasive words. Was it simply that the serpent was good at tricking people? Or was there something more profound at play?

Perhaps, the text subtly suggests, the serpent’s cunning lies in his ability to exploit existing vulnerabilities. Maybe Eve already had doubts, questions, or a yearning for something more. The serpent, in this reading, simply provided the nudge, the justification, the seemingly logical argument that allowed her to take the leap. Temptation rarely comes out of nowhere. It usually preys on our existing desires, fears, or insecurities. The truly cunning deceiver isn't the one who invents those feelings, but the one who knows how to manipulate them.

And isn't that a powerful lesson for us today? To be aware of our own vulnerabilities, to examine our motivations, and to be wary of those who seem to offer easy answers or quick fixes. Because sometimes, the most cunning serpent isn't slithering in the garden, but whispering in our own minds.

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Shemot Rabbah 5:8Exodus Rabbah

"And it came to pass on the way, at the lodging place" (Exodus 4:24). Beloved is circumcision, for Moses did not delay over it even one hour. Therefore, when he was on the way and busied himself at the lodging place and was slothful about circumcising Eliezer his son, immediately "the LORD met him and sought to kill him" (Exodus 4:24). You find that it was an angel of mercy, and even so "he sought to kill him." "And Zipporah took a flint" (Exodus 4:25). Now from where did Zipporah know that it was over the matter of circumcision that Moses was endangered? Rather, the angel came and swallowed Moses from his head down to the circumcision. When Zipporah saw that it had swallowed him only as far as the circumcision, she recognized that it was over the matter of circumcision that he was harmed, and she knew how great is the power of circumcision, that the angel could not swallow him beyond that point. Immediately "she cut off the foreskin of her son and touched it to his feet, and said: Surely a bridegroom of blood are you to me" (Exodus 4:25). She said: You shall be my bridegroom, given to me by the merit of this blood of circumcision, for behold, I have fulfilled the commandment. Immediately "the angel let him go" (Exodus 4:26). "Then she said: A bridegroom of blood, with regard to the circumcision" (Exodus 4:26). She said: How great is the power of circumcision, for my bridegroom was liable to death because he was slothful in performing the commandment of circumcision, and had it not been for it, he would not have been saved.

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