Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi, quoting Rabbi Levi, offers a fascinating analogy in Bereshit Rabbah, the great rabbinic commentary on Genesis. He says a builder needs six things: water, dirt, wood, stones, reeds, and iron. Makes sense, right? But then he adds a little twist. Even a wealthy builder, one who seemingly doesn't need reeds, still needs them as a measuring rod. As it says in Ezekiel 40:3, "A linen thread and a measuring rod."
What’s the point?
Well, Rabbi Levi's using this image to tell us something profound about the Torah itself. He says that just like the builder, the Torah employed six expressions of precedence to describe the creation of the world. Think of them as the foundational tools used to construct the narrative of Bereshit, Genesis.
What are these six crucial tools? They're all words signifying a time before, a sense of priority: "Of old" (kedem), "from earliest time" (me'az), "from ancient times" (meolam), "from the beginning" (merosh), and "from before" (mikadmei) – which, since it’s plural, counts as two. We find these words in Proverbs 8:22-23, in the section that speaks of God "making" wisdom.
So, why this analogy? Why the builder and his tools?
Perhaps it's to show us that even the most divine act, the creation of the universe, has a structure, a plan. It wasn't random. It was built with intention, using specific tools, specific words chosen with care. And just like the reeds that even a wealthy builder needs for measurement, these words of precedence are essential for understanding the Torah's account of creation. They provide the framework, the context, the very measuring rod we need to grasp the magnitude of what came before.
It makes you wonder, doesn't it? What are the measuring rods in our own lives? What tools do we use to build our understanding of the world, of ourselves, of our place in the grand scheme of things? And are we using the right ones?