CHAPTER 70

To ride [rakhob]. This word is equivocal. The first instance in which it is used means man’s riding in the usual manner on beasts: He was riding upon his she-ass.¹ Afterwards it is used figuratively to designate domination over a thing, for a rider dominates over and rules that which he rides. Thus the dictum: He made him ride on the heights of the earth;² I will make thee to ride upon the heights of the earth³—meaning that you shall dominate the heights of the earth; I will make Ephraim ride⁴—that is I shall make him dominate and rule. In this sense it is said of God, may He be exalted: The rider of the heavens is helping you;⁵ the interpretation of which is: He who dominates the heavens. Similarly: The rider in the araboth;⁶ meaning: He who dominates the highest heaven encompassing the universe.⁷

The textual words of the Sages, may their memory be blessed, which are repeated in every relevant passage,⁸ assert that there are seven heavens and that araboth is [91b] the highest encompassing the universe. Do not think it blameworthy that according to their reckoning there were seven heavens, whereas there are more than that. For sometimes, as is clear to those engaged in speculation on this subject and as I shall make clear further on,9 a sphere is counted as one though there be several heavens contained in it. What is intended here is to call attention to the fact that they constantly indicate that araboth is the highest part of the universe. It is with reference to araboth that it says: The rider of the heavens [shamayim] is helping you. Compare the text of Ḥagigah;¹⁰ they say: [As to] araboth, the high and sublime One resides upon it. For it is said: Extol the rider in the araboth. How do we know that [araboth] are also called heavens [shamayim]? [Because] it is written in this passage: the rider in the araboth, while in another [passage] it is written: the rider of the heavens. Thus it is clear that the term refers solely to one heaven: that which encompasses the universe. About that heaven you will hear some information. Consider their saying: resides upon it. They did not say: resides in it. For if they had said, resides in it, this expression would have necessitated the attribution to Him of a place or the notion that He is a force subsisting in a certain place. In such fashion do the sects of the Sabians imagine that God is the spirit of heaven.¹¹ Thus by saying, resides upon it, they have shown that He, may He be exalted, is separate from the heaven and is not a force in it. Know that the expression, the rider of the heavens, is figuratively used of Him, may He be exalted, for the sake of a strange and wondrous likeness. For the rider is more excellent than that upon which he rides, yet cannot be called more excellent except through a certain impropriety of language, for the rider does not belong to the same species as that which is ridden by him. Moreover the rider is he who makes the beast of burden move and go where he wishes; for it is an instrument for him that he uses as he wishes, being at the same time free from any dependence on it and not attached to it, but on the contrary external to it. Similarly the deity, may His name be held sublime, is the mover of the highest heaven, by whose motion everything that is in motion within this heaven¹² is moved; at the same time, He, may He be exalted, is separate from this heaven and not a force subsisting within it. Accordingly the Sages interpreting [92a] His speech, may He be exalted, The eternal God is a dwelling place,13 say in Bereshith Rabbah:¹⁴ He is the dwelling place of His world, [whereas] His world is not His dwelling place. And they follow this by saying : The horse is subsidiary to the rider, [whereas] the rider is not subsidiary to the horse. In this sense it is written: That Thou dost ride upon Thy horses.¹⁵ This is literally what they say. Consider it, and it shall become clear to you how they explained His relation, may He be exalted, to heaven: that it is His instrument by means of which He governs that which is existent. For whenever you find that according to the Sages, may their memory be blessed, there exists one thing in one particular heaven¹⁶ and another thing in another, the meaning of the passage is not that in that particular heaven there are to be found bodies other than that heaven, but that the forces generating the particular thing in question and safeguarding its order come from that heaven. A proof of what I have said to you is their saying: Araboth—that in which [exist] righteousness, right-dealing, justice, the treasures of life, the treasures of peace, the treasures of blessing, the soul of the righteous ones, the souls and the spirits that shall be created in the future, and the dew by means of which the Holy One, blessed be He, will revive the dead.¹⁷ Now it is clear that not one of all the things that they have enumerated here is a body and therefore to be located in a place. For the dew is not the dew denoted by the word in its external meaning. Consider that they said in this passage : that in which—I mean to say that the things mentioned are in araboth—and they did not say that the things are upon it. Thus they have, as it were, given the information that these things existent in the world only exist because they proceed from forces coming from the araboth of God, may He be exalted, who caused [the araboth] to be their first origin and who situated them in it. To these things belong the treasures of life. In fact it is correct and the absolute truth to say that every life existing in a living being only proceeds from that life,¹⁸ as I shall subsequently¹⁹ mention.

Reflect also that they enumerated in the list the soul of the righteous ones, and the souls and the spirits that shall be created in the future. How sublime [92b] is this notion to him who has understood it! For the souls that remain after death are not the soul that comes into being in man at the time he is generated. For that which comes into being at the time a man is generated20 is merely a faculty consisting in preparedness, whereas the thing that after death is separate from matter is the thing that has become actual and not the soul that also comes into being; the latter is identical with the spirit that comes into being. Because of this the Sages have numbered the souls and spirits among the things that come into being. What is separate is, on the contrary, one thing only. We have already made clear the equivocality of the term spirit.²¹ We have likewise made clear, in the last portion of the Book of Knowledge,²² the equivocality regarding these terms.

Consider accordingly that these strange but correct notions attained by the speculation of the most sublime of those who have philosophized are found scattered in the Midrashim. When a man who has knowledge, but is not equitable, studies these texts, he laughs at them at the beginning of his study because he sees that their external meanings diverge so widely from the true realities of existence. The cause of all of this is, as we have told several times, the enigmatic presentation of these things, which is due to the fact that they are too strange to be understood by the vulgar.

I shall return to the remainder of what I have started out to explain. I shall then say that [the Sages], may their memory be blessed, tried by means of the texts of the scriptural verses to furnish proof that the things enumerated by them were found in araboth, saying: [As for] righteousness and justice, as it is written: Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Thy throne.²³ They similarly furnished proof that those things, which they enumerated as standing in relation to God, may He be exalted, are with Him. Understand this. They said in the Chapters of Rabbi Eliezer;²⁴ The Holy One, blessed be He, has created seven firmaments; and of all them, He chose as throne of glory for His kingship only araboth. For it is said: Extol the rider in the araboth.²⁵ This is literally what he says. Understand it likewise. Know that a set of beasts that are ridden upon is called chariot.²⁶ This occurs in frequent [73a] repetition: And Joseph made ready his chariot;27 in the second chariot;²⁸ Pharaoh’s chariots.²⁹ A proof that this term is applied to a number of beasts is found in the dictum: And a chariot came up and went out of Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, and a horse for a hundred and fifty.³⁰ This is a proof that the term chariot is applied to four horses. With regard to this I say that since it is said, in accordance with what is said in Scripture, that the throne of glory was borne by four animals, the Sages, may their memory be blessed, called it a chariot; they thus likened it to a chariot that is made up of four individuals.31 This is the limit to which the speech advances in this chapter. There is no doubt that there are many other intimations with reference to this subject. However, the purpose of this chapter, toward which the argument was repeatedly brought back, is that the dictum, The rider of the heavens,³² signifies: He who makes the encompassing heaven revolve and who moves it in virtue of His power and His will. A similar interpretation should be given to the rest of the verse: and in His excellency³³ on the skies, meaning that in virtue of His excellency He makes the skies revolve—bringing out the first of them, which is araboth, as we made clear in our discussion of the word riding and explained the remainder of it in our discussion of the word excellency. For all the heavens move as parts in virtue of the movement of the highest heaven, that is, the diurnal movement. And this great power of His is that which moves the whole. Because of this Scripture calls it: excellency. This notion should always be present in your mind with regard to new matters about which I shall speak. For it is the greatest proof through which one can know the existence of the deity—I mean the revolution of the heaven—as I shall demonstrate. Understand this. [93b]