Eros, Creation and Holiness - Tazriah - Mythic Torah

Welcome back to Mythic Torah, my regular article investigating monsters, heroes and gods in the weekly Torah reading. This week's reading is Tazriah, the 4th reading of the book of Leviticus, that deals with purity/impurity laws surrounding birth and leprosy.

If you had to write a creation myth, what would be your basic image? How would the world come into being?

When Tolkien answered this question, writing the Ainulindalë that begins his most mythic work of fiction, the Silmarillion, he had the world created out of music and song. Illuvatar, the chief of the Ainur, the gods of Middle Earth, has all the ainur join in a song before presenting them with the work of their artistry:

"But when they were come into the Void, Ilúvatar said to them: ‘Behold your Music!’ And he showed to them a vision, giving to them sight where before was only hearing; and they saw a new World made visible before them, and it was globed amid the Void, and it was sustained therein, but was not of it. And as they looked and wondered this World began to unfold its history, and it seemed to them that it lived and grew. And when the Ainur had gazed for a while and were silent, Ilúvatar said again: ‘Behold your Music! This is your minstrelsy; and each of you shall find contained herein, amid the design that I set before you, all those things which it may seem that he himself devised or added."
-The Silmarillion

Tolkien's vision of creation through singing is a powerful statement of creation through art, and art as creation. It is an abstract kind of creating, that arises from the mind and soul before being expressed through vocal chords and sounds.

But almost all mythologies of the ancient near east went in very different directions, choosing instead one (or both) of two basic motifs - sex and combat.

I've spoken a fair amount about the combat motif of creation, in which the earth is carved from the carcass of a slain monster such as Tiamat (in Babylonian myth). But with our parasha's interest in the process of procreation, Tazriah seems a good time to look at the other kind of creation.

From the Deep - Praise the Lord - Psalm 148

Marduk and Tiamat

Psalm 148:1-7

1] Hallelujah! Praise the Lord from the heavens, praise Him in the heights. 2] Praise Him, all His angels, praise Him all his hosts. 3] Praise Him, sun and moon, praise Him all the bright stars. 4] Praise him, highest heavens, and waters that are above the heavens. 5] Let them praise the name of the Lord, for He commanded that they be created. 6] He made them endure forever, placing a boundary that they cannot cross. 7] Praise the Lord from the earth, sea monsters (taninim) and all depths (tehomot).

 א הַֽלְלוּיָ֨הּ ׀ הַֽלְל֣וּ אֶת־ה מִן־הַשָּׁמַ֑יִם הַֽ֝לְל֗וּהוּ בַּמְּרוֹמִֽים: ב הַֽלְל֥וּהוּ כָּל־מַלְאָכָ֑יו הַֽ֝לְל֗וּהוּ כָּל־צבאו [צְבָאָֽיו]: ג הַֽ֭לְלוּהוּ שֶׁ֣מֶשׁ וְיָרֵ֑חַ הַ֝לְל֗וּהוּ כָּל־כּ֥וֹכְבֵי אֽוֹר: ד הַֽ֭לְלוּהוּ שְׁמֵ֣י הַשָּׁמָ֑יִם וְ֝הַמַּ֗יִם אֲשֶׁ֤ר ׀ מֵעַ֬ל הַשָּׁמָֽיִם: ה יְֽ֭הַֽלְלוּ אֶת־שֵׁ֣ם ה כִּ֤י ה֭וּא צִוָּ֣ה וְנִבְרָֽאוּ: ו וַיַּֽעֲמִידֵ֣ם לָעַ֣ד לְעוֹלָ֑ם חָק־נָ֝תַ֗ן וְלֹ֣א יַֽעֲבֽוֹר: ז הַֽלְל֣וּ אֶת־ה מִן־הָאָ֑רֶץ תַּ֝נִּינִ֗ים וְכָל־תְּהֹמֽוֹת:

If you've been reading 'From the Deep' from the beginning, you might be starting to wonder why I keep talking about the sea monsters as the enemies of God and God's divine order. Where are all the mentions of combat and fighting? Apart from in Psalm 74, we've seen little evidence of such myths. Well, today we still won't, as we conclude our journey through the sea monsters of the book of Psalms with a final harmonious view of the sea monsters in creation.

Psalm 148 is traditionally recited every day as part of the morning service, and it describes God's harmonious creation with everything in it praising God. Among those mentioned that should praise God, in a list that goes on to include mountains, beasts and all human beings, are the sea monsters and the depths. We've already seen in Genesis 1 that the word Tanin shares a root with the Canaanite Tunannu, but the word 'depths' or Tehomot in Hebrew, is new to our exploration.

Tehomot is related to the Babylonian Tiamat, who in the epic myth of Enuma Elish, is the divine primordial ocean, progenitor of the gods, who must ultimately be slain by Marduk in his rise to chief deity. Thus both Taninim and Tehomot have deep mythological connections.

So why are they placed in the list of beings that should praise God?

From the Deep - Leviathan in Jewish Tradition - Genesis 1

Arthur Rackam, 'Leviathan'

21] And God created the great taninim, and every living creature that creepeth, wherewith the waters swarmed, after its kind, and every winged fowl after its kind; and God saw that it was good. 

כא  וַיִּבְרָא אֱלֹהִים, אֶת-הַתַּנִּינִם הַגְּדֹלִים; וְאֵת כָּל-נֶפֶשׁ הַחַיָּה הָרֹמֶשֶׂת אֲשֶׁר שָׁרְצוּ הַמַּיִם לְמִינֵהֶם, וְאֵת כָּל-עוֹף כָּנָף לְמִינֵהוּ, וַיַּרְא אֱלֹהִים, כִּי-טוֹב.  


Welcome to the first blogpost of "From the Deep" a series of short thoughts and reflections on Leviathan in Jewish tradition, starting from the Bible and then spreading forward (and even backward) in history.

We begin, as all things do, with Genesis 1, in which God creates the world through speech over the course of 7 days.

Leviathan Comic 14

Leviathan Comic 12