Chapters 16-17: Is It Just Me or Is the Divine Evolving Too?
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Chapters 16-17: Is It Just Me or Is the Divine Evolving Too?
On “The Good Place”, Michael reboots the neighborhood hundreds of times but the humans and even the demons outmaneuver him every time in a new way. So finally he offers the humans to stop erasing their memories and to work together with them against Shawn and Vicky. On the podcast, Daniel Kirzane (new rabbi co-host!) and Jon discuss reboots of the universe in the Torah and the midrash. Is it possible we are helping God design better and better universes? If we have a good week, does God get better too?
Texts
(The links here in the citations take you to the specific quotes in their full source contexts. Go to Jewish Lexicon on this site for more on Jewish terminology, names of texts and other background. )
Midrash Bereshit Rabbah (Genesis Rabbah) 9:2
(commenting on Genesis 1:31)
Rabbi Tanchuma began: (Eccl. 3:11) "He brings everything to pass precisely at its time." Rabbi Tanchuma said: The world was created at its time; the world was not appropriate for creation before this. Rabbi Abahu said: From this we learn that the Holy Blessed One was creating worlds and destroying them, creating worlds and destroying them, until God created these. God said, "This is good for Me; those are not good for Me." Rabbi Pinchas explained Rabbi Abahu's reasoning: "And God saw all (pl.) that God had made, and behold it was very good (sing.)." THIS is good for me; THOSE are not good for me.
Midrash Bereshit Rabbah (Genesis Rabbah) 12:15
(commenting on Genesis 2:4)
[Why does the verse about creating the world use two different names for the Divine, YHWH and Elohim?] To what is this like? A king who had empty glasses. The king said: If I put hot water in them, then they will expand and break, and if I put cold water in them, they will contract and shatter. What did the king do? He mixed hot water with the cold water and put them in the glasses. So too the Holy One of Blessing said: If I create the world with the attribute of compassion alone, no one would be concerned with the consequences of their actions. With the attribute of judgment alone, how could the world stand? Rather, behold I create it with both the attribute of judgment and the attribute of compassion, and hopefully it will stand.
Genesis 9:8-16
And God said to Noah and to his sons with him, saying:
As for me—here, I am about to establish my covenant with you and with your seed after you, and with all living beings that are with you: birds, herd-animals, and all the wildlife of the earth with you, all those going out of the ark, of all the living-things of the earth. I will establish my covenant with you: All flesh shall never be cut off again by waters of the Deluge; never again shall there be Deluge, to bring the earth to ruin!
And God said: This is the sign of the covenant which I set between me and you and all living beings that are with you, for ageless generations: My bow I set in the clouds, that it may serve as a sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. It shall be: when I becloud the earth with clouds and in the clouds the bow is seen, never again shall the waters become a Deluge, to bring all flesh to ruin! When the bow is in the clouds, I will look at it, to call to mind the age-old covenant between God and all living beings— all flesh that is upon the earth.
Exodus 32:7-14
YHWH said to Moshe:
Go, get down! For your people whom you brought up from the land of Egypt
has wrought ruin! They have been quick to turn aside from the way that I commanded them — they have made themselves a molten calf, they have bowed to it, they have sacrificed to it, and they have said: This is your God, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!
And YHWH said to Moshe:
I see this people— and here, it is a hard-necked people! So now, let Me be, that my anger may flare up against them and I may destroy them— but you I will make into a great nation!
Moshe soothed the face of YHWH his God; he said: Why, O YHWH, should Your anger flare up against Your people whom You brought out of the land of Egypt with great power, with a strong hand? Why should the Egyptians [be able to] say, yes, say: “With evil intent God brought them out, to kill them in the mountains, to destroy them from the face of the earth?” Turn away from your flaming anger, change your mind regarding the ill [intended] against Your people! Recall Avraham, Yitzhak and Yisrael Your servants, to whom You swore by Yourself when You spoke to them: I will make your seed many as the stars of the heavens, and all this land which I have promised, I will give to your seed, that they may inherit [it] for the ages!
And YHWH repented of the ill that God had spoken of doing to God’s people.
Deeper Dives
from Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
a very interesting survey with comments about prior worlds and reboots in midrash and kabbalah — even demons get a mention and an exclamation! — best read metaphorically