Time and Difference in Rabbinic Judaism by Sarit Kattan Gribetz

Author:Sarit Kattan Gribetz
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2020-09-23T00:00:00+00:00

God’s Time since Creation

The tendency to juxtapose human and divine time is true as well of accounts that imagine what God does with the seemingly infinite free time after the work of creation has been completed. Leviticus Rabbah portrays an exchange between Matrona and Rabbi Yose in which a skeptical Matrona tries to figure out what keeps God so busy during the many hours of each day:

Matrona asked Rabbi Yose ben Halafta, saying: For how many days did the Holy One, blessed be He, create His world? He said to her: For six days, as it says “For six days God created the heavens and earth . . .” (Exodus 31:17). She said to him: And since then [or: from that hour until now],48 what does God sit and do? He said to her: “He sits and creates matches, so-and-so’s daughter to so-and-so, so-and-so’s wife to so-and-so, so-and-so’s wealth to so-and-so.” She said to him: How many slaves and maidservants do I have, and easily within a single hour [אחת בשעה]49 I could match them up! He said to her: If it is easy in your eyes, it is as difficult for God as splitting the Sea of Reeds, as it says “God makes the solitary dwell in a house . . .” (Psalms 68:7). Rabbi Yose ben Halafta went to his home. What did [Matrona] do? She sent for and brought a thousand slaves and a thousand maidservants and she stood them in rows. She said to them: so-and-so will go with so-and-so, and so-and-so will go with so-and-so. In the morning, they came to her, this one’s head disheveled (as in mourning), this one’s eyes blinded, this one’s arm broken, this one’s leg broken. One said: I do not want this one, and another said: I do not want this one. She sent for [the rabbi] and said: Good is your Torah, beautiful and praiseworthy. He said to her: I did not tell you this, rather I said that if it is simple in your eyes it is as difficult for God as the splitting of the Sea of Reeds, as it says, “God makes the solitary to dwell in a house, He brings out the prisoners into prosperity . . .” (Psalms 68:7).50

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