Angelic Fear of Nipped Clay: A Theme of Ancient Piyyut

The Avodah genre of ancient piyyut recounts the magnalia Dei from creation to Yom Kippur. God’s acts of lovingkindness receive emphasis from start to finish.

Under that cap, the Avodah genre develops an anthropology that is hopeful and realistic at the same time. The angels, the Nephilim, Rahab, Behemoth, and Leviathian make cameo appearances, but the divine-human relationship occupies center-stage, and divine benevolence is the touchstone of that relationship. It is striking in that context that the human body is understood to image God such that humanity is a source of wonder and cause of fear among the angels on high. Below the fold, I provide examples.

This is how אז באין כל begins its account of the creation of man. I present the Hebrew strophe-by-strophe without vowels, a translation, and the Hebrew all over again with vowels. A study of these passages in an excellent exercise for students of biblical Hebrew.

ישב אל

לספר מעשיו

להודיע חסדיו

בעת קרץ חומר

God sat down

to recount his deeds,

to tell of his acts of lovingkindness

when he nipped the clay.

 

S&Y translate: “God abided.”

יָשַׁב אֵל

לְסַפֵּר מַעֲשָׂיו

לְהוֹדִיעַ חֲסָדָיו

בְּעֵת קָרַץ חוֹמֶר

 

יופי קומה

חדרי נקוביו

ופתוחי תופיו

בהבראו כוננו

Beautiful of stature,

the chambers of his organs

and the hollows of his vessels

were set in place when he was created.

 

Instead of “hollows of his vessels,” S&Y have “twisting channels.”

יָופִי קוֹמָה

חַדְרֵי נְקוּבָיו

וּפִיתּוּחֵי תֻופָיו

בְּהִבָּרְאוֹ כוֹנָנוּ

 

יראו ממנו

משרתי עליון

כי כל באומר נברא

והוא בכף אל

 

They feared him,

Elyon’s attendants,

for all of them were created by speech

but he by the hand of God.

יָרְאוּ מִמֶּנּוּ

מְשָׁרְתֵי עֶלְיוֹן

כִּי כֹל בְּאוֹמֶר נִבְרָא

וְהוּא בְּכַף אֵל

 

יצורי להבת

[עשוי ריחו]ת

התבוננו בו

ושחו מה אנוש

Formed of flame

made of wind,

they considered him,

and intoned, “What is man?”

יְצוּרֵי לַהֶבֶת

[עֲשוּיֵי רוֹחוֹ]ת

הִתְבּוֹנְנוּ בוֹ

וְשָׂחוּ מָה אֱנוֹשׁ

Humankind is superior to the angelic host in more than one way, according to this passage.  The sense in which humanity is the imago Dei is not limited to faculties of cognition or to investiture of Godlike responsibility. It encompasses humankind's somatic characteristics. In אזכיר גבורות אלוה, humanity is also said to inspire fear in heaven and earth on account of Godlike appearance:

דימהו בצלם

חקקו בתבנית

היות בדוק וחלד

פחד מוראו

He made him alike in form,

engraved him to specification,

that in the blue and on the strand there be

dread fear of him.

דִּימָהוּ בְּצֶלֶם

חֲקָקוֹ בְתַבְנִית

הֱיוֹת בְּדוֹק וָחֶלֶד

פַּחַד מוֹרָאוֹ

S&Y translate:

 

He likened him in His image,

engraved him in His shape,

so that on heaven and earth

he would be held in awe.

 

Ancient piyyut abounds in poetic substitutes. In translation I retain the trope rather than revert, as Swartz and Yahalom do, to the straightforward terms for the referenced objects. Thus  דוק‘gauze’ =heaven is translated ‘blue,’ and חלד ‘interval’=earth is translated ‘strand.’

Bibliography

Michael D. Swartz and Joseph Yahalom, Avodah: An Anthology of Ancient Poetry for Yom Kippur, Penn State Library of Jewish Studies; University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2005

Comments

[Jared]

I am always interested in how much of the language of image, form, etc. is used. I find the language of "tavnit" translated here as "specification" particularly interesting, since, biblically, it is used to discuss the tavnit or "pattern" of the tabernacle (Exodus) or "plans" of the temple (Chronicles). Later, it seems to me, this term began to be undrestood in the sense that the heavenly temple provided the "pattern" for the earthly one. Or, in other words, perhaps Moses saw the heavenly one, the prototype of the earthly one.

I wonder if a similar move occurs in this word here. God's body, much like in the shiur qoma traditions, becomes the prototype, pattern, or "tavnit" for the human body.

Once again, fascinating passage. You are making me think that I must delve into these piyyut texts myself.

[JohnFH]

Jared,

Some of these texts are almost virgin territory. I hope you take a close look.