This sheet on Genesis 36 was written by Dov Elboim for 929 and can also be found here
"These are the kings who reigned in the land of Edom before any king reigned over the Israelites" (36:31)
Who are these kings, with the strange names, who reigned in Edom, which the Bible takes the trouble to list, even adding the names of the cities they came from? And who is that Israelite king who reigned after them, replacing them? Is this a simple genealogical list that got inserted into the Tanakh in a moment of confusion by one of the editors? Or is there hidden within this impenetrable list hidden messages, which tell of something else entirely, something for which there aren't yet even words, an ancient secret which needs to be encoded and hidden in the least likely place – at the heart of one of the most boring passages of the Tanakh?
Generations of commentators and scholars have been stumped in their attempt to understand the origin and meaning of this chapter. But there are other Biblical passages about which I came to the conclusion a long time ago that the only way to derive meaning from them for our own lives is via Jewish mysticism. In the case of the kings of Edom, we have no choice but to pursue this method, because this is not a case of another midrash or interpretation, but of the foundation of all of Jewish mysticism since the Book of the Zohar.
In the most significant part of the Zohar, known as the Idra Raba, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai uses these verses which describe the kings of Edom who reigned "before the king of the Israelites" in order to describe the most ancient version of the story of Creation, that version which is not told in the revealed Torah familiar to all of us. The kings of Edom are not kings (melachim), but rather "vessels" (mechalim), which contain the fundamental definitions with which the infinite Creator created the finite universe.
The story of these vessels is the story of the origin of evil in our world, because the transition from the infinitude of the Creator to the Creation wasn't nearly as smooth and elegant as appears from the Creation stories at the beginning of the Book of Genesis. "Let there be light!" was not proclaimed accompanied by delicate celestial music. "Let there be light!" was a cataclysm which hid other creation attempts, which had failed and left their traumatic imprint on the whole of Creation.
Before God said "Let there be light!," He tried to create other universes, whose central defining characteristic was that they were created with a single quality, they lacked "male and female," that is, the intermingling of different and opposing forces. They were built sternly on midat hadin, "the principle of strict justice." These kings are worlds and dimensions according to this principle, vessels which contain the quality of Edom, the color red (adom) – the color of strict justice, of evil, the stern and difficult side of existence, the color of the sharp distinctions between truth and falsehood, permitted and forbidden.
Why use the vessels of strict justice? Apparently, because this is what is necessary to form something clear, well-defined, tangible, from out of the primeval chaos and disorder.
But the attempts of the Creator to create a world from the unitary quality of strict justice failed: the worlds of justice could not exist over time. Their fragments and ruins spread out in the universe with no ability to coalesce into something that could foster life.
It was only in the later attempt of the Creator to create a world that had in it "male and female," justice and mercy – it was only this approach that succeeded, that created the world we know, and in which we live. It is, however, the case that that we still occasionally wallow in the red and angry remnants of the kinds of Edom, but how good it is that finally there arose a king named Hadar ("glory") who is no longer a male king who rules alone, but he is balanced out by a woman: "Hadar succeeded him as king… and his wife’s name was Mehetabel daughter of Matred daughter of Me-zahab" (36:39).
With this myth, the Zohar makes the cosmic tale of creation, and the remnants of previous universes dependent on one fundamental, irreplaceable thing: the balance and the relationship of male and female.
Who are these kings, with the strange names, who reigned in Edom, which the Bible takes the trouble to list, even adding the names of the cities they came from? And who is that Israelite king who reigned after them, replacing them? Is this a simple genealogical list that got inserted into the Tanakh in a moment of confusion by one of the editors? Or is there hidden within this impenetrable list hidden messages, which tell of something else entirely, something for which there aren't yet even words, an ancient secret which needs to be encoded and hidden in the least likely place – at the heart of one of the most boring passages of the Tanakh?
Generations of commentators and scholars have been stumped in their attempt to understand the origin and meaning of this chapter. But there are other Biblical passages about which I came to the conclusion a long time ago that the only way to derive meaning from them for our own lives is via Jewish mysticism. In the case of the kings of Edom, we have no choice but to pursue this method, because this is not a case of another midrash or interpretation, but of the foundation of all of Jewish mysticism since the Book of the Zohar.
In the most significant part of the Zohar, known as the Idra Raba, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai uses these verses which describe the kings of Edom who reigned "before the king of the Israelites" in order to describe the most ancient version of the story of Creation, that version which is not told in the revealed Torah familiar to all of us. The kings of Edom are not kings (melachim), but rather "vessels" (mechalim), which contain the fundamental definitions with which the infinite Creator created the finite universe.
The story of these vessels is the story of the origin of evil in our world, because the transition from the infinitude of the Creator to the Creation wasn't nearly as smooth and elegant as appears from the Creation stories at the beginning of the Book of Genesis. "Let there be light!" was not proclaimed accompanied by delicate celestial music. "Let there be light!" was a cataclysm which hid other creation attempts, which had failed and left their traumatic imprint on the whole of Creation.
Before God said "Let there be light!," He tried to create other universes, whose central defining characteristic was that they were created with a single quality, they lacked "male and female," that is, the intermingling of different and opposing forces. They were built sternly on midat hadin, "the principle of strict justice." These kings are worlds and dimensions according to this principle, vessels which contain the quality of Edom, the color red (adom) – the color of strict justice, of evil, the stern and difficult side of existence, the color of the sharp distinctions between truth and falsehood, permitted and forbidden.
Why use the vessels of strict justice? Apparently, because this is what is necessary to form something clear, well-defined, tangible, from out of the primeval chaos and disorder.
But the attempts of the Creator to create a world from the unitary quality of strict justice failed: the worlds of justice could not exist over time. Their fragments and ruins spread out in the universe with no ability to coalesce into something that could foster life.
It was only in the later attempt of the Creator to create a world that had in it "male and female," justice and mercy – it was only this approach that succeeded, that created the world we know, and in which we live. It is, however, the case that that we still occasionally wallow in the red and angry remnants of the kinds of Edom, but how good it is that finally there arose a king named Hadar ("glory") who is no longer a male king who rules alone, but he is balanced out by a woman: "Hadar succeeded him as king… and his wife’s name was Mehetabel daughter of Matred daughter of Me-zahab" (36:39).
With this myth, the Zohar makes the cosmic tale of creation, and the remnants of previous universes dependent on one fundamental, irreplaceable thing: the balance and the relationship of male and female.
(לא) וְאֵ֙לֶּה֙ הַמְּלָכִ֔ים אֲשֶׁ֥ר מָלְכ֖וּ בְּאֶ֣רֶץ אֱד֑וֹם לִפְנֵ֥י מְלָךְ־מֶ֖לֶךְ לִבְנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃
(31) These are the kings who reigned in the land of Edom before any king reigned over the Israelites.
Dov Elboim is an Israeli writer, and a student and teacher of Jewish culture.
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