Q&A: They Created a Calf Through the Book of Creation
They Created a Calf Through the Book of Creation
Question
I wanted to ask:
A. Do you think that in the time of the Talmud there really were sorcery, powers in sacred names, and the like, or do you take the Maimonidean view that these are nonsense?
B. How would Maimonides explain Sanhedrin 65b and 67b, where they created a calf through the Book of Creation? And how would you explain it, if you hold like Maimonides?
Thanks
Answer
I tend to think there were not. These are aggadic passages that could be metaphorical.
Discussion on Answer
The Book of Creation contains the Assyrian letters aleph, bet, etc.
The Assyrian script is not the original Jewish/Hebrew script (that is according to the Jerusalem Talmud, and also according to scholarship, Assyrian script was preceded by Proto-Semitic script; that is, it is a script that developed and was not received at Sinai).
Interesting. In any case, what are you trying to say?
Meiri (who, as is well known, is Maimonidean when it comes to mysticism) explains that this was creation in a natural way, maybe something like cultured meat today? He apparently understood that the Book of Creation meant “creations,” like the craft books children have.
And this is what he says:
“Likewise, excluded from the category of sorcerer is anything done with the aid of nature, along the lines of what was said above about the great sages who engaged in creation and created a fattened calf and ate it. This is what they said: regarding the laws of sorcery, some cases incur liability, some are exempt but forbidden, and some are permitted from the outset. One who performs an act is liable; one who merely deceives the eyes is exempt but forbidden; permitted from the outset is like Rabbi Hanina and Rav Hoshaiah, who every Sabbath eve engaged in the laws of creation and created for themselves a third-grown calf, and ate it. And so too anything similar to this.”
Rabbeinu Hananel explains it as deception of the eyes.
And this is what he says:
“Rava created a man by deception of the eyes. He sought to make known the deed of the magicians of Egypt: just as they made, through their magic arts, a serpent from the staff, so too he did…”
(The Yad Ramah brings this and rejects it, but his objection is not really an objection.)
But if so, then why the Book of Creation? Apparently he too understood that the Book of Creation was a book of nonsense and sleight of hand.
According to them, then, does it come out that the Book of Creation we have today is not what they had in their time?
Because it does not look like a book of creations.
On the other hand, it already existed in the time of Saadia Gaon, so surely Rabbeinu Hananel and Meiri should have had it and been able to see that it is not a craft book?