Bereshit Rabbah

English

Rabbi Abahu and Rabbi Yehuda bar Simon, Rabbi Abahu said: This is analogous to a king who purchased two slaves for himself, both of them with one bill of sale and with one sum. He decreed for one of them that he should be supported from the royal treasury, and for the other that he would have to toil to eat. That one sat, bewildered and astonished [toheh uvoheh]. He said: ‘Both of us were purchased with one bill of sale and one sum, yet this one is supported from the royal treasury, and I, if I do not toil, I do not eat?’ So, too, the earth sat bewildered and astonished. It said: ‘The celestial beings and the terrestrial beings were created simultaneously. The celestial beings are sustained from the radiance of the Divine Presence; as for the terrestrial beings, if they do not toil they do not eat.’ Rabbi Yehuda bar Simon said: It is analogous to a king who purchased two maidservants, both of them with one bill of sale and with one sum. He decreed for one of them that she should not depart from the palace, and for the other he decreed banishment. That maidservant sat bewildered and astonished [toha uvoha]. She said: ‘Both of us were purchased with one bill of sale and one sum, and this one does not go out and depart from the palace, but for me he decrees banishment?’ So, too, the earth sat bewildered and astonished [toha uvoha]. It said: ‘The celestial beings and the terrestrial beings were created simultaneously. The celestial beings live forever and the terrestrial beings die.’ That is why “the earth was emptiness and disorder [tohu vavohu].” Rabbi Tanḥuma said: It is analogous to the son of a king, who was sleeping in his cradle, and his wet nurse was bewildered and astonished [toha uvoha], as she knew that she would ultimately receive her punishment on his account. So, the earth foresaw that it was destined to receive its punishment on account of man, as it is stated: “Cursed is the ground on your account” (Genesis 3:17). That is why “the earth was emptiness and disorder [tohu vavohu].”

The Sefaria Midrash Rabbah, 2022 · sefaria-midrash-rabbah

Hebrew / Aramaic

Bereshit Rabbah 2:2 (Vilna numbering) · cc-by-sa

Notes

The etymology Rashi will give as lexicography is here still a parable, and the parable is about grievance. A king buys two slaves with one bill of sale and one price and decrees that one shall be fed from the treasury and the other must work to eat; the second sits toheh u-voheh — bewildered and astonished — saying, we were bought together, why him and not me? So the earth sat toheh u-voheh: the celestials and the terrestrials were created together, the celestials are fed on the radiance of the Presence and we must toil. R. Yehuda bar Simon tells it again with two maidservants, one kept in the palace and one banished, and the earth's complaint becomes mortality: they live for ever and we die. The pair is not a state of matter here but a state of mind, and it belongs to the earth, who is a person with a case to make.

Threads

• ← echoes · Rashi
  Rashi's 'tohu is a word for astonishment and desolation, for a person would be astonished and appalled at the bohu in it' is the verb of Bereshit Rabbah 2:2, where the earth sits toheh u-voheh over her lot. The midrash's parable has become a lexical entry, and the one who is astonished has changed from the earth to the reader.
• ← parallel · Chalcidius
  The rabbinic reading of tohu va-vohu reaches the Latin bench in the fourth century, is explained, and goes nowhere. Bereshit Rabbah 2:2 hears tohe u-bohe in the words — bewildered and astonished — and Rashi's word for tohu at Troyes is astonishment. Chalcidius reports, from Origen and credited to the Hebrews, an exemplar reading terra autem stupida quadam erat admiratione, and then glosses it: the signification declares a certain force and likeness of soul, since the earth would be stupefied, seized by the majesty of its maker. A Latin has the other bench's reading of this verse, with its psychology, seven hundred years before Rashi writes it down.