account of the “water”; comp. vol. 111, 307, seq. Two of the midrashic explanations are also cited by the Church Fathers; comp. Jerome on Gen. 1.8; Ephraim 1, 15 B-C; Albertus Magnus XIX, 1.731; Origen, Ad Africanum, 4. See Grünbaum, Gesammelte Aufsätze, 176, and Ginzberg, Haggada bei den Kirchenv. 15-16. Midrash ha-Ne’elam on Gen. 1.9 reads: Only unity is good. This agrees almost verbatim with Philo, De Allegor., 2.1. That hell was created on the second day is also found in various other passages of rabbinic literature; comp. BR 11.9 and 31.9; Pesahim 54a; PRE 3; ShR 15.22; Tan. B. I, 12; Tan. Hayye Sarah 3; Tosefta Berakot 5 (6).7. Comp. Excursus I.
55 In rabbinic sources the word ordinarily used for “hell” is Gehinnom, although this is at the same time the name of one of the parts of hell; comp. the passages quoted in note 25. The Rabbis, of course, knew that Gehinnom originally was the name of the valley near Jerusalem (Jer. 7.32), where Moloch had been worshipped in ancient times, and they therefore explained the meaning of this word, as well as its synonym Tofet, from its connection with the worship of Moloch. Comp. the vivid description of the worship of Moloch in Ge ben-Hinnom in Tan. B. V, 15; Ekah 1, 71-72; Yelammedenu in ‘Aruk, s.v. גיא and קנקל. See Krauss in ZDMG, LXVI, 273-274. The relation between Gehenna and Jerusalem is, however, of a closer nature, for one of the three gates of hell (the one is found in the inhabited land, the other in the wilderness, and the third at the bottom of the sea) is located in Jerusalem; ‘Erubin 19a (where the exact place of this gate is given); PK 29, 186b (bottom); comp. note 39. Tamid 32b cites two opinions: according to one, hell is found above the firmament (but not in heaven), while the other maintains that it is “beyond the mountains of darkness”. There is a widespread view that hell and paradise are situated side by side, so that it is possible to look from one place into the other; PK 30, 191b; Koheleth 7.14; Midrash Tannaim 224. On the enormous size of hell comp. Pesahim 94a; Ta'anit 10a; Shir 6.9 (the size of the entire world bears the same relation to hell as a lid to its pot); PR 41, 173b (hell expands according to its needs); PRK, Grtinhut’s edition, 71. As to the intensity of the fire of hell, comp. Berakot 57b and Shabbat 39a (bottom), which state that the heat of the hot springs of Tiberias is due to the fact that its waters pass the gates of Gehenna Comp. also Yerushalmi Berakot 6, 10d (end) where ב׳ דקלים have reference to the statement in ‘Erubin 19a.
19
