Second Reading: The Ten Descents of the Divine Presence
“God said... ‘I will descend and see if their deeds have matched the outcry that has come before Me.’”
One of the most important books of midrash is Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer. Perhaps its most important theme is the topic of Ten Descents —ten instances in which God is described in the Bible as having “descended” into reality. This is usually described as the descent of the Divine Presence, the Shechinah. The final descent is said to occur in the time of the Mashiach, as indicated in the verse, “His [God’s] feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives.” It is believed that during this final descent, there will be events such as the war of Gog and Magog, followed by the Resurrection of the Dead.
God’s Descent and Mankind’s Development
The significance of the concept lies in the idea that while God continuously sustains and oversees the world, there are specific moments or periods marked by these ten descents. Each descent of God into the world is meant to elicit a response of elevation and improvement on the part of reality. This concept is somewhat akin to the principle in physics that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. When the energy of God's descent enters the world, it is expected to trigger change and rectification.
In essence, the Ten Descents serves as a conceptual framework to understand how God’s interactions with the world are not static but rather dynamic, with each descent carrying profound implications for the course of history and the spiritual evolution of humanity.
The First Three Descents
The first three descents are associated with sin. The first is after Adam and Eve’s sin of eating from the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden. God descended to the Garden of Eden to confront them and inquire about their actions. This descent led to the expulsion from the Garden of Eden with all its implications.
The second descent was when humanity attempted to build the Tower of Babel to challenge God’s authority, God descended to confound their languages and scatter them across the Earth. This event disrupted human unity and resulted in the division of languages and nations.
The third descent occurred in context of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. God descended to Sodom to investigate the wickedness of the city. “Let me go down and see if it is indeed like her cry.” The sages say that He descended to see if the outcry of a young girl, which had risen before Him, was indeed so; and indeed, it was. This young girl wanted to give charity, which in Sodom was prohibited. So, she was tortured severely until death. When God found it to be irredeemably sinful, He destroyed it, sparing only Lot and his family. This event served as a judgment on the moral state of the city.
The Spiritual Meaning Behind the Descents
These first three descents are seen as negative events associated with human sinfulness. However, they also represent opportunities for humanity to reflect on their actions and make positive changes.
Clearly, since there are Ten Descents, they must correspond to the ten sefirot. We can correspond the first three descents to the sefirot in the following manner. The first descent corresponds to the sefirah of kingdom (malchut), since that is where Adam and Eve’s sin was. The Tower of Babel represents the sefirah of foundation (yesod). The young girl that was tortured in Sodom and sealed their fate corresponds to the sefirah of thanksgiving (hod).
(Excerpted from a lecture given on Tu BeShevat 5780)
