In Jewish tradition from ancient times till today there are two types of mystical teachings referred to as Ma'aseh Bereishit, the Work or Account of Creation and Ma'aseh Merkavah, the Work or Account of the Chariot. Ma'aseh Bereishit explores the mystical cosmology found in the Torah account of creation. Ma'aseh Merkavah is centered around the vision of Ezekiel as recorded in the first chapter of his book. Yet Ma’aseh Merkavah is understood in a more general way as the product of deep mystical meditation that opens higher levels of consciousness and mystical experience for the practitioner. Thus, along with Ezekiel’s description of his experiences of the Chariot, others such as the prophets Isaiah and Zechariah and the visionary Daniel also recorded their Merkavah visions. 1
Ultimately, the purpose of creation and Ma'aseh Bereishit is only fulfilled with the creation of humanity and the revelation of the secrets of Ma'aseh Merkavah. How is this so? The root letters of the word Merkavah, is murkav, meaning complex, a composite, or compound. Human beings as the final creation are a complex composite of physical and spiritual, body and soul, animal and divine qualities. Thus, there is an intrinsic connection between the complex secrets of Ma'aseh Merkavah and the existential nature of the human soul.
There is another perspective that from creation to the Giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai, all reality ran according to Ma’aseh Bereishit, encoded in the laws of nature. On the first day of creation God created the heavens and the earth yet there was a Divine decree that higher spiritual reality, heaven, could not descend fully to earth – and earth, the material plane, could not fully ascend to the heavens. Thus, there was a certain division between the spiritual realms and the physical. At the Giving of the Torah at Sinai, God annulled this decree intrinsic to Ma'aseh Bereishit, as it says: "God descended unto Mount Sinai to the top of the mountain; God summoned Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses ascended.” 2 The annulment of the decree means that there is now an aspect of heaven within the earth and earth within heaven. This compound of energies is the essence of Ma'aseh Merkavah.
A verse in Psalms 3 describes God riding, as it were, on a chariot of angels at Sinai: “God's chariot is twice ten thousand times thousands of angels. God was among them at Sinai in His holiness.” It is important to note that on the holiday of Shavuot when we celebrate receiving the Torah at Sinai, the Haftarah, the section of the prophets that we read, is the first chapter of Ezekiel and his account of Ma’aseh Merkavah.
At the conclusion of the sixth day of creation it is written: “And it was evening and it was morning, Yom hashishi, the sixth day.” 4 After all the other days of creation it is also written, “and it was evening and it was morning…” followed by the day’s number in sequence; however, all the other days are numbered without the letter hei (“the”). Rashi on this verse points out that the letter hei is added onto the sixth day in order to allude to the fact that all creation was “on condition,” dependent upon and in some sense “standing in place” until the sixth of Sivan, when Israel would receive the Torah on Sinai. On this day, it was as if all of creation would be rebooted, upgraded, created anew, ‘completed,’ as it were. According to the perspective that the Giving of the Torah represents the transition from Ma’aseh Bereishit to Ma’aseh Merkavah, this Rashi strengthens that view.
From an even deeper perspective, the revelation at Sinai on the sixth of Sivan represents the holistic unity of both these mystical traditions. For truly, from the very beginning, the foundation and purpose of creation ultimately depended on the Torah being introduced into the world, precipitating the annulment of the decree separating spiritual and physical.
This unity of above and below is already present in the very creation of mankind. Our Sages teach that the Holy One Blessed be He said: if I create man from the higher reality he will live and not die, if from the lower reality he will die and not live, rather I will create him from both the higher and from the lower – if he sins he will die and if not, he will live.
Rashi reveals another tradition that supports the above view of the composite nature of humanity. On the first day, God created upper and lower realities, heaven and earth. These correspond to the higher reality of spirituality and a lower reality of physicality, eventually translated into the realms of soul and body. On the second day, the firmament is formed, separating the upper and lower waters. Here, the focus, according to the Midrash, is mostly on the upper realm – as on the third day the lower waters are gathered and vegetation, representing the lower realm, emerges. The fourth day brings forth the celestial bodies—the sun, moon, and stars—representing the upper realm once again. The fifth day introduces the fish, insects, and birds dwelling in the lower world.
Then, on the sixth day, as humans are created, a profound balance is established between the upper and lower realms. Rashi comments that Adam, representing both the upper and lower realms, a soul and a body, was fashioned in this way to maintain the universe’s equilibrium. The alternating pattern between upper and lower realms throughout the days of creation culminates in this harmonious balance. 6
This profound tradition provides insight into the significance of the name Adam (אדם), where the letter aleph (א), symbolizes the upper realm—spirituality, the uniquely higher levels of the human soul, purposeful awareness and Divinity—and the second syllable, dam (דם), meaning blood, represents the lower realm—body and the lower level of the soul.
According to tradition if Adam would not have sinned he would have become the first Jew, as was Abraham. Adam did sin, however, and now Israel is tasked with rectifying that sin, and in fact, is called upon to rectify mankind and all reality. The Sages state that “the Patriarchs, they are the Merkavah.” 7 Their consciousness was imbued with being a chariot, a vehicle for God to descend and dwell in this world. This level of consciousness is encapsulated in the Shema, Judaism’s cardinal statement of faith: “Hear O Israel, God our God, God is one” 8 The faith and consciousness of the oneness of God is synonymous with the contemplative, prophetic experience of Ma’aseh Merkavah.
The unity of the upper worlds and the lower worlds as taught and experienced in Ma’aseh Merkavah is seen in the numerical equivalents of the three letters (alef, chet and dalet) of the word “one,” echad, – 1,8,4 respectively. These numbers are considered to comprise a basic spiritual intent when saying the Shema: visualize drawing down God who is One (alef), through the seven heavens and earth (7 & 1 = 8; chet), so that His Oneness will spread out and manifest in all four directions of the world (dalet). 9
Another way to see the unity of Ma’aseh Bereishit and Ma’aseh Merkavah comes from a part of the prayers on Rosh Hashanah: “This is the day, the beginning of Your deeds (ma’asecha), a remembrance to the first day.” The word ma’asecha is written in the plural tense and shares the same root as ma’aseh, thus alluding to the idea that two sorts of deeds are being spoken about – Ma’aseh Bereishit and Ma’aseh Merkavah – both that at their root are intrinsically united. Since, according to tradition, Rosh Hashanah is the 6th day of creation, the day humans are created, it again teaches us that Ma’aseh Merkavah is the inner potential of Ma’aseh Bereishit already present from the first day of creation.
In discussing the correspondence between the ten expressions of speech through which God created the world (“and God said”) and the Ten Commandments revealed at Sinai, the sages state that the speech of creation was considered, as it were, “mundane” in comparison to the speech at Sinai. Thus, relatively, Ma’aseh Bereishit is somewhat “mundane” in relation to Ma’aseh Merkavah.
While Ma’aseh Bereishit gives a broad overview of creation, Ma’aseh Merkavah delves into the detailed inner mechanics—the flow of Divine energy, the structure of the worlds, and how spiritual realities interface with the physical. It is a map not only of the cosmos, but of the soul.
Seeing Ma’aseh Bereishit and Ma’aseh Merkavah as complementary focuses of study, contemplation and meditation corresponds in our day to the important unity that needs to occur between Torah and science. Torah represents wisdom from above while science connotes secular knowledge from below. Similar to how God annulled the decree preventing the upper worlds to descend and the lower worlds to ascend, it is incumbent on us today to transcend the historic gulf separating Torah and science.
May we merit to probe ever deeper into the secrets of these two mystical traditions and learn to translate the unity between them to not only the unity of science and Torah but to see God’s oneness revealed in all things.
1 . Isaiah, chapter 6; Zechariah, chapters 2 and 4; Daniel, chapter 7
2 . Exodus 19:20
3 . Psalms 68:18
4 . Genesis 1:31
6 . Rashi on Genesis 2:7
7 . Bereishit Rabbah 47:6
8 . Deuteronomy 6:4
9 . Shulchan Aruch; Orech Chaim 61:5
