Jewish cosmology
Firmament
Main article: Firmament
A distinctive collection of ideas about the cosmos were drawn up and recorded in the rabbinic literature, though the conception is rooted deeply in the tradition of near eastern cosmology recorded in Hebrew, Akkadian, and Sumerian sources, combined with some additional influences in the newer Greek ideas about the structure of the cosmos and the heavens in particular.[27]
The rabbis viewed the heavens to be a solid object spread over the Earth, which was described with the biblical Hebrew word for the firmament, raki’a. Two images were used to describe it: either as a dome, or as a tent; the latter inspired from biblical references, though the latter is without an evident precedent.[28]
As for its composition, just as in cuneiform literature the rabbinic texts describe that the firmament was made out of a solid form of water, not just the conventional liquid water known on the Earth. A different tradition makes an analogy between the creation of the firmament and the curdling of milk into cheese. Another tradition is that a combination of fire and water makes up the heavens. This is somewhat similar to a view attributed to Anaximander, whereby the firmament is made of a mixture of hot and cold (or fire and moisture).[29]
Yet another dispute concerned how thick the firmament was. A view attributed to R. Joshua b. R. Nehemiah was that it was extremely thin, no thicker than two or three fingers. Some rabbis compared it to a leaf. On the other hand, some rabbis viewed it as immensely thick. Estimates that it was as thick as a 50 year journey or a 500 year journey were made. Debates on the thickness of the firmament also impacted debates on the path of the sun in its journey as it passes through the firmament through passageways called the "doors" or "windows" of heaven.[30]
The number of heavens or firmaments was often given as more than one: sometimes two, but much more commonly, seven. It is unclear whether the notion of the seven heavens is related to earlier near eastern cosmology or the Greek notion of the surrounding of the Earth by seven concentric spheres: one for the sun, one for the moon, and one for each of the five other (known) planets.[31]
A range of additional discussions in rabbinic texts surrounding the firmament included those on the upper waters,[32] the movements of the heavenly bodies and the phenomena of precipitation,[33] and more.[34][35]
The firmament also appears in non-rabbinic Jewish literature, such as in the cosmogonic views represented in the apocrypha.
A prominent example is in the Book of Enoch composed around 300 BC.
In this text, the sun rises from one of six gates from the east. It crosses the sky and sets into a window through the firmament in the west. The sun then travels behind the firmament back to the other end of the Earth, from whence it could rise again.[36]
In the Testament of Solomon, the heavens are conceived in a tripartite structure and demons are portrayed as being capable of flying up to and past the firmament in order to eavesdrop on the decisions of God.[37]
Another example of Jewish literature describing the firmament can be found in Samaritan poetry.[38]
Heavenly bodies
Imaginative commentary on the sun and moon are found in multiple texts, including in the Book of Enoch and 3 Baruch, where, for example, the sun and moon are respectively personified as a man and a woman riding their own chariots drawn by angels.[39]
Paradise
Main article: Heaven in Judaism
Paradise is located in one of the heavens in Jewish cosmology. Different texts may place it in different locations: for example, it is to be found on the third heaven in the Book of Enoch but in the fourth heaven in 3 Baruch.[17]