Word as Image - Week 1: Four Rivers of Eden (Bereishit 2024/5785)

“A river issues from Eden to water the garden, and it then divides and becomes four branches.” (Gen. 2:10)

This is the most frequently quoted verse from Genesis in the Zohar, one of the central texts of Kabbalah. The river is the metaphor for the continual flow of divine energy, sourced in an infinite Eden. The garden is our physical reality. 

What captures me most with this verse is that the river divides, and then divides again, becoming four separate water courses. This, according to the Ramak (1) represents the movement from the realm of unity to the realm of multiplicity.  Three lower, distinct spiritual universes are born from  Atzilut (Emanation) -  Beriyah (Creation), Yetzirah (Formation) and Assiyah (Action/Physicality). Ramak maps the four rivers to the core forces that govern and structure of the lower spiritual worlds, the four archangels, the four elements and the four levels of understanding Torah (pshat/literal, remez/hints, drash/homily and sod/mystical).

To the Ramak, the world of Assiyah is where all spiritual concepts finally materialize and "bear fruit." (The world of Assiyah is associated with the fourth river, the Euphrates whose very name Perat is connected to fruitfulness). While Assiyah is the most spiritually concealed world, it is also the physical vessel where human beings exercise free will to manifest godliness in a material reality. He describes human prayer as a spiritual “reflux mechanism” whereby a person hitches their soul to the river system, travelling upward through the four universes in order to draw down a fresh, infinite source of divine abundance. Through this daily cycle, the Ramak teaches that humanity is not just a passive consumer of divine energy, but an active engineer responsible for keeping the rivers of reality flowing.

Hence the text I included (2): 

And behold, this river and the watering of the garden all depend on Adam and the water will flow from the river according to Adam’s deed and actions.

Plants will grow and fruits will be abundant, refined and renewed by Adam’s actions.

Conversely, the spring and its source will dry up and the garden will be laid to waste and all that had been planted will be cut down.

Everything will be delivered by the hand of Adam. There is no action a person does that does not have consequences.

All of Adam's action in this garden, everything that makes an impression according to the deed, according to the thought, according to the intention and the essence, good or bad -  Everything depends on the actions of Adam.

Adam is the owner of the garden, he controls the course of the river and the way in which a flows down below

I created Four Rivers of Eden on Bereishit 5785 in the reverberation of  Rabbi Shefa Gold’s swirling chant which she calls “Opening to the source of the flow”. You can listen to it here. I was trying to capture something of the awe I experience when I try to contemplate this layered, multi-dimensional world of ours. 

Four Rivers of Eden is the first entry in my Word as Image project which comprises weekly visual midrashim that will be published here over the next year. Click here to find out more about the project, Word as Image.  

(1) Rabbi Moshe Cordovero (1522-1570), in Ohr Yakar/The Precious Light, his multi-volume commentary on the Zohar that he wrote in Tzfat (Safed). 

(2) Ibid. on Genesis 2:10.

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Chana-Toni Whitmont is a collage and mixed media artist, crystal sound practitioner, creative, writer, wanna-be calligrapher and curious questioner whose practice and passions are born from her spiritual connection to her Jewish lineage and the ebbs and flows of its calendar cycle. She lives on ancient Bidjigal, Birrabirragal and Gadigal Country (also known as Bondi), on the Pacific coast of Australia.

She can be contacted through the AJS Members WhatsApp Group or at twhitmont@gmail.com