Texts in Conversation
Psalm 16 says the kidneys give instruction, based on an ancient Near Eastern belief that the kidneys are a source of intellect. Genesis Rabbah expands this by saying Abraham’s kidneys taught him the Torah, explaining how he knew it before Moses.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Psalm 16:7
Hebrew Bible
5 The Lord is the portion of my possession and my cup9; you make my future secure. 6 It is as if I have been given fertile fields or received a beautiful tract of land. 7 I will praise the Lord who guides me; yes, during the night my kidneys instruct me15. 8 I set the Lord before me continually16; because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
Genesis Rabbah 61:1
Aggadah
Rabbinic
(Genesis 20:15). “But whose desire is the Torah of the Lord” (Psalms 1:2) – “For I love him, so that he will command [his children and his household after him that they keep the way of the Lord]…” (Genesis 18:19). “And he meditates on His Torah” (Psalms 1:2) – Rabbi Shimon said: He [Abraham] had no father to teach him, and he did not have a teacher. From where, then, did he learn Torah? The answer is that the Holy One blessed be He set his two kidneys [kilyotav] as two teachers of a sort, and they would flow forth and teach him Torah and wisdom. That is what is written: “I bless the Lord who counsels me, even on nights when my thoughts [khilyotai] are anguished” (Psalms 16:7). “He will be like a tree planted” (Psalms 1:3) – the Holy One blessed be He planted him in the Land of Israel. “Which brings forth its fruit in season” (Psalms 1:3) – this refers to Ishmael. “And whose leaf does not wither” (Psalms 1:3) – this refers to Isaac. “And
Date: 500 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... The singular Torah is not used here, but torot, the plural. Yet how did Abraham know of them? This indicates that God conditioned father Abraham’s two kidneys to act like two sages, and they were instructing him and counselling him, and teaching Wisdom (Torah) all night, as it is said, ‘I will bless the Lord who has counselled me, even by night my kidneys have instructed me (Psalm 16:7). According to this early source, therefore, Abraham’s superiority over the ‘ten generations’ was due to his continuous acquisition of hokhmah, the wisdom of the Torot. As to the Laws, the anonymous teacher is evidently alluding here to the interpretation of torotai found in amoraic sources (see Berit Tora 28a): ‘[The expression torotai implies two Laws], the one the Written Law, the other the Oral Law.’ See further the proper in Tanhuma, ed. Buber, I, pp. 71–2, where the theme of Abraham’s observance of ‘all the Laws’ (kol ha-Torah kula) is developed in conjunction with Proverbs 2:7, ‘He layeth up sound wisdom (tushiyyah) for the upright (yesharim)’ ... This imagery, together with its proof-text, Psalm 16:7, is recorded in older sources in the name of R. Aqiva’s pupil, R. Shimon b. Yohai (see Genesis Rabbah 61:1) ..."
Jacobs, Irving
The Midrashic Process: Tradition and Interpretation in Rabbinic Judaism
(pp. 83-84) Cambridge University Press, 1995
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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