10 Now a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it divided and became four rivers. 11 The name of the first is Pishon; it flows around the whole land ofHavilah, where there is gold. 12 The gold of that land is good; the bdellium and the onyx stone are there. 13 The name of the second river is Gichon; it flows around the whole land of Cush. 14 The name of the third river is Chiddekel; it flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. (Genesis 2:10-14)
The Garden of Eden – a rather mysterious place. Those who go there are unable to report back to us how it looks, which is great, makes good use of our imagination. Yet, we do know something. In the middle of this special place are two trees, and a river flows from it.From that river, four rivers branch off. They are:
- The Gichon River
Where it is, one can only guess. Yet was Shlomo HaMelech not annointed by the Gichon? How ever the verse above mentioned the land of Cush, which is present day Ethiopia. Perhaps it went down the Red Sea basin until Ethiopia?
- The Pishon River
- The Chiddekel River
According to some, this is the Tigris River
And in the four and twentieth day of the first month, as I was by the side of the great river, which is Chiddekel; (Daniel 10:4 )
- The Euphrates River
The famed Euphrates, the one we learn about in Geography when learning about Human settlements and Mesopotamia. We also learn about it in Jewish History, when covering the Jews who setted in Bavel. The Euphrates runs from present day Turkey to present day Iraq.
Next Weeks Question: Rosh HaShonah is the new year for humans, yet there are other new years. When are they, and what are they the new year for?
Well, first of all, there’s Tu B’Shvat, which is the new year for trees. :) That’s an easy one to remember, especially because the name of the holiday is the same as the date!
Here are some new years for different things (i think ;))
alef elul – Maaser Behamer (animal)
tes vov shvat – elonos (trees)
alef tishrei – shonim, shmita and yovel (years, and dif. laws about working in the fields)
alef nissan – Melachim and Regalim (kingdom and royalty)