Aligned sentence by sentence
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Part One · Chapter Seventy — Rakhav: 'Riding' the Heavens — God's Mastery over the Sphere
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Rākhav — this term is equivocal. Its primary usage means a person's riding an animal in the customary manner, as in 'and he rode upon his she-ass' (Num 22:22). Then it was used metaphorically for domination over a thing, since the rider dominates and governs his mount; as in 'He shall cause you to ride on the high places of the earth' (Deut 32:13), and 'I will cause you to ride on the high places of the earth' (Isa 58:14) — meaning you shall dominate the heights of the land. And in this sense it was said of God, exalted be He, 'Rider of the heavens in your help' (Deut 33:26) — meaning the One who dominates the heavens; and likewise 'to the Rider of the ʿAravot' (Ps 68:5) — meaning the One who dominates the ʿAravot, which is the outermost sphere encompassing the whole.
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The text of Ḥagigah states: 'The ʿAravot is high and exalted, He dwells above it, as it is said: extol Him who rides upon the ʿAravot; and how do we know it is called heaven? As it is written here: to the Rider of the ʿAravot, and it is written there: the Rider of the heavens' (b. Ḥagigah 12b). It has thus become clear that the entire reference is to one sphere — the one that encompasses the whole. Consider their saying 'dwells above it,' not 'dwells within it' — for had they said 'within it,' that would entail a place for Him, or that He is a force within it. By saying 'above it,' they explicitly stated that He, exalted be He, is separate from the sphere and is not a force within it.
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Know that the metaphorical application of 'riding' the heavens to Him, exalted be He, is a remarkable and wondrous analogy. The rider is superior to the ridden — and 'superior' is used here only loosely, since the rider is not of the same species as the mount. The rider is also the one who moves the animal and makes it proceed as he wishes; it is an instrument for him; he directs it as he wills; and he is free of it, not attached to it, but external to it. Likewise God — glorious be His name — is the mover of the outermost sphere by whose motion everything that moves within it moves; and He, exalted be He, is separate from it and is not a force within it.
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In Bereshit Rabbah, expounding His saying 'the eternal God is your dwelling-place' (Deut 33:27), they said: 'He is the dwelling-place of His world, and His world is not His dwelling-place'; and they followed this with: 'the horse is secondary to the rider, and the rider is not secondary to the horse — this is what is written: when you ride upon your horses' (Hab 3:8). Contemplate this and understand how they explained His relation to the sphere and that He is the ground by which existence is governed.
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Consider how these remarkable and correct meanings — the highest philosophical insights — are scattered through the Midrashim. When the learned but biased man encounters them at first glance, he laughs at them, seeing in their apparent sense a departure from the realities of existence. This is because of the enigmatic form that encodes these meanings, since they are too strange for ordinary people to comprehend.
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I return to completing what I set out to explain. I say that they, of blessed memory, proceeded to cite scriptural prooftexts for the existence of these enumerated things in the ʿAravot, as in the text of Ḥagigah. Contemplate this as well and understand it.
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Know that a group of riding animals is called a merkāvāh — this appears frequently: 'and Joseph harnessed his chariot' (Gen 46:29), 'the chariot of the viceroy' (Gen 41:43), 'the chariots of Pharaoh.' The proof that this designation applies to a number of animals is the verse, 'and a chariot came up and went out of Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, and a horse for fifty and a hundred' (1 Kgs 10:29) — this is evidence that merkāvāh refers to four horses. For this reason I say: since it is said — in accordance with what is said — that the throne of glory was carried by four ḥayyot, the Sages, of blessed memory, called it merkāvāh by analogy with the chariot, which is four animals.
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This is the extent to which the discourse in this chapter has led. There would necessarily be many other observations also serving this aim. But the aim of this chapter, toward which we tended, was to repeat the point that the expression 'Rider of the heavens' means the Governor of the encompassing sphere and its Mover by His power and will; and likewise the expression in the completion of the verse: 'and in His majesty the clouds' (Deut 33:26).
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Let this meaning be always present in your mind as you begin what follows, for it is the greatest proof by which the existence of God is known — I mean the rotation of the sphere, as I shall demonstrate. Understand this.