0

In Midrash Tehillim (Midrash Shocher Tov) on Psa. 11:6,(1) it is written,

וכנגדם שבע בתי דירות בגיהנם ואלו הן שאול ואבדון גיא דומה וצלמות וארץ תחתית וארץ ציה

Perhaps I'm not looking at the right place, or it could be that it's just not there, but that seems like six compartments named rather than seven. What's the name of the seventh compartment?

You can see a similar citation here:

וכנגדן שבע בתי דירות בגיהנם, ואלו הן שאול ואבדון גיא דומה וצלמות וארץ תחתית וארץ ציה

Here is how I count the compartments:

  1. שאול
  2. אבדון
  3. גיא דומה
  4. צלמות
  5. ארץ תחתית
  6. ארץ ציה

I know other sources such as massekhet Eruvin list other names for the seven, but I'm only interested in understanding the quote from Midrash Tehillim.

The only thing I can think of is that גיא דומה should actually be understood as:

וגיא ודומה

Footnotes

(1) Page "33," 11 lines up from the phrase מזמור יב.

1 Answer 1

1

Duma is a separate one as you suspected. My medrash puts a comma between them and sources 'gei' as geihinom mentioned in Yirmia 7, and Dumah is the place mentioned in psalm 115 17 'and not all those who go down to duma'.

In fact Duma is also the name of the malach associated with the dead in many agadata and medrashim, see for instance maseches Brachos 18b.

1
  • Also of interest Is the gemara in Eiruvin 19a that has a slightly different list, missing these two.
    – user6591
    Nov 11, 2014 at 0:42

You must log in to answer this question.