בראשית. The reason why G-d commenced the Torah with the letter ב, the second letter in the alphabet, instead of with letter א the first letter in the alphabet, is to draw our attention to the fact that the letter ב is surrounded from three sides, i.e. from east, west, and south, whereas the fourth side is left open, a warning that evil winds may blow from the north unimpeded by a barrier. We have a tradition dating back to Jeremiah, that disaster threatening the Jewish people has a habit of commencing from the North (Jeremiah1.14) . [This editor always found this puzzling as the meaning of the word צפון, “north,” is “hidden,” i.e. not easy of access, and here the letter ב being open in a northerly directions would appear to invite disaster. Ed.] We also find that the name of G-d when spelled אדני appears in the Torah 134 times, corresponding to the combination of the first and last letter of each of the letters in the words for “east,” i.e. 48 מזרח, “south,” דרום, i.e. 44, and “west,” i.e. מערב, i.e. 42. The “north” is not hinted at, and is left open until there is a need, i.e. to counter it with a different name of the Lord. The number 134 is equivalent to the numerical value of the word (Aramaic) קלד, “to lock up, insert a key.” When disaster faces the Jewish people, G-d’s people, the Creator will be called upon to seal the fourth side of this first letter in the Torah by using His “name” as the key. The answer to the question, why He had left it open in the first place, seeing He sealed all the other directions to prevent attacks upon His people, is in order to present a challenge to the blasphemers when the time of the redemption comes to close this side if they are able to. If you will count each letter of the alphabet and add it up according to their values as numbers, i.e. 2= ב+ 1=א plus ג = 3, you will get a total of 1500, i.e. 500 for each of the three other directions, corresponding to the number 500, the years of travel on foot travel on foot required to cross the surface of the globe in each direction. (based on Shir hashirim rabbah 6.14)

בראשית; Rashi comments on this word as follows: “Rabbi Yitzchok said that there was not really any need to commence the Torah before the beginning of chapter 12 in Exodus, when G-d addressed the Jewish nation with legislation about the forthcoming Passover. He only did so in order to tell mankind that He owns the earth and therefore can allocate parts of it to those, whom He chooses, i.e. that the Israelites did not rob the Canaanites of their land, which had never been rightfully theirs. Rashi therefore considers the laws about Passover as the first commandment given to the Jewish people. If we were to counter that the seven universal laws that apply to all of mankind apply to us also, and these had been given many years before there was an Avraham, even, the answer is that what Rashi meant was the Passover legislation was the first commandment given to the Jewish people when all of them were present during that address. (Exodus 12,3) To the question that the mere idea of the Canaanites arguing that the Israelites had stolen their land, seeing that what belongs to the slave automatically belongs to his master, and Canaan (Noach’s grandson) had been demoted to being a slave by his grandfather ever since he had been cursed, so how could they have ever owned it? (compare Genesis 9,26) Canaan’s descendants had been slaves of Shem, the great-grandfather of Avraham ever since! Rashi himself pointed this out already on Genesis 12,6. The Canaanites, as alluded to in that verse, had robbed the descendants of Shem of their heritage! We would have to answer that the Canaanites i.e. the tribes making up that kingdom, also contained kings (King of Chatzor) and others who were not descended from the original Canaan. (Compare Joshua, beginning chapter 11) The latter might even have been descended from Shem, so that the Israelites would have had a legal claim on the land they occupied as they were rightful owners. An alternate way of explaining why the Torah commenced with the word (and the story that follows) of בראשית is this. It is to inform us of the sequence in which this material universe came into existence and how once created it was allocated to the creatures inhabiting it, as Rashi explained, i.e. to prove that the Canaanites had no legal claim to dispute the Jews’ viewing it as their inheritance, ancestral heritage, by claiming that rightfully Eylam had a legal claim to it. [Eylam was Shem’s firstborn son, (Genesis 10,21, whereas Avraham was a descendant of Shem’s youngest son Arpachshad, basing themselves on what is written in Genesis 11,13 where this son is listed last, not first as in 10,21. Ed.] Yet another reason for the Torah commencing with the words: בראשית ברא אלוקים, “at the beginning G-d created, etc.;” is to state categorically that the universe in which we live did not exist eternally, or is the result of “the big bang,” but was created by a Creator. When Rashi states that G-d allocated the land of Israel to the Israelites מרצונו, “as an expression of His goodwill,” this is an implied warning that such an allocation was not absolute and irreversible for all future time, otherwise how could He take it back by exiling its people and reallocate it to someone else? Rashi also makes the point that the word ראשית, whenever it occurs in the Bible is invariably linked to the word following it. The author, supporting Rashi, cites an example from Leviticus 2,12: קרבן ראשית תקריבו אותם, “you are to present them as an initial offering.” [Rabbi Chavell, in his annotations, already pointed out that the author’s statement is not quite accurate, pointing to Deuteronomy 33,21, וירא ראשית לו. Ed.]

בראשית ברא, “first of all, before any creatures were created, G-d created heaven and earth;” Our author compares this to Jeremiah writing in Jeremiah 26,1: בראשית ממלכות יהויקים בן יאשיהו, “at the beginning of the rule of Yehoyakim, son of Yoshiyahu, etc.” The author mentions that Onkelos also translates these two words as: “at the beginning He created.”'אלוקים וגו, if there is a person [Jewish believer, of course] who is baffled by the plural ending in the word for G-d in the Holy Tongue, (i.e. אלוקים, אלוקינו, אלוקי) thinking that this is utterly inappropriate in a Book teaching monotheism such as the Torah, such a person should reflect for a moment and consider that references to Divinity and addressed to the individual are generally phrased as the Divinity mentioned being in the plural mode. [as is the custom for earthly kings, who speak of themselves in the plural mode, something known as pluralis majestatis. It would border on blasphemy if the Torah would accord G-d alesser title than the one arrogated to themselves by earthly rulers. Ed.]. Examples quoted by the author are: Exodus 3,16אלוקי אברהם יצחק ויעקב, or Genesis 42,7: דבר האיש אדוני הארץ or Exodus 22,14: אם בעליו עמו; there are many more examples of this. Do not answer me by saying that the vocalization of the word אדני when written with the kametz is sacred, whereas when not it is profane. Are you going to argue the same for the roots: בנאי ,זכאי ,שדי (fool) אשמאי and others, [that when using the vowel kametz they are transformed into sacred words? Ed.] The truth is that that the Divine name for G-d is also used in the plural mode, and no one as a result disputes that He is unique and solitary! The deeper meaning of the word elohim is “majesty, authority.” When G-d proclaimed at the beginning of the Decalogue: אנכי “I” (singular) ה' אלוקיך, “am the Lord your G-d(s)” (plural), i.e. the meaning is that whereas every other ruler or king rules over a certain narrowly defined domain, “I am the One Who rules over everything, the entire universe.” [Surely this justifies the use of the plural mode! Ed.] Not only that, earthly rulers or kings, being mortal, have to worry about who will succeed them, and in the event that a king does not have a biological heir, or has otherwise become weak and unable to carry out his functions for the benefit of his subjects, he must be replaced. None of these problems, will ever face the G-d Who introduces Himself to His people at Mount Sinai at the beginning of the Decalogue. Furthermore, from the subject’s point of view, if a subject feels oppressed by a particular king whose domain he inhabits, he has the option (unless he is in jail) to move to the domain of a different earthly king. Not so with G-d’s, the Creator’s, subjects. There is no place in the universe to which they can flee to escape His rule. On the other hand, the subjects of G-d enjoy the advantage that they never have to worry that the successor of a benign king such as He, will be autocratic and make the lives of his subjects miserable.

את השמים, “the heavens;” in an ancient version of Midrash Tanchuma Bereshit, 8, Rabbi Yishmael is quoted as having asked Rabbi Akiva: (who was preoccupied with counting every apparently unnecessary word את and גם in the Torah) ‘what is the significance of the two words את in this verse,’ i.e. what do these words contribute to our understanding of the line: “G-d had created the heavens and the earth?” Rabbi Akiva replied that if the Torah had merely written: בראשית ברא אלוקים שמים והארץ, people would have thought that the terms שמים and ארץ refer to two separate divinities each of whom had created part of the universe Phrasing it as it did, the Torah ensured that we could not have made such an error and that elohim had created both the heavenly and the earthly regions of the universe. [In other words, the word את before the words השמים and הארץ makes it clear that what follows are creatures, products of G-d’s creative activity. Ed.] השמים, the prefix ה is to tell us that “the” heavens, (and “the” earth,) are phenomena with which the reader is supposed to be familiar. The fact that the plural mode is used does not mean that there are many small units which combine to make a heaven or an earth, but the plural ending is similar to the plural ending in the words: ,מים, חיים, פנים מלקחים, מעיים, רחיים, water, life, face, tongs, entrails, millstones, and many more like it. Basically, the term שמים describes something above us, whereas the term ארץ describes something below us.1,2.

השמים, the prefix ה is to tell us that “the” heavens, (and “the” earth,) are phenomena with which the reader is supposed to be familiar. The fact that the plural mode is used does not mean that there are many small units which combine to make a heaven or an earth, but the plural ending is similar to the plural ending in the words: ,מים, חיים, פנים מלקחים, מעיים, רחיים, water, life, face, tongs, entrails, millstones, and many more like it. Basically, the term שמים describes something above us, whereas the term ארץ describes something below us.1,2. ויכולו השמים והארץ וכל צבאם; “heaven and earth, and all their components had been completed.” (2,1) The Bible also writes: (Nechemyah 9,6) ,אתה עשית את השמים שמי השמי, וכל צבאם, הארץ וכל אשר עליה, הים ואת כל אשר בהם, “You have completed heaven in all its details, as well as the upper heaven and all their host, the earth and everything on it, the ocean and everything in them.” We also read in Exodus 20,11 (part of the Decalogue): כי ששת ימים עשה ה' את השמים ואת הארץ, את הים ואת כל אשר בם, “for during a sequence of six days, the Lord completed the creation of heaven and earth, as well as the ocean and all their respective inhabitants;There is no reason for you, the reader, to be amazed at the feminine mode, i.e. היתה, “she had been,” used by the Torah when describing phenomena which are masculine; we find more such examples in the Bible, one being in Judges 18,7: ויראו את העם אשר בקרבה יושבת לבטח, “they observed the people dwelling in it carefree, etc.” [We would have expected יושב instead of יושבת seeing that the subject עם is masculine. Ed.] In Samuel 1,4,17 even the Holy Ark, which is always considered masculine, is referred to in the feminine mode, when the prophet wrote: וארון האלוקים נלקחה, “and the Ark of G-d was captured;” in Numbers 11,15, Moses is quoted as saying to G-d: ואם ככה את עושה לי “and if You, feminine mode for G-d, are doing (masculine mode) thus to me,” etc.”Incidentally, the prefix ו before the word: הארץ, appears to be unnecessary, as it does on numerous occasions, a glaring example being Exodus 13,7 ולא נחם אלוקים “(and) G-d did not guide them, etc.”

והארץ היתה תוהו ובוהו; “and the earth had been in a chaotic state;” the Torah, out of respect for the heavenly regions, did not include “heaven” as having been in a chaotic state, seeing that it was the home of G-d’s Presence. According to the view expressed in the Talmud (Chagigah 2) the meaning of the line is that also this “state of chaos” had been subject to creation. In order to visualise this, we must assume that G-d created this ”chaos” in a region surrounding the earth.

תוהו , this word in a similar construction appears in Psalms 107,40: ויעתם בתוהו לא דרך, “and He makes them lose their way, in a trackless desert.” It also occurs in Jeremiah 4,23: ראיתי את הארץ והנה תוהו, “I saw the earth, and here it is chaotic.” It would be incorrect to understand our verse as referring to the condition of the universe before heaven and earth had been created. If that translation were correct, the Torah should have written: והארץ היה תוהו ובוהו, i.e. “what is now viewed as “earth” already existed but in a chaotic state.” Seeing that the Torah wrote instead: היתה, is proof that that word refers to the earth itself, i.e. that at its inception the earth had been in a chaotic state. An alternate explanation: the whole phrase refers to the future, i.e. before the Lord created heaven and earth, there was only chaos. The same would apply to the words following, i.e. על פני תהום, on the surface of what in the future would be known as the תהום, “the great depth.” An alternate way of saying this is: מרחפת על פני המים, “was hovering on the surface of the ocean.” (the darkness). We must remember that the phenomena described by the Torah had not yet been created at the “time” described by the Torah. There are a number of phenomena that had not yet been created, such as the angels, the heavenly regions for the righteous and the abyss for the wicked, known respectively as maasseh merkavah and gehinom. The Torah, in describing the creation, refers only to phenomena visible to the human being. Even the planting of the garden in Eden has been written about in the Torah only in order to explain to us how and why first man declined so precipitously morally shortly after having been created. Nonetheless, the text conveys that the garden of Eden was created (planted) at the same time as the heavens and the earth, and that is why the Torah wrote: ויכולו השמים והארץ וכל צבאם; “heaven and earth, and all their components had been completed.” (2,1) The Bible also writes: (Nechemyah 9,6) ,אתה עשית את השמים שמי השמי, וכל צבאם, הארץ וכל אשר עליה, הים ואת כל אשר בהם, “You have completed heaven in all its details, as well as the upper heaven and all their host, the earth and everything on it, the ocean and everything in them.” We also read in Exodus 20,11 (part of the Decalogue): כי ששת ימים עשה ה' את השמים ואת הארץ, את הים ואת כל אשר בם, “for during a sequence of six days, the Lord completed the creation of heaven and earth, as well as the ocean and all their respective inhabitants; There is no reason for you, the reader, to be amazed at the feminine mode, i.e. היתה, “she had been,” used by the Torah when describing phenomena which are masculine; we find more such examples in the Bible, one being in Judges 18,7: ויראו את העם אשר בקרבה יושבת לבטח, “they observed the people dwelling in it carefree, etc.” [We would have expected יושב instead of יושבת seeing that the subject עם is masculine. Ed.] In Samuel 1,4,17 even the Holy Ark, which is always considered masculine, is referred to in the feminine mode, when the prophet wrote: וארון האלוקים נלקחה, “and the Ark of G-d was captured;” in Numbers 11,15, Moses is quoted as saying to G-d: ואם ככה את עושה לי “and if You, feminine mode or G-d, are doing (masculine mode) thus to me,” etc.”Incidentally, the prefix ו before the word: הארץ, appears to be unnecessary, as it does on numerous occasions, a glaring example being Exodus 13,7 ולא נחם אלוקים “(and) G-d did not guide them, etc.”

והארץ היתה תוהו ובוהו ; “and the earth had been in a chaotic state;” the Torah, out of respect for the heavenly regions, did not include “heaven” as having been in a chaotic state, seeing that it was the home of G-d’s Presence. According to the view expressed in the Talmud (Chagigah 2) the meaning of the line is that also this “state of chaos” had been subject to creation. In order to visualise this, we must assume that G-d created this ”chaos” in a region surrounding the earth.

וחשך על פני תהום, “and there was darkness on the face of the abyss;” the “abyss” is the term used for this region surrounding earth. The fact that G-d had created the initial stage of darkness is recited by us in our daily prayers when we recite the words: יוצר אור ובורא חשך, “Who fashioned light, whereas He only created darkness in its initial stage.” [The creative process is divided into three stages, each progressively more detailed, i.e. בריאה, יצירה, עשיה. When it came to the creation of human beings, G-d involved Himself personally right through the process of עשיה, completion. Ed.] According to our author, there was a “time” previous to the existence of even light and darkness. Our sages in the Talmud taught us not to even try and understand what preceded the “time,” when G-d created light, nor the ”time” when this universe will have completed the function for which He had created it. (Chagigah 12).

ורוח אלוקים, “and the spirit of G-d, etc.” This expression too tries to describe for us something that exists outside the “universe” is abstract, similar to the expression תהום, in the first half of this verse. This “רוח” is also perceived as קדש, holy, [something apart, in this instance, not tangible, Ed.] and is described in the Talmud Chagigah 12 as one of the 10 phenomena that G-d created on the first “day.”

ורוח the prefix ו at the beginning of this word is meant to include the four winds which blow on earth in four directions every day at different levels of the atmosphere. According to our author (based on the Talmud in Gittin, 31) the east wind blows daily in the morning until noon, its principal feature being that it is hot and moist. From noon until sunset, the south wind blows, its principal feature being that it is hot and dry. During the first half of the night a westerly wind blows, its principal feature being that it is cool and moist, whereas the north wind is apt to blow from midnight until sunrise, its principal feature is that it is cold and dry.

ורוח אלקים, this wind was needed as a feature on physical earth, at the time when G-d commanded the waters to recede so that dry land would become visible. (Genesis 1,9). Compare also Exodus 1,21 when Moses credits the east wind with having made possible the splitting of the sea of reeds, enabling the people of Israel to cross on dry ground.

ויאמר אלוקים, “G-d said:” seeing that there were no intelligent creatures as yet that G-d could have spoken to, the meaning of this statement must be that “G-d spoke to His heart, to the seat of His thoughts.” Even in our physical world nowadays when a human being expresses thoughts verbally, these are products of his thought processes which preceded his thoughts being formulated. If we needed proof for the correctness of this approach, the reader only needs to look at Genesis 6,67: וינחם ה' כי עשה את האדם בארץ ויתעצב אל לבו. ויאמר ה׳ אמחה את האדם אשר בראתי וגו', “The Lord became regretful that He had created man on the earth, and His heart was saddened; He said: “I will wipe out the human race on earth, etc.”

יהי אור, “let there be light!” Before the heavens had been stretched out over the firmament the light of G-d had permeated the entire universe in equal measure. Once He had stretched out the sky like a carpet, (Psalms 104,2) the heavens formed the barrier between the rest of the universe and the תהום, the deep abyss beyond. This is why the Torah had stated that the darkness had formed a cover over that abyss. (Verse 2) This is why its creation was preceded by a commandment, seeing that the light created now was something good for all the stages of creation that were to follow.

יהי אור; three phenomena were created on the first “day;” heaven, earth and light. Each of these phenomena contributed its accessories at the appropriate time. The heaven produced its offspring, i.e. the horizon, רקיע, on the second “day,” and the earth, on the third “day,” produced simple vegetation, i.e. grass and trees. The “light” produced the luminaries and the stars on the fourth “day.” Proof that these developments were not “something from nothing,” as the first phase of the creation is that the Torah describes G-d’s commandment in each instance not with the word: “let there be,” יהי, but with the word “produce,” תוצא. This is similar to G-d’s command to Noach at the end of the deluge, when He said: צא מן התבה, “exit from the ark!” (Genesis 8,16).

ויהי אור, and “light” had materalised. The reason why on subsequent occasions, the Torah merely writes: ויהי כן, “and so it came to be,” is for the sake of brevity. Our sages therefore have taught us in Pessachim 3, that one should always strive to express one’s thoughts as concisely as possible, [while avoiding being misunderstood. Ed.] In this instance, by spelling out the word אור, the Torah did not add a single syllable beyond what was required.

וירא אלוקים את האור, “G-d saw the light;” the meaning of the word: וירא in this verse is that He contemplated, understood the impact that this light had made. In other words, this was “seeing” with one’s heart; we find the verb ראה used in this sense also in Exodus 12,13, where G-d is described as “‏וראיתי את הדם,” “When I take note of the blood” (on the entrance of the homes of the Israelites”); we find it used again use in that sense in Exodus 33,12, as well as in Kohelet 2,17. Even though everything in the past present and the future is “visible” to the Lord, it is impossible to explain the word here in the usual sense of seeing with one’s eyes.

ויבדל אלוקים, “G-d made a distinction;” this referred to the earliest point in time that was possible, i.e. on the fourth day, (1,18) after the luminaries had been created. We find a similar example of when the Torah reports something as the ultimate purpose before it could be carried out when the Torah describes G-d as having created man as “male and female” (1,28) זכר ונקבה ברא אותם, although the Torah had not yet told us that G-d took part of Adam’s body to create woman. (2,22) In both instances the Torah reveals G-d‘s ultimate purpose already when it reports G-d as having made the first step in that process. Some commentators understand the word ויבדל as telling us that G-d already named the result of what He did in advance by naming it “day” and “night,” respectively. (verse 5)

ויקרא אלוקים לאור יום, G-d named the light: “day;” G-d named a total of six phenomena that He created, as there was as yet no human being that could name these phenomena. [Compared to the time when He invited Adam to name the animals. Ed.] They are: ,אור, חשך, שמים, ארץ, ימים אדם, “light, darkness, heaven, earth, days and man.”Rabbi Elazar is quoted as saying that the Lord does not associate His name with anything that is evil, only with phenomena that are good, positive, and constructive. (Bereshit Rabbah 3) You will note that when referring to the light, the Torah associates G-d’s name with it by writing the sequence ויקרא אלוקים לאור יום, whereas when speaking of the darkness,.ולחשך קרא לילה, “and the darkness He called night.” G-d’s name was not repeated.

ויהי ערב ויהי בקר, “there was evening, there was morning;” even though the darkness had existed since the first hour of the night, the Torah refers once more to the darkness, this time with the name לילה, “night.” The reason is that the Torah wished to stress that the creation of a day, i.e. a consecutive period of 24 hours was not two halves, but one whole. The same applies to the following “days” of creation.

יום אחד, “one day.” According to the commentary of Rashi, the reason why this “day” is not described as “the first day,” as opposed to the subsequent “days” which have an ordinal number, i.e. “second,” “third,” etc;” this is to remind us that on that “day” the Holy One blessed be His name, was still unique, alone in the universe, there not being even angels in heaven. A different explanation for the word אחד, instead of ראשון in this verse: It is grammatically not proper, to speak of “first,” i.e. the beginning of a numerical sequence while the next item in the sequence does not yet exist. Even when the first day had been completed, the second day had not even begun as yet.

יהי רקיע בתוך המים, “let there be a horizon in the midst of the waters.” The heaven of which the Torah spoke as being part of G-d’s creative activity on the first “day,” had been an enclave within the waters which had covered the entire “universe” at that time. This paragraph therefore is closely associated with the previous one, i.e. to what had happened on the first “day.” The proof of this lies in the sentence that G-d had created heaven and earth, which makes it clear that both had been created on the first “day. (Compare Genesis 2,4, where the Torah refers specifically to the horizon having been created on the same day as heaven and earth).

ויהי מבדיל, “so that it can serve as a separating domain, (between water and water.)” The horizon was supposed to raise itself. In other words, the horizon existed since the first day and had not yet begun to fulfill its function of being an atmosphere between heaven and earth. A different exegesis: the answer to the question which “horizon” the Torah is speaking about in this verse, is that it is the one above the chavot. the highest category of angels in heaven. (Compare Pirkey de Rabbi Eliezer chapter 4 That Rabbi quotes Ezekiel 1,22 as his source)

ויהי כן, “and so it came to be.” The meaning of the word: כן, is that what came to be then is still so nowadays. Actually, according the sequence of the subject matter discussed by the Torah this statement could have been expected already immediately after the words: בין מים למים, “between one type of water and the other type of water,” in verse 6. The reason it was not inserted there is that it might have misled us into thinking that the separation by itself constituted the completion of a creative act by G-d involving the water. Nonetheless, seeing that a certain stage of the separation of the waters had been concluded, the Torah saw fit to insert the line: “it was evening, it became morning, a second “day.”Our sages in the Zohar on Parshat Eykev page 273, state that one does not do things “in pairs.” What they mean is that just as in the story of creation something that had been commenced on one day was not completed until the second day, [to avoid creating both types of water on the same day, Ed] there is no need to complete on the same day other matters that one has commenced on a certain day. The quotation we cited from the Zohar continues with: “just as one does not begin to do something in pairs so one should not complete it in “four.” The reason is that on the fourth “day,” the universe as we know it was completed; [except for the living creatures therein. Perhaps the deeper meaning of this is that man must not try to “copy” what G-d did at the time of creation so that he may not be viewed as competing with the Creator, as a form of idolatry. Ed. ] As to the fact that we do not read that “G-d saw that it was good,” at the end of the report of the second “day” of His creative activity, the reason most likely is that on that day gehinom, purgatory, was also created, as stated in Pessachim 54, and the Creator does not derive any satisfaction from having to consign any of His creatures to that region of the universe. We know this from Sanhedrin 39. Moreover it is written in Chronicles II 20,21: ויועץ אל העם ויעמד....בצאת לפני החלוץ ואמרים הודו לה' כי לעולם חסדו, “aftertaking counsel with the people.....as they went forth ahead ofthe vanguard, saying: ‘praise the Lord for His steadfast love is eternal.’” [The subject there is the miraculous salvation of Yehoshaphat and the army of Yehudah from a combined assault against them by three nations. Ed.] Our sages say that the reason that in this prayer of thanksgiving by the army of the King of Yehudah the attribute of G-d’s goodness is omitted, is that He does not enjoy the necessity of having had to kill His creatures, even when in fact they killed one another, as in that instance.(verse 23 there) Rabbi Elazar claims that on the sixth day of creation the Torah added the word: מאד, “very,” after the word טוב, “good, to make up for the missing “good” at the end of the report of what had been created on the second day.” (Compare Genesis 1,31)

יקוו המים, “let the waters be gathered together;” this is the conclusion of G-d’s creative activity of the second day. The רקיע, “atmosphere/horizon,” did not become operational until the earth had dried out. The reader is asked not to be astounded at the fact that the Torah had previously inserted the phrase: “it was evening, it was morning, the second day.” The reason why this is no contradiction as supposed at first glance, is that the meaning of the words: יקוו המים is that G-d’s commandment for the process of the waters gathering together had been issued already beforethe evening and subsequent morning of the second day. There are numerous such constructions in the Torah; we must not forget also, that both the gathering together of the water and the resultant visibility of the earth, were no new phenomena that could be described as “creation.” Expansion of one phenomenon so that another phenomenon could become visible is no basic change.

תדשא הארץ, “let the earth sprout vegetation;” at this point the Torah begins with its report of G-d’s creative activity on the third “day”. The major result was that the surface of the earth became covered with different categories of vegetation including trees, in anticipation of G-d’s placing the luminaries in the sky on the fourth day. A different exegesis: the waters had already completed the process of contracting on the second day as part of that day’s activity, aided by the רקיע, horizon/atmosphere blowing itself up on the second day; for if the (upper) waters had not contracted, how could the earth beneath have become visible and already be covered with vegetation including trees?.

עץ פרי , “edible trees;” the earth did not carry out this part of G-d’s instructions, producing only trees with edible fruit instead. On the other hand, it produced more species of herbs than it had been instructed to. Bearing this in mind, we can deduce that the “earth’s” intention in doing so was not to countermand G-d, but was well intentioned. It reasoned that if the trunks were edible it would not take long before many such species of trees would die out, as the creatures on earth would consume both the fruit and the trunks. In spite of the earth’s, i.e. nature’s good intentions, when G-d cursed man as a result of his sin, the earth’s non compliance with the directive of its Creator was remembered and it was cursed also. This was in keeping with the principle expressed in B’rachot 10, that when Chiskiyah said to G-d that he had not married as he foresaw that his children would become renegades, G-d asked him if that was a reason to refuse to carry out His command? [In other words, “never mind your good intentions, you must not countermand My orders to be fruitful and to multiply.” G-d did not need his advice about how to achieve His goals. Ed.].

פרי , “fruit(s) of;” this is one of numerous words in classical Hebrew which always appear in the singular mode; others are: שמש, sun, טף, children, שכר, reward, wages, כר,cushion, בצק, dough, to mention just a few.

ועץ עושה פרי, “and fruit bearing trees.” If you were to argue that there are many trees that do not bear fruit, the answer is that what the Torah really meant was that the fruit that the trees mentioned, were to be fruit matching its species, i.e. למינהו. Seeing that this definition would not apply to non fruit bearing trees, it is clear that the Torah did not mean that aj] trees were to be of the fruitbearing kind.

כי טוב, “that it was good.” The reason why this word “good” appears twice in the report of G-d’s creative activity on the third “day,” is that on that day the garden in Eden was created (see pessikta zutrata 593)

יהי מאורות, “let there be luminaries;” it is the style of the Holy Scriptures to refer even to phenomena that exist in multiples as if they existed as individuals, by using the singular mode [יהי instead of יהיו, Ed.] Examples are: ויהי אנשים אשר היו טמאים “there were men who were ritually unclean,” [where we would have expected the Torah to have written: ויהיו אנשים.] (Numbers 9,6) We should therefore understand the word יהי as referring to a creative act about to occur, and what follows as referring to the details, i.e. the answer to the question: “what was there to develop?” The answer is: “luminaries.” The term מאורות, reminds the reader that these luminaries were derivatives of the אור, light, created already on the first day. These derivatives were now divided into two separate light giving bodies, one larger than the other. They were named “sun,” and” moon,” respectively. As to the Torah adding: ואת הכוכבים, “and the stars,” this applies only to the execution of G-d’s directive, not to the directive itself. It is to teach us that these “stars” came into existence without a specific directive from the Creator, but as a result of fragments, sparks, resulting when G-d split the original luminary into sun and moon respectively.

מארת, the word is spelled defectively, the letter ו of the plural ending being absent. The reason it is spelled defective is that the stars were not meant to dispense light but were meant to guide us navigationally merely by being visible, and to help us tell time as they appeared at regular intervals.

ברקיע השמים, “in the part of the horizon that spans the atmosphere.” [like an umbrella. Ed.] It is positioned below the upper layers of heaven.

להבדיל בין היום ובין הלילה “to form a visible partition between day and night.” The sun separates day from the preceding night, whereas the moon separates what follows after the day that preceded it.

והיו לאותות, “they will serve as (backgrounds to) miracles; such as when their orbits were arrested temporarily at the command of Joshua (Joshua 24,17) when he reminded the people of that. On an individual basis, G-d performed such a miracle for King Chizkiyahu to confirm that he had been granted an additional 15 years of life. (Kings II 20,911) A different way of understanding these words: the constellation of the stars will serve astrologers as indications when foretelling certain events in the future.

ולמועדים, and to determine certain calendar events which are tied to specific dates by the Torah, such as observance of the new moon, the fifteenth of Nissan as the day when the first day of Passover is to be observes, the sixth of Sivan for the observance of the festival commemorating the revelation and the giving of the Torah, etc. David confirmed this as one of the meanings of this term when he said in Psalms 104,19: עשה ירח למועדים שמש ידע מבואו, “He made the moon to mark the seasons, the sun knows when to set.”

ברקיע השמים להאיר על הארץ, ”in the sky of theheavens to disseminate light all over the earth.” One of the luminaries’ functions is similar to that of lanterns which are also always placed on high poles to better illuminate their surroundings. According to the plain meaning of the text, the sun and moon are necessary to illuminate earth, whereas the light created on the first “day,” is needed to illuminate the heavenly regions, seeing that on the second “day,” a partition had been erected between the former and the latter by the horizon/atmosphere. Alternately, when the Torah reported that on the first “day” light came into existence, i.e. ויהי אור, this was the “light” which enabled “life” to exist, whereas here we speak about the light provided by the sun and moon respectively. Although as yet this “light” was not needed as the creatures for which the sun and moon were to shine had not been created yet, there were grasses and fruit bearing trees which needed it in order for them not to wither and die. The fruit could not have ripened without the rays of the sun. We also know from Deuteronomy 33,14, that there are plants which cannot grow without moonlight. Furthermore, G-d had created some living creatures such as creeping things and birds on the fifth “day,” and the means for their survival had to exist before they came into existence.

המאורות הגדולים, “the large luminaries;” according to Rashi this means that they were originally of equal size and strength. Other commentators say that the meaning of the word גדולים is that they remained as large as they had been created. Rashi also states that the moon was downsized as it had claimed that it is impossible for two queens to rule side by side with equal powers as this would lead to jealousy and friction between them. G-d agreed and suggested that the moon downsize itself in order for harmony to continue. Some commentators claim that the moon downsized itself at the beginning of each monthly orbit.

הגדולים, “the term is used to describe how the sun and moon appear to us when compared to the stars.

לממשלת היום, “to rule by day;” to enable the fruit to ripen due to receiving the sun’s warmth.

לממשלת הלילה, to rule by night in order to cool off the plants so that they would not generate worms. The light created on the first “day,” could not be described as “ruling,” as it did not generate any fruit, or otherwise demonstrate tangible benefits to man.

ולמשול ביום ובלילה, “and to rule during the day and the night.” One would rule by day, the other by night. The moon even when visible by day, hardly “rules.” Or, in the words of the moon itself, quoted in the Talmud Chulin folio 60, “who needs light at noontime?”

ולהבדיל בין האור ובין החשך, “and in order to make a clear separation between periods of light and periods of darkness.” This phrase does not refer to either the sun or the moon. The Torah had already told us in verse 14 that this would be the function of the great luminaries. The phrase therefore refers to the stars, whose visibility tells us if it is day or night. They become visible when day fades, and they fade when dawn approaches.

ישרצו המים, “let the waters swarm, etc.” After G-d had positioned the luminaries in the places assigned to them, G-d proceeded to create living creatures. All stationary waters, even water in small vessels, will generate life after a while. Each such form of “life” will continue to reproduce, each according to its kind. This is the reason why the Torah here did not refer to: הימים, “the oceans,” or to הנהרות, “the streams.”

רקיע השמים; there are many places in the Torah where the air (atmosphere) is simply referred to as שמים, to name just one such example: Deuteronomy 4,17, אשר תעוף בשמים, “which flies in the air.” [It would not occur to any thinking person to translate this line as “which flies in the heaven,” or even: “in the sky.” Ed.] Consider also Exodus 10,21 where Moses had been told: נטה ידך על השמים, which no one would understand as Moses being asked to “extend his hand above the heaven,“ but as an instruction to extend his hand over the air in front of him. The Torah also describes Canaanites as possessing cities fortified בשמים (Deuteronomy 9,1) which no one in his right mind would translate as “fortified right into heaven,” but would understand as the walls “rising high into the surrounding airspace.” The reason that we do not find the customary expression ויהי כן, “and so it came to be,” at the end of the report of G-d’s activities on the fifth day, is because seeing that the fish were created on that day and by far the greatest majority of them are never seen by man, it was not considered appropriate to insert that conclusion here.

פרו ורבו בימים והעוף ירב בארץ, “be fruitful and multiply in the oceans, and let the birds multiply on earth.” The reason why G-d did not extend a similarly worded blessing for the mammals was so that they should not increase at a faster rate than the human race and man would not be able to prevail against them. Birds and fish whose habitat is the airspace and the seas respectively, do not pose a similar problem.

תוצא הארץ, “let the earth bring forth;” The expression תוצא seems to imply that these creations already existed (and just needed to sprout forth from the ground).

תוצא הארץ, “let the earth bring forth;” when it comes to producing creatures whose habitat is earth, creatures equipped with a נפש, a life force, [of some spiritual dimension, my words, Editor.] we find that G-d created 4 different species, i.e. חיה, בהמה, ורמש, וחיתו ארץ, but when they are listed separately only 3 of them, the ones that are almost exclusively made up of bodies, are listed before the Torah states that “G-d saw that it was good.

”Man is the fourth of these species, and that it why the Torah continues 2,7 ויהי האדם לנפש חיה that the human species became part of that group only after G-d having provided it with a Divine soul, נשמת חיים.

חיתו ארץ — The ו in the word חיתו is superfluous (added for stylish purposes).

נעשה אדם, “let Us make a human being;” it is remarkable that the Torah did not write: נברא אדם, “let us create a human being;” the reason is that the first step, i.e. בריאה, is something that only the Creator Himself is able to perform, He cannot share this step of the process with any of His creatures. Compare Genesis 1,27: ויברא האלוקים את האדם, “the Lord created Adam, (no plural mode here); or compare Genesis 6,7: האדם אשר בראתי, “the human being whom I created.” When it comes to secondary or tertiary stages, G-d may coopt other forces in His endeavor. [Compare Kimchi on Isaiah 6,8 on the word לנו; Ed.] An alternate exegesis: we find a similar formula: “let us interpret,” in Daniel, 2,36 where Daniel offers to reveal the meaning of the king’s dream, but only he himself in a private audience with King Nebuchadnezzar will actually reveal it [out of deference to the King, since it contained unpleasant news. Ed.]

.נעשה אדם, the word אדם includes males and females. Proof that this is so is found in Genesis 5,2, when both the males and the females of the species are described as having been “created,” i.e. בראם, “He had created them;” we also have a statement by Rav Hunna, who asks the rhetorical question: ‘how do we know that Chava was also called אדם? Answer (Isaiah 44,13) כתפארת אדם לשבת בית, which is translated by the Targum as: “like the beauty of a woman who resides in a house; (or who transforms a house into a home).” Furthermore, we have a verse in Numbers 31,35: ונפש אדם מן הנשים, “and human souls, of the women;”

בצלמנו, “in our likeness,” comparable to angels.

כדמותנו, “like the image of the angels.”This comparison of the human species to that of angels is going to stand man in good stead when exercising his authority (superiority) over all the other creatures on earth G-d had created. A different exegesis of the word: כדמותנו: seeing that it is impossible to compare human beings to the Creator, seeing that Isaiah 40,8 has already stated that this is impossible, (Isaiah 40,18) but on the other hand, it is also impossible to compare human beings to the creatures G-d had created before He created the human species, as in that case what advantage would this species have over the beasts created before him, there was no other way to describe our superiority except by comparing it to Divinity in some degree, i.e. as “a shadow of our essence,” בצלמנו כדמותנו; [just as a shadow is only a two dimensional likeness of the person or object it reflects, so the human beings are lacking in some dimension possessed only by their Creator. My words, Ed.] The common denominator between G-d and man on the one hand, and man and beast on the other, is that just as G-d is our ruler, so we rule over the other creatures in the universe.

ובכל הארץ, “and over the whole globe;” what had the Torah omitted to mention regarding man’s dominion over the creatures on earth, so that this additional term was needed? It is a reference to spiritual, non corporeal forces that abound in our universe and appear to interfere with our freedom, especially demons.

בצלמו, a metaphor for the angels; do not wonder why the Torah had not spelled out the creation of the angels in the report of G-d’s creative activities; Moses had deliberately refrained from writing down anything about either the domains of heaven or purgatory or about other details such as the heavenly Court, etc.; as the purpose of the written Torah is to acquaint us with phenomena visible in our habitat, as I have already pointed out earlier (verse 2) Another exegesis of the word: בצלמו: it is a reference to G-d Himself; G-d wished to forestall people who would view Him as reflection of their image.[Unfortunately, people have a tendency of describing something unknown to them as in some manner reflecting phenomena with which they are familiar. In other words, they make G-d over in their own image by using their own attributes as the yardsticks by which they “measure” Divinity. Ed.]

בצלם אלוקים, as similar to angels. When angels appear to human beings on earth, as in the case of the three angels that appeared to Avraham before the destruction of Sodom, or the angel that appeared to the wife of Manoach telling her that she would give birth to Shimshon, they had assumed the countenances of human beings. This is also how we must understand the serpent saying to Chavah in Genesis 3,5: והייתם כאלוקים “and you will be like elohim.”Proof that this interpretation is correct can be traced to Bereshit Rabbah 20,4: where it is pointed out that the word אלוקים appears 71 times in the Torah prior to G-d speaking to the serpent in Genesis 3,14. If you were to include the expressions: בצלם אלוקים and והיית כאלוקים, in that count, there would be 73 mentions of the name of G-d instead of 71 as stated in the Midrash. It is clear therefore that here the expression is meant to make a comparison between man and angels. This is also the reason why the Targum (Onkelos) did not translate the word כאלוקים in 3,8 as “you will become like G-d.”Still another exegesis for the expression בצלם אלוקים ברא אותו, “He created man to appear like a judge and person of authority.”Still another exegesis: “as opposed to the other creatures whom G-d created by means of an oral directive; when creating the human species He had first created a mould,” (pattern) i.e. He had taken extra care about every detail. This was already proof of the importance G-d attributed to the creature called .אדם

זכר ונקבה ברא אותם, “He created them as possessing male and female organs.” This is explained in greater detail in Genesis 2,21, where the physical separation of the female from Adam is described as G-d building up one of Adam’s ribs into a whole new body.

פרו ורבו, “be fruitful and multiply.” Some commentators believe that after Adam and his wife had sinned and as a result had been condemned to be mortal; G-d told them to multiply and thereby to insure their vicarious survival through their offspring. If this command (or blessing) which included the word: “and fill the earth,” had been issued prior to their sin, the impression would have been created that Adam’s offspring was meant to populate and eventually overpopulate the garden in Eden. The reason it was already written here is that having offspring is the nearest thing to creating another human being, and this had been the subject at this point.

וכבשה, “and conquer it, subdue it.” The word is written defectively, as it is it in the imperative mode; if it had been spelled with the dot (in the letter ב) it would have been transformed into a past mode, as in Joel 2,6 קבצו.

. הנה נתתי לכם, “here I have given to you, etc.” The line is to be understood as if written in the present tense, “I am giving to you’” there are numerous such verses which though written in the past tense, actually were meant to be understood as being in the present tense. The author quotes a few examples, including: Genesis 14,22; 23,13.

את כל עשב זורע זרע, “all the herbs that perpetuate themselves by shedding their seed.” Examples are grains and vegetables such as peas and beans, etc; as well as the fruit of the trees which contain stones or pips. All these were intended as food for the human race. The beasts of the field were assigned only simpler herbs, i.e. grass that did not perpetuate itself by shedding their seeds. As a result of man’s sin, G-d decreed that they would be limited to eating the same kind of food as did the animals. This is the deeper meaning of the verse in Genesis 3,18: קוץ ודרדר תצמיח לך ואכלת את עשב השדה, “the earth will grow thorns and thistles in (response to your efforts) so that you will be reduced to eating the grass of the field.” This is also reflected in Psalms 49,21: “he is like the beasts (that perish)”. If G-d had permitted man at that stage to eat meat, it would have been viewed as man being rewarded for having sinned.

לכם יהיה לאכלה ולכל חית השדה, Rashi comments on this line that man had been reduced to eat the same kind of food as the beasts of the field. When we find the statement in Sanhedrin 59, that the angels in heaven were purifying wine for Adam and roasting meat for him while he was sitting in the garden (on the Sabbath), which appears to contradict the aforesaid, this refers to meat that had descended from heaven just as the manna descended from heaven for the Israelites in the desert. When G-d had told man that they would rule over the fish in the sea, etc.; this did not mean that he was allowed to eat them, but that they were to perform work on his behalf, as pointed out on the same folio in the Talmud. The Talmud explains that even birds could be trained to perform menial tasks for man. ובכל החיה הרומשת על הארץ, “and to all the living creatures that creep on the earth.” This is a reference to the serpent alluded to in verse 28. It can serve man as carrier of messages as spelled out in Sanhedrin 59.

וירא אלוקים את כל אשר עשה וגו׳ , “G-d saw, (reviewed) all that He had done, etc;” He even included the evil urge in what he described as being “very good,”

והנה טוב מאד, “and here it was very good;” why was even the evil urge “very good?” Without it man would not possess an active libido, without which siring offspring would have been next to impossible. Unless man reproduced, the species the human race would have died out and would have been created in vain. The expression: כי טוב, occurs twice in connection with G-d’s activities on that day, once in connection with the mammals, and again in connection with the creation of the first human being.

יום השישי, “the sixth day.” The prefix ה reminds us of the special role of that day as it was the only day on which G-d completed the entire process of creating the universe. This hint is repeated more clearly in Exodus 20,1, (the fourth of the Ten Commandments) where we read: 'כי ששת ימים עשה ה את השמים ואת הארץ, “for during an unbroken string of six days, the Lord created heaven and earth.”