Shabbat Parashat Bereishit - 5784

Shabbat Parashat Bereishit - 5784

Rabbi Hal Miller

God said, let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to separate between the day and

the night. [Bereishit 1:14]

Our verse appears on the fourth day of Creation. It seems to be a repeat of what was said on the

first day, "God said, let there be light and there was light. God saw that the light was good and

God separated between the light and the darkness. God called to the light, 'day' and to the

darkness He called 'night', and there was evening and there was morning, one day." [Bereishit

1:3-5]. Rashi gives the most common explanation that it is not in fact a repetition, but a further

act of God: "They had been created on the first day and on the fourth day He commanded them

to be suspended in the sky." To explain the separating between day and night, Rashi added, "The

original light had been hidden away, but during the seven days of Creation the original light and

darkness functioned, this one by day and this one by night." To summarize Rashi, God created

light on day 1 in order to create time, day and night, then He hid away that light on day 4 and

created the sun and moon to take over the establishment of time

Ramban differs somewhat, that when God created the firmament, that blocked the first-day light

from reaching the earth that He would create shortly thereafter, thus He created the luminaries

on the fourth day to provide life-giving light to the earth and all on it. This could just be his

explanation of Rashi's "He hid away that light".

Both Rashi and Ramban seems to be saying that the day-1 light was removed from the upcoming

creations because they did not deserve that Divine light. Rav Soloveitchik explains that this

intense light is reserved for the righteous in the future to come, but that each person has some

level of it intrinsic in their soul even in this world. Our job is to bring that light to the surface.

Chagigah 12a tells us that in fact the day-4 luminaries were created on the first day, but only

placed into their positions on day 4. According to Radak, their light was created to supply the

creations to come, and their placement in the sky was only to make them more visible. Or

HaChayim follows this, saying that there was one creation of light, and that only a small part

of it was channed through the luminaries, saving the rest for the world to come. Abarbanel

differs, calling the day-1 light and day-4 light two separate creations, the first spiritual and the

second tangible.

Rav Hirsch seems to be implying that there is only one light, but that in this world, it is channeled

through the luminaries that God created on day 4.

What do these opinions have in common? The creations God was about to make needed light,

as did the concept of time. These different purposes have different requirements, so God had

to address them in two separate actions.