Shabbat Parashat Bereishit - 5787

Shabbat Parashat Bereishit - 5787

Rabbi Hal Miller

  God saw that the light was good and God separated between the light and the darkness. [Bereishit 1:4]

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

  and they shall be for signs and for festivals and for days and years. [Bereishit [1:14]

Why is there a separation between light and darkness on the first day, and then a separation between day and night on the fourth day? Is this redundant?

Rashi cites Bereishit Rabbah [3:6] that the light of the first day was not to be used by the wicked, thus it was set aside for the righteous in the days of the Messiah, and the separation referred to is between the righteous and the wicked, alluding to light and darkness. This leaves verse 14 and the creation of the luminaries on the fourth day free to perform the functions of separating between day and night in this world and setting the calendar for the holidays, as well as for the growth of plants.

Ibn Ezra understands the first separation as being an assignment of names, which is a method of distinguishing between objects or ideas. As with Rashi, this leaves the second iteration available for the days and holidays and plant growth. Ramban criticises both Ibn Ezra and Rashi, saying that it puts God's action here into the class of one who tries something without knowing what the result will be, then reacting to the result, that God might have looked at His creation of light, decided it was good, then performed a separation. Instead Ramban understands that the first light created served for three days, was separated during that time, and then was put away for the righteous at the time God created the lesser lights on the fourth day to serve in this world, and He separated this new light then.

Rav Hirsch looks at the word for separation here, havdil, and compares it with other words that have similar meanings. He sees those other words as having a negative connotation, dividing things from each other, but havdil as having a positive connotation, assigning individual purposes to the things being separated. He then looks at the word for light, 'or'. In verse 4, it is spelled out full, aleph-vov-reish, but in verse 14 it is spelled "deficiently", aleph-reish (me'orot), which he says means that the luminaries created on day 4 are deficient and mere "bearers" of light, as compared to what was created as "sources" of light on day 1. This explains why there had to be two creations and two separations, being they are entirely different objects.

But not everyone sees this as two separate creations of lights. The Gemora [Chagigah 12a]  states in the name of R'Elazar, as Rashi, that the original light was hidden away and new light was created on the fourth day, which is supported by R'Yaakov. "But the Sages say, the luminaries themselves which were created on the first day were not suspended (in position) until the fourth day." Rashi mentions this approach in general, that everything was created on the first day, and activated on the following days. Rambam also seems to indicate like this that the fourth day separation was an assignment of functions to what was created before.

Or HaChayim sees yet another approach. The wording of verse 14 includes 'yihi', "let there be", in the singular, which seems odd since there were apparently two luminaries being created, and that would have taken the form 'yihiyu'. His explanation is that the Torah is indicating by this that the greater light had already been created on day 1, and only now was a second luminary coming into being and requiring a new separation. Verse 4 also uses the singular 'yihi' when that first light was created.

In all of these explanations there is a need for two separations, although the commentators do not agree on what is being separated.