Bereshit (5)

 


(To read the previous part, click here.)

This interpretation is also incorrect. Throughout the entire account of Creation, the name 'Elohim' is consistently used as a designation for the Creator, blessed be He (1). How, then, could the first mention of 'Elohim' at the beginning of the Torah refer to the created angels, while in the subsequent verses, the same name refers to the Creator, the Cause of all causes, blessed be He? Alternatively, if one were to claim that every mention of 'Elohim' in the Creation narrative refers to angels, this would imply that they were the ones who created the world—a notion that is utterly unacceptable. Creation in its entirety is attributed exclusively and directly to the First Cause, blessed be He, without any intermediary, and certainly not to any of His creations. Furthermore, according to this interpretation, the identity of the Creator would be missing from the verse. It would state merely, "In the beginning, [someone] created," without identifying who was the Creator. While in other scriptural verses, we sometimes tolerate an implied subject—such as in "Shall one plow with oxen?" (Amos 6:12) or "For He did not shut the doors of my womb" (Job 3:10)—it would be wholly inappropriate to accept such ambiguity in the very first verse of the Torah, where the fundamental principle of creation ex nihilo is established.

Moreover, if the word 'Elohim' were meant to refer to a created entity, the verse should have stated: "In the beginning, He created Elohim, the heavens, and the earth." For in Hebrew, the word 'et' (אֶת) serves as a direct object marker. Thus, if Elohim were among the created beings, the word 'et' should have preceded it, just as it does before "the heavens" and "the earth." Seeing, then, that none of these three scholars provide a satisfactory response, we can confidently state that they, too, must agree with us—the true interpreters of the Torah.

I said to myself: Let me turn to the great ones, the sages of the Talmud, for they are the ones who truly know the ways of God. I found in Bereshit Rabbah the following discussion: "When were the angels created?" Rabbi Chanina says: They were created on the second day, as it is written (Psalms 104:3-4), "He who roofs His upper chambers in the waters", and "He makes His angels like winds." Rabbi Yochanan says: They were created on the fifth day (2), as it is written (Genesis 1:20), "And let the birds fly above the earth," and it is also written (Isaiah 6:2), "And with two wings, he flies." The Midrash then comments: "Whether according to the opinion of Rabbi Yochanan or Rabbi Chanina, nothing was created on the first day, so that one should not say: ‘Michael was stretching out the heavens in the south, Gabriel was spreading them in the north, and God Himself was measuring in the center’" (3). Rather, as it is written (Isaiah 44:24): "I am the Lord, who makes all things, who alone stretches out the heavens, who spreads out the earth by Myself."

I say that these opinions clearly reveal their own weakness. How can it be that God created the heavens and the earth, water, wind, light, and darkness before creating the angels, according to the view of Rabbi Chanina? Even if the proof he brings is not decisive—meaning, just because it is written "He makes His angels winds" after "He roofs His upper chambers with water," does not necessarily prove that they were created on the second day. After all, it is also written immediately afterward, "He established the earth upon its foundations," and yet according to all opinions, the earth was created on the first day. Furthermore, Rabbi Chanina’s verse does not even explicitly state that angels were created on the second day, but only that they were created after the firmament. It remains entirely possible that this occurred on the third, fourth, or even later days.

According to Rabbi Yochanan’s opinion, there is also a difficulty: How could dry land have been revealed and vegetation have sprouted before the creation of angels? The proof he brings is based on a gezeirah shavah (an interpretive method that links similar words in different verses), yet it is well known that such a method is not accepted unless transmitted from one's teacher in an unbroken tradition from Moses at Sinai. Since we find another sage who disagrees with this interpretation, it follows that this was not a universally accepted tradition. For this reason, Ramban does not accept it. Additionally, the reasoning provided by both sages—that angels were not created on the first day to prevent people from saying they assisted in creation—is not a compelling argument. If that were the case, their creation should have been delayed until after the creation of man, lest one claim that angels had a role in bestowing a soul upon him. From all of this, it appears that none of these explanations provide a fully satisfactory resolution to this question, based on the straightforward meaning of the text. 

. . . 

(1) In Jewish tradition, Elohim refers to God’s attribute of justice and power, which is why it appears exclusively in the Creation narrative (Bereshit 1). Some kabbalistic interpretations, such as Ramban and Rabbeinu Bechaye, suggest that in Bereshit 1:1, Elohim might allude to spiritual beings (angels) in addition to God. Abarbanel strongly rejects this view, insisting that Elohim always refers to God in this context.

(2) The dispute between Rabbi Chanina and Rabbi Yochanan (Bereshit Rabbah 1:3) arises from different hermeneutical approaches to biblical verses: Rabbi Chanina associates angelic creation with the second day, citing Psalms 104:3-4, which describes God’s upper chambers and angels as "winds." Rabbi Yochanan links their creation to the fifth day, drawing from the parallel between flying birds and flying angels, as referenced in Yeshayahu’s vision of the seraphim (Isaiah 6:2). Abarbanel presents these opinions but does not explicitly favor one over the other.

(3) This Midrashic passage (Bereshit Rabbah 1:3) reflects a fundamental theological principle: Creation is attributed solely to God. If angels had been present from the very beginning, one might mistakenly assume that they assisted in creation, diminishing the concept of divine omnipotence. The verse "I am the Lord, who makes all things, who alone stretches out the heavens" (Yeshayahu 44:24) is cited to reject any notion of co-creatorship.

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(This translation belongs to our larger effort to make Abarbanel’s Torah commentary accessible to English readers.)  

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