16. Bereshit — Abarbanel on the Torah, Section 16

The Meaning of “Bara”: Creation and the Language of Genesis

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Explanation of the Word Bara (Created)

Concerning the word bara, the Rabbi [Maimonides] wrote that in our language, the only term that indicates the creation of something from nothing (yesh me-ayin) is bara. However, Ibn Ezra and many others disagree with this, bringing as proof the verses: “God created the great sea creatures” (Genesis 1:21) and “God created man” (Genesis 1:27), even though it is known that these beings were formed from the elemental substances, not from nothing¹.

Some have attempted to justify the words of Maimonides by arguing that creation from nothing is indeed referred to as briyah, but not every use of briyah implies yesh me-ayin. However, such statements are empty words. For if that is so, what compels us to say that the briyah mentioned in the creation narrative refers to creation ex nihilo, and not to the kind of briyah that refers to forming something from pre-existing matter?

Radak, following this view, wrote in his lexicon² that the word bara refers to various meanings by way of shared usage. First, the creation of something from nothing, as in “In the beginning God created” (Genesis 1:1); Second, the idea of selecting or choosing, as in “and you shall choose for yourself” (u’verata lekha) (Joshua 17:15); Third, cutting down or destruction, as in “and he cleared them in their youth” (u’vera otan b’tarb’utam) (Psalms 94:6, according to Radak’s interpretive style); And fourth, fatness or beauty, as in “Eglon was a very fat man” (ish shamen u’vari) (Judges 3:17), or “healthy and good” (briyot v’tovot).

However, it seems to me that this is not the case. Rather, the word bara was originally coined to mean the creation of something from nothing, as Maimonides wrote, and it is used occasionally in borrowed senses. This is why the verse says “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”—He brought them into existence through His power after absolute non-being.

Indeed, in my work Ma‘asei Elohim³, in the second discourse, chapter 5, I explained the proofs from the Torah and the words of the Prophets that strongly indicate the world was created anew, and not from pre-existing matter.

Since miracles occur according to the simple divine will, and are of the same nature as the original creation (…) it is therefore very close, by analogy, to the original act of creation, that the language of beriah (creation) is used with regard to wonders.

Therefore, the Torah says: “These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created” (Genesis 2:4); and the Psalmist wrote, “For He commanded—and they were created” (Psalms 148:5); and Isaiah said: “Who created these?” (Isaiah 40:26) and “Creator of the ends of the earth” (Isaiah 40:28), and “For My glory I created him” (Isaiah 43:7), and “Creator of the heavens” (Isaiah 45:18). In all these, Scripture consistently uses the term briyah to describe the creation of the heavens and the earth from absolute nothingness, in accordance with its original sense.

Following this same reasoning, it says: “And God created man in His image” (Genesis 1:27). The use of briyah here does not refer to man’s material body, but rather to his intellectual form—his rational soul—which was created then from nothing⁴.

Since miracles occur according to the simple divine will, and are of the same nature as the original creation—that is, not attributed to any specific material substance from which they come into being—it is therefore very close, by analogy, to the original act of creation, that the language of beriah (creation) is used with regard to wonders. Thus it is written: “Before all your people I will perform wonders such as have not been created in all the earth” (Exodus 34:10)⁵. Likewise: “If the Lord will create a new creation” (Numbers 16:30)⁶.

And since the first creation was the bringing into existence of something corporeal from nothing—something most foreign to the human mind to conceive—the Torah borrowed this same expression of beriah for every case of something unusual and beyond the natural order. Thus, “And God created the great sea monsters” (Genesis 1:21), because of their extraordinary size, as our Sages said, that their length spanned many parasangs⁷.

Therefore, Scripture attributes their creation to God, to declare that the waters had no natural power to produce something so strange and wondrous, but only His power could bring them forth.

Of the same kind is what is said: “And you shall create it there for yourself in the land of the Perizzites” (Joshua 17:15)⁸. Since that land was a forest, untilled, Joshua told the children of Joseph to prepare it and make it into a place fit for habitation. From this standpoint, the verse uses the term beriah figuratively, because of the novelty of the act. Similarly: “Create in me a pure heart, O God” (Psalms 51:12); “The people that shall be created shall praise the Lord” (Psalms 102:19); “Now it is created and not from before” (Isaiah 48:7)⁹; “I created the craftsman” (Isaiah 54:16)¹⁰; “I created the destroyer” (ibid.)¹¹; “The Creator of the fruit of the lips” (Isaiah 57:19)¹², and the like. In all of them, the term beriah is used figuratively, because of the appearance of something new and unexpected, without the preparation of the recipient matter, like creation ex nihilo.

And since the things that God created at the beginning were perfect in their structure and beauty—as it is said, “They were created in their proper form”—the Torah borrowed the term beriah for every pleasing and beautiful thing: “Eglon was a very robust man” (Judges 3:17)¹³; “Healthy and good” (Genesis 41:2)¹⁴; “You will send forth Your spirit, they shall be created” (Psalms 104:30)¹⁵; “To persuade David to eat bread” (2 Shmuel 3:35)¹⁶; “To fatten yourselves from the choicest of the offerings” (1 Samuel 2:29)¹⁷. All of these are expressions of beauty and comeliness, for food makes a person fair and robust. The general idea is that they are likened in beauty to the first creation, which the true Creator fashioned.

However, as for the verse, “And let them create them with their swords” (Ezekiel 23:47)¹⁸, I think this too comes from the sense of beautifying, but used ironically in Ezekiel. For thus says the Lord: “Bring up a multitude against them, and give them up to terror and spoil; and the multitude shall stone them with stones, and dispatch them with their swords; their sons and their daughters they shall slay, and their houses they shall burn with fire.” The commentators explained that this was the prophecy of Israel’s destruction and ruin at the hands of Babylon, that great host of Chaldeans who would rise up against them, kill their sons and daughters, and burn their houses with fire. Regarding that destruction and devastation, the prophet used the phrase “they shall create them,” meaning: this is the “creation,” the production, the adornment and beautification that the Chaldeans will effect upon them with their swords—mocking them, just as one says “a man of great light” about a blind person¹⁹. In the same way, for the total destruction he used the term beriah.

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