46. Bereshit — Abarbanel on the Torah, Section 46

Why Night Precedes Day

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As for the statement, ‘And there was evening and there was morning, one day,’ the commentators have written that when this light was created on the first day, the Holy One, blessed be He, caused it to set according to the measure of the night, and afterwards caused it to rise according to the measure of the day. For this reason, they explain, Scripture says: ‘And there was evening and there was morning, one day’—placing evening before morning.

Likewise, the author of the Kuzari wrote that the light appeared at its appointed time, then gave way to night for habitation and rest, and that from this the order was established by which night precedes day.

But there is no need for this explanation. For Scripture does not say ‘And there was evening’ with reference to the setting of that light. Rather, it refers to the original darkness that existed in the world after the creation of the heavens and the earth, before the creation of this light, as it is written: ‘And darkness was on the face of the deep’ (Genesis 1:2)¹.

Abraham ibn Ezra already wrote that night is called erev (‘evening’) because forms become intermixed within it². Thus, darkness existed first, and afterwards the light came into being. Together they constituted one day.

These are the days that are remembered and observed in the Sabbaths and festivals of the Lord, whose reckoning begins with the night and continues through the illuminated day that follows. For such was the order in the work of creation: first, ‘darkness was upon the face of the deep,’ and afterwards, ‘Let there be light, and there was light.’

For this reason it is also written: ‘From evening to evening shall you keep your Sabbath’³ (Leviticus 23:32). Likewise, the Passover sacrifice was offered toward evening, because from that point the festival had already begun—night followed by day.

There are, however, some commentators who have turned aside and strained the text by claiming that the day begins with the morning and ends with the night that follows. According to them, the meaning of ‘And there was evening and there was morning’ is that a thing receives its name from its end and from the goal toward which it moves. Thus, the day is called ‘evening’ because its end is evening, and the night is called ‘morning’ because its end is morning. Such explanations have indeed been offered for this verse⁴.

But this is an evident error.

A thing receives its name from its end only when that end remains fixed and permanent within it. But when something is constantly moving toward a future state, it is not named after what will come afterwards. Life is not called death merely because death follows it, nor is death called life because life preceded it.

According to these mistaken interpreters, it would be necessary to call night ‘day’ and day ‘night,’ and indeed to call every thing by the name of its opposite that follows after it. Concerning such reasoning it may truly be said: “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who present darkness for light and light for darkness, who present bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter” (Isaiah 5:20).

Moreover, since a complete day consists of twenty-four hours, half of which is daylight and half night, it would follow from their view that such a complete day should not be called ‘one day,’ ‘a second day,’ and so forth, but rather ‘one night’ or ‘a second night,’ since the night is the latter part. For they make night into day and day into night, treating darkness and light as though they were the same. Consequently, Scripture ought to have said: ‘And there was evening and there was morning, one night,’ rather than ‘one day.’

All of this, however, is confusion and error.

According to the natural order, the night is the beginning of the day that follows, just as the absence that precedes existence is one of its beginnings, whereas the absence that follows existence is not⁵.

As for why Scripture does not say ‘And there was night and there was day,’ but rather ‘And there was evening and there was morning,’ it is because evening and morning arise through gradual transitions associated with the rising and setting of the sun, occurring little by little as the celestial sphere moves.

One might therefore have thought that the light created on the first day could not have produced evening and morning, since it did not arise through the motion of the sphere. Its appearance and disappearance might have been imagined as instantaneous: as soon as that light appeared, it would have been like full noon, as though the sun were shining in its strength; and as soon as it began to withdraw, it would have vanished completely, as though it were midnight.

Scripture therefore teaches that this was not the case. Even this primordial light had its evening and its morning. Its shining occurred gradually, and its withdrawal likewise took place little by little. This is the meaning of the phrase ‘And there was evening and there was morning,’ instead of simply saying ‘And there was night and there was day.’ It indicates that both illumination and darkness came about by degrees, as Nissim of Gerona wrote.

(Parashat Bereshit — Genesis 1:5, Why Night Precedes Day in the Commentary of Don Isaac Abarbanel)

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