56. Bereshit — Abarbanel on the Torah, Section 56

The True Structure of the Heavens

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The sixth question concerns the statement: “And God called the firmament Heaven”¹ (Genesis 1:8).

For if the Holy One, blessed be He, fashioned the firmament within the universal watery substance, then the firmament would occupy an intermediate position between the upper and lower realms. Why, then, was it called shamayim (“heaven”), taking its name from the upper realms, rather than from the lower? Or, indeed, should it not rather have been called mayim (“waters”), since it was hewn from the very substance from which it originated?

Why is “it was good” not said on the second day?

The seventh question is why the words: “that it was good” are not spoken on the second day.

Concerning this, our Sages offered various explanations in Bereishit Rabbah. Some said that Gehinnom was created on that day, and so it is likewise written in Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer. Others said that it was because division or discord was created on that day. Still others explained that, since the work concerning the waters was not completed on the second day, the words “that it was good” were omitted there and instead appear twice on the third day: once for the completion of the work of the waters, and once for the sprouting of the vegetation. This, as Maimonides wrote, is the interpretation that comes closest to the plain meaning of the text.

Nevertheless, the difficulty remains.

The work of the second day consisted in making the firmament and in separating the waters—that is, distinguishing the upper waters from the lower. Both of these works were completed on the second day. If so, it would have been appropriate for Scripture to declare concerning that day: “that it was good.”

As for the appearance of the dry land, that was an entirely different work from the separation of the waters accomplished on the second day.

We must also ask: from where did the Sages derive the idea that Gehinnom or discord was created on the second day? Neither the light of this world nor the fire of Gehinnom is ever called “waters.” Upon what scriptural basis, then, did they found these interpretations?

I shall now explain these verses in such a way as to resolve all of the foregoing questions.

And God said, “Let there be a firmament...” (Genesis 1:6–8)

The explanation that seems to me to reflect the true meaning of the firmament and the waters above it is as follows.

The last two opinions that I presented in the first question—namely, that the firmament is a region of the atmosphere, or that it is a body created within the element of water—deserve no consideration, for they contradict both the plain meaning of Scripture and the teachings of our Sages.

Likewise, the first three opinions, all of which identify the firmament with some part of the heavenly bodies—whether with the celestial spheres as a whole, the outermost sphere, or the concave surface of the sphere of the moon—are also untenable because of the difficulties they encounter from Scripture and the words of our Sages, as I have already shown.

I therefore maintain that the shamayim (“heavens”) created on the first day consisted of a single sphere alone, immense in size and thickness. This vast celestial sphere was the first to be created. The firmament made on the second day, however, comprises all the concentric spheres enclosed within that outer sphere. These were fashioned from the great sphere that had been created on the first day.

The explanation is as follows.

As I have already explained, the first day differs from the remaining six days in two fundamental respects. First, everything created on the first day was brought into existence ex nihilo, whereas the works of the subsequent days were produced from preexisting created matter. Second, on the first day God created the primary principles and origins of things, while on the following days He produced the derivative realities that proceeded from them².

(Parashat Bereshit — Genesis 1:8, The True Structure of the Heavens in the Commentary of Don Isaac Abarbanel)

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