Previous section → Before Nature Took Its Course
In the first and absolute Creation, however, since everything came about through the simple divine will, He, blessed be He, desired that the dry land should appear and that plants should come into being before the existence of the luminaries and stars that, within the natural order, move and bring about these lower phenomena. In this way it would be known that these things were not originally produced by nature, but that the divine will first brought them about without the celestial causes through which they are now produced. And since God, blessed be He, desired that they should continue and endure, He endowed the celestial bodies and their motions with such a nature that they would serve as intermediaries for perpetuating the things He had originally brought into existence by His will. Thus, in this respect, the sun is a preserving and perpetuating cause, not the original efficient cause. He, blessed be He, was the true agent, while the sun and the stars became instruments for perpetuating His will1. Living creatures, however, were not created before the luminaries, because after coming into existence they immediately required them, as will be explained in the appropriate place.
For this reason the work of the third day begins, “Let the waters beneath the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear” (Genesis 1:9). Since the firmament by itself, without the stars, had no power to accomplish this, God exalted in His power and commanded by His word that the element of water should of itself gather into one place, rather than spreading over the earth and surrounding it. For according to its nature, the watery element ought to have encompassed the entire element of earth and covered it, since the higher element naturally surrounds that which lies beneath it on every side2.
Scripture therefore says, “Let the waters be gathered”, to teach that the dry land was not exposed because the waters were dried up through the heat of the sun, nor because God caused His wind to pass over the earth so that the waters subsided3. Rather, He, blessed be He, decreed by His word that the waters themselves should move toward one side, leaving the other side exposed. This is the meaning of, “And let the dry land appear”: Scripture does not say that the earth should become dry, but that it should become visible as the waters withdrew to their limits and receded from upon it. By specifying the waters beneath the heavens, Scripture excludes the waters above the firmament, which were not included in this command.
This declaration also confirms what I explained concerning the first day: the elements had already been differentiated according to their respective forms; they were not merely potential matter from which the elements would subsequently be generated. This is why Scripture says here, “And let the dry land appear”: it already existed in its proper form and perfection, and nothing was now done to it except that it was made visible.
The Philosopher has already explained in his work on meteorology that each of the elements has both a common place and a place proper to itself.
In Bereshit Rabbah they interpreted “Let the waters be gathered” [yikkavu ha-mayim] to mean: Let a measure be established for the waters, as in the verse, “And a plumb line [ve-kav] shall be stretched out over Jerusalem”4 (Zechariah 1:16)5. By this they intended what the philosophers have written: that among the greatest proofs of the creation of the world and of continuing divine providence is the exposure of the dry land. Thus the Lord said to Job: “Where were you when I founded the earth?... Who determined its dimensions, if you know? Or who stretched the measuring line over it?... And [who] enclosed the sea with doors?” (Job 38:4–10). Jeremiah likewise said: “Hear this now, foolish people without understanding, who have eyes but do not see, who have ears but do not hear. Will you not fear Me? says the Lord; will you not tremble before Me, who placed the sand as a boundary for the sea, an everlasting ordinance that it cannot transgress?” (Jeremiah 5:21–22). This, then, is likewise the meaning of “Let the waters be gathered”: a boundary was established for them beyond which they could not pass and once again cover the dry land.
As for the words “into one place”, their meaning is not that all the waters were to be gathered into one particular, bounded location, but rather that they should no longer spread over the entire earth. By saying into one place, Scripture alludes to the sea, which is the place proper to water. The Philosopher has already explained in his work on meteorology that each of the elements has both a common place and a place proper to itself. The common place is the region enclosed by the sphere of the moon, which encompasses all the elements, while the particular place proper to an element is that toward which the parts of that element naturally move. For the element of water, this is the sea, since all the rivers issue from it and return to it, as the wisest of men said, “All the rivers flow into the sea”6 (Ecclesiastes 1:7)7.
Thus, into one place means into a particular or proper place, just as “one nation on earth” (II Samuel 7:23) means a unique nation. The entire meaning, then, is that the waters should gather into the place proper to them—namely, the seas and rivers, which collectively constitute the proper place of water. The first question is thereby resolved. To indicate the permanence of the dry land’s exposure, Scripture adds, “And it was so”, meaning that from then onward a portion of the dry land remained continually exposed above the waters.
(Parashat Bereshit — Genesis 1:9, The Boundaries of the Sea in the Commentary of Don Isaac Abarbanel)
Next section →
