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Creation, Making, and Bringing Forth
From what I have explained, you may understand why Scripture says concerning the creeping creatures and the fish, “And Hashem created”. The sensitive soul found in them is, according to the continuing natural order of generation, bestowed by a separate intellect. Since their forms, when first bestowed upon them at the beginning of Creation, came into existence not from any preexisting thing—that is, the sensitive soul was bestowed for the first time—Scripture employs the language of creation and attributes their formation to God, blessed be He. This indicates that their forms will always proceed from the agency of a separate intellect.
In the case of the land animals, their forms are likewise attributed to Him, blessed be He, to indicate that they too will always receive them from a separate intellect. Scripture says concerning them, however, “And Hashem made”, rather than “And Hashem created”, because the sensitive soul had already come into existence before the formation of the land animals, in the fish and the birds. Thus, when the sensitive form first appeared in existence, Scripture employed the language of creation; when it was bestowed a second time upon the land animals, Scripture says, “And Hashem made”1.
In the creation of man, however, since his rational soul was created from absolute nonexistence, Scripture once again employs the language of creation. Concerning the firmament and the luminaries, by contrast, their formation is attributed to God, blessed be He, because of the exalted nature of their subjects; yet since they were made from something already existing, Scripture says, “And Hashem made the firmament” (Genesis 1:7), and, “And Hashem made the two great luminaries” (Genesis 1:16).
Thus, the upper beings are attributed to Him, blessed be He, because of their exalted status, while beings possessing a sensitive soul are attributed to Him because of the nobility of that soul. The vegetative soul, however, since according to the ordinary course of nature it is bestowed through the stars rather than through a separate intellect, is not directly attributed to Hashem. Nevertheless, a divine declaration accompanied the first production of plants, for He, blessed be He, imparted to the earth the power to bring them forth by itself. As for the gathering of the waters, since it involved neither creation nor the coming into existence of anything new, no act of creation or making is stated concerning it. The seventh and final question is thereby resolved.
Genesis 1:14
The Questions Concerning the Luminaries
“And God said, ‘Let there be luminaries...’” (Genesis 1:14) until “the fourth day” (Genesis 1:19).
Several questions arise concerning this section.
The first question is why the luminaries were created on the fourth day, when the primordial light was already functioning. If, as Rashi wrote, the primordial light served throughout all seven days of Creation, one must ask: Why, then, were the luminaries created on the fourth day, when that light was still functioning? It would have been more appropriate for them to be created only at the end of that period, since until then there was no need for them. But if the truth is as Ramban maintains—and as appears from the words of our Sages—that the primordial light functioned for only three days, the question remains: Why did God arrange matters in this way, so that this noble and wondrous light served for no more than three days? It would have been more fitting either for the luminaries to have been created on the first day, in which case there would have been no need for the primordial light at all, or for that light to have served equally throughout all six days, with the luminaries being created at their conclusion.
Yet the difficulty remains: Why, then, does Scripture subsequently speak of them in the plural—“and let them be for signs” and “and let them be for luminaries”—and indeed refer to them consistently throughout the passage in the plural?
The second question is why the expression “Let there be” [yehi] is used in the entire account of Creation only three times: “Let there be light” (Genesis 1:3), “Let there be a firmament” (Genesis 1:6), and “Let there be luminaries” (Genesis 1:14). With the other things brought into existence, this expression is not used; rather, Scripture says, “Let the earth bring forth vegetation” (Genesis 1:11), “Let the waters swarm” (Genesis 1:20), and “Let the earth bring forth” (Genesis 1:24). If “Let there be” denotes coming into existence, why was it not used concerning everything that came into existence during the days of Creation?
Included within this question is another difficulty: Why does Scripture say yehi, “Let there be,” in the singular when the luminaries are plural? In Bereshit Rabbah, some understood this to mean that all the light of the upper realms emanates from the sun, which illuminates both the entire host above and the creatures below. Accordingly, Scripture uses the singular expression “Let there be luminaries,” and the word me’orot, “luminaries,” is written defectively, alluding to the sun alone2. They understood this also to be the intention of Rabbi Yochanan when he said in Bereshit Rabbah, “Only the sphere of the sun was created to give light.” Yet the difficulty remains: Why, then, does Scripture subsequently speak of them in the plural—“and let them be for signs” and “and let them be for luminaries”—and indeed refer to them consistently throughout the passage in the plural?
The third question concerns the expression “in the firmament of the heavens” [birki’a ha-shamayim] (Genesis 1:14). At times the Torah calls the celestial bodies the “firmament,” as in “Let there be a firmament” (Genesis 1:6) and “God made the firmament” (Genesis 1:7), which, as I have explained, refer to the celestial spheres. At other times it calls them “heavens,” as in “God called the firmament heavens” (Genesis 1:8). Why, then, does Scripture here combine the two terms and call them “the firmament of the heavens”?3
Parashat Bereshit — Genesis 1:14-19, From Earth to the Heavens in the Commentary of Don Isaac Abarbanel)
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