And God Said, 'Let There Be Light' Light and Darkness: Revelation and Concealment

(1) In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. (2) Now the earth was unformed and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters. (3) And God said: ‘Let there be light.’ And there was light. (4) And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. (5) And God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.

It was taught: The light which was created in the six days of Creation cannot illumine by day, because it would eclipse the light of the sun, nor by night, because it was created only to illumine by day. Then where is it? It is stored up for the righteous in the Messianic future, as it says, Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of the seven days.

(Isa. 30.26)

And was light created on the first day? But it is written, (Genesis 1:17) "and God set them in the firmament of the heaven," and it is written, (Genesis 1:19) "and there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day." It is like R. Elazar. For R. Elazar said, The light which the Holy One, blessed be He, created on the first day, Adam saw through it from one end of the world to the other. When the Holy One, blessed be He, peered at the generation of the Flood and the generation of the Dispersion, and saw that their actions were destructive, He stood up and hid it from them, as it is said, (Job 38:15) "And from the wicked their light is withheld." And for whom did He take it away? For the righteous of the time to come, as it is said, (Genesis 1:4) "And God saw the light, that it was good," and "good" only refers to the righteous, as it is said, (Isaiah 3:10) " Say of the righteous, that he is good." Once He saw the light He hid away for the righteous, He rejoiced, as it is said, (Proverbs 13:9) "He rejoices at the light of the righteous." Like [the following] Tannaic argument: The light which the Holy One, blessed be He, created on the first day, Adam observed and peered through it from one end of the world to the other. These are the words of R. Yaakov. And the sages say, These are the lights which were created on the first day, but were not hung up until the fourth day.

Ten things were created on the first day, and they are these: Heaven and earth, chaos and desolation, light and darkness, wind and waters, the measure of the day and the measure of the night. "Heaven and earth", as it is written, (Genesis 1:1) "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." Chaos and desolation, as it is written, (Genesis 1:2) "And the earth was chaos and desolation." Light and darkness, darkness as it is written, (Genesis 1:2) "and darkness was upon the face of the deep," light as it is written, (Genesis 1:2) "And God said, Let there be light." Wind and water, as it is written, (Genesis 1:3) "and the wind of God floated upon the face of the waters." The measure of the day and the measure of the night, as it is written, (Genesis 1:5) "And there was evening and there was morning, one day." It was taught in a Baraita, Chaos is a green line encompassing all the world, and from it darkness springs, as it is said, (Psalms 18:12) "He made darkness His hiding place round about Him." Desolation, these are smooth stones sunk in the deep, from which waters come forth, as it is said, (Isaiah 34:11) "and He shall stretch upon it the line of chaos and the stones of desolation."

Now that this is deduced from the words, "from the one end of heaven unto the other," what do I need "since the day that God created man upon the earth" for? Like that of R. Elazar. For R. Elazar said, Adam the First was from the earth to the firmament, as it is said, "from the day that God created man upon the earth," and once he became rotten [by sinning], the Holy One, blessed be He, placed His hand upon him, and made him small, as it is said, (Psalms 139:5) "You have fashioned me after and before, and laid Your hand upon me." R. Yehudah said in the name of Rav, Adam the First was from one end of the world to the other, as it is said, "since the day that God created man upon the earth, and from one end of heaven unto the other." Once he became rotten [by sinning], the Holy One, blessed be He, placed His hand upon him and made him small, as it is said, "and laid You hand upon me." If so, these verses contradict each other! [One part of the verse says he was from earth and the firmament, and the other part says from one end of the heaven to the other!] These and those are of the same dimensions. And R. Yehudah said in the name of Rav,

(7) I form the light, and create darkness; I make peace, and create evil; I am the LORD, that doeth all these things.