Torah Through the Lens of Midrash Part 1: Creation

(1) The great Rabbi Hoshaya opened with the verse (Mishlei / Proverbs 8:30):

"I [the Torah] was an amon to Him and I was a plaything to Him every day."

Amon means "pedagogue" (i.e. nanny).

Amon means "dressed."

Amon means "concealed."

And some say amon means "great."

Amon means "nanny," as in (Bamidbar 11:12) “As a nanny (omein) carries the suckling child."

Amon means "dressed," as in (Eichah 4:5) "Those who were dressed (emunim) in purple are sprawled on refuse heaps."

Amon means "hidden," as in (Esther 2:7) "He hid away (omein) Hadassah."

Amon means "great," as in (Nahum 3:8) "Are you better than No-amon [which dwells in the rivers]?" which the Targum {Aramaic translation of Torah} renders as, "Are you better than Alexandria the Great (amon), which dwells between the rivers?"

Alternatively, amon means "artisan."

The Torah is saying,

"I was the artisan's tool of the Holy Blessed One."

In the way of the world, a king of flesh and blood who builds a castle does not do so from his own knowledge, but rather from the knowledge of an architect, and the architect does not build it from his own knowledge, but rather he has scrolls and books in order to know how to make rooms, how to make doorways.

So too Hashem gazed into the Torah and created the world. Similarly the Torah says, "Through the reishis God created [the heavens and the earth]," and reishis means Torah, as in "Hashem made me [the Torah] the beginning (reishis) of His way" (Mishlei 8:22).

(1) It is Wisdom calling, Understanding raising her voice. (2) She takes her stand at the topmost heights, By the wayside, at the crossroads ...

Listen, for I speak noble things; Uprightness comes from my lips; (7) My mouth utters truth; Wickedness is abhorrent to my lips. (8) All my words are just, None of them perverse or crooked; (9) ... (13) To fear the LORD is to hate evil; I hate pride, arrogance, the evil way, And duplicity in speech.

(14) Mine are counsel and resourcefulness; I am understanding; courage is mine. (15) Through me kings reign And rulers decree just laws; (16) Through me princes rule, Great men and all the righteous judges. (17) Those who love me I love, And those who seek me will find me...

(22) “The LORD created me at the beginning of His course As the first of His works of old.

(23) In the distant past I was fashioned, At the beginning, at the origin of earth.

(24) There was still no deep when I was brought forth, No springs rich in water;

(25) Before [the foundation of] the mountains were sunk, Before the hills I was born.

(26) He had not yet made earth and fields, Or the world’s first clumps of clay.

(27) I was there when He set the heavens into place; When He fixed the horizon upon the deep; (28) When He made the heavens above firm, And the fountains of the deep gushed forth; (29) When He assigned the sea its limits, So that its waters never transgress His command; When He fixed the foundations of the earth,

(30) I was with Him as a confidant, A source of delight every day, Rejoicing before Him at all times, (31) Rejoicing in His inhabited world, Finding delight with humankind.

(5) Those who feasted on dainties Lie famished in the streets; Those who were reared in purple are sprawled on refuse heaps.

(7) He was foster father to Hadassah—that is, Esther—his uncle’s daughter, for she had neither father nor mother. The maiden was shapely and beautiful; and when her father and mother died, Mordecai adopted her as his own daughter.

(8) Were you any better than No-amon, Which sat by the Nile, Surrounded by water— Its rampart a river, Its wall consisting of sea?

(6) Ten things were created on the eve of the first Sabbath at twilight, and these are they: [1] the mouth of the earth [that swallowed Korach], [2] the mouth of the well [that , [3] the mouth of Bilam's donkey, [4] the rainbow, [5] the manna, [6] the staff [of Moses], [7] the shamir, [8] the letters, [9] the writing, [10] and the tablets. And some say: also the demons, the grave of Moses, and the ram of Abraham, our father. And some say: and also tongs, made with tongs.