Vayehi Ohr

(3) God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.

“And He said” – The Gaon said that the meaning of vayomer (“And He said”) is like “and He desired”. But if this was so, it would have been appropriate for there to have been light [from the beginning, without darkness]. Rather, it’s in accordance with its [plain] meaning. And thus, “By the word of G-d were the heavens made” Psalms 33:6, “for He commanded and they were created” Psalms 148:5, The meaning is: a way of referring to an effortless action, comparable to a king and his servants. Now this light was above the wind.

And God said, "let there be light:" The word, saying, here is to indicate will; in the same way as (I Samuel 20:4) "What does your soul say, and I will do it for you," [which means] what do you will and want; and so [too] (Genesis 24:51), "and she shall be a wife to the son of your master, as God has said," meaning as He willed; since this is how will is in front of Him. Or [saying] is like thought, as per (Isaiah 47:8), "who says in her heart;" (Zechariah 12:5) "And the captains of Yehuda said in their hearts." And the issue is to say that it was without effort. And so [too], our Rabbis called this 'thought.' They said (Bereishit Rabbah 12:14), "The thought was at day, the act was with the dimming of the sun." And it is to indicate something thought out that has a reason, not just a simple want. And the word, being, indicates an act that is in the present time (tense), as per (Nechemiah 6:6), "and you will be a king for them." And therefore the verse states that when He created the material of the heavens, He said that there would be a thing that shines [coming] from this material; He called it light. And there was light: It did not state, "and it was so," as it is stated with the other days, since the light did not stand in this way all of the days, as [was the case] with the rest of the act of creation. And our rabbis have a midrash about this in a hidden secret. And know that the days that are mentioned in the act of creation were, in the creation of the heavens and the earth, real days - composed of hours and minutes - and they were six like the six days of the [week], like the simple understanding of the verse. And in the inner [understanding] of the matter, the spheres (sfirot) that are emanated from the Most High are called 'days,' since any proclamation that brings existence is called a 'day.' And there were six, 'because to the Lord is greatness and strength.' And the proclamations were ten, since the name 'day' does not apply to the first ones. And the explanation of the order of the verses in this [way] is elevated and hidden, and our knowledge of it is less than a drop in the Great Sea.

The two terms, when applied to God, can only have one of the two last-mentioned significations, viz., he wills and he desires, or he thinks, and there is no difference whether the divine thought became known to man by means of an actual voice, or by one of those kinds of inspiration which I shall explain further on (II. chap. xxxviii.). We must not suppose that in speaking God employed voice or sound. or that He has a soul in which the thoughts reside, and that these thoughts are things superadded to His essence; but we ascribe and attribute to Him thoughts in the same manner as we ascribe to Him any other attributes. The use of these words in the sense of will and desire, is based, as I have explained, on the homonymity of these terms. In addition they are figures borrowed from our common practices, as has been already pointed out. For we cannot, at a first glance, see how anything can be produced by a mere desire: we think that he who wishes to produce a thing, must perform a certain act, or command some one else to perform it. Therefore the command is figuratively ascribed to God when that takes place which He wishes, and we then say that He commanded that a certain thing should be accomplished. All this has its origin in our comparing the acts of God to our own acts, and also in the use of the term amar in the sense of "He desired," as we have already explained. The words "And He said," occurring in the account of the creation, signify "He wished," or "He desired." This has already been stated by other authors, and is well known. A proof for this, namely that the phrase "God said," in the first chapter of Genesis, must be taken in a figurative sense "He willed," and not in its literal meaning, is found in the circumstance that a command can only be given to a being which exists and is capable of receiving the command. Comp. "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth" (Ps. 33:6). "His mouth," and "the breath of his mouth," are undoubtedly figurative expressions, and the same is the case with "His word" and "His speech." The meaning of the verse is therefore that they [the heavens and all their host] exist through His will and desire. All our eminent authorities are cognisant of this; and, I need not explain that in Hebrew amar and dibber have the same meaning, as is proved by the passage, "For it has heard all the words (imre) of the Lord which he spake (dibber) unto us" (Josh. 24:27).