Bereishit

תהו is estordison in old French.

בהו VOID — The word signifies emptiness and empty space.

UNFORMED. Saadiah Gaon claims that the word tohu (unformed) is a derivative of tehom (the deep). This explanation is incorrect because the mem of tehom is a root letter [they cannot be the same root]. However, the correct meaning of these terms is found in the Aramaic translation of the Pentateuch. We similarly read, And in the waste (tohu), a howling wilderness (Deut. 32:10), and go after vain things (tohu) (I Sam. 12:21), which means worshipping things that have no substance.

VOID. Bohu is a synonym of tohu.

והארץ היתה תהו ובהו, “this very center which was created at that time was composed of a mixture of raw materials, known as tohu, and its original external appearance is what is described as bohu. The reason is that the whole expanse of tohu was comprised of a uniform appearance. This explained that the first raw material was something entirely new. It is described as tohu to indicate that at that point it was merely something which had potential, the potential not yet having materialised, been converted to something actual. When we read in Samuel I 12,21 כי תהו המה, the meaning is that these phenomena did not exist in reality, they existed only in someone’s imagination. The appearance of this primordial raw material is described as bohu, meaning that as such it came to exist in actual fact, in real terms. Isaiah 34,11 “weights of emptiness.” This describes any phenomenon that does not retain its appearance for any length of time. It constantly changes like a chameleon

Chaos and void (tohu vabohu): [This phrase appears] two [times]. Here, and the other one is (Jeremiah 4:23) "I have seen the earth and behold, it is chaos and void." [This] teaches that the Holy One, blessed be He, foresaw the destruction of the Temple when He created the world, [and] that it would be in the year tohu (the letters that are equal to the number, 411); since, behold the first Temple stood for 410 years and was destroyed in the 411th year. And the second Temple stood the numerical equivalent of [the word,] hayita (420), and this is [why it states] "vehaarets haita" ("and the earth was;" which is the phrase that precedes tohu in this verse). Another explanation: "and the earth was chaos and void" has a numerical equivalent (gematria) of 'two thousand years without Torah.'

Chaos: This name rests on something that is not distinguished and differentiated from anything else. [Just] like a wilderness - where there is no recognition of different places. And this is the intention of Targum Onkelos, [when he translates the word as] “empty;” that in an empty place, one part is no different than an other.

And void: This name [bohu, which when broken down is made up of 'in it' and 'it'] rests [on this concept] because much was included 'in it;' meaning from the dry land below the waters, to the end of the waters, the nature of all creation was included in it, [as well as] the potential of the creatures [that would be created] afterward.

This verse explains the meaning of “Tohu vavohu” in greater detail, i.e. that there was no kind of life on earth at that stage.

(2) Rabbi Abbahu and Rabbi Yehudah son of Simon: Rabbi Abbahu said there is a parable about a king who bought for himself two male slaves, both of them on one bill of sale and for the same price. He ordered that the first be cared for at public expense and the other, he ordered that the second work hard for his food. The second one sat, shocked and confused (tohʾe uvohʾe), and he said "both of us were on one bill of sale and for the same price; this one is supported at public expense and I, if I do not work hard, I do not eat!". In this way the earth was shocked and confused (tohʾe uvohʾe) and it said "the upper ones and the lower ones were created in one moment, the upper one are nourished by the radiance of the Shekhinah (divine presence), and the lower ones, if they don’t struggle they don’t eat!".

It was taught in the Tosefta: Tohu is a green line that encompasses the entire world, and from which darkness emerges, as it is stated: “He made darkness His hiding place round about Him” (Psalms 18:12), indicating that a line of darkness surrounds the world. Vohu; these are damp stones submerged in the depths, from which water emerges, as it is stated: “And He shall stretch over it the line of tohu and stones of vohu” (Isaiah 34:11), which demonstrates that tohu is a line and that vohu is referring to stones.

And darkness was upon the depths: This is the element of fire that was within the ground, as even today there are many elements of fire [in the ground;] and if [the ground] releases them, the earth quakes.

וחשך על פני תהום, “and there was darkness on the face of the abyss;” the “abyss” is the term used for this region surrounding earth. The fact that G-d had created the initial stage of darkness is recited by us in our daily prayers when we recite the words: יוצר אור ובורא חשך, “Who fashioned light, whereas He only created darkness in its initial stage.”

AND GOD SAID. Scripture describes creation as coming about by God’s word because it wants to teach us that heaven and earth came into being without any labor on God’s part. We may compare this to a king assigning certain tasks to his servants.

AND G-D SAID, ‘LET THERE BE LIGHT.’ It may be [that the word “saying” here means] “thinking,” as in the verses, Thou sayest in thy heart; And the chiefs of Judah shall say in their heart. The purport is to state that the creation was not done with toil. Our Rabbis have also called this “thought.” Thus they have said: “The thought [concerning what was to be created on a particular day] was during the day; the deed itself was at sunset.” This teaches that creation was thought out, that there is a reason for everything created, that creation was not a simple manifestation of mere Will alone.
The word “being” [Let there ‘be’] indicates a deed for the present time, just as: And thou wouldst be their king [meaning: their king from this moment on]. Therefore Scripture says that when He created the substance of the heavens, He said that from that substance there should come forth a shining matter called “light.”

ויאמר אלוקים, “G-d said:” seeing that there were no intelligent creatures as yet that G-d could have spoken to, the meaning of this statement must be that “G-d spoke to His heart, to the seat of His thoughts.” Even in our physical world nowadays when a human being expresses thoughts verbally, these are products of his thought processes which preceded his thoughts being formulated.

Rabbi Berchya said in the name of Rabbi Yehudah bar Simon: "The Heavens were made at the word of the Lord (Psalm 33:6)". Rabbi Yehudah bar Simon said: "not in toil, not in onerous labor did the Holy One, blessed be He, create His universe; rather by the word of Hashem, and immediately the heavens were made. So in this case "and light came into being" is not written, but rather "and the light was", [this means] it existed instantaneously".

Rabbi Shimeon Ben Yehotzadak asked Rabbi Shmuel Bar Nachman: Since I heard that you are a master of agadot, tell me from where was the light created? He answered: [the text] teaches that the Holy One of Blessing enveloped Himself [in it] as [one does with] a cloak, and made the splendor of His glory shine from one end of the world to the other. He told him this agadah in a whisper: he said to him - there is even a full verse [about it] 'He wears light as a cloak' (Ps. 104:2). [Rabbi Shmuel Bar Nachman said] And you are telling this to me in a whisper? This is surprising! He told him: Just as I heard it in a whisper, I'm telling you in a whisper. Said Rabbi Berachia in the name of Rabbi Itzchak: The light was created from the place of the Beit Hamikdash, since it is written 'And behold the glory of the God of Israel comes from the way of the East' (Ezekiel 43:2) and there is no His glory except the Beit Hamikdash, as you say: 'A throne of glory, on high from the beginning, the place of our sanctuary' (Jeremiah 17:12) etc.

And the Lord said, "let there be light:" The word, ohr [light], is written five times in this section; and on the fourth day the word, meohr [luminaries] is written five times, with the addition of [the letter] mem [to the word ohr], and there is in this an amazing intention. And that is that since we have found that the Sages, of blessed memory, said (Chagigah 12a), "The light that was created on the first day was hidden" and there is [also] an opinion that says, "these are the very luminaries that were created on the first day and were not 'hung' until the fourth day;" and these two midrashic statements appear to contradict one another. But the truth is not thus, since everyone admits that the light of the first day was a great light and was [then] hidden and that those luminaries that were 'hung' on the fourth day are not the actual light [of the first day], but rather they received their light from a spark of the upper light that was created on the first day; therefore, the word, ohr, is mentioned [on the first day], since it was the actual light; but with luminaries on the fourth day, each one is mentioned as meohr, with the addition of [the letter] mem, to show that they received their light from another light - greater than them - which is what is shown by the [letter] mem [which, when in front of a word, is a prefix that means, 'from'].

וירא אלהים את האור כי טוב ויבדל AND GOD SAW THE LIGHT THAT IT WAS GOOD, AND GOD CAUSED A DIVISION — Here, also, we must depend upon the statement of the Agada: He saw that the wicked were unworthy of using it (the light); He, therefore, set it apart (ויבדל), reserving it for the righteous in the world to come (Chagigah 12a). But according to the plain sense explain it thus: He saw that it was good, and that it was not seemly that light and darkness should function together in a confused manner. He therefore limited this one’s sphere of activity to the daytime, and this one’s sphere of activity to the nighttime (see Genesis Rabbah 3:6).

The Gemara answers: This should be understood in accordance with Rabbi Elazar, as Rabbi Elazar said: The light that the Holy One, Blessed be He, created on the first day was not that of the sun but a different kind of light, through which man could observe from one end of the world to the other. But when the Holy One, Blessed be He, looked upon the generation of the Flood and the generation of the Dispersion and saw that their ways were corrupt and that they might misuse this light for evil, He arose and concealed it from them, as it is stated: “And from the wicked their light is withheld” (Job 38:15).

The meaning of divided is: He divided them by naming one, day and the other, night.

וירא אלוקים את האור, “G-d saw the light;” the meaning of the word: וירא in this verse is that He contemplated, understood the impact that this light had made. In other words, this was “seeing” with one’s heart; we find the verb ראה used in this sense also in Exodus 12,13, where G-d is described as “‏וראיתי את הדם,” “When I take note of the blood” (on the entrance of the homes of the Israelites”); we find it used again use in that sense in Exodus 33,12, as well as in Kohelet 2,17. Even though everything in the past present and the future is “visible” to the Lord, it is impossible to explain the word here in the usual sense of seeing with one’s eyes.

And God saw, etc.: It is not that He did not know before it came to be that it would be good, as he [then] saw after it came to be. But rather also in this did He come to establish the nature [of things], that seeing is better than intellectual belief and understanding of a matter; so much so, that they stated about Moshe in Shemot Rabbah, that Moshe, our teacher, was not energized when the Holy One, blessed be He, said that the Jews had made a calf like [he was] afterwards when he saw [it] with his eyes.

יום אחד THE FIRST DAY (literally, one day) — According to the regular mode of expression used in this chapter it should be written here “first day”, just as it is written with regard to the other days “the second”, “the third”, “the fourth”. Why, then, does it write אחד “one”? Because the Holy One, blessed be He, was then the Only One (Sole Being) in His Universe, since the angels were not created until the second day. Thus it is explained in Genesis Rabbah (Genesis Rabbah 3:8).

The meaning of separation... The Omnipresent, may He be blessed, implanted that the darkness should not come immediately after the light; but rather that the light should diminish continuously until it becomes dark... And here it is according to our words; that the hour that separates them is sometimes closer to the light and sometimes closer to the darkness. And so is the nature of creation in all things that are deemed light and darkness, that there is a [gradual] distinction between them. And in this way man is able to tolerate the difference, according to the way of nature.

AND G-D CALLED THE LIGHT DAY.
The correct interpretation is that the matter of calling a name here indicates the division which bounded them when they assumed their form. Thus did the Rabbis say: “[G-d said to the light,] ‘The day shall be your boundary,’ [and to darkness He said,] ‘The night shall be your boundary.’”