Genesis 1:8
ח וַיִּקְרָא אֱלֹהִים לָרָקִיעַ שָׁמָיִם וַיְהִי־עֶרֶב
וַיְהִי־בֹקֶר יוֹם שֵׁנִי:
Transliteration: Va-yiqra elohim
la-raqia shamaim va-y’hi erev va-y’hi voqer yom sheni.
Translation: Gd named the raqia heaven and there was evening and there was
morning a second day.
Letters in this lesson:
Vocabulary in this lesson:
שֵׁנִי second
The classic question on this verse
is, why does it say “second”, an ordinal number, but previously it said “one,”
a cardinal number. In Midrash Rabbah on
Parshah Naso (in Numbers) it says that the day the tabernacle was put up
and Gd’s glory came to rest on it, that
was the same as the world being created over again. In Midrash Rabbah on Parshah Breshit (in
Genesis) chapter 3 section 8 says it’s because Gd was the only One in the world
at the time; the angels weren’t created until the second day.
And you thought you were the
only one.
Now, here’s another question. Verse 1 says “creation of heaven and earth,”
but here it says that Gd gave the name “heaven” to the raqia. Does that mean that heaven didn’t actually
exist before this? Judaism would say
no. There was a discussion about whether heaven
or earth was created first, and one answer was that it doesn’t matter because
they are equal partners in the world. R.
Shimon bar Yochai said they were created at the same time, like a pot and its
lid. Apparently makers of clay pots used
to make sure the lid fitted tightly by building a large ball, then cutting the
top off, scooping out the insides, and making a lip for the lid to sit on. R. Shimon was known as one of the greatest
explainers of Torah in his time, which was around the Hadrianic persecution,
and he is credited as author of the Zohar, the fundamental work of Jewish
mysticism.
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