Another matter, amon means artisan [uman]. The Torah is saying: ‘I was the tool of craft of the Holy One blessed be He.’ The way of the world is that when a flesh-and-blood king builds a palace he does not build it based on his own knowledge, but rather based on the knowledge of an artisan. And the artisan does not build it based on his own knowledge, but rather, he has [plans on] sheets and tablets by which to ascertain how he should build its rooms, how he should build its doors. So too, the Holy One blessed be He looked in the Torah and created the world. The Torah says: “Bereshit God created” (Genesis 1:1), and reshit is nothing other than the Torah, as it says: “The Lord made me at the beginning of [reshit] His way” (Proverbs 8:22).
We find that some of our Sages are reported to have held the opinion that time existed before the Creation. But this report is very doubtful, because the theory that time cannot be imagined with a beginning, has been taught by Aristotle, as I showed you, and is objectionable. Those who have made this assertion have been led to it by a saying of one of our Sages in reference to the terms “one day,” “a second day.” Taking these terms literally, the author of that saying asked, What determined “the first day,” since there was no rotating sphere, and no sun? and continues as follows: Scripture uses the term “one day”; R. Jehudah, son of R. Simon, said: “Hence we learn that the divisions of time have existed previously.” R. Abahu said, “Hence we learn that God built worlds and again destroyed them.” This latter exposition is still worse than the former. Consider the difficulty which these two Rabbis found in the statement that time existed before the creation of the sun. We shall undoubtedly soon remove this difficulty, unless these two Rabbis intended to infer from the Scriptural text that the divisions of time must have existed before the Creation, and thus adopted the theory of the Eternity of the Universe. But every religious man rejects this. The above saying is, in my opinion, certainly of the same character as that of R. Eliezer, “Whence were the heavens created,” etc., (chap. xxvi.). In short, in these questions, do not take notice of the utterances of any person. I told you that the foundation of our faith is the belief that God created the Universe from nothing; that time did not exist previously, but was created: for it depends on the motion of the sphere, and the sphere has been created.
CREATION:
By: Kaufmann Kohler, Emil G. Hirsch
The bringing into existence of the world by the act of God. Most Jewish philosophers find in (Gen. i. 1) creation ex nihilo (). The etymological meaning of the verb , however, is "to cut out and put into shape," and thus presupposes the use of material. This fact was recognized by Ibn Ezra and Naḥmanides, for instance (commentaries on Gen. i. 1; see also Maimonides, "Moreh Nebukim," ii. 30), and constitutes one of the arguments in the discussion of the problem.
Whatever may be the nature of the traditions in Genesis..., and however strong may be the presumption that they suggest the existence of an original substance which was reshaped in accordance with the Deity's purposes..., it is clear that the Prophets and many of the Psalms accept without reservation the doctrine of creation from nothing by the will of a supermundane personal God (Ps. xxxiii. 6-9, cii. 26, cxxi. 2; Jer. x. 12; Isa. xlii. 5, xlv. 7-9): "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth." To such a degree has this found acceptance as the doctrine of the Synagogue that God has come to be desinated as "He who spake and the world sprang into existence" (see Baruk She-Amar and 'Er. 13b; Meg. 13b; Sanh. 19a, 105a; Ḥid. 31a; Ḥul. 63b, 84b; Sifre to Num. § 84; Gen. R. 34b; Ex. R. xxv.; Shab. 139a; Midrash Mishle, 10c). God is "the author of creation," ("bereshit" having become the technical term for "creation"; Gen. R. xvi.; Ber. 54a, 58a; Ḥag. 12a, 18a; Ḥul. 83a; Ecclus. [Sirach] xv. 14).
The belief in God as the author of creation ranks first among the thirteen fundamentals (see Articles of Faith) enumerated by Maimonides. It occurs in the Yigdal, where God is called , "anterior [because Himself uncreated] to all that was created "; in the Adon 'Olam; ...
Difficulties of the Conception.
Nevertheless, Jewish literature (Talmudic, pseudoepigraphic, and philosophical) shows that the difficulties involved in this assumption of a creation ex nihilo () and in time, were recognized at a very early day, and that there were many among the Jews who spoke out on this subject with perfect candor and freedom. ...The influence of Greek ideas is clearly discernible in various Midrashic homilies on the subject—e.g., those dealing with the mode of divine creation (Gen. R. i., "God looked into the Torah, and through it He created"—a Platonic idea; ib. x.); with the view of God as architect (ib. i.; Ḥag. 12; compare Philo, "De Opificiis Mundi," iv.); ... with successive creations (Pes. 54a; Gen. R. i.; Ab. R. N. xxxvii.); and, finally, with the purpose of creation (Abot vi.; Sanh. 98b; Ber. 6b, 61b; see also Bacher, "Ag. Tan." and "Ag. Pal. Amor.," Indices, s.v. "Weltschöpfung," etc.). ...
(א) יְסוֹד הַיְסוֹדוֹת וְעַמּוּד הַחָכְמוֹת לֵידַע שֶׁיֵּשׁ שָׁם מָצוּי רִאשׁוֹן. וְהוּא מַמְצִיא כָּל נִמְצָא. וְכָל הַנִּמְצָאִים מִשָּׁמַיִם וָאָרֶץ וּמַה שֶּׁבֵּינֵיהֶם לֹא נִמְצְאוּ אֶלָּא מֵאֲמִתַּת הִמָּצְאוֹ:
(ב) וְאִם יַעֲלֶה עַל הַדַּעַת שֶׁהוּא אֵינוֹ מָצוּי אֵין דָּבָר אַחֵר יָכוֹל לְהִמָּצְאוֹת:
(ג) וְאִם יַעֲלֶה עַל הַדַּעַת שֶׁאֵין כָּל הַנִּמְצָאִים מִלְּבַדּוֹ מְצוּיִים הוּא לְבַדּוֹ יִהְיֶה מָצוּי. וְלֹא יִבָּטֵל הוּא לְבִטּוּלָם. שֶׁכָּל הַנִּמְצָאִים צְרִיכִין לוֹ וְהוּא בָּרוּךְ הוּא אֵינוֹ צָרִיךְ לָהֶם וְלֹא לְאֶחָד מֵהֶם. לְפִיכָךְ אֵין אֲמִתָּתוֹ כַּאֲמִתַּת אֶחָד מֵהֶם:
(ד) הוּא שֶׁהַנָּבִיא אוֹמֵר (ירמיה י י) "וַה' אֱלֹקִים אֱמֶת". הוּא לְבַדּוֹ הָאֱמֶת וְאֵין לְאַחֵר אֱמֶת כַּאֲמִתָּתוֹ. וְהוּא שֶׁהַתּוֹרָה אוֹמֶרֶת (דברים ד לה) "אֵין עוֹד מִלְּבַדּוֹ". כְּלוֹמַר אֵין שָׁם מָצוּי אֱמֶת מִלְּבַדּוֹ כְּמוֹתוֹ:
(ה) הַמָּצוּי הַזֶּה הוּא אֱלֹקֵי הָעוֹלָם אֲדוֹן כָּל הָאָרֶץ. וְהוּא הַמַּנְהִיג הַגַּלְגַּל בְּכֹחַ שֶׁאֵין לוֹ קֵץ וְתַכְלִית. בְּכֹחַ שֶׁאֵין לוֹ הֶפְסֵק. שֶׁהַגַּלְגַּל סוֹבֵב תָּמִיד וְאִי אֶפְשָׁר שֶׁיִּסֹּב בְּלֹא מְסַבֵּב. וְהוּא בָּרוּךְ הוּא הַמְסַבֵּב אוֹתוֹ בְּלֹא יָד וּבְלֹא גּוּף:
(1) The foundation of all foundations and the pillar of wisdom is to know that there is a Primary Being who brought into being all existence. All the beings of the heavens, the earth, and what is between them came into existence only from the truth of His being.
(2) If one would imagine that He does not exist, no other being could possibly exist.
(3) If one would imagine that none of the entities aside from Him exist, He alone would continue to exist, and the nullification of their [existence] would not nullify His existence, because all the [other] entities require Him and He, blessed be He, does not require them nor any one of them. Therefore, the truth of His [being] does not resemble the truth of any of their [beings].
(4) This is implied by the prophet's statement [Jeremiah 10:10]: "And God, your Lord, is true" - i.e., He alone is true and no other entity possesses truth that compares to His truth. This is what [is meant by] the Torah's statement [Deuteronomy 4:35]: "There is nothing else aside from Him" - i.e., aside from Him, there is no true existence like His.
(5) This entity is the God of the world and the Lord of the entire earth. He controls the sphere with infinite and unbounded power. This power [continues] without interruption, because the sphere is constantly revolving, and it is impossible for it to revolve without someone causing it to revolve. [That one is] He, blessed be He, who causes it to revolve without a hand or any [other] corporeal dimension.
by Dr. Sanford Drob
Volume 3 , Issue 5 (April, 1990 | Nisan, 5750)
An article in a recent issue of U.S. News and World Report begins with what would seem at first to be a rather odd question for one of our nation's major news weeklies. ?How,? the article asks, ?did the universe begin?? and it proceeds to provide the following by way of an answer:
?In the beginning, there was no time, no matter, not even space. Then in some unfathomable way, a universe emerged from a dimensionless point of pure energy (U.S. News and World Report, March 26, 1990).?
This, the article assures us, is as close to a description of ?the beginning? as science can currently provide, and it is to probe deeper into the questions of cosmic origins that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration plans, on April 12, 1990, to place the 1.5 billion dollar Hubble Space Telescope into earth orbit on the most sophisticated scientific sattelite ever constructed.
As I pondered the news weekly's description of creation, I was struck by what appears to be at least a superficial similarity to the account of creation provided in the Kabbalah. Indeed, the description reads almost as if it were a translation from a passage in the opening pages of Chayim Vital's Sefer Etz Chayyim, the classic exposition of the Kabbalah of ?the Ari,? Rabbi Isaac Luria [1534‑1572]. Rabbi Luria, starting from completely different assumptions and operating in a universe of discourse which is, to use an unusually precise metaphor, ?light years away? from the Hubble telescope, arrived at the very same conclusion: that the universe emerged from a dimensionless point which gave rise to a world of matter, space, and time. Only, for the kabbalists, that dimensionless point is not so much an impenetrable beginning, but is rather the end result of a process occurring within God Himself. This process, known as tzimtzum (divine contraction or concealment) is, according to the Lurianic scheme, the very essence of creation; it is the means by which an infinite unified God ?makes room,? so to speak, for a finite, pluralistic world. Through an understanding of the doctrine of tzimtzum we may, without ever turning our gaze upon the astronomical heavens, gain some genuine insight into how a universe of matter, space and time could emerge from a single point in a metaphysical void.
The kabbalistic account of creation is, to the uninitiated, a very strange, difficult and perhaps even disturbing notion. However, it is a notion which gives expression to a series of paradoxical, but deeply profound ideas. Amongst them is the notion that the universe as we know it is the result of a cosmic negation. The world, according to Lurianic kabbalah, is not so much a something which has been created from nothing, but rather a genre of nothingness resulting from a contraction or concealment of the only true reality, which is God. ...
The Doctrine of Tzimtzum
The notion of tzimtzum2 is hinted at in an early midrash where we learn that when God descended to inhabit the holy mishkan or tabernacle, he ?restricted his shekhinah [the divine `presence'] to the square of an ell? (Shemoth Rabbah 34:l). While in this midrash God contracts himself in order to occupy a particular place, we here have the germ of the idea that a tzimtzum, or contraction, is necessary in order for God to be manifest in the world. The kabbalists, who held that the world itself was a manifestation of the infinite God, reinterpreted this midrashic notion and elevated it to the principle of creation itself....
The Ramban (Nachmanides) held that the beginning of creation involved the emergence of divine wisdom (chockhmah) as a result of a tzimtzum or limitation of the divine light or will. However, it was Isaac Luria and his disciples (most notably Chayim Vital and Joseph Ibn Tabul) who made tzimtzum the central focus of their cosmology. According to Vital's Sefer Etz Chayzim:
?before the emanated things were emanated and the created things were created, the pure, divine light filled all existence ... There was neither beginning nor end. There was just one simple light, static, in equanimity [even, calm]. It was called the light of Ein Sof. God's simple will was moved to create worlds ... Then Ein Sof contracted (concealed) Himself into a central point with His light in the middle. He contracted (concealed) this light and then removed Himself to the sides encircling the point at the center. This left an empty place, an ether, and a vacuum around the point at the center. (Sefer Etz Chayim, 11b)4
It is this contraction and the resulting metaphysical (not spatial) void which provides, according to the Lurianic scheme, the foundation for all of God's creation.
Two theological problems, the first engendered by God's presumed omnipresence and the second by His presumed unchangeability prompted Luria to introduce ?contraction? and ?concealment? as the basis for the creation of a finite world. The first of these problems arises because God is assumed to be infinite and omnipresent. As such, He originally fills the whole of Being and without an act of contraction or self‑limitation there would simply be no ?place? for a world to exist. The second of these problems arises because God is thought of as complete, self‑sufficient and unchangeable. He, therefore, cannot be said to create a world which in any way adds to or alters His essential being. The notion of tzimtzum, which has the dual meaning of ?contraction? and ?concealment? is introduced to resolve each of these problems. God or Ein‑Sof (literally, without end) contracts to provide a ?place? for the world5, and the very existence of a finite world is predicated not on a metaphysical addition to, or alteration in, an infinite God, but rather upon a partial concealment of God's ?light? or manifestation. As the sun is not changed or diminished by a concealment of its light, the infinite God is unchanged as a result of creation.
Mystical Metaphors
The discussion of tzimtzum in terms of a physical or spatial contraction, as well as the notion of a concealment of God's ?light,? is, on the view of most kabbalists, purely metaphorical in nature. God or ?Ein‑Sof? does not exist within space and time; indeed, ...it is only through the original tzimtzum that space, time, matter and light come into being at all. The tzimtzum itself cannot, therefore, occur in a spatio‑temporal frame. ... [It] gives rise to an ontological region or point which ultimately comprises all the levels of spriritual and material existence of the world as we know it. The purpose of tzimtzum is thus to create an ontological region in which finite beings are able to exist without being dissolved in God.6
https://thejewishreview.org/articles/?id=121