Aggada -- Translations into English; Bible. Old Testament -- Legends; Jewish legends; Midrash -- Translations into English
God, if only Yezer ha-Ra' the evil inclination, had not happened to
begin with it, too. Tet is identified with Tob, the good. However, the
truly good is not in this world; it belongs to the world to come. Het
is the first letter of Hanun, the Gracious One; but this advantage is
offset by its place in the word for sin, Hattat. Zain suggests Zakor,
remembrance, but it is itself the word for weapon, the doer of
mischief. Waw and He compose the Ineffable Name of God; they are
therefore too exalted to be pressed into the service of the mundane
world. If Dalet had stood only for Dabar, the Divine Word, it would
have been used, but it stands also for Din, justice, and under the rule
of law without love the world would have fallen to ruin. Finally, in
spite of reminding one of Gadol, great, Gimel would not do, because
Gemul, retribution, starts with it.
After the claims of all these letters had been disposed of, Bet stepped
before the Holy One, blessed be He, and pleaded before Him: "O Lord of
the world! May it be Thy will to create Thy world through me, seeing
that all the dwellers in the world give praise daily unto Thee through
me, as it is said, 'Blessed be the Lord forever. Amen, and Amen.'" The
Holy One, blessed be He, at once granted the petition of Bet. He said,
"Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord." And He created His
world through Bet, as it is said, "Bereshit God created the heaven and
the earth." The only letter that had refrained from urging its claims
was the modest Alef, and God rewarded it later for its humility by
giving it the first place in the Decalogue.[12]
THE FIRST DAY
On the first day of creation God produced ten things:[13] the heavens
and the earth, Tohu and Bohu, light and darkness, wind and water, the
duration of the day[14] and the duration of the night.[15]
Though the heavens and the earth consist of entirely different
elements,[16] they were yet created as a unit, "like the pot and its
cover."[17] The heavens were fashioned from the light of God's garment,
and the earth from the snow under the Divine Throne.[18] Tohu is a
green band which encompasses the whole world, and dispenses darkness,
and Bohu consists of stones in the abyss, the producers of the waters.
The light created at the very beginning is not the same as the light
emitted by the sun, the moon, and the stars, which appeared only on the
fourth day. The light of the first day was of a sort that would have
enabled man to see the world at a glance from one end to the other.
Anticipating the wickedness of the sinful generations of the deluge and
the Tower of Babel, who were unworthy to enjoy the blessing of such
light, God concealed it, but in the world to come it will appear to the
pious in all its pristine glory.[19]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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