בְּרֵאשִׁית
Bereishit
In the beginning.
According to Rashi, the word בראשית (bereishit) is a possessive form (grammatically speaking) as it is every time it appears in the Torah. It signals that on the first day G-d created only the light. The meaning of the full verse then is, "at the beginning of the creation of heaven and earth there was Tohu Vavohu, chaos. G-d said, 'Let there be light.'" Everything else developed from that point on including the creation of heaven and earth. The word בראשית (bereishit) here is comparable to the verse in Hoshea 1:1 "When G-d began to speak to Hoshea, G-d said to Hoshea..." Rashi's opinion was that if the Torah had wanted to tell us the heaven and earth had been created on the first day, the Torah should have written בראשונה (ba-rishonah).
The fact is however, that the word is not a possessive form at all but an independent word and is equivalent ot the Torah having written ba-rishonah. Proof of this is found in the tone-sign tipcha on the word which separates it from the word which follows it.
The paragraph tells us that heaven and earth with all their derivatives were created on the first day, none of them having been preceded by any physical matter at all. This fact is attested to by the word bara, which describes the creation of "something out of nothing." This, at any rate, is the opinion of Rabbi Nechemyah who is quoted to this effect in Midrash Tanchuma. On the hand, Rabbi Yehudah who disagrees with him, claims that the universe was created during six days. He bases himself on the repeated directives of the Torah that something new shoud emerge and the Tora's reporting that it indeed did, using the words ויהו כן (vayehi chen - and it was so) to inform us that G-d's instructions had been carried out. Rabbi Nechemyah claims that the proof that the whole universe was created already on the first day are the words תוצא הארץ (totze ha'aretz) "let the earth bring forth" (1:24). The wording "bring forth" indicates that G-d referred to matters which had already been in existence, ready to emerge, but had not yet seen the light of day until commanded to do so by G-d. The matter can be compared to a farmer who sows six grains of corn at the same time only to find that they take root at different times instead of all sprouting forth simultaneously. The six days of creation described by the Torah report the sequence in which G-d's creative activity became manifest. This is whta the psalmist had in mind, "for He had given a directive and then it materialised" (Tehillim 33:9). David taught us that G-d's directive and its execution as visible fact occurs simultaneously.
Afterwards, the creation of heaven and earth, He gave these various directives introduced by the Torah with the words ויאמר אלוקום (vayomer Elokim) "and G-d said," G-d's work became manifest, was covereted from being a potential to become actual.
אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵת הָאָרֶץ
et hashamayim ve'et ha'aretz
the heaven and the earth.
Whenever the word את (et) appears it adds something to the meaning of the plain text. At the most basic level, the two words את here are meant to convey that two additional matters or raw materials were involved in the creation of heaven and earth.
According to Peshat (the plain meaning) of the text, we understand the two words as references to the two different raw materials (elements) G-d employed when creating heaven and earth, seeing the two are obviously not made of the same material. This is the meaning of "the earth was tohu vavohu", i.e. that after the initial act of creation earth was still in a chaotic state. The specific meaning of the two words is that the material tohu, was covered with a form bohu. This is what is meant by Yeshayahu 66:2. The first three words of that verse refer to existing material, whereas the last words "My hands have fashioned," refer to G-d supplying this material with distinctive form, צורה (tzura). According to this verse in Yeshayahu, G-d first created the raw material, bara, but subsequently His activities consisted only of refining such raw material by acts of יצירה (yetzirah) respectively. בריאה (beri'ah), creation of matter, consisted of merely creating the smallest physical particle, a נקודה (nekudah), "a point," something barely perceptible. This little particle formed the beginning of the entire solar system.
Looked at from an homiletical point of view, the extra words את (et) in the phrase "heaven and earth," include the sun, moon, stars in the word שמים (shamayim) and the entire range of vegetation in the word ארץ (eretz).
1:2
וְהָאָרֶץ הָיְתָה תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ
veha'aretz hayetah tohu vavohu
and the earth had been in a chaotic state.
This is reference to the raw material which had not yet been properly defined and therefore could not yet be named. This explanation is analogous to what Chazal have said in Kiddushin 40 "He had second thoughts on what He had thought before." The Torah called this indefinable material "tohu." The word "bohu," on the other hand, refers to this material once it had been equipped with a distinctive shape and had assumed a definite form. The word בהו (bohu) is actually two words comprised of בו הוא something which does have a certain form by which it is identifiable. That is what Yeshayahu 34:11 had in mind when he said, "He will measure it with a line of chaos and with weights of emptiness." The prophet related the word "a line," to possessing substance. Incidentally, this word is related or derived from Tehillim 40:2, i.e. intense hope precedes concretisation of one's wishes. An artisan envisages a building in his mind's eye before he builds it. The relationship of the word is that the stones are the manifestation, the format of the building the artisan had first envisaged.
To sum up the whole passage, "At the beginning G-d created a minute amount of matter out of absolute nothingness. This contained within itself the potential and energy to expand into what we call 'heaven and earth.' After this initial stage of creative activity by G-d the earth had still remained in a chaotic state, matter without separation into shape or form of the four basic raw materials (elements) of the universe, i.e. fire, wind, water and dust." The word הארץ (ha'aretz) includes all these four basic materials the earth is made of. Even though the material עפר (dust) is only the last one described in the record of maaseh bereishit (work of creation) the Torah refers to it first when speaking about ארץ (eretz) which was a minute point. Philosophers called it a "point," to distinguish between the solar system which appears in constant motion, whereas earth appears stationary. They viewed the earth as if it were a point surrounded by the planetary system. Earth was viewed as stationary based on Kohelet 1:4 "and the earth remains in its place forever." This is in contrast to the planets surrounding it which move from place to place and never remain in the same spot. Only a small part of earth is in motion, ever. The reason the planetary system, i.e. shamayim, is called lofty, high, is because the material it is made of is so delicate, so fine, and so pure. Earth, on the other hand, is made of the coarsest, the most opaque material.
Once the Torah had begun to discuss the properties of earth it returns its attention to the heaven and lists the other basic raw materials (elements) in their proper order i.e. fire, wind, and water.
וְחֹשֶׁךְ עַל-פְּנֵי תְהוֹם
vechoshech al-penei tehom
and darkness covered the face of the deep
The word חשך (darkness), is a reference to elemental fire which is dark (compare Shemot Rabbah 2:10) This recalls the statement of Chazal that the Torah was written with black fire on white fire. It is listed ahead of the second element רוח (ruach), wind, seeing that fir is more comprehensive element than wind. The wind precedes water, i.e. "the wind (spirit) of G-d hovered over the deep." This is because wind is a more comprehensive element than water. Water, on the other hand, is a more comprehensive element than earth (dust). We find this order of the basic elements both in Kohelet and in Iyov.
Just as the Torah in this instance began its detailed description with the נקודה (nekudah), the "point," when it wrote, "and the earth was chaotic," so the Book of Kohelet begins with this "point" describing it as something which remains in place forever (Kohelet 1:4). Next, Shlomo mentions the element fire when he wrote "the sun shone and the sun set" (Kohelet 1:5). After the fire Shlomo mentions the wind in Kohelet 1:6 where he wrote, "the wind goes round and round." Finally, Shlomo mentions the water when he wrote, "all the rivers flow into the sea" (Kohelet 1:7).
In the Book of Iyov (28:24) the description of creation also begins with the "point," i.e. earth, or "dust," when the author wrote, "for He sees to the ends of the earth, observes all that is beneath the heavens." The reference to the heavens is a reference to fire. The text continues "when He fixed the weight of the winds, set the measure of the waters." We observe that the elements are listed in the same order as in Kohelet and in Bereishit. The reason for this is that all these three Books concern themselves with some degree of research, and its words are based on our knowledge of nature.
Here the Torah informed us that the earth assumed a shape, that the darkness which is the fire, spread out above the mixture of dust and water. This mixture is called תהום (tehom), "the deep," in the Torah. It describes the ocean which has earth dissolved in it. Compare Yonah 2:6, תהום יסובבני (tehom yesovveni) "the deep surrounds me."
The wind was blowing, entering the darkness and hovering above the water. When the Torah speaks of ורוח אלוקים (veruach Elokim) we would have expected ורוח ה-אלוקם, i.e. "the wind (spirit) of G-d," the reason the Torah chose to omit the letter ה, thereby apparently identifying wind as something divine, is because of all matters in the physical universe wind is the closest to the invisible abstract force called G-d. Even though in some respects fire is even more insubstantial than the wind, the Torah did not want to associate this word with G-d seeing that we described fire as synonymous with darkness.
