(Gen 1:1), “…the heavens and the earth.” “The first verse of Genesis is a general statement meaning that,
in the beginning, a primeval substance was created, and from that substance the
heavens and the Earth would be made during the subsequent six days.” [1] First God created
the materials used for the construction of the universe. Then God set about arranging the materials in
an orderly manner during the six days of creation.
After this initially creating of the building blocks
of the universe, all subsequent creation comes from the existing elements
reflected in the use of verbs: “asa’ (make, fashion), “haya” (happen, come
about), “dasha” (sprout, bring forth, florish), “natan” (set, put, place, give,
or appoint), and “yasa” (go out from, come out from, bring forth, produce, or
spring forth).
(Gen 1:2), “The earth was formless and void…” Torah Club 5 (First Fruits of Zion) postulates an implied
action that occurred before the giving of light, “the earth was formless and void.”
Since the LORD God is infinite and limitless, a place did not exist
before the beginning for a finite creation to dwell in the presence of an
infinite God.
“To
make something that isn’t God, God had to create a non-God space. Therefore, the first step of creation
required formlessness and void that resulted from the concealment of His
presence.”[2]
In short, "formless and void” was the created “non-God
space” unformed and unfilled where the LORD God elected to limit Himself in
order to bring the creation into existence.
The Hebrew “tohu bohu” refers to the earth as “an unproductive and
uninhabited place.”
“Some 500 years
ago, the cabalists theorized that at the instant of creation, God, filling all
eternity, contracted. Within that
contraction, the universe expanded.” [3]
A person might say that the LORD God
humbled Himself, limiting the glory of His infinite nature in order to bring
creation into existence. Rabbi Yochanon once
said the following appropriate to the creation story,
“Wherever you find
the greatness of the Holy One, blessed be He, you will also find His humility.”
(b. Megillah 31a)[4]
As the universe expanded, so did space
and time into the vacuum once only occupied by the LORD God, continuing the
contraction that began at creation.
Scripture hints of a future time seen by John when this process will be
reversed, “Then I saw a great white
throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled
away, and no place was found for them,” (Rev 20:11). The contraction
of the existing universe will usher in an age when the LORD God will fill the
vacuum of the contracting universe, “When
all things are subjected to Him…so that God may be all in all,” (1 Cor 15:27).
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