Ten things were created on erev Shabbos at sunset, as
enumerated in Pirkei Ovos, one of them being "the
mouth of the earth."
In order to understand this in depth, as the Maharal
illuminates it, it is necessary to go back to the beginning
of time, to Creation and its development.
"In the beginning Elokim created the heavens and the earth."
Bereishis, from the very beginning when the heavens
were created, the earth was created alongside them. The
heavens are the revealed habitat of truth, "The abode of His
glory is in the heavens above, and the dwelling of His
majesty is upon the loftiest heights." In heaven there is no
intervening materialism or physicality to obscure the Divine
revelation. Angels, seraphs and holy celestial beings extol
and sanctify and enthrone.
The earth, however, was void and waste, darkness, mist and
vapor cloud. Truth was lacking. "The materialism and
physicality of this world are the darkness of night obscuring
the eye of the intellect" (Mesillas Yeshorim).
Hashem created them both simultaneously -- the heavens and
the earth. "So that the beneficence be complete. The Creator,
in His divine and exalted wisdom, knew that those who would
receive it [the eternal reward], should do so by earning it,
and not by having it handed to them gratis, in a degrading
manner. For one who receives charity from another is ashamed
to look him in the face. Divine wisdom decreed that man be
composed of two opposites, that is, of a pure and discerning
soul and an earthly, base corpus, each of which would pull
the other in its direction. The body, towards physicality,
and the soul, towards spirituality. There would be a constant
struggle between them, with the winner dragging along the
loser, so that if the soul prevailed, it would rise and lift
the body along with it and man would approach and attain
perfection" (Ramchal - Derech Hashem veDaas
Tvunos).
And ever since, the battle has been pitched.
The earth conceals what the heaven reveals. The heavens
relate the glory of Hashem. Spirituality brings man closer to
his Creator. This world, olom, derives from the root
ne'elom, hidden and invisible. Nature, teva,
comes from the root of tovei'a, immersed and
drowning.
The physical world obscures and hides the Creator. The non-
believer presumes that the world came into being of its own,
just like that, without any design or purpose. Man,
therefore, can do what he pleases. Man's animal drives also
pull him downward. "And the battle is waged fore and aft," in
the words of Mesillas Yeshorim. "And if someone is
valorous and wins the battle, he will emerge the perfect man
who will merit adherence to his Maker."
But in order for the war to be fair and evenly matched, with
equal chances of victory or defeat, there must be an even
balance between both sides. The nether world cannot obscure
the truth too much, for if the trials on earth were such that
the drives and the obfuscation overwhelmed the impact of
truth and crushed it to earth, the battle would be lost
before it ever got started and would never get off the
ground. It is clear then, that the creation of heaven and
earth, of spirituality and physicality, had to be in perfect
balance, equally seesawed.
When Yaakov Ovinu underwent all the tribulations of his
lifetime and reached the point when he thought that Yosef was
lost, Shimon was imprisoned and Binyomin was the next to go,
he thought bitterly, "He Who said `enough' at the Creation of
the world, should say `enough' to my suffering as well"
(Rashi: Mikeitz).
The commentaries explain: Our troubles and suffering come as
trials. Suffering veils and hides. "Till when, Hashem, will
You forget me, eternally; till when will You conceal Your
face from me?" The test, the challenge, is to cleave unto
Hashem in spite of everything.
Moshe approached the mist wherein Hashem was concealed! But
even the measure of suffering is carefully meted and exactly
weighed, lest man succumb and lose himself and forfeit his
portion altogether. This is why Yaakov prayed, "He Who said
`enough' to the world -- who set limits to the measure of
concealment within Creation, within this worldly world, so
that the forces be evenly matched and balanced -- He shall
say `enough' to my suffering, as well." `Enough' are these
troubles for me to handle. The test is sufficient; there is
no need for an additional veil to conceal the light.
*
This brings us to "the mouth of the earth" which was created
at sunset on the sixth day of Creation. Being on the twilight
zone of sanctity, this time is more potent than the rest of
the days of `natural' development, the process of Creation,
which is at a lower level. Those very things which are beyond
nature, supernatural, were created in this twilight state.
They lean closer to holiness, just as this time bends closer
to Shabbos. It was necessary for this unique space in time to
produce something, not natural, but beyond it. Thus were
created those extraordinary things that were above and beyond
the natural things created during the six days, yet are still
close, somewhat, to nature.
All of physical reality was created during the first Six
Days. It was designed to formulate nisoyon for
mankind, the imagined conception that there is real substance
to this olom ne'elom, this deceptive world, where one
can delude himself into thinking that perhaps, R'l,
there is no Creator.
This physical reality, reality as we seem to know it, tugs at
a person and attempts to incite and lure him to a life of
materialism. But on Shabbos Kodesh comes rest, surcease, the
reminder that "in six days did Hashem make the heavens and
the earth," and on the seventh day, Shabbos, this mask is
removed.
On erev Shabbos at sunset, in the twilight zone
between darkness and light, between weekday and holyday, this
is when the pi ho'oretz came into being. Hashem then
determined an aperture in that very physical reality, that
cover-up mask, itself, through which the truth would also
appear.
*
If there will arise a generation in which all of truth would
be endangered, if the delicate balance were somehow upset,
deranged, and if darkness were to cover the earth in such
harsh measure that people would deny the prophecy of Moshe
Rabbenu and undermine the very foundation of Torah and
emunah, then Hashem will say to his world:
"Enough!"
And then the earth, which was created to be null and void, to
conceal and obscure, to create the situation of testing --
then this earth will necessarily open its mouth, from which
the eternal cry would rise up all the way to heaven: "Moshe
is true and his Torah is true!"
