"And Elokim saw the light that it was good, and Elokim made a
division between the light and the darkness."
Rashi: Here, too, we require the exegesis of Aggada:
He saw that the light was not worth benefiting the wicked
and so He set it aside for the righteous in the World to
Come.
Is the light provided by the sun and the moon similar to the
original light that was cached away, only less intense? Or is
it of a different nature altogether? Another form of
illumination? What was that special light hidden away for
tzaddikim? Was it like the light of the sun, only of
much greater magnitude, or was it spiritual, the likes of
which we cannot even imagine?
We ourselves express the answer to these questions in our
daily prayers, at the completion of yotzer hame'oros,
which praises the Creator, Who formed light and created
darkness. To Him do we pray, "May You illumine a new light
upon Zion and may we all speedily merit its light."
In the Tur, Orach Chaim, siman 59, it is written, "And
in Ashkenaz (Germany) it is customary to end this blessing
with the text, `As it is written: To the One Who makes the
great luminaries; for eternal is His kindness. A new light
shall You illuminate upon Zion, and may we all merit its
light speedily . . . Blessed . . . Who creates the
luminaries.' We do not use this text in Spain. Rashi writes
that one should not conclude the blessing with mention of the
future light, since this does not relate to the body of the
blessing. Chazal arranged this blessing over that light which
is renewed every day [which serves mankind in this world] and
not over the light of the future world. And my master the
Rosh writes in a responsa that the end and the beginning of
this blessing do relate to one another and to this present
world."
The world proved unworthy of the light which Hashem created
in the beginning and which illuminated the world during the
first six days of Creation. And, therefore, it was cached
away for the righteous in the world to Come. This is the
light referred to in "And the nations will walk to your
light" (Yeshaya 60). This is also that `new light'
which was in-novated during the first week of Creation
and which will be renewed for our benefit in the future.
The Rosh teaches us that the blessing of the luminaries in
our prayers begins with praise for the creation of that light
which was hidden away, and it also closes with a prayer that
we merit experiencing the time when this light will be
restored to us. In the middle we give thanks for and praise
the light of the sun which serves us daily and whereby Hashem
illuminates the world and its occupants with mercy. This
seems to bear out the fact that the light of the luminaries
and the hidden light are intertwined and interrelated.
The Ramban gives us the explanation in our parsha,
saying: Chazal mention genizah [hiding away] with
regard to the original light of Creation. They maintain that
this light was too noble for mankind, too exalted, and was,
therefore, divided into two luminaries, see Bereishis
Rabba 17:5. The light was nebulated or diffused
[partially] into the sun. This world could not bear the
potency of that light without an intermediary, a screening,
and it was, therefore, hidden away for the righteous in the
World to Come but its `nebula' served this world from the
fourth day onward.
Sunlight is, therefore, a form of reflection, residue,
diffusion. It is a fallout from the original intense light.
The Ramban stresses that this world was not worthy; it was
incapable of utilizing this source of illumination without
diffusion or screening. In other words, the sunlight that
does reach our naked eye is beamed from the source of that
hidden light, but made opaque through the layers of
atmosphere in our world. It is the real thing at its source,
yet it reaches our world in less than its full potency.
This is what Midrash Rabba writes (Bamidbor
15): "The sun and the moon shed light upon the world. What is
their source of light? Sparks of light from the heavens, as
it is written, `From the light of Your arrows as they speed,
and at the shining of Your glittering spear' (Chavakuk
3:11). The light above is so intense that creatures cannot
bear to see it; only one in a hundred" (a fraction of a
percent). [Perhaps an example is the sun during an eclipse,
which can only be viewed through smoked glass. Similarly, the
tremendous light released during atomic fission or
fusion.]
The sun and moon are, therefore, creations which serve as a
medium for the illumination of the spiritual light. They are
the fallout, the residue of a very mighty spiritual light
that penetrates everything, a light that illuminates from one
end of the world to the other.
If these luminaries transmit a spiritual light, then they
must be spiritual themselves, as well. When the Rambam
describes (in Hilchos Yesodei haTorah, chap. 3:9) the
orbits of celestial bodies, he writes: "All the stars and
spheres are spiritual entities; they have an individual
identity which includes mind and intellect, as it were. They
are living, existing and cognizant creations which
acknowledge their Master Who created them, each one in the
measure of its greatness and scope, each praising and
glorifying their Creator, just like the angels." In a letter
of R' Chasdai, the Rambam writes that the spheres themselves
(galgalim) possess a spirit and consciousness and
recognize and know their Creator.
In writings of the Rambam quoted in Beis Hamedrash,
Maran HaGaon R' Shach shlita writes: "This is
wherefore we say the blessing, `Who by His saying He created
the heavens and with the breath of His mouth all of their
legions. They rejoice and exult to do the bidding of their
Creator.' We see thus that they do possess a living spirit.
This also confirms what Dovid Hamelech said, `Day unto day
pours forth speech,' which refers to the sun. `And night unto
night proclaims knowledge,' which refers to the moon. This
shows that they possess a spirit. But we must not delve into
it."
Neither can we understand these concepts. It is important for
us to know how to look at these matters, especially in this
age of modern science which aims to understand the workings
of the heavens and the celestial forces. We must realize that
the sun is not merely an orb of fire providing us with light
and heat, nor is the moon merely a celestial body exerting
gravitational pull upon the earth. Light is a spiritual
creation! And the sun and moon are spiritual entities which
constitute a medium to channel to us the glow of an intensely
brilliant light, the `wake' of an extremely potent
incandescence so powerful that nothing can withstand its
might. A light which enables vision from one end of the world
to the other. How? We do not know.
Nor do we ask . . .
