Commentaire de citation sur Les Psaumes 33:6

With ten utterances: Nine [times in the creation story does it state] "and He said"; and "In the beginning" is also an utterance, as it is written (Psalms 33:6), "With the word of the Lord were the heavens made."

“And God spoke all these words, saying.” The text mentions both “dibur” [speaking] and “amirah” [saying] — one is harsh and one is soft, as it is written: Thus shall you say to the house of Jacob — these are the women, speak to them in soft language; and tell the children of Israel — to the males, words as harsh as sinews. For this reason, these are called the Ten Statements [“dibrot”], while all of creation is referred to as the Ten Sayings [“ma’amarot”], because all of creation was formed according to their own inclination, meaning in those forms which they chose for themselves — which is soft speech without decree. But God’s commandments are all royal decrees, as a person should not say “I don’t want to eat pork because I find it disgusting” but rather “I do want it, but the Holy One, blessed be He, has decreed against it” — which is harsh speech.
Nevertheless, for women who are intellectually weaker, one needs to explain in soft language to inform them of the benefits of the commandments, because any intelligent person accepts the decrees of the Holy One, blessed be He, while those with weaker intellect need explanation so that they will accept willingly. Even regarding the creation of heaven and earth it is written: By the word of the Lord the heavens were made (Psalms 33:6). Since they possess intelligence, they accepted God’s decree upon themselves even if not according to their own inclination. But regarding the lower beings it says: Let all the earth fear the Lord… For He said, and it came to be (Psalms 33:8-9). This means that He talked to them with soft speech, and they were created according to their own inclination. However, with the higher beings we find rebuke, as it says: Let there be a firmament (Genesis 1:6), for “a rebuke enters a person of understanding,” and similarly Moses said: Listen, O heavens, and I will speak; and let the earth hear the sayings of my mouth (Deuteronomy 32:1). This works well with the language of “dibur” and “amirah,” whether speaking of heaven and earth in general, or speaking toward people who have [spiritual] height and their height is like the height of heaven, and toward the common people [“amei ha’aretz”].

With ten utterances the world was created. And what is learned: "And He said" is written nine times from "In the beginning" (Genesis 1:1) to "And completed" (Genesis 2:1). And "In the beginning" is also an utterance, as it is stated (Psalms 33:6), "By the word of the Lord the heavens were made" - as it is impossible that the heavens and the earth were created without an utterance.