פירוש על בראשית 1:6

יהי רקיע BE THERE AN EXPANSE — Let the expansion become fixed; for although the heavens were created on the first day, they were still in a fluid form, and they became solidified only on the second day at the dread command (literally, rebuke) of the Holy One, blessed be He, when he said “Let the firmament be stable” (Genesis Rabbah 4:2). It is to this that allusion is made in what is written in (Job 26:11): “The pillars of heaven were trembling” (i. e. they were unstable) — this was during the whole of the first day — and on the second (Job 26:11): “they were astonished at His rebuke”, like a man who stands immovable, amazed at the rebuke of one who terrifies him.

ויאמר אלוקים יהי רקיע, after the first day had been concluded with its morning, G’d issued a new directive.

יהי רקיע בתוך המים, let there be טבע, i.e. guidelines, rules governing the function of what is below and what is above the primordial waters. Just as there are such parameters surrounding our world, i.e. the globe we call “earth,” so there should be similar guidelines governing what is below the atmosphere and earth itself. The region in which air exists should become clearly defined. [the gaseous nature of air should not be allowed to escape into all directions of the universe beyond our globe so that creatures on earth would die from the lack of air. In other words, the atmosphere should be “enclosed” whether by gravitational or other forces is immaterial. Ed.] At the same time, air should be given enough space within which “to breathe,” so to speak.

"Let there be a firmament:" The Holy One, blessed be He, wanted to inform Israel that neither the sun nor anything else controls the rain, to bring it down or not to bring it down. Therefore, He told about the existence of the higher waters before the existence of the luminaries. "Firmament (rakiya):" [It is] a body that stretches out like a plate, [as in] the expression, "To the One that stretches out (rokea) the earth over the waters" (Psalms 136:6); "And they flattened (yiraka'au) the gold [into thin plates]" (Exodus 39:3); and [also] "And over the heads of the living creatures there was the likeness of a firmament, like the color of the terrible ice" (Ezekiel 1:22). And here it portrayed the air between the earth and the clouds as a body that extends and separates between the waters on earth and the waters in the clouds, and carries the waters upon it; and by the will of God, the water descends from there to the earth. And it is like it states (Deuteronomy 28:12), "And God will open for you His good storehouse, the heavens, to give the rain of your land in its time;" and in the Curse, when it states (Leviticus 26:19), "And I will give your skies to be like iron," to prevent the descent of water upon them; and so [too] below (Genesis 7:11), "and the windows of the heavens opened." But afterwards, in the time of Yishiyahu, it appears that they knew that there are no storehouses of water above, and that rain waters return above; since behold, he says (Isaiah 55:10), "For just as the rain and the snow come down from the skies, and do not return there except when the earth is satiated;" [which] implies that after it is satiated, it does return to there, see my commentary there. And so [too], Yirmiyahu said in the way of a question, "do the heavens give raindrops?" (Jeremiah 14:22); [which] implies that [the heavens] do not give them by themselves, since they do not have storehouses of water in them. And so [too], they called the vapors that rise up from upon the earth [and become clouds] the name, nissi'im (raised up ones), as [in], "He raises nissi'im from the end of the earth" (Psalms 135:7); "He raised the nissi'im from the end of the earth" (Jeremiah 10:13; 51:16); and so [too], "Nissi'im and wind, but no rain" (Proverbs 25:14). And we do not know from what time this word (nissi'im) became common; as Psalm 135 is not attributed to David and it is not clear that the Book of Proverbs from Chapter 25 is by Shlomo. And in Job, he says (Job 38:22), "Did you come to the storehouses of snow, did you see the storehouses of hail?" - and this is a proof of the antiquity of that book. And since the word, rakiya, is based on the belief in higher waters - "the waters that are above the heavens" (Psalms 148:4) - that the rakiya supports, and that belief became antiquated and forgotten; the word, rakiya, also became antiquated. And [rakiya] is only used to indicate the skies in three [other] places. Two are in Psalms - "and the acts of your hands, does the rakiya proclaim" (Psalms 19:2); "praise Him in the rakiya of His strength" (Psalms 150:1) - since the word remained in poetic use; as it is the custom in all languages for the poets to use antiquated words. And the third place is in Daniel 12:3, "And the enlightened ones will shine like the splendor of the rakiya;" and there also, it is a poetic expression. And so [likewise], in Malachi 3:10, "I will open for you the windows of the heavens," is by way of poetic expression. And we have also found a variant of rakiya referring to the heavens in Job 37:18, "Tarkiya (Did you spread out) the skies with Him;" and this too is a sign of the antiquity of this book. And he finishes [this verse], "they are as strong as a molten mirror," as they carry the weight of many waters. And so [too] did Shlomo say (Proverbs 8:28), "And in His strengthening of the skies above." And behold, the Torah spoke as in the language of people, and stated, "let there be a firmament," according to their thought (that it actually existed). And nonetheless, what was intended does not deviate from being true and solid, and that is that God implanted in the nature of water to rise upwards and to descend afterwards down to the earth. And in the Greek translation attributed to the seventy elders (the Septuagint), rakiya is translated as strauma, [which] is a matter of strength, and so [too] did they translate it afterwords into Latin [as] firmāmenta and this came to them from the use of the root, raka, in Syriac, which denotes strength; and so [too], rakiya in Syriac is strong and hard. And Johannes Clericus says that they translated it thus, because it was the opinion of some of the ancient philosophers that the heavens and air that surround the earth on all sides, prevent it and everything on it from getting detached and crumbling apart; and behold, they cause the earth to stay hard and its parts to remain fastened together. And he explains the expression to be one of hitting and trampling, as in "hit with your hand and stamp (reka) with your foot" (Ezekiel 6:11); "because you hit with your hand and you stamped (rakacha) with your foot" (Ezekiel 25:6); because the heavens are stamping on the earth and stopping its parts from detaching. And all of this is far from the simple meaning of the verses. And nonetheless, [his] words, that the origin of the root, raka, is from stomping and hitting, are plausible. And because something that is hit [becomes] flat and stretched out, the root, raka, is borrowed to indicate stretching out and flatness.

LET THERE BE A FIRMAMENT. G-d now said that the substance which had come into being first — that which He created from nought — should be a firmament, stretched as a tent in the midst of the waters, separating between waters and waters. It is possible that this is what the Rabbis intended by their saying,⁹⁶Bereshith Rabbah 4:1. “Rav said, ‘The heavens were in a fluid form on the first day, and on the second day they solidified.’ Rav thus said, ‘Let there be a firmament means let the firmament become strong.’ Rabbi Yehudah the son of Rabbi Shimon said, ‘Let the firmament become like a plate, just as you say in the verse, And they did beat — [vayerak’u contains the same root as raki’a, firmament] — the gold into thin plates.’”⁹⁷Exodus 39:3.

"Let there be a firmament:" In Chagigah 12a, [it is written,] "Rav said, 'At the time that the Holy One, blessed be He, created the world, it expanded like two bundles of woof, until the Holy One, blessed be He, rebuked it and made it stand in place, as it is written (Job 26:11), "The pillars of the skies tremble, and are astonished by his rebuke."' and this is what was stated by Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish, 'That which is written (Genesis 35:11), "I am the Power, the Omnipotent [Sha-dai, which can be broken down into two words that mean, that enough]," I am the One that said to my world, "Enough!"' and some say [that he said,] 'At the time that the Holy One, blessed be He, created the sea, it expanded and continued, until the Holy One, blessed be He, rebuked it, etc.'" And we should reflect upon what the writer of this statement told us, since [ostensibly, we could simply discard it and say] 'what was, was.' And it appears, that he is coming to advise man, [about] that which we see; that is in his nature to always long for his actions to extend without end and without limit and that everything should be permissible in his eyes; 'everything that he wants, he does;' and if a man relies on his nature, then there will be no boundary and end to the chariot of the lusting of his desire; and anarchy [would seem] good for him, such that there should be no limiting and stop to any action; up until God rebuked us through this Torah, which gives us a boundary and measure to all [our] actions; [to inform us] how far they can extend, according to the divine Will, and up until where is it permitted for [man] to send out the rein of his desire.

And God said, "let there be a firmament, etc.": The explanation [of firmament] is the firmament that God created on the first day; as I have explained on the verse [starting with] "In the beginning," that everything was created together with one statement, but that the work of each thing was not [yet] refined according to its character. Now God said that it should acquire its place in the waters and that this thing would serve to separate between the waters and the waters. And see [my commentary] to the verse after this one.

ויאמר אלוקים יהי רקיע, actually this firmament, horizon, already existed, seeing that it was the atmosphere, the air, just as the Torah speaks in verse 20 of ועוף יעופף על הארץ “and the birds are to fly above the earth,” adding: על פני רקיע השמים “on the face of the firmament spanning the heavens.” What then do the words יהי רקיע mean? They mean that this רקיע should now become something substantial. It should now become capable of sustaining the atmosphere, the air. In other words, this רקיע, which up until this point had been above the waters and had therefore been very wet and weak, impeding the light from above it from properly penetrating to the earth below, should now function constructively.
This רקיע did not become “strong” until the earth itself had become dry land, i.e. on the third “day.” Only at that point did the light encounter something solid, i.e. a hard place in the globe so that it condensed into becoming as if frozen due to its proximity to this earth. The רקיע was made on the second “day,” and the words ויאמר אלוקים יקוו המים ותראה היבשה, a directive (verse 9) issued on the third “day,” refers to an existing phenomenon. There are a number of such. This is nothing unusual. This is also the view expressed by Ibn Ezra, who writes in his commentary on verse 9 that “this paragraph is inextricably linked to the one preceding it,” refuting the view that the “horizon” was not created until the second day. But as soon as the wind dried out the earth on the first day the earth became hard enough (dry), and the powerful heat was transformed into what we know as the atmosphere, heat retreating upwards to the region of the “upper” waters. Proof that the atmosphere, רקיע, had already existed before the second day is Genesis 2,1 ביום עשות אלוקים שמים וארץ, “on the day G’d had made heaven and earth.” When something is hidden, not concentrated and its particles have not been defined, it does not yet qualify for the expression בריאה, “something which has been created.” This is what Ibn Ezra wrote, and his comments are perfectly correct.

And it separated: Meaning a screen that separates.

יהי רקיע, “let there be a horizon” The raw material we referred to earlier as the one called שמים, heaven, would now be stretched over the expanse of the water.

Be solidified. Rashi is answering the question: [“Let there be a רקיע” implies that it was created now.] But was the שמים [which is the רקיע, see v. 8,] not already created earlier? [For it says (1:1), “In the beginning Elohim created the heavens and the earth.” Thus Rashi answers, “Be solidified.”] Although the simple interpretation of verse 1:1 is explained there by Rashi as, “At the beginning of the creating of heaven and earth,” implying that Hashem did not yet create the heavens, this does not mean that the heavens were not created on the first day. Rather, the Torah was starting to recount how heaven and earth were created on the first day.

Es ist schwer, mit einiger Zuversicht zu bestimmen, was in diesem Verse unter den מים אשר מעל לרקיע zu verstehen wäre. Wohl kennen wir aus dem -תהלים Liede 148.4 die שמי השמים והמים אשר מעל השמים, die dort — wenn wir den Vers recht verstehen — bis an die Grenze einer kaum vom Gedanken zu erreichenden Unermesslich- keit reichen. Es lässt uns dieser Vers zuerst השמים denken, den ganzen die Erde allseitig umgebenden, unermeßlichen Himmelsraum, mit seinen zahllosen uns sichtbaren Sternwelten, und dann diese ganze Unermesslichkeit zu einem Punkte gegen einen andern שמים zusammenschwinden, der also zu ihr sich wie unser Himmel sich zu unserer Erde verhält, und über diesem Himmel der Himmel dann: מים. Allein das Schöpfungswort der göttlichen Lehre kündigt sich uns, wie wir das bereits angedeutet, nicht als eine Offenbarung Dessen an, das geheimnisvoll jenseits unseres irdischen Gesichtskreises liegt, sondern schreitet rasch von dem einen großen Satze, dass das Weltall, שמים וארץ, von Gott erschaffen worden, in das Gebiet unserer Erdwelt ein, um auch dort uns weniger zu sagen: wie dort alles entstanden, sondern: dass alles, die ganze Erden-Mannigfaltigkeit mit ihren Gegensätzen und der sie alle beherrschenden Ordnung, von Gott, ihrem Schöpfer, gebildet, geschieden, gesetzt und geordnet sei. Unsere gegenwärtige Erdwelt, in der wir leben und unsere hieniedige Aufgabe zu lösen haben, uns aus Gott denken und begreifen zu lehren, das ist sichtlich der Zweck der ganzen Schöpfungsgeschichte. Und so dürften wir die מים אשר מעל לרקיע ebenfalls in dem Gesichtskreis unserer Erdwelt zu suchen haben. Himmel und Erde, Licht und Finsternis, Tag und Nacht, das waren die Gegensätze, die uns der erste Tag als von Gott geschaffen und geordnet wies. Wir werden auf einen neuen Gegensatz hingewiesen: auf Wasser unten und Wasser oben. Wasser unten: die in ihrer jetzigen, den Kontinent umspülenden und durchbrechenden Geschieden- heit nicht nur die physische Entwicklung, sondern als Flüsse und Ströme und Meere Völker trennend und bindend, vorzugsweise die geschichtliche Entwickelung der MenschenVölker auf Erden begründen und beherrschen — und Wasser von oben: die ausschließlich der physischen Förderung aller Wesen angehören. Bevor Gott, so lehrt uns sein Wort, Kontinent und Wasser schied und so der Erde das zu jeder irdischen Entwickelung unentbehrliche auflösende Element, מים (rad. מיי verwandt mit מקק, מכך, מגג) entzog, hob er Wasser empor, wölbte allseitig über der Erde das uns sichtbare Himmelsgewölbe רקיע, zu dem auf fortan die Erde ihre Dünste sendet, die als Wolken das Wasser trinken und es aus der Höhe der durstenden Erde und ihren durstenden Geschöpfen spenden. Wie das Licht zuerst allverbreitet die Erde durchdrang und dann erst an Lichtträger gebunden von dem Himmelsgewölbe herab der Erde zustrahlt, so wird auch das Wasser der Erde genommen, um nach Bedürfnis fortan aus der Höhe wieder empfangen zu werden. Nehmende und gebende Gegensätze, das ist das Bild der Entwickelung, in welcher uns das ganze Erdendasein sich darstellt. Schon unsere Weisen, die uns in den ersten Blättern von תענית, insbesondere Fol. 4 und 9, beobachtungsreiche meteorologische Bemerkungen über den Regen und die Wolkenerscheinung hinterlassen, haben uns eben daselbst 9 b. eine Verschiedenheit der Ansicht bewahrt, ob, nach R. Elieser, die ganze Regenbildung durch vom Ozean aufsteigende Wasserverdunstung bewirkt wird: כל העולם כלו ממימי אוקיינום הוא שותה oder nach R. Josug, die durch die aufsteigenden Dünste gebildeten Wolken nur das Mittel sind, um Wasser aus der Höhe für die Erde zu empfangen: כל העולם כולו ממים העליונים הוא שותה אלא מה אני מקים ואד יעלה מן הארץ מלמד שהעננים מתגברים ועולים לרקיע ופותחין פיהן כנוד ומקבלין מי מטר. — Nicht minder zweifelhaft dürfte die eigentliche Bedeutung des רקיע erscheinen. Wäre die Grundbedeutung von רקע allgemein Dehnen, Ausdehnen, und könnte man in רקיע somit die Charakterisierung der Luft, als des luftartig Ausgedehnten im Gegensatz zu dem Dichteren des Wassers und der Erde erblicken, so läge es sehr nahe, רקיע als die Atmosphäre zu begreifen, die den Raum zwischen den Wassern unten und den Wassern oben ausfüllt, an deren unterm Saum das Wasser flutet und bis zu deren oberer Schicht die Dünste, Wolken bildend und Regen vermittelnd, aufsteigen. Die Atmosphäre ruht auf Wasser und trägt Wasser. Allein die Bedeutung "ausdehnen" scheint der Wurzel רקע nur sekundär innezuwohnen. רקע kommt sonst nur vom Plattschlagen, Niederstampfen, Niedertreten einer festen Masse vor. Es heißt also mehr dünnschlagen, wodurch allerdings bei Metallen ein Ausdehnen bewirkt wird. Scheint doch selbst קרקע, wie כרבכ von רכב, den fest- oder plattgetretenen Fußboden, von רקע, zu bedeuten. Demgemäß dürfte רקיע gleichsam die untere Fläche des Himmels bedeuten, die uns als eine Wölbung über der Erde und um die Erde erscheint.

יהי רקיע בתוך המים, “let there be a horizon in the midst of the waters.” The heaven of which the Torah spoke as being part of G-d’s creative activity on the first “day,” had been an enclave within the waters which had covered the entire “universe” at that time. This paragraph therefore is closely associated with the previous one, i.e. to what had happened on the first “day.” The proof of this lies in the sentence that G-d had created heaven and earth, which makes it clear that both had been created on the first “day. (Compare Genesis 2,4, where the Torah refers specifically to the horizon having been created on the same day as heaven and earth).

בתוך המים IN THE MIDST OF THE WATERS — In the exact centre of the waters; because there is the same distance between the upper waters and the firmament as there is between the firmament and the waters that are upon the earth. Thus you may infer that they (the upper waters) are suspended in space by the command of the King (Genesis Rabbah 4:3).

רקיע, the word (noun) is a participle describing a creature such as עשיר which means the same as מעושר, “someone who has been equipped with wealth,” or the word חסיד, used to describe a pious individual. This noun is also a derivative from the word חסד, loving kindness, i.e. a חסיד is a creature equipped with this attribute of loving G’d. Now the universe was to be equipped with a horizon. Seeing that from the earth until the highest regions of the heaven there was an unbroken region filled with water, G’d now separated these waters in the “middle,” by making this firmament, expanse of atmosphere we call horizon. This רקיע appears as if stretched from east to west and from north to south effectively separating the “upper” layers of water from the “lower” ones. Seeing that G’d did not assign any specific function to the waters until the third “day” when He told the waters to congregate in a specific region so that the dry land beneath it should become visible, the expression “it was good,” is not mentioned in connection with the second day. This is compensated for on the third “day,” when this statement “it was good” appears twice in the Torah’s report. It appears after the waters complied with G’d’s directive, and after the earth, i.e. the dry land, produced the vegetation including fruit-bearing trees which G’d had commanded it to produce.

And it is a wonder about man, how is it that he did not find it in his intellect to set up a limit and measure for all of his actions - as with the rational commandments and what is similar to them - without divine intervention, since the intellect [should] compel [the rational commandments]. About this [the Torah] said, don't wonder about this desire [that gets in the way of his intellect,] since man acquired his nature from those that gave birth to him. Given that all men are formed from the skies, the land and the sea; since the soul is from the sky and the body is from the earth, which is made like clay, with water, as was explained by Rashi on the verse (Genesis 6:2), "And mist went up from the earth." And from the three of them a man is made complete, since the word, man [eesh] is [made up of] the first letters of earth [erets], sea [yam] and air [shamayim]. And usually, one finds the nature of the parents in the offspring; and so too, man received the nature of his 'parents,' sky, land and sea; since all of them were expanding and continuing without end, until God rebuked them - as that which it stated, "it was continually expanding," is also speaking about the earth, since this is the reason it mentions two bundles. And from then on, this has become the perpetual nature of all who are created from them, since 'like them will be their makers' - that [man] will have the will to expand in all of his actions without end.

The water from the water: [This] will yet be explained in the next verse.

בתוך המים, as far as this expression is concerned, it was necessary, seeing that the atmosphere itself was a component of the waters, [just as the Jewish people had been part of the Egyptian population prior to the Exodus so that G’d in redeeming them has spoken of taking גוי מקרב גוי, “one nation out of the very midst of the same nation” (Deut. 4,34. Ed.]

ויעש אלוקים את הרקיע, the term עשייה always denotes the completion of a process, making something fit to perform its purpose without further ado.

“Quivered.” ירופפו means they were weak and loose.

IN THE MIDST OF THE WATERS. This means in the center of the waters, between the higher waters and the lower waters. For there is the same distance between the firmament and the waters upon the earth as between the higher waters and the firmament. Thus you may infer that the upper waters are suspended in space by the command of G-d. Thus it is explained in Bereshith Rabbah⁹⁸4:2. and in Rashi’s commentary. This is part of the process of creation [which those who know it are obliged to conceal]; so do not expect me to write anything about it, as the subject is one of the mysteries of the Torah, and the verses in their plain meaning do not require such an interpretation since Scripture itself did not go into it at length, and to give the interpretation is forbidden even to those who know it, and so much the more to us.

ויהי מבדיל, “so that it can serve as a separating domain, (between water and water.)” The horizon was supposed to raise itself. In other words, the horizon existed since the first day and had not yet begun to fulfill its function of being an atmosphere between heaven and earth. A different exegesis: the answer to the question which “horizon” the Torah is speaking about in this verse, is that it is the one above the chavot. the highest category of angels in heaven. (Compare Pirkey de Rabbi Eliezer chapter 4 That Rabbi quotes Ezekiel 1,22 as his source)

בין מים למים, so that half the waters would remain in the “upper” regions and half in the “lower” regions.

And nonetheless, the author of this statement comes to reprove man, to tell [him] that if he acquired their nature that he should have a desire to expand, as mentioned, behold, he should, at least, also acquire from them the good; to stop with the rebuke of God, may He be blessed, just like they stopped at the rebuke of God - in the manner of not going past it even a hair's breadth, so [too] man should stop at the rebuke of God, in the measure and amount in which God limited all actions through this Torah. And this is the intention of the statement in the Yalkut, Parshat Ha'azinu (32:942), "Stare at the sky and earth and at the sea, etc... lest they changed their traits, etc." And this reason was stated by the Sages, of blessed memory, concerning the commandment of fringes (Sotah 17a), "Aquamarine is similar to the sea and the sea is similar to to the sky, etc.," since through the aquamarine, he will remember the sea and the sky, and learn from them to stop at the rebuke of God, not to change the measure [of what God forbids him], as will be explained, with God's help, in Parshat Shelach (Bemidbar 15:38). And that which it doesn't state, "Let there be a firmament and there was a firmament," in the [same] way that it states, "And there was light," is because 'a bad statement is not quickly done;' hence the firmament which teaches division was not done immediately; but the light, which was good for all, was done quickly, and so it immediately states, "And there was light."

ויהי מבדיל בין מים למים, the meaning of these words is similar to the words בין המים אשר מתחת לרקיע ובין המים אשר מעל לרקיע, “between the waters which are below the atmosphere and the waters which are above the atmosphere.” (end of verse 7). These “upper” waters are normally something that exist only as a potential, awaiting the rising of vapours from the lower waters (oceans) i.e. moist air, to transform them into actual water, i.e. rain, as has been explained by the scientists. The “separation” was needed in order for the upper “waters” to retain the ability to be converted into actual waters as they had been prior to the separation. Only in this fashion would it become possible to also irrigate the high mountains on the surface of the earth.
Personally, I am perplexed by what Maimonides wrote in his Moreh, page 235 of Rabbi Kapach’s edition, He compared the separation described here to the separation that G’d had made between light and darkness. How could this be, seeing that here the division is between what is “up,” on top, and what is “down,” below. The division was not a natural division, separation, such as that between light and darkness. How could Maimonides describe “this” division as טבעי, i.e. in the very nature of things? Still, the fact remains that Maimonides is correct, and he has enlightened us who had been walking in darkness, just as he has enlightened us concerning many other things. It is worthwhile to examine what our sages of old have written on this and how their understanding agrees with the result of the researches of the scientists in our time. (14th century)
We read in Bereshit Rabbah 4,2 (a comment attributed by different scholars to two different authors) “at the time G’d said: “let there be an atmosphere within the waters,” the innermost drop of water froze (congealed) becoming what are known as the “lower” regions of heaven, as opposed to שמי השמים, the name by which the “upper” celestial regions are known. Rav says that whereas on the first day the heavens were in a wet, fluid state, they congealed on the second day. The words: יהי רקיע are a directive for this atmosphere to become strong; [to assume firm contours. Ed.] Rabbi Yuda in the name of Rabbi Seymon says that these words mean: יעשה מטלית לרקיע, “let the heaven be equipped with a cover.” The word is used in the same sense as in Exodus 39,3 וירקעו את פחי הזהב, “they beat the gold plates into thin plates.” Rabbi Chaninah said that a fire issued forth from above and lapped up the wet parts of the Rakia, thereby solidifying the remainder. When Rabbi Yochanan encountered the verse ברוחו שמים שפרה in Job 26,13, “By His spirit the heavens were calmed,” he used to say that Rabbi Chaninah had interpreted our verse correctly. Rabbi Yudan, son of Rabbi Shimon, would say that a fire issued forth from the upper regions and dried out the moisture of the Rakia by means of its heat. Rabbi Tanchuma (Bereshit Rabbah 4,3) said if the Torah had written the words ובין המים אשר על הרקיע, I would have said that the reference was to the substance of the rakia. Seeing that the Torah wrote אשר מעל לרקיע, this refers to the “upper waters” which had been suspended there by a Divine directive. Rabbi Acha added that the “fruit,” i.e. derivatives of the upper waters are the rains which earth receives from these regions. The sages said also that that the upper waters did not separate voluntarily from the lower waters but that they cried. We know this from Job 28,11 מבכי נהרות חבש indicating that the rain descends in droplets, similar to tears. All of this basically conforms to what we have written earlier. The sages (Bereshit Rabbah 4,5) said also that the rakia is comparable to a pool which is covered with a ceiling. Due to the evaporation of the waters in the pool rising, the ceiling appears to break out in perspiration, releasing heavy drops of moisture. These drops of moisture are not salty (as the ocean water below), and they do not mix with the ocean water. This mysterious phenomenon is what is referred to in Pirkey de Rabbi Eliezer chapter 4 where we are told that in answer to the question which rakia was created on the second day? Rabbi Eliezer says that it was the rakia which is above the chayot [a category of certain angels and their habitat Ed.] seeing that we read in Ezekiel 1,22 ודמות על ראשי החיה רקיע, and there was a likeness above the chayoh resembling the rakia.” These “chayot” are not physical, do not possess a body.

Astonished. יתמהו means they were startled and strengthened.

Because the separation... Rashi’s proof is not because it is written, “בתוך the waters” and that בתוך means “in the middle.” For it is written (Shemos 15:19), “Bnei Yisrael walked on dry land בתוך the sea,” and it was not in the middle [of the sea]. Rather, the proof is from what is written: “And let it divide between waters and waters.” Since the canopy is in the midst of the waters, obviously it divides between waters and waters! It must therefore mean that the upper waters are separated from the canopy in the same manner as the lower waters are separated from the canopy. Thus, the canopy is in the middle.