Halakhah su Esodo 9:38

"With a strong hand" - this [refers to] the pestilence, as it is stated (Exodus 9:3); "Behold the hand of the Lord is upon your herds that are in the field, upon the horses, upon the donkeys, upon the camels, upon the cattle and upon the flocks, [there will be] a very heavy pestilence."

What brought this commentator to this difficulty was because many treated the verse “In the beginning God created (bara)” (ibid. 1:1) as if it was written “At the beginning of God’s creating (bero) the heavens and the earth, the earth was empty (tohu) and void (vohu)” – it did not exist, meaning there was no earth. Similarly, “darkness” is the absence of light, meaning there was none.¹⁰ According to this interpretation nothing existed prior to the creation of light. So the first created condition was light, followed by darkness at night. Thus a 24-hour day consists of light followed by darkness – day followed by night. But this interpretation is completely incorrect. Because why did he need to mention the heavens since it did not state that they were nonexistent like the earth? Also, from a grammatical point of view, why is there an added vav (“and”) to the word “veha’arez”? This is not the same as the extra vav found in verbs, as in “On the third day Abraham lifted (vayisa) his eyes” (ibid. 22:4), “he abandoned (vaya’azov) his servants” (Exodus 9:21). They are like the weak fe in Arabic, for Arabic forms are similar to those of the Holy Tongue (Hebrew). However, no vav is added to nouns. Also, according to this interpretation the wind and the water were not created,¹¹ No mention is made of the creation of air and water, even though they are referred to in verse 2. yet it is written in the book of Psalms with regard to both of these “for He commanded and they came to be” (148:5).¹² The verses in Psalms are: “Praise Him, heavens of heavens (the sphere of fire), and waters that are above the heavens. They should praise the name of God, for he commanded and they were created” (148:4–5). Even darkness was created, as it is written “who forms light and creates darkness” (Isaiah 45:7).

When we investigate the Torah’s year, we find written “This month shall be for you the beginning of months” (Exodus 12:2), so it is first of the months of the year. It is also written “This day you depart, in the month of ripening” (ibid. 13:4), and “Observe the month of ripening” (Deuteronomy 16:1). The explanation is that Israel counts by lunar months, and the month in which the barley ripens in the Land of Israel is the first of the year’s months. The beginning of that month is the beginning of the year, whether the equinox has passed or not. However, in order to perform the waving of the Omer ⁷⁸ The Omer waving took place on the second day of Passover, the sixteenth of Nisan (Leviticus 23:10–11). the court should ensure that Passover will occur when the barley has ripened.⁷⁹ There are exceptions to this requirement. See Ibn Ezra’s commentary to Exodus 12:2 and to Deuteronomy 15:1. Most years the ripening coincides with the equinox, but sometimes they are separated slightly because of an abundance of rain or because of drought.