창세기 1:4 해설: Rashi, Chizkuni, Rashbam & Ibn Ezra

וירא אלהים את האור כי טוב ויבדל AND GOD SAW THE LIGHT THAT IT WAS GOOD, AND GOD CAUSED A DIVISION — Here, also, we must depend upon the statement of the Agada: He saw that the wicked were unworthy of using it (the light); He, therefore, set it apart (ויבדל), reserving it for the righteous in the world to come (Chagigah 12a). But according to the plain sense explain it thus: He saw that it was good, and that it was not seemly that light and darkness should function together in a confused manner. He therefore limited this one’s sphere of activity to the daytime, and this one’s sphere of activity to the nighttime (see Genesis Rabbah 3:6).

וירא אלוקים את האור, “G-d saw the light;” the meaning of the word: וירא in this verse is that He contemplated, understood the impact that this light had made. In other words, this was “seeing” with one’s heart; we find the verb ראה used in this sense also in Exodus 12,13, where G-d is described as “‏וראיתי את הדם,” “When I take note of the blood” (on the entrance of the homes of the Israelites”); we find it used again use in that sense in Exodus 33,12, as well as in Kohelet 2,17. Even though everything in the past present and the future is “visible” to the Lord, it is impossible to explain the word here in the usual sense of seeing with one’s eyes.

וירא אלוקים את האור, He looked at its appearance and it was good. The statement is similar to Yocheved saying ותרא אותו כי טוב, (Exodus 2,2) although he had been born three months prematurely, just as had Samuel. In practice, the fact that all his vital features including the nails of his toes and fingers and the hairs on his head had grown, gave her the feeling that he was “good,” i.e. a viable human being, so that she proceeded to hide him for three months because she knew that he was not premature in the sense of not being viable.