Comentários de Citação sobre Jó 38:19

And darkness was upon the depths: There are two [places this appears] according to the tradition: here and the other is (Job 38:19) "and darkness, where is its place?" This [refers to] what they stated (Chagigah 11b), that one should not ask, "What is before, what is after?" The explanation of "and darkness, where is its place?" is that one should not ask, "what was the place of darkness [at] first.

And He separated, etc.: He ordained that they should not be mixed in one another, but [rather] when there is light, there should not [also] be darkness, and when there is darkness, there should not [also] be light. And it says this (even though there was no need to say it), because according to the opinion of the ancients, darkness was not only the absence of light, but [rather] it too was a substance. As the matter is stated, "He forms the light and creates the darkness" (Isaiah 45:7); and so [too], "Where is the path [to[ where the light dwells, and darkness, where is its place" (Job 38:19). And hence the nations would attribute the light to one god and the darkness to [another] one. And the Holy One, blessed be He, wanted to inform His people that He, may He be blessed, is the Master of the light and the darkness; and from Him alone are all of their laws.

A kabbalistic approach to our verse yields the following insight. The words את האורwere meant to include something that Rabbi Akiva achieved when he “descended into the “Pardes,” regions of enquiry into the mysteries of the universe. He was the only person to emerge intellectually unharmed and physically intact from such studies as we know from Shir Hashirim Rabbah 1,28 as well as Chagigah 15. It is also possible that these words were meant to convey that the souls were created simultaneously with this light. This idea is hinted at in Job 38,19: איזה הדרך ישכן אור, “which path leads to where light dwells?” And it says also (verse 21 there) “Surely You know for you were born then, and the number of your years is many.” [Nachmanides explains these verses in the manner our author understands them. Rabbi Chavell.]