Komentaryong Sumisipi para sa Job 37:18

And the wise of the generation interpret: לראי יקפיל —that God will remove the heavens, which are compared to a cast mirror (ראי). And וחדשים יכפיל — these are the new heavens. But this is also incorrect, for there is only one possible meaning of it in that case: God will remove the mirror and double the new mirror. Maybe they're really thick — twice as thick — so it's hard to strike them!^note The Ra"ava is being sarcastic here. This is followed by several examples of reductio ad absurdium, with the same sarcastic tone. Should a person say "no animal is as wise as a wild ass," since a wild ass refers to a man, as is written and a wild-ass onager is born a man (Job 11:12)? Or should he say "happy is the people who worships fire and bows to the sun" since fire is the glorious and awesome Name as is written for the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a zealous God (Deuteronomy 4:24), as is the sun as is written for sun and shield is the LORD (Psalm 84:12)? Certainly, since those are written without a kaph, unlike strong like a mirror (Job 37:18). So the verse only compared the heavens to a mirror because mirrors are so strong! Should a person pray "Blessed are You, o Lion" since it is found regarding the Place "like a lion He will roar" (Hosea 11:10)? Will that seem good in the LORD's eyes? And why not learn from Solomon? For none was as wise as him after him; and behold, his prayer that he prayed (I Kings 8:22-53) is known, and all who know the holy tongue understand it, without riddles or allegories. And so too the prayer of Daniel (Daniel 9:4-19) who loosened knotty problems (Daniel 5:12). Behold, they only prayed with understandable matters, and they were wise. All the more so, one who prays for many people, many of whom are not wise! Thus all prayer for weekdays and holidays that the Early Sages ordained are without riddles and allegories. And what is the meaning of saying that God would double the new heavens? Will there be two heavens?

The word ארץ here is a generic term applying to each of these four components our terrestrial earth is made of, collectively as well as separately, such as in Genesis 1,10 ויקרא אלקים ליבשה ארץ. In view of this [ארץ without the letters וה in front, Ed.], the word והארץ refers to Earth, i.e. all its four elements combined. The words תהו ובהו on the other hand, refer to the element alone. The Torah tells us that at that stage this element could not be defined as it could not be isolated.
You should know that the number of planets is 955, corresponding to numerical value of the word השמים. [The final letter ם is considered as equivalent to 600. Ed.] You will find this idea in a book called מעשה מרכבה, where we are told that at the time G'd descends from the celestial regions, i.e. from 955 רקיעים, heavens, and He seats Himself on the throne commensurate with His glory, all these heavens as well as the gateways to the regions called ערבות, recite the verse שאו שערים ראשיכם, "lift up you gates your heads, etc." (Psalms 24,9).
We also find in Derech Eretz Rabbah, that "G'd is the solitary Ruler in the celestial regions, His name is One, and He resides in 390 heavens [the numerical equivalent of the word שמים, Rabbi Chavell.]. Each one of these "heavens" has been stamped with His name, a name which has been alluded to in the Torah (Deut. 32,1) האזינו ה-שמים, "hearken the Heavens." When I shall explain that verse in due course, I will quote that Midrash in detail. At any rate, it is impossible to reduce this number of heavens.
According to our sages in the Talmud (Kabbalists), there are only seven heavens and they are enumerated in Chagigah 12. We quote: "Rav Yehudah said that there are two kinds of heaven seeing that the Torah wrote in Deut. 10,14: השמים ושמי השמים, 'the heaven and the heaven of the heavens.' Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish said that there are seven heavens and they are called: וילון, רקיע, שחקים, זבול, מעון, מכון, ערבות. According to researchers, i.e. the philosophers, there are nine heavens. They are: גלגל המקיף (compare Maimonides hilchot Yesodey Ha-Torah), גלגל המזלות the zodiac, i.e. the horoscopes, and the seven "heavens" dominated by the seven fixed stars [an antiquated astronomical concept believed in by all astronomers until exploded by Copernicus about 1540. Ed.] According to these "philosophers," the four elements of our terrestrial universe rank below these regions dominated by what is known as שבעה כוכבי לכת, the 7 fixed planets.
King Solomon already listed these four elements in the same order in a single verse in Proverbs 30,4 where he wrote: מי עלה שמים וירד, מי אסף רוח בחפניו, מי צרר מים בשמלה? מי הקים כל אפסי ארץ? "Who has ascended to heaven and come down? Who has gathered the wind (spirit) in his hand? Who has wrapped the water in his garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? According to the philosophers the element of fire receives its heat from the planet moon which is immediately above it and closest to it. This is due to the constant motion of that planet. It is a well known fact that every body which is in motion generates heat by its motion. The larger the body in question and the closer to earth, the greater the heat it generates and its ability to warm other bodies which are close to it. Seeing that it is the nature of fire to rise constantly, it is the first element to receive warmth from the moon. The fact that fire rises must certainly have a purpose. The moon itself, however is not warm nor does it inflame. Nor does fire rise indefinitely. Both the earth and the moon have been assigned definitive orbits separated from each other by an atmosphere which neither can break out of. Just as water, which has a tendency to descend, cannot descend to the extent of flooding the earth, so fire cannot ascend beyond certain limits and inflame what is beyond those limits. These philosophers use Job 37,18 חזק כראי מוצק ועדו , "strong like a mirror which has been cast," as proof that the atmosphere separating planets and their respective orbits from one another is impenetrable.
I have already pointed out that the universe was created in the month of Tishrey, a month under the influence of the zodiac sign מאזנים, "scales." This is also the meaning of the second verse in Genesis, that the wind of the Lord was hovering above the deep." We know that the zodiac sign governing the wind is "scales," whereas the zodiac sign governing water is עקרב, "scorpion." The correct interpretation of our verse is therefore: "When did G'd create heaven and earth? At a time when the רוח אלוקים rises develops and rises in the morning, i.e. at the time when the zodiac sign "scales" which is the zodiac sign pertaining to the רוח, "wind" hovers "above the face of the waters" which is close to the zodiac sign "scales," the sign pertaining to the waters.
The reason why these respective zodiac signs are called "scales" and "scorpion" as well as the reason for the names of the remainder of the zodiac signs is because a cluster of stars form a shape reminiscent of such objects or animals in the sky. According to tradition, at the time the deluge occurred the constellations of the seven fixed stars was as follows: There was a cluster of stars resembling the shape of a lamb; there was a similar cluster of stars resembling the shape of an ox; the same was the case with the zodiac signs "twins," both of whom resembled human beings. There was a constellation resembling a lobster (cancer), a constellation resembling "scales," a constellation resembling a scorpion, a constellation resembling a bucket, i.e. a human being drawing water; All these horoscopes or zodiac signs were named after their appearance in the sky at the time of the deluge.
It may be true that the reason these signs appeared in that fashion in the sky at the time of the deluge was meant to remind man of Divine supervision of his fate by his recalling the names of the horoscopes. Our sages in Pessikta Rabbati 2,9 as well as in Tanchuma have explained this in the manner we have outlined.

"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.

poured out upon it Heb. יצוק. Every flake poured out one upon the other, so that it should not move or separate one from the other. [The word] יָצוּק is an expression of being poured, and it is the passive participle, like יָרוּד, descended, from ירד ; יָצוּק, poured, from יצק ; יָדוּעַ, known, from ידע.