Komentaryong Sumisipi para sa Mga Bilang 8:17

ויאמר אלוקים יהי אור ויהי אור. The light was already in the heaven, seeing that the luminaries were created together with the planets. Daniel 12,3 refers to this when he compares the radiance of the knowledgeable people in the future to the radiance of the expanse of the sky, describing the latter as זהר הרקיע. In Exodus 24,10 the visions experienced by the elite of the Israelites is compared to וכעצם השמים לטוהר, “as pure as the radiant light of the heavens.” What had been lacking was only that this light had not illuminated the face of the deep as this had not been equipped to reflect such light as yet. Seeing that the directive concerned only the creatures in the “lower universe,” G’d did not introduce His creative activities with the words: יהי שמים, “let there be a heaven,” but the Torah wrote simply: “He created heaven, etc., ברא.” Once the various planets were placed in orbit to perform their orbits [I suppose that the sun only is meant, Ed.] every 12 hours the “lower” part of the universe would be in darkness. At the end of the first period of 12 hours, G’d issued the directive: “let there be light”, i.e that light should replace the darkness in that location. When the wind blows over the water it dries some of the surface of the waters enabling the waters to be illuminated faintly by the daylight above. The primordial light had not become distinct, strong, until the fourth day.
Possibly, the words זהר הרקיע describe the light by means of which the heaven itself shines, radiates light, as we have written. In that event, the light described here refers to a different period of 12 hours, a whole day comprising 24 hours. This light would have become missing on the first day from the “lower regions” of the universe. With the absence of this light darkness would have ensued in that region. During the first three days of the creative period, the only reason for such absence of light from part of the universe would be the fact that it was the will of the Creator that it be so. This can be so only if we adopt the view that the light prevailing during the first three days of that period was none other than the “natural” light radiated by the רקיע, the firmament. If, on the other hand, we assume that the light under discussion is the light of the sun, which up until then had shone weakly, seeing that the atmosphere had not been conditioned to let its rays traverse it without hindrance, and that as a result of this during these three “days” total darkness pervaded the universe, there can be no question that these regions had not been conditioned to receive the light from heaven at all, not even a weak diffused kind of light. Total darkness would have prevailed during these “days.” It follows that the reason for this total darkness during these three “days” must have been none other than G’d’s will, His pleasure that it be so. Clearly, although G’d saw that the light “was good,” He decreed in His wisdom that light not be present at all times in all locations. The reason is that the universe needs darkness also, why else would G’d have created it as we know from Psalms 104,20 תשת חשך ויהי לילה, “You bring on darkness and it is night.”
Maimonides writes (chapter 30, second part of Moreh) that the principal cause of the coming into existence and the destruction of celestial forces such as the planets is light and darkness respectively, both of which are forces to which these phenomena are drawn. The constant change from extremes of heat and cold subject these celestial bodies to wear and tear. Climates are affected through the change from light to darkness, as well as the properties of the planets themselves. These changes reflect the will of higher forces, i.e. G’d, Who wishes rain, change of climate to occur on earth at certain times. Darkness is the natural state of the “lower regions” of the universe, light acting as something reviving these regions. The scholar Ibn Ezra writes that the light of which our verse speaks originated in the regions above the רוח, the wind (spirit) operating within the atmosphere. When the Torah wrote ויאמר, commonly translated as “He said,” this is merely a figure of speech, just as when David wrote in Psalms 33,6 בדבר ה' שמים נעשו, “that the heavens were created by the word of G’d.” These formulations are used by the Torah to describe expressions of G’d’s will.

בוקר ויודע ה' את אשר לו, “in the morning Hashem will make known the one who is His own, etc.” Moses referred to the fact that clear proof would be forthcoming if the Levites were performing their service with G’d’s consent or if the firstborn were still acceptable to Him as the ones chosen to represent the people as His servants in the Tabernacle. He would prove by the rejection of the 250 people offering incense that when G’d had said in Numbers 3,12 and 8,14 that the Levites had been chosen by Him, that it was not Moses who had chosen to replace the firstborn. In adding the words: ואת הקדוש והקריב אליו, “and who is holy, and He will draw him close to Himself,” Moses referred to Aaron’s position as High Priest. It is also possible that Moses meant that the firstborn must not consider themselves as having been rejected by G’d as we know from Numbers 3,13 and 8,17 כי לי כל בכור בבני ישראל, “for every firstborn among the Children of Israel has a special relationship to Me, etc.” On the other hand, the קדוש, “the priests,” would be confirmed as such by an act of Hashem on the morrow. It is their task to perform service in the Tabernacle/Temple as we read in Chronicles I 23,13 ויבדל אהרן להקדיש קודש קדשים הוא ובניו עד עולם, “Aaron and his sons were sanctified for the Holy of Holies, he and his sons throughout the generations.”

I have tried to find a reason why the dying of the firstborn was a necessary prerequisite for the Exodus, as well as why even non-Egyptian firstborn (compare 12,29) had to die if they happened to be in Egypt on that fateful night. The reason is connected to G'd having described Israel as "My firstborn son" (4,22). We have a tradition (Zohar 2, page 263) that whenever G'd created some phenomenon which is clearly recognisable as something good, He also created its counterpart, i.e. something potentially evil at the same time. Every sacred phenomenon in our world is matched by a parallel phenomenon under the control of Satan, or what is known in Kabbalistic parlance "the forces of the קליפה." The latter make every effort to gain dominance over the former. We must therefore understand the forces of the קליפה which represented their firstborn as exerting every effort to frustrate the emigration of the Jewish people from Egypt. These efforts did not cease until G'd had "killed" the firstborn of the powers of the קליפה which opposed His will. What G'd had to do was to eliminate the concept of the firstborn being special, otherwise the relief as a result of the death of the Egyptian firstborn would have been only temporary. When the Torah (12,29) stresses that: "the firstborn of the captive, the firstborn of the maidservant and the firstborn of the animals died," this is in contrast to the firstborn of the Israelites who were subsequently sanctified (Numbers 8,17). The reason this sanctification of the Jewish firstborn became necessary is that G'd had done away with the concept of the firstborn being somebody special at the time He eliminated the firstborn on the night of the 15th of Nissan. Had this not been the case we would not understand why the firstborn of the animals had to die also. In Numbers 8,17 G'd declared that henceforth the firstborn of the Jews would be sacred to Him, i.e. there should no longer be a firstborn associated with the powers of the קליפה. If we find that the Egyptians still engaged in hot pursuit of the Israelites even after the death of the firstborn, this was because they had not yet realised that their former power had vanished. As a result, not a single one of them survived the debacle at the Sea of Reeds.