There are three words in the Hebrew language for creation. The first word is the word “Bara”, and this is a very significant word in the Hebrew language. It only appears a few times. This word means “Creation Ex-nihilo”, which is to say that it means “Creation out of nothing”, this concept is hard to explain since it is really impossible for mankind to grasp the understanding of nothing, to begin with. Nothing means just that No Thing. This is used in the very first passage of scripture; one of my favorite passages because one can study this passage for eternity and still probably not grasps the depth to the passage.
“In the beginning, God’s created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1)
This is the highest level of creation. This is a form that no man can do. Everything piece of man’s creating is just taking things that have already been creating and adapting them or changing them. Only God Almighty has the true power to create Ex-nihilo, on God Almighty can create using the word Bara.
“I am the One, Who forms light and creates darkness; Who makes peace and creates evil; I am HaShem, Maker of all these.” (Isaiah 45:7, The Stone Edition Tanach, Feb 2016)
The second word for create is the word “Yotzer” and this means to form something. This can be seen when a person takes a block of wood or stone and chisels away at it. Eventually, what was seen in the mind of the artist, the object will become. This type of creation is also seen in the potter making the jars of clay.
So let’s take a look at the passage from Isaiah 45:7 again, the verb for connected with light is to form, in Hebrew that is Yotzer. The verb used with the word darkness is Create, in Hebrew that is Bara. Therefore, we see that darkness is an Ex-nihilo creation. Then from the darkness, God begins to form the light.
Part of training to be a Soldier includes the use of night observation devices (NODs). This allows the Soldier to see the infrared body heat of the enemy Soldiers hopefully before the Soldier is detected by the enemy. No, they only work in the darkness. Anyone that ever wore a pair can testify to how they work. Visible light is a wavelength and our eyes can only pick up certain wavelengths. Anything outside of the wavelength is in the darkness. We can only see the visual light piece of the electromagnetic spectrum. So we see that God created the overall darkness Ex-Nihilo and allows us to see the light which the Almighty forms from the darkness. We can now see that the second form of creation, that Yotzer form, is exactly that. It is to form from something already in existence.
“Can I not do to you, O house of Israel, what this potter does? - the word of HaShem. Behold, just a clay is in the hand of the potter, so are you in My hand, O House of Israel.” (Jeremiah 18:6, The Stone Edition Tanach, Feb 2016)
God is the potter and we are the clay. God Almighty can take us and make us into whatever God desires.
The third type of creation means “to make something”, the Hebrew verb is “Asah”. It is like the carpenter that makes a table. There are several different types of materials that can be used in the process. The table is not brought into existence Ex-Nihilo, it is not formed or shaped out of one substance. This is where man has his creative powers reside for the most part. Occasionally, with the poetic, or artist man’s creativity can be realized with the concept of Yotzer but most of the time man is held in the realm of Asah.
The man is a created being. There are two parts to man. One is physical and one is spiritual. We see that God formed the body of a man. One part is the physical body. As we can see in the scripture God Yotzer (formed) us like a potter with clay.
“And HaShem God formed the man of dust from the ground, and He blew into his nostrils the soul of life, and man became a living being.” (Genesis 2:7, The Stone Edition Tanach, Feb 2016)
The man is also a spiritual being. We can see this from scripture in Genesis as well. That man was created and in Hebrew, the word that is used is “Bara”, that type of creation which is Ex-Nihilo. This soul which God breathed into Adam in Genesis 2:7 was made before the body was made.
“So God created Man in His image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” (Genesis 1:27, The Stone Edition Tanach, Feb 2016)
The question that a person must ask is “Are you a body that develops a soul?” or a “soul which a body was made for”?. How a person answers this question helps determine how a person truly sees themselves. If a person is a body that just so happened to develop a soul than one might feel as if they never developed a soul, or that only a person of deep spirituality is able to develop a soul. Whereas, the individual that answers the question with the statement that the body was created to house the eternal soul, then what follows is that the individual has a sense that they were created for a purpose and that each individual around them has been given a purpose by the Divine Creator, God Almighty.
It is no coincidence that God placed the Ex-Nihilo creation of man, both the male and female verse in chapter one, and then placed the physical creation of man in chapter two and shows how the man was created from the ground and then that soul made in chapter one was breathed into a man in chapter two. The same for the female, she was made physical in a different manner than man to show that she is different than a man. However, the soul of her was made at the same time as will the man’s soul in chapter one.
“So HaShem God cast a deep sleep upon the man and he slept, and He took one of his sides and He filled in flesh in its place. Then HaShem God fashioned the side the side He had taken from the man into a woman, and He brought her to the man. And the man said, ‘This time it is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. This shall be called Woman, for from man was she taken.’ Therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother and cling to his wife and they shall become one flesh.” (Genesis 2:21-24, The Stone Edition Tanach, Feb 2016)
We see that God created the soul which is eternal and then he created the body to clothe the soul which is pure. Each and every time when we feel that we are not worthy for whatever purpose, or anytime we feel that life is overwhelming to us. It is important for us to know that God has created us with a purpose. There are three ways in which we can remind ourselves of this love from God.
The first way is that whenever you are down, depressed or struggling, just look at your fingertips. I learned this from Rabbi Daniel Lapin from one of his interviews, and I paraphrase, there is no one else in this world that has the same fingerprints that you have not even identical twins have the same set of fingerprints. The fingerprint is a physical manifestation of a spiritual being. The reason why the fingerprint is the spot for this is because man creates with his hands, and God wants to show us that we have a place in creation to create, not Ex-Nihilo, but to form and to make.
The second way is to look in front of a mirror and look into your eyes. In security, there is a concept of biometrics. Just as there is no one else with your same fingerprints, this is true for the eyes. The eyes are a physical manifestation of a spiritual being behind the eyes. This is probably the reason for the statement that “The eyes are the windows to the soul”.
“HaShem God took the man and placed him in the Garden of Eden, to work it and to guard it.” (Genesis 2:15, The Stone Edition Tanach, Feb 2016).
From this verse, I have a bit of depth to share with you. Notice the phrase “The Garden of Eden”, this is significant to the eye. The phrase in Hebrew is “Be’Gan Eden”, and from exegesis, we can see that the first letter with “Be” means “in”, and that is connected to the word “Gan” means garden. Now the word “Eden” starts with the letter “Ayin” which also means “Eye”. The second part of the word “Eden” means judgment. So we see that “Eden” means in “Eye of Judgement”, So God placed Adam “Be’Gan Eden”, and we see that God was watching Adam in the garden to test Adam’s obedience. God’s eyes are always on us. So this leads us to the third way, where we need to balance ourselves.
The third way is a tradition in Judaism. A person can carry two pieces of paper, one for each pocket. Written on one piece of paper is something like “God created the world for me”, and the second piece of paper should say something like, “From ashes to ashes, dust to dust, thus a man returns to dust.” This way a person can always keep in mind that God loves them and that they have a purpose and mission in life, but to not get arrogant about their position in this world and to remain humble.
