[Avodah] evolution - new creatures coming into existence, 7 days of creation

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, Dec 21, 2011 at 09:19:10PM -0500, Zvi Lampel wrote:
> And this is followed by a tannu rabbanan that *the day* that Adam  
> HaRishon was created, he saw for the first time the sun setting, and  
> feared the world was reverting back to darkness and ultimately tohu  
> va'vohu, because of the sin he had committed. This clearly implies the  
> sin was committed before sunset of the sixth day.

Actually, that's only to answer what one would say if the world were
created in Nisan. For Tishrei, Adam's teshuvah begins before the
solstice.

I conflated the gemara with the last shitah in Pirqei deR' Eliezer
pereq 20, which talks about Adam fasting for 7 weeks. But both
opinions make my point.

> It seems pretty clear why the Rambam says this was agreed upon by all  
> the Chachamim.

I think he is speaking only of the last clause -- that Adam was placed in
the gan. Since only that fits "All our Sages agree that this took place
on the sixth day, and that nothing new was created after the close of
the six days."

But then, he tells you not to worry about the contradictions in
sequencing:
    The account of the six days of creation contains, in reference to
    the creation of man, the statement: "Male and female created he them"
    (1:27), and concludes with the words: "Thus the heavens and the earth
    were finished, and all the host of them" (2:1), and yet the portion
    which follows describes the creation of Eve from Adam, the tree of
    life, and the tree of knowledge, the history of the serpent and the
    events connected therewith, and all this as having taken place after
    Adam had been placed in the Garden of Eden. All our Sages agree that
    this took place on the sixth day, and that nothing new was created
    after the close of the six days. None of the things mentioned above
    is therefore impossible, because the laws of Nature were then not
    yet permanently fixed.

"None of the things mentioned above", neither the number of things that
occured on yom 6 nor their creation of male and female being at once and
also female from male, that the world was both complete and also before
the story of the nachash, because nature wasn't yet fixed. This is the
same pereq where the Rambam tells you that time can't exist without the
galgal hamaqif or the sun -- which we know was created on yom 4. And
how everything was created in the two "es"-es of Bereishis 1:1 ("ki
shamayim va'aretz nivre'u yachad") and on their respective days.
    Kevar hodiakha ki yesod kol haTorah
    sheH' himtzi es ha'olam min ha'ayin
    *shelo bereishis zemaneihem*
    ela hazeman nivra,
    mipenei shehu nispach letenu'as hagalgal, vehagalgal nivra.

Creation was outside of time. And thus yom isn't a period of time --
neither a 24 hour day nor an era, but something altogether lemaalah
min hazeman -- as the supercommentary rishonim (and/or early acharonim)
consistently interpret him.

Time itself wasn't etched in stone yet, so of course all those things
can happen, and in what seems like conflicting temporal sequence.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Mussar is like oil put in water,
micha at aishdas.org        eventually it will rise to the top.
http://www.aishdas.org                    - Rav Yisrael Salanter
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