[Avodah] Bereishit

[Zvi Lampel]

On Fri, Oct 26, 2018 at 2:13 PM Micha Berger <micha at aishdas.org> wrote:

> On Mon, Oct 08, 2018 at 09:26:27AM -0400, Zvi Lampel via Avodah wrote:
> : Know that G-d brought out these creations, all of them, to physical reality
> : during the six days of *Breishis* by Himself, in His Own Glory -- not by means
> : of an agent, meaning Nature. Creation was contrary to the way things are
> : after the conclusion of the six days of *Breishis*, wherein *Hashem
> : Yisborach* conducts His world by means of the agent, i.e. *Nature*

Just to be clear, that was a quote of the Maharal.

> While the Rambam treats nature as a hypostatis,

Looked that up in the dictionary. Don't want to get bogged down in your
usage.

> the Ramban famously says there is no "it" to nature.

Famously, but phantomly. Ramban (see, for example, on Shmos 25:24) no less
than Rambam, holds that olom kiminhago noheig. Ramban repeats a number of
times that each "Va-yehi  khein" in Breishis means that Hashem made that
minhag permanent.

Rambam teaches that during maaseh breishis, Hashem put the normal
properties and behaviors into the natures of the things He created and
formed. He also instilled in them the potential for certain aberrational
behaviors, to be actualized upon certain conditions, such as the staff
turning into a serpent. But such changes open can only last temporarily.

But then there is the constant reaction of natural events to mankind's good
and evil deeds, which is a neis nistar. This, Rambam explains, is
nevertheless the greatest miracle of all:

> "The Torah amply states that the improvement of affairs that goes with
> loyal service to Hashem, and their worsening that goes with rebellion, is a
> continuous miracle...not due to a natural cause or the behavior of
> metsius...And this is a miracle greater than any other miracle....".
> (Rambam's Maamar Terchiass HaMeisim [near the end])

This view as well is shared by the Ramban. And this is his point in the
passages in which he is mistakenly understood to be saying that "there is
no 'it' to nature." As an example, in Toras Hashem Temimah, he cites the
Rambam approvingly and says, "Most people think that the Alm-ighty does not
constantly enact miracles, that the world proceeds in its way, and many of
the chachamim think so, too, but the Rav (Rambam) curses them....All our
affairs are entirely miracles, there is no nature and way that the world
proceeds, for behold the promises of the Torah are all absolute miracles
...The fact of "And I shall give your rains in their time [if you keep the
mitzvos]," Hashem will open for you his good treasure-house, the heavens,
to give the rain to your land in its time an d to bless...is the same as
the plague of the firstborn, the dever and arov, and the drowning of the
Egyptians in the sea...the only difference is that between the hidden and
the open...."

So, Ramban in context does not mean that there is no such thing as nature.
His point in all his famous and repeated declarations is that it is a
central Torah fact that man's deeds are rewarded or punished by the forces
of nature, and that this is miraculous. No different from the Rambam. He,
just as Rambam, is not saying that outside of this area there is no minhago
shel olom, no "it" to nature.

> From RZL's quote of the Rambam:

:> When any one of us is deprived of breath for a short time, he dies, and
:> cannot move any ‎longer. How then can we imagine that any one of us has
:> been enclosed in a bag in the ‎midst of a body for several months and
:> remained alive, able to move?‎

>Which doesn't mean that creation happened by miracles we could understand
either. It justifies the Michtav meiEliyahu's position that creation is
incomprehensible by any means. And instead we pick which simplified model,
which perspective, we choose to explain the unknowable from.

Except that the Rambam speaking for himself declares,

MN 2:17 (see http://press.tau.ac.il/perplexed/chapters/chap_2_17.htm, note
6, for a ‎compilation of translations of this passage.)‎

For we, the community following in the footsteps of Moshe Rabbeynu and
Avraham ‎Avinu, aleihem hashalom, believe that the world came into being in
such-and-such a ‎form, and became such-and-such from such-and-such (haya
kach mi-kach), and such ‎was created after such.‎

>See pereq 30. There was no time, no 6 days. Just 6 steps in logic.

The interpretation that when the Torah says days it means levels is given
by the Ralbag, based upon, and compelled by, his take of Chazal who say
that Hashem created everything full bloom instantly and simultaneously. But
that's (just one of the possibilities) offered by Ralbag, not Rambam. The
Ralbag demonstrates he was well acquainted with the Rambam's writings on
the subject, and he himself states that none of his fellow rishonim before
him "realized" that this was what Chazal were saying.

The two issues raised in this post, the issue of time with the issue of
miracles and ha-olom beMinhago noheig, actually tie together. Rambam in the
above mentioned payrush on Avos famously maintains that it was on erev
Shabbos that Hashem instilled potential aberrational behavior in the nature
of the 10 things listed. However, the potentials for aberrational behaviors
were instilled in the natures of all other creations ON THE DAY THE TORAH
INDICATES. E.g. one example he gives is that the nature of water to split
was instilled on day 2. So he is understanding the days as units of time,
in which there were days 1-7 and a 6th day bein ha-shemoshos. If one were
to attempt imposing the concept of "step of logic" on the use of the word
"day" in this passage, the passage would not make sense.

Moreh Nevuchim 2:30 does not differ.

In MN 2:30, Rambam emphasizes that time itself is something Hashem created.
It is a result of the turning of the sphere, which itself is something that
was created. Thus, creation did not happen after a certain amount of time,
because time could not exist before creation. This is the meaning of his
saying that creation, the initial creation ex nihilo, happened "outside of
time." (See Abarbanel ‎(p. 8, left-hand column, middle), Crescas and
Ephodi. Shemtov does attribute the "levels" peshat to Rambam.)

But then he poses a question: If the sphere and heavenly bodies were first
created the fourth day, how were the first three days measured? He is
obviously assuming, in his question, that the creation days of the Torah
are units of time. The question is how could there be a first, second and
third day, if the thing that produces time, the revolving sphere, did not
exist until day four. The question includes the assumption that each day of
maaseh breishis witnessed a new creation ex nihilo of the rakia, the
vegetation, the creatures, etc., so the heavenly bodies that determine
units of time did not exist until the 4th day.

He answers that day does not mean a unit of time, but a step of logic.
No, wait, he doesn't.

He answers that Chazal teach that despite the impression one may get from
the pesukim, there was not a new creation ex nihilo each of the 6 days.
There was one creation ex nihilo of everything, and then a
"revealing"/separation/extraction of each component. What occurred on day
4 with the heavenly bodies responsible for time was not their creation.
Their creation and behavior of determining time began at the instant of
creation ex nihilo. He cites the Chazal comparing the process over the six
creation days to that of various types of seeds. Even though they were all
planted one day, each one sprouts later, on a different day.

Repeat: later, on different days. The question of how there was time and
days 1, 2, and 3 before day 4 is answered with the principle that the
heavenly bodies responsible for time existed from the moment of creation.
Nothing in the Rambam's words (either here or in his treatment in the first
chelek of word meanings) about days meaning levels.

"The particle "ess" in the phrase "ess ha-shamayim ve-ess ha-aretz ("the
heavens and the earth") signifies "together with." Our Sages have explained
the word in the same sense in many instances. Accordingly, they assume that
God created, with the heavens, everything that the heavens contain, and
with the earth, everything the earth includes. They further say that the
simultaneous Creation of the heavens and the earth is implied in the words,
"I call unto them, they stand up together" (Tehillim 48). Consequently, all
things were created together, but revealed (nisgalu) / were separated from
each other (nivdelu) one by one (rishon rishon). Our Sages illustrated
this by the following simile: We sow various seeds at the same time; some
spring forth after one day, some after two, and some after three days,
although all have been sown at the same time. This outlook, which is
undoubtedly the correct one, solves the problem of... how the first day, the
second day and the third day were determined....

This is explicit in the words of our Sages in Bereshis Rabba. They said,
regarding the light the Torah says was created on the first day. They said
it as follows: These [lights of the luminaries mentioned in the Creation of
the fourth day] are the very same lights that were created on the first
day, but were not hung in their places until the fourth day. Behold, they
explicitly stated this idea."

All this would be an awful way to express the simple idea that by "day"
the Torah means not a unit of time but a logical step.

Zvi Lampel