Aleph - creation by separation
Aleph - creation by separation
From the formation of aleph, the diagonal vav ו can be interpreted as "God spoke and created". Before God created, there existed only God. Where was he to put his new creation? There was nothing outside of God [1], so he had to create the universe inside of himself. He opened up a void [2], and then spoke (ten times) into it to form it.
The yod י, as a metaphor, can express God's first thought of creation, God as the creator, or the creation. Ge 1:1 is another way of expressing the idea behind the aleph. We also can express it as "God spoke and created ו the heavens י and the earth י".
The idea of creating by separation is expressed in all ten commandments of creation; "God said" ten times. Can you discern what was separated?
Ten commandments of creation
The count of ten commandments comes from:
- Ge 1:3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
- Ge 1:6 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
- Ge 1:9 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
- Ge 1:11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.
- Ge 1:14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:
- Ge 1:20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.
- Ge 1:24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
- Ge 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
- Ge 1:28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
- Ge 1:29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
