I Create Darkness And Light

[Elijah Rakestraw]

Andto the darkness, He called night: The Sages, of blessed memory, explained in the beginning of Tractate Pesachim, that the Holy One, blessed be He, called to darkness and appointed it over the night. [By this,] our Rabbis taught us that we should not say that darkness is only the absence of light, like when - in the middle of the day - we close the windows, it becomes dark. For, if so, it would not be a creation. But in truth, darkness is a creation, on its own as well, as it is written (Isaiah 45:7), "and created the darkness." And it is great distortion to say that darkness is only the absence of light. But rather, God makes both of them, just as He concerns Himself over holiness and impurity.

This explanation states that darkness is a creation on it's own rather than just the absence of light, and it even quotes Isaiah as direct evidence. However, the creation of light is explicitly narrated in Bereshit 1:3 :

I understand that the account of Creation of Bereshit contains really deep meanings and may not be as literal as I may be taking it according to the sages' interpretations. However, I believe it is a valid question to ask: When did G-d create darkness?

The answers I've received are wonderful and really well researched, however I will not be choosing one as the correct answer for the following reason: Menachem's answer explains the perspective of the Ohr HaChaim and the Talmud, which states that darkness was created in the first day, with a solid reasoning. While Mevaqesh's answer argues that darkness is in fact just the absence of light (and not a creation), and he justifies this point by quoting many different rabbinical authorities from different backgrounds and centuries who all agree with this interpretation.

I don't feel I'm entitled to choose which answer is the most correct based on my subjective opinion and I encourage the readers to check both of this great answers to get an understanding of both conflicting yet fascinating interpretations.

Since there was nothing before the begining of creation, where did darkness come from. This proves that darkness was also created on the first day. (this verse is also used to prove that Tohu, Vohu, Ruach, and Mayim were also created on the first day).

This is also stated by Rabbenu Aharon of Narbonne in (Orechot Chaim: Laws of Barchu 2) who explains that the liturgy states that God fashioned light and created darkness, even though darkness is merely the absence of light, since God bring darkness anew each night via the system of rotation that He created:

And it said 'And creates darkness' for although the term 'creates' isnt appropriate for this, for darkness is just the absence of light, nevertheless we say this for it is a scriptural expression. And some say that the term is appropriate since through the rotation of the heavens downwards, the darkness comes to Earth.

This is also implicit in the commentary of the uncle and mentor of Rabbi Yosef Karo, Toledot Yitschak to Genesis (1:5) who asks how the verse can state that there was evening and then day if the very definition of night is the darkness of absence of light. Before light even existed, how can one meaningfully speak of darkness:

And there was evening and there was morning, one day: 'evening' is the lack of light, and this is the 'darkness', and note that the light didn't precede it, so how can it state "there was evening", without light having preceded it?

In summary, many many traditional rabbinic authorities from a broad range of backgrounds, living over more than a millennium, agree that darkness is just the absence of light. God's creation of darkness refers to the newly significant lack of light, or in some contexts can refer to the created cycle which triggers both the light of day and the darkness of night.

There were two distinct categories or aspects to the process of creation. The first is the upper category of the Heavens and the second is the lower category of the Earth. The creation proceeds from Above to Below.

And that lower category, which is called the Earth, is comprised of four sub-categories which are called Tohu and Vohu and Darkness over the face of the Tehom. All these details are discussed at length in the commentaries of Ramban, Rabbeinu Bechai and the Abarbanel to Bereshit 1:1-2.

This is defining the four categories or types of Kelippot of Tumah (Shells or Degrees of Unfitness). The three more severe categories are called Tohu, Vohu and Darkness. They are completely unclean and prohibited. They are the most external and pertain to those things which are absolutely prohibited and cannot be refined via the mitzvot, like orlah for example as is explained in detail in Likuttei Amarim, Tanya, 1:6. Like is explained there, this is also based upon the same idea with the nomenclature of the Prophets as found in Yechezkel 1:4.

This concept of Tehom being related to the aspect of Kelipat Nogah is also brought up in Sefer Kol HaTor, Chapter 5, Part 2, Paragraph 2 citing the Zohar, parshat Vayeira, 117a, which is based upon the Chumash, parshat Noach 7:11 which states:

A source for the idea you suggested. Rabbi Yaakov Emden discusses the wording in the bracha יוצר אור ובורא חושך in his siddur. He writes that חושך, darkness was part of the creation יש מאין, creatio ex nihilo, and therefore has the word בורא applied to it. This is unlike אור, light, which was formed out of what already existed and therefore has the word יוצר applied to it.

I play a Gloomstalker whose Umbral Sight feature makes them benefit from darkness, and we're often in areas of dim light. I'd like some way to change the dim light to darkness around myself. It doesn't need to work in bright light areas.

I know about the Darkness spell, but that requires investment to see through, and more importantly, concentration which makes it quite weak. I'm looking for something else. I want just non-magical darkness.

Flame-like shadows wreathe your body until the spell ends, causing you to become heavily obscured to others. The shadows turn dim light within 10 feet of you into darkness, and bright light in the same area to dim light.

In the phrase "I form the light and create darkness" there appears to be a difference in the origins of light and darkness. The verse states that darkness was clearly created by God but it appears that there is no stated beginning for light, hence the word "formed" as if light was already in existence but God then formed it. We know from 1 John 1:5, that God is light. "...that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all."

In hebrew, there is a special verb, bara, that means to create out of nothing. It is reserved only for God. This verb is used in Genesis, God created the Heavens and the Earth. Everything came from that source. After that, you can fashion, mold, make -- there are many verbs that can be used to build/shape that don't involve ex-nihilo creation. So Isaiah 45.7 follows the same verbal pattern as the creation account in Genesis.

In both, the verb 'bara' refers to the creation of darkness and evil. That God created it out of nothing. However the verbs ytsr, and 'sh, meaning to shape and make are used for light and peace. This suggests that the light and peace are secondary or higher level creations built from the raw stuff of darkness and evil.

This idea of darkness preceeding light and evil preceeding peace is echoed in other parts of the Bible. E.g. in the Genesis account, God created the Heavens and the Earth, but there was darkness. Then God said "Let there be light". The light shines out of the darkness just as peace breaks out of evil.

Also notice that the parallel of evil is peace, not good. God sees the light and says it is good, so good is an attribute of light as well as of the higher order creations, but the end, the purpose of evil is to bring forth peace, or reconciliation, just as the purpose of darkness is to be a backdrop in which light can be brought forth. Both of these higher order creations are "good".

This is similar to other processes of molding or fashioning. E.g. God takes some impure lump of rock and puts it into the fire and the result is pure gold, or a pure thing. That pure gold is "good". The impure thing is the basic stuff out of which the good thing comes. The basic stuff is created ex-nihilo, the good stuff is fashioned/made. This is the divine hierarchy.

In order to understand what God has said in Isaiah 45:17(KJV), we must go back during time of creation, specifically when God said , "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Genesis 2:17(KJV). Adam was commanded by God not to eat from it, Genesis 2:16(KJV). It is a test of loyalty. Man was given a freedom, a free will, a freedom of choice. Because God is love and love cannot be enforced and obedience to God's word is what makes the difference. Obedience to God's commandments will determine if we live or die. But let's take a look back at Genesis 2:17. If God, during creation time, put the tree of the "knowledge of good and evil", as part of the garden in Eden, meaning, good and evil must have already been pre-existing. We cannot "know" something which does not exist. Therefore, God being the Omnipotent One, also created evil, when he said it in Isaiah 45:7. Again, it is from our own choosing that determines our fate.

Genesis 1 speaks of darkness existing over the waters before creation. Was darkness something made or has it always existed? Did God create the initial darkness before He separated the initial light from darkness? I'm asking because a friend asked me this question. Also was God not light? So why was there a need for the initial light before the sun was created on the fourth day?

The difficulty is that Hebrew, compared to modern English, had a relatively limited vocabulary. There weren't detailed scientific terms to describe what God did. But take a look at: Did God create the earth without a shape and then later give its current shape?

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