Before “Let There Be Light”… There Was Mashiach (With Sources)
[1:1] In a hidden Beginning [“Bereshit,” the first Divine act and purpose]—which is G-d’s own Wisdom [Chochmah], the cherished “first” for whose sake G-d creates the world, including the Torah and Israel—the Infinite One, who is called Elohim [the Divine Name of measured judgment, middat ha-din] when He measures Himself into judgment to create worlds, clothes His will in the full span of the letters from Alef to Tav [all 22 Hebrew letters as creative forces] as the blueprint of Torah, and through that inner plan He Himself brings forth the heavens as the realm of revealed radiance and reward, and He Himself establishes the earth as the lower kingdom, the palace He prepares as a dwelling-place for His Presence (the Shekhinah [the indwelling Divine Presence, associated with Malchut]) among human beings.
[1:2] And this lower realm, hinted at by the word “earth” [aretz] and by the exiled Shekhinah within it, first stands desolate and confused, like ruins that are empty of mitzvot and holiness; darkness [choshech, the concealment of G-dliness]—meaning the power of harsh judgment and the rule of the wicked—spreads over the deep abyss of concealment [tehom, the unfathomable depth], while at the same time the Spirit of Elohim [ruach Elohim], which is the hovering breath of holiness [ruach ha-kodesh] (the spirit of Mashiach [ruach Mashiach], of prophecy, and of the inner Torah [the hidden, pnimiyut haTorah]), moves above the waters of mercy [the primordial mayim of chesed] like a bird hovering over her nest, as that Spirit surrounds the waters with support and quietly prepares them to soften judgment and give life.
[1:3] Then Elohim, acting from within that concealed Wisdom [the hidden level of Chochmah] and through the act of speaking [Divine speech, dibbur], says, “Let there be light” [yehi or], and as Elohim utters this command a primordial, supernal light [the “hidden light,” or ha-ganuz] bursts forth—not yet the physical light of sun or flame, but the subtle radiance of Torah and of Mashiach, a light by which one could see from one end of the world to the other; this ray of the Infinite [a limited revelation of Or Ein Sof] shines into all levels of reality, and for a moment that light stands openly revealed within creation because Elohim has called it forth.
[1:4] And Elohim looks upon this first light [the original or of creation] and sees that it is good—good in that Elohim intends it for the righteous [tzaddikim] and for the healing and repair [tikkun] of all worlds—and therefore Elohim separates this precious inner radiance from the coarse darkness of concealment; Elohim hides this light away [sets it aside as or ha-ganuz] from those who would misuse it, and by doing so He sets a clear boundary between the path of clarity and cleaving to Him [deveikut] and the path of darkness and estrangement from Him.
[1:5] And Elohim, as the One who names and defines, calls the revealed side of that light “Day” [yom, sign of open revelation], a name that expresses kindness, unity, and open revelation, and Elohim calls the concealed side “Night” [laylah, sign of concealment and fear], a name that expresses awe, restraint, and hiddenness; through the rhythm that Elohim establishes—of evening’s dimming and morning’s brightening [erev as mixing/obscurity, boker as clarity]—He weaves both states together into one single first day [yom echad, a uniquely unified day], a unified circle of time in which all opposites of light and dark, mercy and judgment, are ultimately directed by Him to serve and reveal His perfect Oneness.
📝 SOURCES (Short Guide)
1. “Bereshit” as Torah, Israel, Chochmah, and purpose of creation
• Rashi on Bereishit 1:1 – “Bereshit” = “for the sake of the Torah which is called reshit darko (Mishlei 8:22) and for the sake of Israel who are called reshit tevuato (Yirmiyahu 2:3).”
• Midrash Tanchuma, Bereshit 5 – “Ein reshit ela Torah… ‘Hashem qanani reshit darko’… Hashem looked into the Torah and created the world.”
• Bereishit Rabbah, ch. 1 – “Bereshit – for the sake of Torah… and for the sake of Israel…”
• Mishlei 8:22 – “Hashem qanani reshit darko” – read by Chazal and mekubalim as referring to Torah / Chochmah as the “beginning.”
• Recanati on the Torah, Bereshit 1:1; Tikkunei Zohar, tikkunim on “Bereshit” – “Bereshit” = be-Chochmah itbara’u; “reshit” identified with the sefirah of Chochmah.
2. Torah as blueprint; creation through letters
• Zohar, Terumah 161a – “Kudsha Brich Hu istakel be-Orayta u-vara alma” – “The Holy One, blessed be He, looked into the Torah and created the world.”
• Midrash Tanchuma, Bereshit 5 – parable of a king building a palace with architectural plans: Hashem “looks into the Torah and creates the world.”
• Sefer Yetzirah 1:1; 2:2 – creation through “thirty-two paths of wondrous wisdom” and “twenty-two letters… He carved them, weighed them, combined them, and with them formed all that was formed and will be formed.”
• Classic commentaries on Sefer Yetzirah (e.g. Maharal / Gur Aryeh) – emphasize that the 22 Hebrew letters are the basic creative “building blocks” of the world.
3. Shem “Elohim” as measured judgment and tzimtzum
• Rashi on Bereishit 1:1; 2:4 – Hashem first intended to create the world with middat ha-din (Name “Elohim”), then joined it with middat ha-rachamim (Name “Hashem”).
• R. Yosef Gikatilla, Sha‘arei Orah (Gate of the Name Elohim) – explains “Elohim” as the Name of din that constricts and measures Divine flow.
• Kabbalistic / chassidic works (summarized in, e.g., Ma’or VaShemesh and many later ma’amarim) – identify Shem Elohim with gevurah and tzimtzum, the concealment of Or Ein Sof to allow a finite creation.
4. Heaven and earth; Shekhinah / Malchut and “dirah b’tachtonim”
• R. Bachya and other classic mefarshim on Bereishit 1:1 – “heavens and earth” as upper and lower realms.
• Midrash Shemot Rabbah; Shir HaShirim Rabbah on “Bati le-gani” – when Hashem created the world He desired “a dwelling place in the lower worlds”; later developed in Chassidus as dirah b’tachtonim.
• Midrashim (quoted in many kabbalistic and chassidic sources) that the ikar Shekhinah was originally in the tachtonim, then ascended after sin and is brought back down through the Avot and Torah.
• R. Moshe Cordovero, Pardes Rimonim – Malchut is sometimes called “eretz” (land).
• R. Yosef Gikatilla, Sha‘arei Orah, Gate 9 – Malchut is “Eretz HaChaim,” the Land of Life, receiving flow from above.
• Numerous Zohar passages equate Malchut / Shekhinah with “Eretz” / supernal Eretz Yisrael.
5. Tohu, bohu, choshech, tehom – desolation, exile, harsh din
• Rashbam on Bereishit 1:2; Yirmiyahu 4:23 – tohu va-vohu as “desolate and empty.”
• Rabbeinu Bachya on Bereishit 1:2 – quotes Midrash that tohu, bohu, choshech, tehom allude to the four exiles (Babylon, Media, Greece, Rome), and that “Ruach Elohim” there is “the spirit of Mashiach.”
6. “Ruach Elohim merachefet” – Ruach Mashiach and the hovering Shekhinah
• Bereishit Rabbah 2:4–5 – “Ruach Elohim merachefet al penei ha-mayim – this is the spirit of King Mashiach,” linked to “ve-nachah alav ruach Hashem” (Yeshayahu 11:2).
• This midrash is cited by Rabbeinu Bachya and many later mekubalim to show that the tachlit ha-briyah (ultimate purpose of creation) is Yemot HaMashiach.
• Many classic sources identify ruach with ruach ha-kodesh / prophecy and with the Shekhinah present in creation.
• Chagigah 15a – Ben Zoma: “merachefet al penei ha-mayim – like a dove hovering over her young without touching them.” This gives the image of a bird hovering above its nest.
7. The primordial light (Or HaGanuz), Torah, tzaddikim, and Mashiach
• Chagigah 12a – the light created on the first day allowed one to see from one end of the world to the other; Hashem then hid it away because the world was not worthy, reserving it for the righteous in the future.
• Bereishit Rabbah 3:6 – same idea regarding the first light and its hiding.
• Rashi on Bereishit 1:4 – quotes this: Hashem saw that the wicked are unworthy of using this light, so He hid it away for the tzaddikim in the World to Come.
• Later works (Bnei Yissaschar, Ma’or VaShemesh, many others) refer to this as “Or HaGanuz”, the hidden primordial light, revealed in the days of Mashiach.
• Mishlei 6:23 – “A mitzvah is a lamp, and Torah is light” – basis for identifying this primordial light with the inner light of Torah, the light of tzaddikim, and the light of Mashiach.
8. Light vs. darkness; Day, Night, and “one day”
• Midrashim on Bereishit 1:3–5 (cited in standard parashah anthologies):
• “Yehi or” = deeds of the righteous.
• “Choshech” = deeds of the wicked.
• Separation of light and darkness = separation of righteous and wicked, boundary for reward and punishment.
• Rashi on Bereishit 1:5 (from Bereishit Rabbah 3:8) – “yom echad” (one day) rather than “first day” because “the Holy One, blessed be He, was alone in His world,” before the angels were created.
• Other midrashic and kabbalistic readings connect “yom echad” with Zecharyah 14:7 – “yom echad hu yivada la-Hashem,” the unique day of Hashem – future universal revelation of Divine Oneness.
Many of the English phrases in the translation are synthesis and paraphrase, but every major idea above is rooted in these classic sources.