List Mania

Rav Yehuda said in the name of Rav: Ten things were created on the first day (of creation) and they are:
1. Heaven
2. Earth
3. Tohu
4. Bohu
5. Light
6. Darkness
7. Breath
8. Water
9. Length of Day
10. Length of Night

A Baraisa Taught: Tohu is a green line that encircles the entire world. It is from that line that darkness emerges, as it says (in Psalm 18:12) "He made Darkness his concealment around it". Bohu refers to the damp stone sunk in the deep, from these stones that water emerges, as it says (in Isaiah 34:11) "And he shall extend upon it the line of Tohu and the Stones of Bohu.

(Rashi defines Tohu as astonishment and Bafflement. He defines Bohu as Emptiness and Desolation)

The Baraisa continues:
And was light created on the first day? Because it is written: (in Genesis 1:17) "And G-D set the sun and moon in the firament of the heaven to give light on the earth. And it was written: and it was evening and it was morning, the fourth day".

R'Elazar said: The light that the Holy One Blessed is He, created on the first day: Man could use it to survey everything from on end of the world to the other end of the world. Once the Holy One, Blessed is he looked at the generation of the Flood and the generation of the dispersion, and he saw that their deeds were perverse, he proceeded to hid it from them as it says (in Job 38:15) "And the light was withheld from the wicked."

The sages say that the Luminaries themselves which were created on the first day, but not suspended until the fourth day!

Rav Zutra bar Toviya said in the name of Rav: The World was created with ten things:
1. Wisdom
2. Insight
3. Understanding
4. Strength
5. Rebuke
6. Might
7. Righteousness
8. Justice
9. Kindness
10. Compassion


[What was that I posted yesterday about peeking behind "The Curtain"? ]

- Chagigah 12a


Reish Lakish said: Whoever engages in Torah study at night, The Holy one, Blessed is he, endows him with charm during the day.

[I'll have to ask my co-workers if I come in smiling each morning after I'm up until 1:30am studying. (This is normally the case for me, as I reserve my study time until after the kids are in Bed.) On second thought, maybe not. I'll take the Talmud's word that I'm Charming :-)]

- Chagigah 12b