Our Gemara on Amud Beis discusses that for a seller to imply that he is including all the underground cisterns and tunnels, he must say “from the depths of the Earth to the Height of the sky.” The English words for these boundaries do not capture the theological and contextual meaning of these words in Hebrew. The Hebrew word for “height of the sky” is rakia, and the Hebrew word for “depths of the Earth” is Tehom. 

What do these words mean? Rakia has been translated as “firmament” because the idea within the story of creation is that this boundary made a firm barrier between the upper waters and the lower waters (Bereishis 6:1). However, etymologically the word Rakia is more like something spread out, such as in Tehilim (136:6), which ironically describes spreading the Earth out with the same root word R-K-A, or Bamidbar (7:3) which describes the gold sheets plated on the top of the altar. Tehom is more challenging etymologically, as it seems to be an original word and not borrowed from a larger idea like Rakia. But the definition is easy because it is almost exclusively used in every application to imply some deep part of the earth, an ancient abyss. There are similar words for the deep earth in Akkadian and Ugaritic, which indicates the precision of this definition. Sometimes it is used by way of Metaphor, such as in Tehilim (36:7) “Your justice is great depth”, but the meaning is still quite obviously something far down below, difficult to fully assess and discern. Thus, God‘s justice is not always easy at first to understand, but it comes from a profound ancient place, just like the depths of the Earth. It might be related to the word for wonder, as in wondrously or imponderably deep, as when the townsfolk encounter the weather-beaten, once aristocratic Na’ami, returning to Israel (Rus 1:19) “VaTehom kol ha’ir” “And the entire city was astounded.“

And of course the first usages of Rakia and Tehom make their appearances early in the account of creation: (Bereishis 1:2; we saw the reference for Rakia earlier.)

The spirit of Hashem hovered over the face of the deep tehom 

What are we to make of these accounts of creation? Clearly none of it is comprehensible in any simple format, so why even bother? Avos (5:1) acknowledges this question as well, wondering why create the world with ten utterances? Why not one? Or 100? Avos says, it is to reward and punish those who support or thwart the purpose of the world, created with these statements. As if to say, thwarting or supporting the creation would be better or worse depending on how many statements were used to create it? The answer Avos gives is just as cryptic, only making sense superficially, but requiring more study. Even so, one way to look at this is like a Midrash; you can't necessarily understand it on its ultimate deepest level, but you can still derive meanings and morals from the story line. From that perspective, there are a couple of notable touchstones:

The opening does not tell about God being alone, but instead we get to know God by his action - creating Heaven and Earth. This fundamentally tells us we can never know what God was thinking, how he was before creation. We will only know God by what he does in this world.

The creations follow a taxonomy , elements, astral bodies, vegetation, sea creatures, birds, animals and humans. The Torah values categorization and order. Recognizing the wonders of creation fully requires attention and appreciation of the details. As Chovos Halevavos’ Shaar Habechina elaborates, reflecting on the various marvels of nature brings one closer to Hashem. To a degree studying science, particularly biology and astronomy can be a devotional exploration that the creation account stimulated. Because we must ask ourselves what is the point in all the categorization of the creation account if there is meaning to the system? 

And of course the final point is that there is a creator. A creator with the power and wisdom to create the world and the cosmos must have a purpose and a vested interest in the world. While we can wonder about the purpose of it all, it is hard to ignore that evidence of purpose and therefore our accountability to participate.

Translations Courtesy of Sefaria, except when, sometimes, I disagree with the translation

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