One of the least understood topics in the Biblical story of the creation of the world is what happened on the second day of Creation. The text says that on that day God separated “the waters above from the waters below,” which clearly alludes to the creation of the rain.
Previously I have showed that a similar idea about waters above and below (or around us) is commonly used in science today. John Lynch, the author of the BBC book “The Climate” (p.84, 1996) describes the clouds with words that are a very similar to the words used by the Tora : “We live on a water planet. The seas dominate the world … there is an ocean around us [the water of the sea] and an ocean above us [the clouds] “. The Tora explains that the Creator dedicated a whole day, the Second Day , to establish the miraculous mechanism that transforms ocean water into the most precious liquid in the entire universe: rain.
But for different reasons, especially the erroneous (according to Tora Shelema) interpretation of a Midrash that describes the prayer of Adam, the first human, for rain, the important act of the second day of creation was reinterpreted in different ways: separation of metaphysical entities; water that exists in the stratosphere, beyond our planet, etc. Incredibly, these interpretations are seen as the most conventional explanation of God’s creative work on the Second day; something that can be confirmed simply by asking the following to any student of any Jewish school in the world: “What did God do on the Second Day of Creation?”. I did this little test and got incredible results: Not a single student (or their teachers!) Answered: “Rain”.
The mechanism of the water cycle, which allows the production of rain, was established by the Creator on the second day of Creation also according to Maimonides (More Nebukhim 2:30), by dividing the upper waters (clouds) of the lower waters (oceans) . This is also explained, but in much more detail, by Rav Moshe Hefets in his extraordinary book “Melekhet Mahashebet” (pages 10-11, Vienna edition), and by Rabbi Menashe ben Israel in his book (written originally in Spanish) “The Conciliator” .
When the creation of the rain (and the climate system) is ignored, new questions arise that take away from the Creation account its deliberate realism and comprehensibility by humans (דברה התורה בלשון בני אדם). For example: How could vegetation – created during the third day – exist without rain?. There are other points that become clearer when we do not overlook the creation of rain, as for example, the concept of “progressive creation”, that is, the notion that the elements created on day 1 are necessary for day 2 –and the following days– and the elements created on day 2 are necessary for day 3, etc. Let’s see for example what Rashbam, the grandson of Rashi (France, 1085-1158) explains in this sense. Rashbam states that the wind mentioned in the second verse of the Torah was used by God to separate the seas from the continents on day 3. Once God established “dry land” , on the same Third Day, God created the plants, which are necessary for the production of free oxygen and for the feeding and surviving of animals, created on the Fifth Day.
Incidentally, Rashbam confirms with his commentary that the words “Ruah Eloquim” in the second verse of the Tora do not mean “Divine spirit” (a concept too close to the non-Jewish idea of ”holy spirit”) but they indicate: ” a mighty wind “, as explained by Eben Ezra and Radaq, or “a Divine wind [a wind that serves as an instrument of God’s creation]” which is what Targum Onquelos, Maimónides, etc. explained. For Rashbam the Creator used a mighty wind to separate the continents from the oceans and establish the dry land in a similar manner that God used a powerful wind to open the Red Sea when we left Egypt. The only difference is the adjective that is given to the noun “wind” in each of these events: the wind of Creation is called “Ruah Eloquim” (Eloquim, used as the superlative of “powerful”), while the wind that God uses in the opening of the sea, much more limited in its spectrum, is called “Ruah (qadim) aza”, a strong wind.
For the creation of the rain and the climate system, another element is needed: the sun. Leaving aside the interpretation of the majority of the sages (Ribbi Aqiba, Rashi, Maimonides, etc.) in most Jewish schools I know the students learn that the sun was created during the Fourth Day of creation. Something that also awakes a number of questions of physics or elementary biology: How could there be rain, or plants, without the sun? How could day and night exist without the sun? These questions disappear when we follow Ribbí Aqiba’s explanation –widely accepted by the Rabbis of the Talmud, but for some reason ignored by most modern Jewish teachers– that explains that the sun was created in the first act of Creation: Verse 1.
The subject of the creation of the sun during the first day (and the ensuing question: what was created then on the fourth day of creation?) is fascinating but not easy tu summarize.
To the readers who wish to learn more about the story of the Creation of the world following the Targum, and the commentaries of Radaq, Maimonides, etc. I suggest to read my book Awesome Creation.
