GENESIS 1:1 . The first verse of the Tora describes the creation of the universe from nothing previous. Creation is a Divine work, not a quantum event like the Big Bang,. Something inexplicable in terms of the laws of physics that supposedly took place without the intervention of a Creator. As if it were a “miracle without God”.

GENESIS 1:2
והארץ הייתה תוהו ובוהו THE EARTH WAS CREATED WITH NO LIFE 

Once it concludes with the description of the first act of Creation, the Tora focuses exclusively in the affairs of our planet.

VEHAARETS HAYETA TOHU VABOHU

These words are usually translated as: “And the earth was without shape and form”. 
Some words of the Tora, especially within texts that are universally known, such as the Creation Narrative and the Ten Commandments, have undergone serious modifications as they were translated and in many cases they lost their original Hebrew meaning. The words “tohu vabohu” are one of the best examples I can present of this type of “textual contamination”. Virtually all translations I know interpret the words tohu vabohu as something associated with the idea of chaos: “formless,” “void” “wasted”. This is probably based on the fact that the Septuagint rendered these two words as “unsightly and unfurnished” (according to Jennifer Dines, the words for “unsightly and unfurnished” were chosen because in greek they rhyme, same as tohu vabohu in Hebrew).  The Septuagint is a translation that Jewish Sages were forced to do in the third century before the common era. Ordered by the Greek King Ptolemy, the Jewish Sages wrote it strictly for diplomatic purposes, adapting the rendition of the text to Greek culture. It is worth remembering that the Jews not just rejected the Septuagint as a valid Biblical translation: on the 10th of Tebet we fast, among other reasons, in commemoration of the tragic impact that the Septuagint brought to the Jewish people and to the Tora. See this

This ambiguous interpretation of tohu vabohu  as an “unsightly void” gave rise to the idea that the Hebrew bible describes the newly created world as in a state of chaos. 

WHATS WRONG WTH CHAOS? 

The concept of “chaos” is not a Jewish idea. And it is not a neutral idea either. In reality, the idea of ​​chaos expresses a fundamental notion of Platonic Greek philosophy. The Greeks did not believe in the creation of the universe. For Aristotle the World was not created, it was eternal, and always existed. For Plato, on the other hand, the universe always existed, but at first it existed in a state of “chaos” and “disorder.” Until, according to Plato, the Demiurge, a Greek mythological genius / divinity reorganized the raw material and formed the incredibly sophisticated universe we know. For Plato, “In the beginning there was a chaotic mass and the Demiurge converted this chaos into the universe.

Jews do not believe in “chaos” because we believe that God is omnisciente, omnipotent and omnipresent, thus, nothing escapes His control. Ironically this absolutely non-Jewish translation has been so impactful that to this day in modern Hebrew the expression tohu vabohu is used to indicate “a chaotic situation.”

Probably without knowing it, dozens of very interesting biblical “theories”, Jewish and non-Jewish, are based on the false premise of the “primitive chaos that prevailed in the world at the time of its creation.” There are countless theories about how God brought order from chaos (Jordan B. Peterson, for example, discusses this idea ad nauseam), or the supposed compatibility between the Biblical creation story and the element of entropy in the Big Bang theory, etc. 

WHAT DOES TOHU VABOHU REALLY MEAN?

When seeking for the meaning of any Hebrew word we should look in the official rabbinic translation of the Tora, known as Targum Onqelos, the Aramaic translation written at the beginning of the second century of the common era. This translation bears “the seal of approval of the great sages of Israel” (Targum Didan).
Following the Targum the words tohu vabohu mean something very simple and completely different from chaos.  tohu vabohu means that the earth being created “was desolate and uninhabited,” that is, without life.  The second most recognized rabbinic translation, attributed to Ribbi Yonatan ben Uziel, broadens our understanding of the Targum Onquelos and translates “the earth was desolate of animal life and uninhabited of human life.” Why the Tora begins the description of planet earth as lifeless is a question we will later explore. But in the meantime bear in mind that this first thing a modern scientist would observe when exploring a planet would be the existence of living beings on it.  tohu vabohu would be the words a scientist could use to affirm that there is no life on Mars.

OUR OWN CHAOS

How it happened that the translation of the Targum Unquelos was overlooked and a mythological pagan idea was somehow introduced in all Jewish translations of the Tora is a question that surpasses me….   I guess that, as it happened more than a few times, our complete ignorance of pagan ideas, sometimes ironically contributes to our adoption of these very ideas “disguised” as Judaism.  

“And God created man in His image …. male and female He created them” Genesis 1:27

 The first thing we should notice in this verse is that the differentiation between male and female was not mentioned in the creation of animals. Obviously, this does not mean that God did not create animals with two different sexes, but that for some reason, only in the Creation of man and woman the Tora “mentions” the male and female condition. Why? 

CONSCIENCE and DISCIPLINE
The definition of the human being as male or female, does not appear in this pasuq as a secondary element but virtually as an ontological condition. HaShem created human being in His image, this differentiates them from animals. HaShem created then man and woman, this distinguishes them from each other. Only humans, unlike other living beings, have “consciousness” of their own sexuality and gender. And because humans are aware of their sexuality, only human beings are able to govern their sexuality.

MALE BRAIN vs FEMALE BRAIN
Unlike animals, human male and female are not only distinguished by their sexual and physical differences but also by profound psychological differences. Men and women are different in the way they think; the way they process emotions and express feelings; their body language and being wired for empathy or systems. These examples, and many, many more, are not related necessarily to hormones, and are not found in the animal kingdom. This explanation is consistent with what we saw in the first part of the pasuq, the “image of God in Man”. “Image” does not indicate a physical resemblance between man and God. This Divine resemblance refers to the human soul; thought; freedom of choice, etc. We could also assume then that in our text the distinction between male and female goes beyond the physical or the sexual realm. While in the creation of animals (Fifth and Sixth Days) the Hebrew word מין (species) is used seven times, hinting that haShem created a vast variety of animal species, our pasuq asserts that in the creation of humans HaShem designed “only two species”: 1. Man and 2. Woman.

HOW MANY RACES WERE CREATED?
We should also notice and appreciate what the Tora does NOT say. The myths of creation written by ancient pagan civilizations, refer mainly to the creation of humans from a national aspect. Pagan gods create more than one human race: in the Mesopotamian old myths, for example, the main gods create the locals (Sumerians, for example) who are always superior, and then other gods create the rest of the world, who are usually slaves or inferior. In the Tora, when HaShem creates humanity, it does not say that He created the Jews and the rest of the world. Or whites and blacks or slaves and slave-masters; or the people of the light and the people of darkness, as it appears in virtually all the pagan myths of creation. The Tora, the only book of Divine authorship, tells us that HaShem created only one human race. But divided into two species.

COMPLETION
Another important element to notice in this verse is that when the Tora refers to ADAM (ויברא א’ את האדם) it does so with the definite article “the” (הַ) to emphasize that the text it is not referring to “Adam”, the man, but to “ADAM”, the human being. This pasuq says then that God created the human being as male and female. The Rabbis explained this point stating that a man or a woman by themselves, are considered only half of a human being. The “word” ADAM (as opposed to the “name” Adam) means: man + woman (that is why in Hebrew “human being” BEN ADAM means: son of a man and a woman). Unlike other religions, Judaism does not see voluntary celibacy as a religious ideal or virtue, quite the opposite: it is considered a serious transgression. For the Tora, mind and body completion is only achieved when a man and a woman unite, i.e., get married.

We will begin to analyze today the text that deals with the creation of the first human beings. Genesis 1:27 “And God created man in His image … male and female He created them.”

There are two concepts that define in this pasuq (verse) the fundamental characteristics of the human being.

1. To have been created “in the image” of God.

2. To have been created as male and female

Let’s start with the first point. There is a rich variety of interpretations as to what “the image of God” means (צלם אלוקים). However, despite the diversity of opinions, there are two points that almost all rabbinic interpretations accept.

(a). צלם אלוקים  Is not a physical image or likeness, since God has no body or materiality.  The Divine image points to a spiritual and/or intellectual element that makes a human being similar to God.

(b). The Creation of man in this verse is narrated in the context of the creation of other living creatures. The “Divine image” in man appears in opposition to the absence of that image in animals. It is as if the text is saying: “Unlike animals,  human beings were created in the image of God. ”

Let us see the different interpretations of צלם אלוקים  which can be seen as complementary.

INTELLIGENT DESIGN: For Rashi, the Divine image in man should be understood as the seal of the Creator in man (דיוקן יוצרו). In other words, when we see the human body and especially human intelligence, we see a reflection of the Creator. A human being bears an invisible seal that says:  “Made by Divine Design”, which reveals its Creator.

IMMORTALITY: For Eben Ezra the Divine image refers to the human soul, which unlike all other earthly creations, is immortal.

FREE WILL: For Maimonides and other rabbis like the Meshekh Hokhma, the Divine image is the supernatural intellectual capacity of the human being and the possibility to think linguistically. “Thinking” allows man, among other things, to be aware of himself and to conceive the existence of God. Unlike humans, animals do not think. Animals perceive images, stimuli or sensations associated mainly with survival and procreation, and react. Not being aware of themselves and not able to understand linguistically what happens to them, animals lack the power to control their reactions. A human being, thanks to his or her super-natural rational ability, while exposed to similar external stimuli, can create a space between the stimulus and the response to this stimulus. This space is what we call “free will,” and it is only possible thanks to man’s ability to “think”.

The paradox of man’s creation, its place between the natural and the Divine, was analyzed by the Hakhamim of the Midrash. On the one hand, they said, man has been created with the same elements of other inferior beings (tahtonim). That is, body, instincts and drives, all earthly and worldly. On the other hand,  human beings were endowed by the Creator with a “higher” element (min ha’eliyonim), something “Divine” that allows him to react in an elevated way, and to control those “inferior” impulses.

Sexuality is a good illustration of this scenario. When a man does not exercise control over his appetites and let himself to be driven by them; when man does not create a space for the intervention of his super-natural power, free will,  between the stimulus and the reaction to the stimulus, he forgoes his soul and becomes another element of the animal kingdom.   Note that unlike other religions, Judaism does not see as an ideal to renounce sexuality or the satisfaction of other drives. The Tora teaches man to educate his impulses. This education is known in the Tora as Qedusha, a very important Hebrew word that is often translated as “holiness.”  Qedusha becomes manifest when the Divine image in man is the dominant force.

In the case of sexuality, for example, when we have the Tora as our guidance to determine when, how and to what extent we satisfy our earthly impulses, the life-generating act ceases to be a natural act of biology and becomes an act of Divine Creation.

(To be continued…)

ויברא אלוקים את-האדם בצלמו, בצלם אלוקים ברא אותו, זכר ונקבה, ברא אותם

“And God created the human being in His image. In the image of God he created him/it. Male and female He created them. ” Genesis 1:27

Yesterday we explained the first part of this verse, “the image of God” in human beings. Today we will continue with the second part of this verse, where the Tora narrates the creation of man and woman. Before analyzing the most relevant part of this pasuq, the masculine and feminine identity, we will see two points.

ANDROGYNY? How were Adam and Hava (Eve) created? In one and the same act of Creation or in two separate acts of Creation? This question arises because there is an apparent contradiction between Genesis chapter 1 and Genesis chapter 2. In chapter 1, it seems that it is a single act. This led the Rabbis of the Midrash to suppose that Adam and Eve were initially created as an androgynous being, man and woman simultaneously, until the Creator separated them according to their sexes, as it says in chapter 2.

However, the most famous Biblical commentator, Rashi (1040-1105) mentions this Midrash, but immediately clarifies that the literal meaning of the text peshat is different. That Midrash, according to Rashi, should not be taken as the literal interpretation of the text. The literal reading is that in chapter 1, the Tora  describes “when” man and woman were created, in the Sixth Day, and in chapter 2 the Tora describes “how” they were created. Namely, what was the order of the creation of man and woman, the state of Adam before the creation of Hava, whether or not they were created from the same source, etc.

POLYGAMY.  I would like to pay attention now, as one should do when reading the Tora, to what the text does NOT say. The Creator could have created the first man with several women. After all, polygamy was not the exception in many civilizations of antiquity, but the rule. We see, however, that the Tora indicates in this way that HaShem conceived man and woman in a monogamous relationship: one man and one woman.

Polygamy is mentioned in the Torah and the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible). But hardly as the ideal situation, and mainly as the exception. In the case of Abraham, for example, Abraham takes a second wife Hagar, because Sara could not have children.

In Biblical times, polygamy was accepted in the Jewish people as a rule only in the case of the Monarchs (albeit in a limited way, וֹלֹא יְרֶּבֶּה לֹו נָשִׁים, Debarim 17:17). Kings had to make sure that their offspring were as numerous as possible, and thus ensure the continuity of their dynasty. Infant mortality was more common in the past and it was also expected that rival peoples or enemies would try to kill the king’s sons.

In the rabbinical period, polygamy was not commonly practiced beyond cases related to fertility; the death of the husband before having children (levirate) or other special situations.

Around the year 1000 of the common era Rabbi Gershon Meor haGola (960 -1040) from Metz, France, near Germany, established a HEREM, excommunication, for those who practiced polygamy. From that time, polygamy was definitively excluded among Ashkenazi Jews. Sephardic Jews —who lived predominantly among Muslims, and for whom polygamy is common to this day—were not technically subject to the law established by Rabenu Gershon. However, in virtually all Sephardic communities the Ketuba, marriage contract,  included  a clause prohibiting the husband from marrying a second wife without the consent of the first. This made the practice of polygamy practically fall into disuse, also between Sephardic,  and thus it was only allowed in exceptional cases  (infertility, illness, etc.).

In summary, we see that for the Tora the Divine ideal is monogamy, one woman for one man. Polygamy, although allowed, was the exception.

The Tora shows that the Creator divided humanity into two genders: male and female.  We can also see that in the Tora the differences between man and woman are expressed not only in terms of sexuality. Man and woman are “company” and “emotional complement.”  For this to be possible, for a man and a woman to need each other, to be attracted to each other and to complement each other, man and woman were designed by the Creator DELIBERATELY as two distinct entities: in two separate acts of creation and from two different sources.

INTRODUCTION: The topic “Sexuality and Judaism” is delicate and complex. It is usually reserved for private discussions. Before marrying, every Jewish observant person, male or female, studies an intense course on Jewish sexual education (Taharat haMishpaha), to understand and internalize the strong connection between sexuality and qedusha. “Qedusha”, the word the Tora and the Rabbis use systematically when referring to sexual behavior, is achieved by our constant effort to get closer to God, and reaches its highest level when we “imitate” God as life-giving creatures.  Those private conversations are the natural framework for the teaching and discussion of these issues.

What leads me to write the present reflections, outside of that traditional framework, is that at present time, many of us are being influenced about this delicate subject, voluntarily or mostly subliminally, by what is seen and heard in the media and even in the street. Moreover, many issues related to sexuality have nowadays become a matter of politics. Some times, they are part of a larger discussion between opposing philosophical visions: one that affirms the existence of God and sees Man as a creature endowed with the power to make moral decisions, vs. another vision that sees human beings as evolved members of the animal kingdom, where attention to one’s primary instincts becomes more important or more noble than one’s duty to mastering these instincts and drives. 

Since the subject is so broad, I will dedicate to this a few days or perhaps weeks.

I would like to invite the readers to contribute with their questions and comments (write your emails to: rabbibitton@yahoo.com)

Let us start today, literally, from the beginning.

The first time the Tora refers to sexuality is in relation to animals, and exclusively in reference to reproduction.  After the creation of the first animals, on the Fifth Day of Creation, the Tora says: (Genesis 1:22):

“And God blessed them [the animals] saying: ’Be fruitful and multiply,  fill the water in the seas, and the birds, increase on the earth’. ‘”

From this brief text, what it says, how it says it and what it does not say, we learn the first elements of the Tora’s view on sexuality.

REPRODUCTION vs. MORTALITY:

Unlike any other physiological function, such as breathing or blood circulation, the Tora highlights the reproductive function when it refers to the first creation of living creatures. Although the Tora has not yet mentioned “death”, the blessing of reproduction seems to hint that living beings, as individuals, will be subject to mortality.  This blessing expresses, however, that as a species, living creatures will continue to survive. Reproduction reminds us in one aspect, i.e., perpetuation, of some previous creative acts. (a) When HaShem creates the transition between day and night, according to Seforno, the Creator established the rotation of the earth on its axis, that is, the mechanism that “perpetuates” this transition. (b) On the Second Day of Creation, HaShem divides the waters. According to Rabbi Moshe Hefets, it was at that time that HaShem established the mechanism of evaporation> precipitation (= rain), which guarantees the “perpetual” production of freshwater. Likewise, in this verse, animal sexual reproduction is presented as the mechanism that the Creator is establishing for the “perpetuation” of living beings.

WHAT TYPE OF BLESSING?

This blessing that HaShem grants to animals, therefore, should not be understood as a regular formal blessings. Usually, a blessing expresses a desire: “May HaShem bless you” means more or less: “I wish that HaShem will heal you, or facilitate your success, etc.”

Sometimes, when the blessing comes directly from haShem, the blessing comprises a command. It is as if HaShem is saying to us, “This is what I command you to do, for YOUR OWN GOOD”( that is how HaShem’s order is expressed as a blessing).” In our text, when God blesses the animals,  HaShem is not wishing them to reproduce, nor is He ordering them to reproduce. HaShem is establishing the blessing of sexual reproduction as part of animal’s biology. It is a blessing mainly in the sense that it defeats mortality.

The blessing to animals, though expressed in the imperative, is completely different from the blessing that HaShem bestows on Adam and Hava (Eve), when referring to sexual reproduction (as we shall see in greater depth BH tomorrow.) In our text, HaShem does not  address or orders animals to reproduce. This is clearly seen in the use of the Hebrew word “lemor” which means “saying” (as opposed to “saying to them”, which is used when HaShem blesses Adam and Eve). Why doesn’t HaShem order animals to reproduce? Because an order, a mitsva, can only be given to a being who can obey or disobey, accept or reject it. Animals have no control over their sexuality or sexual behavior.  Humans do.

To be continued

ורוח אלוקים מרחפת על פני המים

And a Divine wind was blowing on the face of the waters

The correct translation of these two words, ruah Eloqim is the key to understanding the entire sequence of the creative process. In biblical Hebrew ruah originally means ‘wind’.

But in a metaphorical sense the word ruach can also refer to the soul, breath or Divine inspiration: an invisible intellectual or mental state that moves human beings, especially the prophets. On two occasions the Tora uses the expression ruach Eloqim in this sense, referring to a special kind of wisdom granted by God. 1). When Pharaoh marveled at Yosef’s wisdom (Gen 41, 38) he said that Yosef is “a man who possesses ruach Eloqim [‘ a special divine wisdom ’]”. 2). When God orders Moses to designate Betzalel (Exodus 31, 3) to be the architect of the Tabernacle, He tells him that He granted Betzalel ruach Eloqim, a divine wisdom, which was later called ruach chokhma, ‘a spirit of wisdom’ . Throughout the Tanakh, ruach Eloqim retains the same connotation: an extraordinary form of Divine wisdom or inspiration that is usually granted to a prophet. In the same way the Sages have used the term ruach haqodesh to refer to Divine inspiration.

The meaning of this and other metaphorical forms of the word ruach point to an invisible force that moves or transports by Divine command (we say in the hashkabot ruach haShem tenichenu began eden, referring – metaphorically – to a wind sent by God that lifts the soul of the deceased and takes it to Gan Eden).

But what can ruach Eloqim mean in our verse? The absence of any human being who may be the subject or recipient of a special Divine wisdom does not allow us to understand these words in their common metaphorical sense as Divine inspiration, soul, etc.

THE CHRISTIAN TRANSLATION

Christian translations do not hesitate to translate ruach eloqim as “divine spirit ” or “spirit of God”. Why? Because one of the fundamental principles of Christian doctrine is the trinity, that is, the existence of the father, the son and the divine (or holy) spirit. The rendition “divine spirit” floating on the waters at the time of the creation of the world, is a confirmation of this Catholic doctrine. This “ideological” translation should not surprise us since, as we might one day explain, the Christian interpretation of the Bible has a fundamental objective: denying normative Judaism and affirming the doctrines of the church.

THE JEWISH TRANSLATION

The idea of ​​ruach Eloqim as ‘the spirit of God’ is a concept totally foreign to Judaism and offensive to Jewish beliefs. It is an idea that if taken seriously goes against the Jewish principle of monotheism and dangerously approaches anthropomorphism, that is, the personification of God (“spirit” usually stands as oppose to “body” or “flesh”) .

The official Jewish translation, the Targum, which every vernacular translation should take as a reference, renders ruach Eloqim as WIND guided by God, that is: wind is not a blind random natural force, but an instrument in God’s creation.

A WIND COMING FROM GOD

With this understanding, we can see that in this verse that describes the inventory of planet earth, the Tora mentions the second physical element (the first is water) present on planet Earth at the time of its creation: the wind. And this wind, this text indicates, is guided by God. And while the Tora does not explicitly mention it, Ben Ezra and Radaq explained that “wind” will be a divine auxiliary element in creation, and will be used by God on the third day to “dry” the land that emerges from the depths of the ocean. The wind as a Divine agent appears many times in the biblical text and in rabbinic literature. For example, the Tora explicitly mentions that God brought the locust plague to Egypt through a wind blowing from the east. Or that God opened the sea, drying it with His winds, so that the Jews could escape from the Egyptians. Ruach Eloqim means that God uses wind as one of His agents in “nature.” Following the same idea, every day in our prayers we mention that God “blows the wind to produce rain.”

King David in the beautiful words of his Psalms (Tehilim 104:4) coined an expression that very much paraphrases the words Ruach Eloqim. He said: ruach se’ara osa debaro, “the powerful wind that follows His command”.

והארץ היתה תוהו ובוהו וחושך על פני תהום

And earth was lifeless, with darkness over the surface of the ocean

DARKNESS

After explaining that at the time of its creation planet earth did not possess any kind of life, the text goes on to describe Earth’s atmosphere. Our current atmosphere is clear and bright, composed of 78% nitrogen and 21% oxygen. But the primitive atmosphere with which planet earth was created was different. The Torah describes it with one word “hoshekh” ”, which is usually translated by “darkness”.

The vast majority of classical biblical commentators agree that here “darkness” does not mean “absence of light”, since as in the story of Plato’s cave, one can only speak of the absence of light once light is created. Nahmanides (Ramban) and Eben Ezra proposed that here darkness should be understood as something tangible. Nahmanides compares it with the ninth plague of Egypt, a kind of gas that prevents any kind of light. For Eben Ezra, “that tangible darkness is like a “fog”, toxic and with less oxygen.

Based on these and other opinions we could assert that for the Tora early Earth’s atmosphere was like the present day atmosphere of Venus: formed of three thick layers of dark clouds, are composed of sulfuric acid and carbon dioxide, which do not allow sunlight to reach the surface.

This indication about the primitive Earth’s atmosphere may redefine the previous words tohu vabohu “uninhabited”, a little better. The Tora asserted that there was no life on Earth, and now is saying that the conditions for life are not yet there. In other words, Earth is not only “uninhabited” but at this initial point, because of hoshekh it is also “uninhabitable”.

ABYSS

Almost all biblical translations render the word tehom as “abyss”. And this could be a second example of non-Jewish influences in biblical translations. The word “abyss” is related to the Mesopotamia’s pagan mythology. For example, in the Sumerians creation myths, Enuma Elish, when the gods / monsters fight against each other to death (seeking power or revenge) the defeated or dead god “falls into the abyss”, a legendary bottomless pit from which one cannot return. Also in the Christian tradition the abyss is a place where evil spirits meet, and where Satan eventually will be thrown after defeat.

But in Hebrew the word abyss in this sense does NOT exist (not to be confused with sheol which means “underground grave”). In biblical Hebrew the word tehom is a “geological” term, associated with different sources of water. It can mean the sea, its depths or usually the natural reserves of fresh groundwater. Rashi explains that in our verse the word tehom means the ocean. But we must clarify what the Sages said about the primitive ocean: At the time of its creation Earth surface was covered by “water.” Continental dry-land emerged on the Third Day of creation (every morning, when we set foot on the floor we say a berakha that alludes to this phenomenon: רוקע הארץ על המים). Radaq (see quote below) explained that in its initial phase because planet earth was completely covered with water life could not exist — tohu vabohu— . God did not create our planet with life, but He created it with water. Lots of water.

SCIENCE AND TORA

Once we translate the Hebrew words according to their original meaning we can see some incredible coincidences between what this verse describes in 2 or 3 words and what modern science speculates that occurred at the beginning of our planet.

According to modern science

√ The primitive atmosphere did not allow life. It was dark, lacked free oxygen, and contained ammonia, methane and carbon dioxide.

√ In the beginning early Earth was covered by a huge ocean called Panthalassa. The continents as we know them today, emerged at a later stage.

√ And water? The Tora explains clearly that water was part of the initial inventory of our planet. Modern science, speculations aside, at present time has no demonstrable or convincing explanation of how our planet has so much water….

רד“ק בראשית 1:2

והארץ בתחילת בריאתה לא היתה בשלימותה, כי היתה תהו ובהו – כלומר: ריקה מכל בריאה שלא היתה לא בה ולא עליה, כי היתה כולה מכוסה במים