The sages of old grappled with this very question. Rabbi Berekhya, quoting Rabbi Yehuda bar Simon, offers a stunning image. “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,” from Psalms 33:6. Rabbi Yehuda bar Simon makes a beautiful point: God didn't create the world with toil, with struggle. No, no. “By the word of God,” it all came to be.
Think about that for a moment. A single utterance, a divine command, and poof, existence.
And it wasn't a gradual process either. The text doesn’t say “and there was [vehaya] light,” implying a slow coming-into-being. Instead, it says, “vayhi light” – and it immediately came about. A flash of brilliance, instantaneous creation.
Rabbi Shimon bar Yoḥai takes us further into this idea, drawing from Proverbs 15:23: “There is joy for a man in the pronouncement of his mouth, and how good is a word at its time.” But who is this “man [ish]” that Proverbs speaks of? Rabbi Shimon bar Yoḥai suggests it is none other than the Holy One, blessed be He! As it says in Exodus 15:3, “The Lord is a warrior [ish milḥama]; the Lord is His name.”
So, picture this: God, the ultimate warrior, the ultimate ish, uttering the words, “Let there be light.” And then, Rabbi Shimon bar Yoḥai connects this to Genesis 1:4: “And God saw the light, that it was good.”
Do you see the connection? The joy, the satisfaction, in a word perfectly spoken, a creation perfectly realized. The Zohar, that foundational text of Jewish mysticism, often speaks of God's creative power as being inherent in His very being, an overflowing fountain of goodness. It wasn't a labor, but an expression.
It's a beautiful and deeply comforting thought, isn't it? That the universe wasn't born of struggle, but of joy. Of a word, perfectly timed, perfectly spoken, creating something utterly, undeniably good. And maybe, just maybe, there's a lesson in there for us too, about the power of our own words, and the joy we can find in creating, in bringing light into the world.