On the third day of creation, the earth was a flat, featureless plain submerged under water. Then God spoke. Mountains erupted upward and scattered across the surface. Valleys tore open in the earth's interior, and the waters rushed down to fill them. According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew chronicle compiled by Jerahmeel ben Solomon, the waters immediately rebelled. They surged back up, flooding the earth a second time, until God rebuked them and measured them in the hollow of His palm.
He fenced the sea with sand, the way a farmer fences a vineyard. When the waves approach and see the barrier, they retreat. The earth itself floats upon the deep waters "like a ship in the midst of the sea." Beneath its surface, the depths plunge sixty years' walking distance downward. One fountain near Gehinnom (the place of spiritual purification after death) produces hot springs that delight anyone who bathes in them.
On the fourth day, God formed two lights. They were identical in size and brightness. Then they quarreled. Each one insisted it was greater than the other. To settle the dispute, God enlarged one and diminished the other. The sun became the great light, ruling by day. The moon became the lesser.
The sun rides through the sky in a chariot, crowned like a bridegroom. Angels guide it, with separate crews for day and night shifts. Three letters of the Ineffable Name are inscribed on the sun's heart. Each evening, it enters the west, where the Shekinah (שכינה), the Divine Presence, permanently resides, and bows before the King of Kings, saying, "I have fulfilled all Your commands."
The moon, by contrast, travels hidden between two clouds like dishes stacked one above the other. Each night of the new month, a sliver more appears, until it reaches fullness at the middle of the month. Then the clouds slowly swallow it again from the opposite side.
II. (1) On the third day the earth was like a plain, and
the waters covered the face of the whole earth. When
the word of God went forth, saying, ' Let the waters
be gathered together,' the mountains were lifted up and
scattered over the earth, and deep valleys were dug down
in the bowels of the earth, into which the waters rolled
and were gathered, as it is said, ' The gathering of waters
He called seas.' The waters then immediately rose tumul-
tuously to a great height and covered the face of the earth
as at first, until God rebuked them and subdued them, and
placed them under the hollow of His feet, and measured
them in His palm, so that they could neither diminish nor
increase. He surrounded the sea with sand as a fence, just
as a man makes a fence for his vineyard. So that when the
waters approach and see the fence before them they recede,
as it is said, 'Will they not fear My signs, says the Lord.'
(2) Before the waters were finally gathered together, the
rivers and the fountains of the deep were created, for the
earth was stretched over the waters just as a ship floating
in the midst of the sea, as it is said, ' To spread out the
earth over the waters.' (3) And God opened a gate in the
Garden of Eden and brought forth all kinds of plants, every
kind of tree yielding fruit after its kind, and every kind of
grass. He took their seeds and planted them upon the
earth, as it is said, ' Whose seed is within itself upon the
earth.' He prepared food for His creatures before they
were created, as it is said, ' Thou preparest a table before
me.' (4) All the fountains of waters rise from the depths.
B. Joshua said that the depth of the earth would take
sixty years to w^alk through. There is one fountain close
to Gehinnom which receives and gives out hot waters that
delight man. (5) B. Jehudah says: Once every month
10 [11. 6
rivulets ascend from the depths and water the face of the
whole earth, as it is said, ' And a spray went up from the
earth to water the garden.' The thick clouds pass on the
sound of the water-courses to the seas, and the seas to the
depths, and the depths to each other, and finally rise and
give moisture to the clouds, as it is said, ' Who causes the
vapours to ascend at the end of the earth.'
(6) The rains descend upon every place bidden them by
the King, so that the earth immediately flourishes and
becomes fertile. But when God wishes to bless the land
and make it fertile and prosperous, so as to feed His
creatures. He then opens His storehouse of good con-
tained in the heavens and rains upon the earth, so that it
immediately becomes fertile and produces the seed of
blessing, as it is said, ' The Lord will open for thee His
treasure of good.'
HI. (1) On the fourth day he formed two lights, one not
larger than the other; they were identical both in their
form and in their light, as it is said, ' And God made the
two lights.' A quarrel ensued between them; one said to
the other, ' I am greater than thou.' Therefore God, in
order to make peace between them, enlarged the one and
diminished the other, as it is said, 'And the greater to
rule by day.' (2) E. Eliezer said that God uttered one
word and the heavens were created to become the dwelling-
place of the throne of the glory of His kingdom, as it is
said, * By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,' but
for the numerous host of heaven God exerted Himself more;
He blew with the breath of His mouth, and all the host of
the heavens were created, as it is said, ' And with the
breath of His mouth all their host.' (3) All the stars and
planets and the two lights were created at the beginning of
the fourth night. One did not precede the other except by
one minute particle of time; therefore, all the work of the
sun is done slowly, while that of the moon is done quickly;
what the sun takes twelve days to do the moon can do in
one day; what the sun does during the whole year the
moon does in thirty days, as it is explained in the chapters
of E. Eliezer. (4) Three letters of the meffable name
of God are written upon the heart of the sun, and angels
lead it. Those that lead it in the day do not lead it in
the night, and those that lead it in the night do not lead
it in the day. The sun rises in a chariot, and rides forth
crowned as a bridegroom, as it is said, ' And he goeth
forth from his canopy as a bridegroom.' The horns (the
rays) and the fiery face of the sun look upon the earth in the
summer, they would consume it with fire if the ice above
would not temper the heat, as it is said, ' Nothing is hidden
from his heat.' In the winter-time the sun turns his icy
face to the earth, and were it not for the fire which warms
the cold, the world would not be able to endure it, as it is
said, ' Who can stand before his cold ?' (5) The sun rises
in the east and sets opposite in the west. The Shekinah
always resides in the west, and the sun enters in its
presence, and, bowing down before the King of kings,
says: ' 0 Lord of the universe, I have fulfilled all Thy
commands.' These are some of the ways of the sun.
(6) The habitation of the moon is placed between the clouds
and the thick darkness, which are like two dishes one
above the other; within them the moon travels. These
two clouds turn themselves towards the west, and the moon
peeps out from between the two in the form of a little horn.
On the first night of the new month one part is visible,
on the second night a second portion, and so on until the
middle of the month, when it is full moon. From the
middle of the month onwards these two clouds turn them-
selves eastwards, and that part of the moon which appeared
first is the first to be covered by the tw^o clouds — on the
first night one part, on the second night a second part,
until the end of the month, when it is entirely covered.
Whence do we know that the moon is between two clouds ?
Because it is said, ' The cloud is its clothing, and clouds
of darkness its covering.'
