Cosmology

Is there a common conception behind the “lights” of the Priestly redactors, the “flaming wheels” of the Ionian philosophers, and the “lamps” of the Mesopotamian commentators?

The simple meaning of Genesis 1–2:4 is that God created the world out of primordial elements. And yet, one important new initiative was the construction of time, embracing the day, the month, the year, and the week. The week, however, does not depend on a cosmic phenomenon but served to introduce the concept of a people holy to a creator God.

Commentators have struggled with this question for centuries, but ancient cosmology offers a compelling solution.

The Torah describes God’s fashioning the firmament (רקיע) on the second day of creation. This piece of the universe, however, doesn’t actually exist—a problem obfuscated in my yeshiva education.