Chaos

Sources

תהו ובהו DESOLATE AND VOID — The word תהו signifies astonishment and amazement, for a person would have been astonished and amazed at its emptiness. תהו is estordison in old French. בהו VOID — The word signifies emptiness and empty space.

Rashi on Genesis 1:2:1-3

§ The Gemara continues to discuss Creation: Rav Yehuda said that Rav said: Ten things were created on the first day of Creation, and they are as follows: Heaven and earth; tohu and vohu, i.e., unformed and void; light and darkness; wind and water; the length of day and the length of night. All of these are derived from the Torah: Heaven and earth, as it is written: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). Tohu and vohu…

Chagigah 12a:5-7

והארץ היתה תהו ובהו, “this very center which was created at that time was composed of a mixture of raw materials, known as tohu, and its original external appearance is what is described as bohu. The reason is that the whole expanse of tohu was comprised of a uniform appearance. This explained that the first raw material was something entirely new. It is described as tohu to indicate that at that point it was merely something which had potential, the potential not yet having materialised, been converted to something actual…

Sforno on Genesis 1:2:1

Tohu is a place which has no colour and no form, and the esoteric principle of “form” does not apply to it. It seems for a moment to have a form, but when looked at again it has no form. Everything has a “vestment” except this.

Zohar, Bereshit 4:20

IN THE BEGINNING. Rashi wrote: “If you wish to explain it [the word bereshith] in accordance with its plain meaning, explain it thus: at the beginning of the creation of the heaven and earth, and the earth was formless and void and there was darkness, the Holy One, blessed be He, said, Let there be light.” If so, the whole text leads into the creation of light.
Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra explained it in an identical way. However, he established that the letter vav in the word veha’aretz (and the earth) does not şerve [as a connecting letter as it normally does and…

Ramban on Genesis 1:1:3

Chaos: This name rests on something that is not distinguished and differentiated from anything else. [Just] like a wilderness - where there is no recognition of different places - is called in the song of [Parshat] Ha'azinu, “and in the void.” And in [Tractate] Avodah Zarah 8, there is [found that the first] “two thousand years were chaos.” And the explanation [of this is that it was [a time of the] action of youth, without Torah – all of the actions of man were the same, without difference…

Haamek Davar on Genesis 1:2:1-2

Rabbi Abahu and Rabbi Ḥiyya the Great, Rabbi Abahu said: Right from the beginning of the creation of the world, the Holy One blessed be He foresaw the actions of the righteous and the actions of the wicked. That is what is written: “For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish” (Psalms 1:6). “The earth was emptiness and disorder” – these are the actions of the wicked. “God said: Let there be light” – these are the actions of the righteous. But I do not know which He desires, whether it is the actions of these, or the actions of those…

Bereshit Rabbah 2:5

Rabbi Yehuda bar Simon interpreted the verses regarding the generations. “The earth was emptiness and disorder” – this is Adam the first man, who became oblivion and nothingness. “And disorder” – this is Cain, who sought to restore the world to emptiness and disorder. “And darkness” – this is the generation of Enosh, based on the verse: “Their actions are in the dark and they say: Who sees us and who knows of us?” (Isaiah 29:15). “Upon the face of the depths” – this is the generation of the Flood…

Bereshit Rabbah 2:3

Rabbi Abahu and Rabbi Yehuda bar Simon, Rabbi Abahu said: This is analogous to a king who purchased two slaves for himself, both of them with one bill of sale and with one sum. He decreed for one of them that he should be supported from the royal treasury, and for the other that he would have to toil to eat. That one sat, bewildered and astonished [toheh uvoheh]. He said: ‘Both of us were purchased with one bill of sale and one sum, yet this one is supported from the royal treasury, and I, if I do not toil, I do not eat?’ So, too, the earth sat bewildered and astonished…

Bereshit Rabbah 2:2

From an homiletical point of view, the words בראשית ברא אלוקים את השמים ואת הארץ are understood to mean "on account of three merits the universe was created, the merit of חלה i.e. giving the priest the first portion of a woman's dough, the merit of מעשרות i.e. the various tithes given to the Levite or the priest, and the merit of בכורים, bringing part of the first ripe produce to the Temple as a gesture of thanksgiving. This statement is based on all of these three commandments being described in the Torah at one place or another as ראשית"the first of something." (Numbers 16,2; Deut…

Rabbeinu Bahya, Bereshit 1:2:2

Hence we read: “Let the waters be gathered to one place, and let the dry land appear.” By “the waters” we understand in this connection the Torah; by “one place” we understand Israel, whose souls are attached to that place of which it is written, “blessed is the glory of the Lord from his place”. The glory of the Lord is the lower Shekinah; “his place” is the upper Shekinah; and since their souls are from that quarter, the name of the Lord rests upon them, and it is said of them, “for the portion of the Lord is his people”. In this way “the waters were gathered to one place”.

Zohar, Bereshit 19:218

Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish interpreted the verses regarding the [four] kingdoms. “The earth was emptiness” – this is the Babylonian kingdom, as it is stated: “I have seen the land, and behold, it was emptiness and disorder” (Jeremiah 4:23). “And disorder [vavohu]” – this is the Median kingdom, [as it is stated:] “They hastened [vayavhilu] to bring Haman” (Esther 6:14). “And darkness”– this is the Greek kingdom, which darkened Israel’s eyes with their edicts, as they used to say to them: ‘Write on the horn of a bull that you have no portion in the God of Israel…

Bereshit Rabbah 2:4

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