Darkness

Sources

Then יהוה said to Moses, “Hold out your arm toward the sky that there may be darkness upon the land of Egypt, a darkness that can be touched.” Moses held out his arm toward the sky and thick darkness descended upon all the land of Egypt for three days.

Exodus 10:21-22

“God blessed the seventh day [and sanctified it]” – Rabbi Yishmael said: He blessed it with manna and He sanctified it with manna. He blessed it with manna in that all the days of the week one omer [of manna] would fall, while on the day before Shabbat two omers would fall. He sanctified it with manna, as it did not fall on it [on Shabbat] at all. Rabbi Natan says: He blessed it with manna and sanctified it with a blessing. Rabbi Yitzḥak said: He blessed it with manna and sanctified it through the gatherer.
He blessed it with apparel…

Bereshit Rabbah 11:2

Woe to the house whose windows open toward the darkness, as it is said: And where the light is as darkness (ibid.), for the light itself comes from darkness. Hence it says: Thus saith the Lord God: In the day when he went down to the netherworld, I caused the deep to mourn and cover itself for him, and I restrained the rivers thereof, and the great waters were stayed (Ezek. 31:15). R. Judah the son of Rabbi stated: What are the wicked covered with in the netherworld? With darkness. And Hezekiah the son of R. Judah explained why that was so…

Midrash Tanchuma, Bo 2:3

The Gemara answers: This should be understood in accordance with Rabbi Elazar, as Rabbi Elazar said: The light that the Holy One, Blessed be He, created on the first day was not that of the sun but a different kind of light, through which man could observe from one end of the world to the other. But when the Holy One, Blessed be He, looked upon the generation of the Flood and the generation of the Dispersion and saw that their ways were corrupt and that they might misuse this light for evil, He arose and concealed it from them…

Chagigah 12a:9-11

And darkness was upon the depths: There are two [places this appears] according to the tradition: here and the other is (Job 38:19) "and darkness, where is its place?" This [refers to] what they stated (Chagigah 11b), that one should not ask, "What is before, what is after?" The explanation of "and darkness, where is its place?" is that one should not ask, "what was the place of darkness [at] first.

Ba'al HaTurim on Genesis 1:2:3

He said to them: Was the light created first, or was the darkness created first? They said to him: This matter has no solution, as the verses do not indicate an answer. The Gemara asks: But let them say to him that the darkness was created first, as it is written: “Now the earth was unformed and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep” (Genesis 1:2), and only then does it state: “And God said: Let there be light. And there was light” (Genesis 1:3). Why did they not say that the darkness was created first?…

Said R. Isaac: ‘If so, what is the meaning of the text, “And God divided the light from the darkness”?’ He replied: ‘Light produced day and darkness produced night. Afterwards He joined them together and they were one, as it is written, “And there was evening and there was morning one day”, i.e. night and day were called one. As for the words, “And God divided the light from the darkness”, this means that He prevented dissension between them.’

Zohar, Bereshit 36:356

And to the darkness, He called night: The Sages, of blessed memory, explained in the beginning of Tractate Pesachim, that the Holy One, blessed be He, called to darkness and appointed it over the night. [By this,] our Rabbis taught us that we should not say that darkness is only the absence of light, like when - in the middle of the day - we close the windows, it becomes dark. For, if so, it would not be a creation. But in truth, darkness is a creation, on its own as well, as it is written (Isaiah 45:7), "and created the darkness…

Haamek Davar on Genesis 1:5:1

The firmament itself was formed of water; and in the words of our Sages (Bereshit Rabba; cap. iv.), “The middle drop congealed and formed the heavens.”

Guide for the Perplexed, Part 2 30:10

“Darkness” is a black fire, strong in colour. There is a red fire, strong in visibility; a yellow fire, strong in shape; and a white fire, the colour which includes all. “Darkness” is the strongest of all fires, and this it was which took hold of Tohu. “Darkness” is fire, but fire is not darkness, save when it takes hold of Tohu. The symbol for this is, “his eyes were dim so that he could not see, and he called Esau, etc.” (Gen. 27, 1). Here, too, “the countenance of the evil one was darkened” because it countenanced the evil one…

Zohar, Bereshit 4:23

The sages have already written, however, that linguistic extension allows the suspension of the cause of presence to be referred to as the creation of absence, as in (Isaiah 45:7): "He forms light and creates darkness," where "creation" is not technically applicable to darkness, which is the absence of the cause of light. Similarly, we speak of one who has put out a lamp as having made it dark. But here we must distinguish between three levels of meaning, in two of which one can be said to have "caused" the darkness in terms of linguistic extension and in one of which he can not be said to…

Derashot HaRan 3:12

People could not see one another, and for three days no one could move about; but all the Israelites enjoyed light in their dwellings.

The Midrash (Bereishis Rabbah 89:1) states, “He placed an end to the darkness; as soon as its time was up, the evil was removed.” Initially, it might seem that darkness is merely the absence of light, making it incorrect to say “He creates darkness.” However, Hashem’s light shines everywhere, and darkness acts as a cover over this light. When the world is not worthy, Hashem created a “place” for His light to be hidden.
Darkness is considered to be in a high place, which is why the Torah uses יצירה (formation) for light and בריאה (creation) for darkness…

Sefat Emet, Genesis, Miketz 9:3

“Also, one does not recite the benediction over a lamp unless one has profited from its light.” Rebbi Zeïra, the son of Rebbi Abbahu, preached: (Gen. 1:4) “God saw the light that it was good” and after that, “God separated between the light and the darkness.”. Rebbi Berekhiah said: The following was preached by the two greats of the world, Rebbi Yoḥanan and Rebbi Simeon ben Laqish: “God separated,” a true separation. Rebbi Yehudah, the son of Rebbi Simon, said: He separated it for Himself…

Jerusalem Talmud Berakhot 8:6:9

AND G-D SAW THE LIGHT, THAT IT WAS GOOD. Rabbi Shlomo [Rashi] wrote: “Here too we must depend on the words of the homiletic Agadah G-d saw that the wicked were unworthy of using the light, and so He set it aside for the righteous in the World to Come. But according to the plain meaning of the verse, explain it thus: He saw that the light was good, and that it was not seemly for it and the darkness to function in a confused manner. He therefore assigned the one’s sphere of activity to the daytime and the one’s sphere of activity to the nighttime…

Ramban on Genesis 1:4:1

And void: This name [bohu, which when broken down is made up of 'in it' and 'it'] rests [on this concept] because much was included 'in it;' meaning from the dry land below the waters, to the end of the waters, the nature of all creation was included in it, [as well as] the potential of the creatures [that would be created] afterward. And darkness was upon the depths: This is the element of fire that was within the ground, as even today there are many elements of fire [in the ground;] and if [the ground] releases them, the earth quakes.

Haamek Davar on Genesis 1:2:2-3

וחשך, a reference to the air (atmosphere, totally dark which emanated at that time from the original raw material. על פני תהום, over the expanse of the two basic foundations which also emanated from the same origin and surrounded one another. ורוח אלוקים, the energy propelling the planet is called ruach,” as we know from Psalms 104,4 עושה מלאכיו רוחות, “He energises His messengers.” מרחפת על פני המים, they activated the atmosphere above the waters which at that time surrounded the earth. This is the reason why the part which was closer to the spherical planet became incandescent through its…

Sforno on Genesis 1:2:2-4

The Medrash (Yalkut Shimoni 147:4) states that there is an end to darkness, but as long as the yetzer hara exists, darkness prevails. The evil forces thrive when the light of holiness is hidden, much like darkness exists in the absence of light. When this hiddenness is removed from Heaven, the external shell (kelipah) is nullified, revealing the inner goodness. This concept is reflected in Pharaoh's dream: the years of famine came because the blessings were hidden. Even after the thin cows swallowed the fat cows, it was not apparent…

Sefat Emet, Genesis, Miketz 4:3

According to R. Judah, there were three grades of darkness: darkness, cloud, and thick clouds (araphel), and the voice came forth from out of their innermost depths. R. Jose said that the innermost was the one referred to in the words “with a great and ceaseless voice” (Deut. 5, 19).

Zohar, Yitro 18:295

See Source Sheet "Lamps and Souls" by SaraLeya Schley -

Sefat Emet, Exodus, Tetzaveh 3:2

Relatedראו גם

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Lighting of the Menorah

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