(1) When God began to create heaven and earth—

(2) בראשית ברא IN THE BEGINNING GOD CREATED — ...If, however, you wish to explain it in its plain sense, explain it thus: At the beginning of the Creation of heaven and earth when the earth was without form and void and there was darkness, God said, “Let there be light”. The text does not intend to point out the order of the acts of Creation — to state that these (heaven and earth) were created first; for if it intended to point this out, it should have written 'בראשונה ברא את השמים וגו “At first God created etc.” And for this reason: Because, wherever the word ראשית occurs in Scripture, it is in the construct state. E. g., (Jeremiah 26:1) “In the beginning of (בראשית) the reign of Jehoiakim”; (Genesis 10:10) “The beginning of (ראשית) his kingdom”; (Deuteronomy 18:4) “The first fruit of (ראשית) thy corn.” Similarly here you must translate בראשית ברא אלהים as though it read בראשית ברוא, at the beginning of God’s creating. ...

(1) IN THE BEGINNING. .... Others say that the bet of bereshit is a preposition. They explain that Scripture intends to preclude the thought that heaven and earth were preexisting. Hence it states, In the beginning. I believe that bereshit is in the construct, as in In the beginning of (bereshit) the reign of Jehoiakim (Jeremiah 26:1). ...

(1) IN THE BEGINNING G-D CREATED. ....it was indeed very necessary to begin the Torah with the chapter of In the beginning G-d created for this is the root of faith, and he who does not believe in this and thinks the world was eternal denies the essential principle of the [Judaic] religion and has no Torah at all. ...

(3) 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 which would mean “and,” but it serves rather as the word “when.”] There are many such examples in Scripture. The meaning then according to Rabbi Abraham would be: at the beginning of the creation of heaven and dry land, there was no habitable place on earth; rather, it was unformed and void and covered with water, and G-d said, Let there be light. According to Abraham ibn Ezra’s opinion, only light was created on the first day.
The difficulty which Rabbi Shlomo [Rashi] had which led him to the above interpretation is, as he said: For if Scripture intended to teach the order in which the acts of creation took place, it should have written barishonah [instead of bereshith], since wherever the word reshith occurs in Scripture it is in the construct state. But there is the verse, Declaring the end ‘mereshith’ [from the beginning]. And if one will connect it with the missing word davar [thing — thus making the verse read: “Declaring the end of a thing from the beginning of a thing”—] here too it could be connected to a missing word. There is also the verse, And he chose ‘reshith’ (a first part) for himself. [Here again the word reshith is not used in the construct state.] And Rashi raised other objections.
Now listen to the correct and clear explanation of the verse in its simplicity. The Holy One, blessed be He, created all things from absolute non-existence. Now we have no expression in the sacred language for bringing forth something from nothing other than the word bara (created). Everything that exists under the sun or above was not made from non-existence at the outset. Instead He brought forth from total and absolute nothing a very thin substance devoid of corporeality but having a power of potency, fit to assume form and to proceed from potentiality into reality. This was the primary matter created by G-d; it is called by the Greeks hyly (matter). After the hyly, He did not create anything, but He formed and made things with it, and from this hyly He brought everything into existence and clothed the forms and put them into a finished condition.
Know that the heavens and all that is in them consist of one substance, and the earth and everything that is in it consist of one substance. The Holy One, blessed be He, created these two substances from nothing; they alone were created, and everything else was constructed from them.
This substance, which the Greeks called hyly, is called in the sacred language tohu, ...

CREATED. Most Biblical commentators explain that the word bara (created) indicates creation ex nihilo. But if the Lord make (yivra) a new thing (beri’ah) (Num. 16:30) is similar. However, they have overlooked And God created (va-yivra) the great sea monsters (Gen. 1:21) and the three times the word created is used in one verse, viz., And God created (va-yivra) man in His own image, in the image of God created (bara) He him; male and female created (bara) He them (Gen. 1:27). They also failed to consider I form the light, and create darkness (Is. 45:7) wherein darkness, which is the opposite of light, an existing entity, is described by the prophet as being created. ...The meaning of bara is to cut or to set a boundary. The intelligent person will understand what I am alluding to.

(12) Fashion a pure heart for me, O God; create in me a steadfast spirit.

(15)I am your Holy One, GOD,
Your Sovereign, the Creator of Israel.

(17)For behold! I am creating A new heaven and a new earth; The former things shall not be remembered, They shall never come to mind.

I ask you, child, to look at heaven and earth. See everything that is in them and know that God made these things from nothing, and created humankind in the same way. - roughly 124 BCE

(6) This is the first theory, and it is undoubtedly a fundamental principle of the Law of our teacher Moses; it is next in importance to the principle of God’s unity. Do not follow any other theory. Abraham, our father, was the first that taught it, after he had established it by philosophical research. He proclaimed, therefore, “the name of the Lord the God of the Universe” (Gen. 21:33); and he had previously expressed this theory in the words, “The Possessor of heaven and earth” (ibid. 14:22).

(2) ... If we were to accept the Eternity of the Universe as taught by Aristotle, that everything in the Universe is the result of fixed laws, that Nature does not change, and that there is nothing supernatural, we should necessarily be in opposition to the foundation of our religion, we should disbelieve all miracles and signs, and certainly reject all hopes and fears derived from Scripture, unless the miracles are also explained figuratively. The Allegorists amongst the Mohammedans have done this, and have thereby arrived at absurd conclusions. If, however, we accepted the Eternity of the Universe in accordance with the second of the theories which we have expounded above (ch. xxiii.), and assumed, with Plato, that the heavens are likewise transient, we should not be in opposition to the fundamental principles of our religion; this theory would not imply the rejection of miracles, but, on the contrary, would admit them as possible. The Scriptural text might have been explained accordingly, and many expressions might have been found in the Bible and in other writings that would confirm and support this theory.

But there is no necessity for this expedient, so long as the theory has not been proved. As there is no proof sufficient to convince us, this theory need not be taken into consideration, nor the other one; we take the text of the Bible literally, and say that it teaches us a truth which we cannot prove; and the miracles are evidence for the correctness of our view.

(3) Accepting the Creation, we find that miracles are possible, that Revelation is possible, and that every difficulty in this question is removed. We might be asked, Why has God inspired a certain person and not another? Why has He revealed the Law to one particular nation, and at one particular time? why has He commanded this, and forbidden that? why has He shown through a prophet certain particular miracles? what is the object of these laws? and Why has He not made the commandments and the prohibitions part of our nature, if it was His object that we should live in accordance with them? We answer to all these questions: He willed it so; or, His wisdom decided so. Just as He created the world according to His will, at a certain time, in a certain form, and as we do not understand why His will or His wisdom decided upon that peculiar form, and upon that peculiar time, so we do not know why His will or wisdom determined any of the things mentioned in the preceding questions. But if we assume that the Universe has the present form as the result of fixed laws, there is occasion for the above questions; and these could only be answered in an objectionable way, implying denial and rejection of the Biblical texts, the correctness of which no intelligent person doubts.

Owing to the absence of all proof, we reject the theory of the Eternity of the Universe; and it is for this very reason that the noblest minds spent and will spend their days in research. For if the Creation had been demonstrated by proof, even if only according to the Platonic hypothesis, all arguments of the philosophers against us would be of no avail.

If, on the other hand, Aristotle had a proof for his theory, the whole teaching of Scripture would be rejected, and we should be forced to other opinions.

2. Know that before the emanations were emanated and the creations were created, there was a simple supernal light that filled all of existence, and there was no empty space in the form of void and empty air. Rather, everything was filled with that simple infinite light, which had no beginning or end. It was simply one equal light, and it is called the "Ein Sof" light. And when it arose in His simple Will to create worlds and to emanate the emanated beings in order to bring forth the perfection of His actions, names, and designations, which was the reason for the creation of the worlds, as explained in Branch One in the First Inquiry. And behold, then He contracted Himself, may He be blessed, in the middle point, precisely at that point where His light was in the most absolute state (Meir says in our version that the Rabbi said this, and it may be inferred). And that light was then contracted and withdrew to the sides surrounding the central point, and then a void, air, and empty space were left, from a central point just like this . And behold, this contraction was equal on all sides of the central point, so that the space was perfectly circular from all sides, without any square corners, because the blessed Ain Sof contracted Himself in a perfectly circular form from all sides...

Etz Chaim (Tree of Life) is a collection of the teachings of Rabbi Isaac Luria (Arizal) as recorded by his disciple, Rabbi Chaim Vital. It is the primary introduction, interpretation, and synthesis of Lurianic Kabbalah.

Composed: (c.1570 – c.1590 CE)

... He renews in His goodness, each day, continuously, the work of creation, as it is said: “[Give thanks to Him] Who makes the great luminaries,” for His kindness is everlasting.” Shine a new light upon Zion, and may we all soon be privileged to [enjoy] its brightness. Blessed are You, Adonoy, Former of the luminaries.

(3) It is written: “Forever, O L–rd, Your word stands firm in the heavens.” The Baal Shem Tov, of blessed memory, has explained that “Your word” which you uttered, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters…,” these very words and letters stand firmly forever within the firmament of heaven and are forever clothed within all the heavens to give them life, as it is written, “The word of our G–d shall stand firm forever” and “His words live and stand firm forever….” For if the letters were to depart [even] for an instant, G–d forbid, and return to their source, all the heavens would become naught and absolute nothingness, and it would be as though they had never existed at all, exactly as before the utterance, “Let there be a firmament.”

(4) And so it is with all created things, in all the upper and lower worlds, and even this physical earth, which is the realm of the silent (inanimate). If the letters of the Ten Utterances by which the earth was created during the Six Days of Creation were to depart from it [but] for an instant, G–d forbid, it would revert to naught and absolute nothingness, exactly as before the Six Days of Creation.

Shneur Zalman of Liadi - 1745 – 1812