Let There Be Light: Sparks Left for the Tzaddikim

17“And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.” At first glance, what is remarkable in Hashem's saying that there should be light, and there was light? What is new in the words “and there was”? We must also look closely at what Chazal said: at first it arose in His thought to create the world with the attribute of judgment, and “He saw that the world could not endure …”¹ The difficulty has already been pointed out: Heaven forbid that we should think or say of the Creator, Who is simple and true, that at first one thought arose in His mind and afterward there was any change at all!

18aIt seems right to explain it this way. The writings of the Arizal say that “And the spirit of God merachefes, hovered,” hides a hint: merachefes (מרחפת) has the letters of RaPaCh (רפ״ח), 288, and mes (מ״ת), dead. It points to the 288 sparks, the fragments of holiness that fell when the vessels shattered, and our avodah is to repair and raise those sparks.² This hint will explain “And God said … And God saw the light, that it was good,”³ a verse that also seems hard to understand. Can it be said of Him, blessed be He, that only after He saw did He understand that it was good, and not before? Heaven forbid we should say or think this of the Creator.

18bThe matter at its root is this. The speech that goes out of the Creator's mouth is complete in itself and needs no further repair at all, for everything is set right by the word of His mouth. So when the 288 sparks fell, had He, as it were, said with the breath of His mouth, “Let there be light,” the light would at once have returned to its former state, as it was when He first brought it forth, before the shattering. But Hashem, blessed be He, desires precisely the avodah of the tzaddikim, that they themselves raise those sparks. Had He spoken that word, the tzaddikim would not have needed to raise them. Yet had Hashem done nothing at all, as it were, the tzaddikim would not have had the power to accomplish any of this, just as Chazal say of the yetzer hara, “Were it not that the Holy One helps him,” a person could not overcome it.⁴ So, in His great compassion and lofty wisdom, Hashem saw and looked at that light, that is, at those sparks, and by His seeing and watching He gave help to the tzaddik, so that the tzaddik would have the power to raise them.

19This is the meaning of the verse “And God said …”: had Hashem said, “Let there be light,” at once “there was light,” that is, the light would have returned to its former state, and the tzaddik would have had no avodah. But Hashem wanted specifically the avodah of the tzaddikim, that they themselves should accomplish all this. Therefore “God saw the light”: He looked and saw that light so that there would be help and support for the tzaddik to raise the sparks. That is “that it was good,” for Chazal say that “good” means the tzaddik, who is called good.⁵ This is also what they said: “He hid it away for the tzaddikim le'asid lavo, in the time to come.”⁶ He hid those lights for the tzaddikim who are yet to come, who will raise them. “And God called the light day …”⁷ is meant in its plain sense, and “the darkness” is what the tzaddik must repair and has not yet repaired. As long as it is not repaired it is called “darkness,” and “He called” it “night.”

20With Hashem's help, when our Moshiach comes and everything is repaired, there will be complete unity. The verse hints at this in “And there was evening”: when our righteous Moshiach soon arises, the night will become erev, evening. Erev (ערב) carries the sense of arev, sweet, and it also hints at the holy Shechinah, which rests in the ma'arav (מערב), the west.⁸ “And it shall come to pass that at evening time there will be light.”⁹ Then everything will be repaired and come to complete unity, as it was before the shattering of the vessels. “And there was morning, one day”: everything will come to unity, so that even the night will become day, and all will be one.

21This is what Chazal meant by “At first it arose in His thought to create it with the attribute of judgment”: before the fall, at the level called “the world of thought,”¹⁰ there was the attribute of judgment, for there no compassion is needed. “He saw”: after the fall, seeing was needed, as we explained with “God saw the light.” For “the world could not endure” without tzaddikim, who must raise those sparks. “And He joined to it the attribute of compassion,” for the tzaddikim need compassion. Understand this well.