Rashiרש״י

English

וירא אלהים את האור כי טוב ויבדל AND GOD SAW THE LIGHT THAT IT WAS GOOD, AND GOD CAUSED A DIVISION — Here, also, we must depend upon the statement of the Agada: He saw that the wicked were unworthy of using it (the light); He, therefore, set it apart (ויבדל), reserving it for the righteous in the world to come (Chagigah 12a). But according to the plain sense explain it thus: He saw that it was good, and that it was not seemly that light and darkness should function together in a confused manner. He therefore limited this one’s sphere of activity to the daytime, and this one’s sphere of activity to the nighttime (see Genesis Rabbah 3:6).

Rosenbaum–Silbermann 1929–34 · silbermann

Hebrew / Aramaic

Rashi on Gen 1:4, s.v. וירא אלהים את האור כי טוב ויבדל · pd

Notes

Rashi puts the two rabbinic answers in his usual order and names both sources. First 'here too we must depend on the statement of the Agada': God saw that the wicked were unworthy of the light, so he set it apart for the righteous in the world to come — and he cites Chagigah 12a for it. Then the plain sense, from Bereshit Rabbah 3:6: it was not seemly that light and darkness should work in confusion, so he gave each its own hours. The hiding is aggada and the division is peshat, and Rashi does not merge them. Note that the hiding is derived from the word va-yavdel, 'and he divided' — the same word K9 is built on.

Threads

• → cites · Bereshit Rabbah
  Phase 4. Rashi's plain sense names Bereshit Rabbah 3:6 for it: 'he saw that it was good, and that it was not seemly that light and darkness should function together in a confused manner. He therefore limited this one's sphere of activity to the daytime, and this one's to the nighttime' — which is R. Yoḥanan and Resh Lakish's king with two generals, each told his bound. Written at Phase 4 because `rashi-1-4` was built for K8 and carries both cruxes' answers in one dibbur.
• → cites · Babylonian Talmud
  Phase 4. Rashi's aggadic half names Chagigah 12a: 'he saw that the wicked were unworthy of using it; he therefore set it apart, reserving it for the righteous in the world to come'. The dibbur gives its two sources in order, the aggadah first and the peshat second, and each belongs to a different crux on this site.
• → parallel · Ambrose
  Phase 4. The same purpose clause in Troyes and in Milan, seven hundred years apart. Rashi: it was not seemly that light and darkness should function together in a confused manner. Ambrose: the distinction is made between the light and the darkness so that, their natures being separated, nothing may be seen to have anything confused within it. Neither could have known the other, and it is the closest verbal agreement between the benches on this crux.
• ← contests · Paul of Burgos
  The only witness in this edition that argues about the rabbinic bench's standing rather than merely agreeing or disagreeing with it. Burgos's third charge is that Lyra attributes to Ra. Sa. the authority of a literal exposition which the Latin doctors found first. Rashi is on this daf, four hundred years earlier, doing exactly what is being fought over: giving the plain sense of the verse and being followed for it. The edge is contests because the dispute is real and named, even though the man contested is dead and the contesting is done by a third party who says he owes him less than the postillator thinks.
• ← contests · Matthias Doering
  Rashi is the third party to this quarrel and the only one who cannot answer. Doering calls him infidelis and says the answer credited to him is in the Latins' own gloss; Burgos, born a rabbi, says the Latin doctors found it first; Lyra says it is more according to the intention of the letter. The daf carries Rashi on this verse, four hundred years earlier, doing the thing that is being fought over.
• → cites · Babylonian Talmud
  Rashi names his source — 'here too we must depend upon the statement of the Agada' — and gives R. Elazar's answer: God saw the wicked were unworthy of the light and set it apart for the righteous in the world to come. Silbermann's note supplies the reference to Chagigah 12a.
• → cites · Bereshit Rabbah
  The plain sense, taken from Bereshit Rabbah: it was not seemly that light and darkness should work in confusion, so he assigned each its own hours. Rashi keeps the aggadic hiding and the peshat division side by side and does not merge them.