More Discussions for this daf
1. Ideological Differences Between Beis Shamai/Hillel 2. Seven Heavens 3. Genesis and Creation
4. Circumference of the Earth
DAF DISCUSSIONS - CHAGIGAH 12

Solomon Huriash asked:

We are told that somehwere in Chagigah it is written that the sun and Earth and stars were all created on Day 1.

1- Is it possible to get an English translation of that paragraph?

2- Is it written anywhere else that other entities like animals or man were created on Day 1?

Thank you so much for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Solomon Huriash, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, U.S.A.

The Kollel replies:

Rashi clearly states that everything was created on the first day, but was only placed on its respective day. That explains why the Torah writes, with regard to both the vegetation and the animals "Let the earth produce", intimating that they were already created, and merely needed producing from underground, where they were waiting for their turn to join the creations that preceded them. And similar expressions are used vis-a-vis the other creations.

The one exception is man, in connection with whom the Torah writes on the sixth day "Let us create man", and "G-d created man" (on which Rashi does not comment). it therefore seems to me that He created him then, and not earlier.

The Gemara in Chagigah to which you refer, after citing the opinion of R. Ya'akov (who disagrees, states) 'But the Chachamim say that they (the luminaries) are the same ones that He created on the first day, but which He did not suspend (in the sky) until the fourth'.

Be'Virchas Kol Tuv

Eliezer Chrysler