אין שם קודםNo Before

ein sham kodemIn Gamatria ↗

Before the first thing, there was no before.

Shaltiel presses: God could have created sooner and given good for longer. The Ari said this world could come only after the upper worlds unfolded, but why were those not earlier? Yehoyada traces the Ari to Bereshit Rabbah 9: the world was made in its time, before which God built worlds and destroyed them, the breaking of the vessels. On Adam Kadmon the Ari kept silent. Yehoyada explains. Time is an accident of motion; before anything existed there was no time. Otherwise God would grow older each day, which the Talmud denies (Yevamot 16b). Ramban reads the threefold Ehyeh as past and future all present in Him. The endless stretch before creation is the imagination's invention, like a ship of iron flying through the air. Where there is no time, there is no 'sooner'.

Hover the image to look closer.Tap the image to look closer.