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Creation of Time
Time is a fascinating topic and one that we assume we understand. But, there are some questions about time raised by Jewish tradition.
For example, tradition tells us the world is soon to be 5,761. This means 5,761 years since the creation of the world. Of course, no one is quite certain what this means. It could refer to the moment the Torah means when it says, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." The problem with this reasoning is that it takes a sun for the measure of a year to be possible (time it takes for earth to revolve around the sun). And, if you look at the Story of Creation you will see that the sun, moon and stars are not "activated" until the fourth day of Creation.
Speaking of no sun being present for the first three days we might question what the Torah means when it speaks
How can there be "days", as a measure of 24 hours of time, without a sun as a point of reference? The only thing we really know about the nature of yom, a day, is that God brought about light
and darkness. "God named the light day and the darkness He called night." (Genesis 1:5) And then we learn that this combination of a period of light (day) and a period of dark(night) makes up day one.
It's tempting to call the 24-hour period a day since it encompasses a distinct period of dark and lightness.
But, the rest of the Creation story does not support this reading.
The challenge here is in our understanding of the terms, light and darkness. Does the word ohr (light) refer to physical light? At various times throughout the Tanach, it does. Does the Torah mean that God created physical light on the first day of Creation? If so, from where does this light come? Again, we have to consider the first day of Creation in context of each day, including the fourth day when all sources of physical light come into existence. Each of us is allowed to create our own Middrashim to explain what type of light was created on the first day.
While the measure of time becomes an extremely complex topic with many points of view, the notion that time was part of Creation is widely shared
among our ancient teachers. The first word of Torah, B'reshit, is translated as "In the beginning," which signifies time. Rashi and others translate the first sentence as, "In the beginning of God's
creation." According to our tradition, time is not just a measure of the earth's movement through space. It is a part of Creation that came about long before the first person walked in the Garden of
Eden. And, if this is the case, then we must consider the prohibition against wasting anything, called bal tashchit, to apply to time as well as to natural resources. By this injunction, we are
told not to waste time, not to use more time than is necessary and not to use time in a way it was not intended to be used.
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