In Chapter 38, the Holy One, blessed be He, answers Iyov from the whirlwind, walking him step by step through the Work of Creation: how He founded the earth, measured it, built it, revealed the dry land, and separated the lower waters from the upper waters. In the section before us, He turns to speaking of the light: the primordial light of the first three days, the dawn established on the fourth day, and from there to the sea and the deep, the order of days and years, and the storehouses of snow and hail. Everything points in one direction: to show Iyov that Divine Providence extends down to the finest details, and that one who was not present at the time of the world's founding cannot judge the ways of divine governance.
הֲמִיָּמֶיךָ צִוִּיתָ בֹּקֶר, יִדַּעְתָּ הַשַּׁחַר מְקֹמוֹ׃ - Have you in your days commanded the morning, or informed the dawn of its place?
The Malbim explains: During the first three days, the light was not yet set within the celestial luminaries. There was a primordial light that encircled the globe from all sides - not a rotating light, but an enveloping light - for twelve hours a day. After twelve hours, the light withdrew from all sides of the globe, resulting in twelve hours of night.
And from where do we know that the light arrived and departed gradually rather than all at once? From the verse, "And there was evening and there was morning." How does morning differ from noon? Morning is the beginning of the light, noon is its full intensity, and evening is the time when the light wanes. If the Torah refers to that primordial light with the terms "evening" and "morning," it must have arrived little by little and departed little by little. And how do we know it did not encircle the earth constantly? This too is derived from the verse, "And there was evening" - if there was evening, there was a state in which there was no light. Thus, it enveloped the world for twelve hours, and then gradually faded into twelve hours of darkness.
Here a profound insight emerges: if we seek to define what constitutes the true dawn in the world, there is only one such dawn - the hour in which the Holy One, blessed be He, placed the luminaries and the sun began to shine forth. Why is the dawn of every ordinary morning not a "true dawn"? Because dawn is merely a particular position of the sun relative to the earth; at the very moment dawn breaks for you, it is midday for someone living on another side of the globe, and for someone further away it is already twilight. It is not an absolute dawn, but merely your personal dawn. The true dawn occurred only once in history: on the fourth day, when Hashem set the sphere of the sun and established the luminaries in their places. From that point on, every dawn is dawn for you, sunset for another, and noon for someone else.
This is what the Holy One, blessed be He, is saying to him: "Have you in your days commanded the morning" - the first morning brought into being on the first day, before the luminaries were hung, when that light enveloped and encircled the globe; did you command it to illuminate for twelve hours and darken for twelve hours? And furthermore: "Did you inform the dawn of its place" - the dawn that broke on the fourth day the moment the sun was suspended in its station had a specific place where it first appeared. Did you determine that place? Did you witness it and know it?
From this we can understand the concept of Birkat HaChamah (the Blessing of the Sun): the position and time at which the Holy One, blessed be He, established the sun at the very first moment, that exact position of the fourth day when the luminaries were hung - the sun returns to it. It is the precise time and exact position when the sun returns to that original point. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: Did you know where the sun was meant to stand at the beginning?
לֶאֱחֹז בְּכַנְפוֹת הָאָרֶץ, וְיִנָּעֲרוּ רְשָׁעִים מִמֶּנָּה׃ - To take hold of the corners of the earth, that the wicked might be shaken out of it.
Ever since Hashem set the boundaries of dawn, the dawn constantly takes hold of the corners of the earth: at every single moment it shifts its place and grasps the edge of the globe, like a person grasping the corners of a tallit and shaking it out. Yet nevertheless, this is not an absolute beginning, for the edge grasped where you are is already the end of the day and twilight for someone else.
"And the wicked are shaken out of it" - the wicked prefer the night, as it says, "You make darkness, and it is night, wherein all the beasts of the forest creep forth." At night, the wicked person goes out to do his work; by day, this is impossible. And when dawn arrives, seizing the edges of the earth and beginning to reveal itself at the horizon, the nighttime robbers, who dig into houses in the dark and break into people's homes, flee and hide in crevices.
תִּתְהַפֵּךְ כְּחֹמֶר חוֹתָם, וְיִתְיַצְּבוּ כְּמוֹ לְבוּשׁ׃ - It changes like clay under a seal, and they stand out like a garment.
Through the light that shines upon the surface of the earth, distinct forms are imprinted upon the land. We have arrived at the stage where the dry land has been revealed and the sun is present, and Hashem says to him: know that everything imprinted upon the earth is imprinted through the power of the sun. Were it not for the sun, nothing in creation could exist: the heat, the light, the vegetation, their colors, photosynthesis - everything derives from its power.
And what is "clay under a seal" (chomer chotam)? People used to seal documents with red wax: placing it on the paper and pressing down upon it with a special heavy implement, or sealing a letter with special pitch, so that if someone opened the letter and broke the seal, it was immediately known that the letter had been read. In the same way, the forms in the world are stamped, as it were, with the Creator's seal, and one clearly sees that the Holy One, blessed be He, fashioned them. "And they stand out like a garment" - this sealing consists of the plants, the trees, and the fruits, all of which bear the seal of the Holy One, blessed be He. When there was only raw matter (chomer), what was it? Nothing. But on a seal, one reads a name, sees an inscription, perceives something engraved. The plants, trees, and flowers serve as the attire of the earth, as in the verse, "The meadows are clothed with flocks, and the valleys wrapped in grain," like a garment of royal purple. All of this comes about through the operation of the light that takes hold of the edges of the earth. When there was darkness, there was no distinct form, only raw matter; but now the matter has been transformed into a seal and stands arrayed like a garment.
וְיִמָּנַע מֵרְשָׁעִים אוֹרָם, וּזְרוֹעַ רָמָה תִּשָּׁבֵר׃ - And from the wicked their light is withheld, and the high arm is broken.
Through the very existence of light, the Holy One, blessed be He, created the means to punish the wicked. How? By withholding their light from them. The shining daylight is darkness to the wicked person, for whom "the night shines as the day" and whose working hours are during the night. When the Holy One, blessed be He, created light, He denied them their light, and thereby "the wicked are silenced in darkness." Consequently, "the high arm is broken" - when daylight arrives, people begin searching for who robbed and who broke in, hunting down the criminals; whereas at night, it is easy for him to carry out his deeds in obscurity.
In modern times this is less palpable, since night truly shines like day with streetlights and electricity. But consider what happens during a blackout - everything comes to a standstill, like a curfew, plunged into total darkness. That is how night appeared in earlier generations: absolute darkness, allowing anyone inclined to steal to go about his deeds unseen. Darkness is the light of the wicked, and once Hashem provided daylight, He effectively plunged the wicked into darkness so they could no longer perpetrate their deeds in secret.
On the other hand, darkness itself was also created with divine providence and serves as an instrument of retribution against the wicked, such as the plague of darkness in Egypt, where Hashem brought darkness upon them for days on end so that no one could move from his place. Thus, there are times when Hashem exacts retribution from the wicked through light - when they are pursued and apprehended and can no longer operate under cover of dark - and times when He punishes them through darkness itself. All of this demonstrates the providence of Hashem, showing how both light and darkness were designed in a manner that allows justice to be visited upon the wicked and breaks the arm of the arrogant and haughty.
הֲבָאתָ עַד נִבְכֵי יָם, וּבְחֵקֶר תְּהוֹם הִתְהַלָּכְתָּ׃ - Have you entered into the springs of the sea, or walked in search of the depth?
After recounting the creation of the earth, the formation of the dry land, and the light, the Holy One, blessed be He, begins to speak of the sea and the depths. The earth stands upon the depths, and beneath the earth there is water; have you walked in the depths of the earth? Have you reached the depths of the sea, its hidden recesses, concealed from the eyes of every researcher?
Not long ago, researchers discovered a fish that until that day they were certain had become extinct - books had written decades ago that this fish was no more - and suddenly they found it swimming along peacefully in the ocean depths, several kilometers beneath the surface of the sea. Until then, they could not find it, as it was a place scientific research had never reached; only after building a specialized submarine capable of withstanding immense pressure, equipped with cameras and research gear, did they discover it wandering there. Even today, with all our wisdom and technology, we are only beginning to explore these places.
הֲנִגְלוּ לְךָ שַׁעֲרֵי מָוֶת, וְשַׁעֲרֵי צַלְמָוֶת תִּרְאֶה׃ - "Have the gates of death been revealed to you, or have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?"
The Malbim explains: Sometimes Hashem punishes through the depths of the sea, and sometimes through the abyss, when the waters surge from the depths of the seas or from the great deep. An example of water surging from the depths of the seas is a tsunami, or the generation of Enosh, who were flooded by ocean waters. An example of the depths of the great abyss is fire and sulfur emerging from the earth, a volcano spewing forth fire, boiling water, and sulfur. These places are like gates before death: when Hashem wishes to bring death, He opens these gates, and the ocean floods, or the subterranean depths beneath the earth's crust burst forth, wiping out entire cities and killing many people.
There is a city called Pompeii, an entire city that was preserved in an extraordinary state because a volcano covered it. One sees there people who perished in the middle of eating, in the middle of sleeping; in a single second, boiling lava engulfed them, and in some cases, even the food they were eating was preserved. In this way, there are situations where Hashem punishes through the fire and scalding steam trapped within the earth, which erupt and burst outward.
הִתְבֹּנַנְתָּ עַד רַחֲבֵי אָרֶץ, הַגֵּד אִם יָדַעְתָּ כֻלָּהּ׃ - "Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth? Tell, if you know it all."
Until now, He spoke with him about what was fashioned during the first three days - the light, the sea and dry land, and the firmament. Now He moves on to speak of what occurred on the fourth day, when the luminaries were hung and the cycle of days and years was established. And for what purpose were the luminaries set in place? As we read in Bereishit 1:14: "And God said, 'Let there be luminaries in the expanse of the heavens to separate between the day and the night, and let them serve as signs, and for appointed seasons, and for days and years.'" Signs - when the luminaries are eclipsed, it is an unfavorable sign; appointed seasons - referring to the festivals Israel would be commanded to observe in the future, which are calculated by the moon; days - determining the day according to the sun, through sunrise and sunset; and years - because through the luminaries we determine when a year ends and a new year begins.
Granted, the verse also states, "and let them serve as luminaries in the expanse of the heavens to illuminate the earth," but that is only a secondary purpose, whereas the primary purpose is stated explicitly: for signs, appointed seasons, days, and years. Why was providing light merely a secondary reason, for how else could man walk in the dark? The answer is that on the first day it was already said, "And God said, 'Let there be light'" - an intrinsic light, a light that shone of its own accord and did not emanate from the orb of the sun. Consequently, the essential purpose of the sun and moon was for signs, seasons, days, and years. However, since the Holy One, blessed be He, concealed the primordial light of the first day for the righteous in the World to Come, it turns out that the light we currently have is also necessary for us to see; originally, though, this light was not required for illumination.
Furthermore, the cycle of the day was already established through the original light, even before the light of the sun and moon, whereas the determination of the year began only on the fourth day, for only then did the movement of the sun commence, and the calculation of the year depends directly upon the movement of the sun.
Let us picture the Earth, with the equator in its middle - the central region where the sun travels in the center. We speak of the sun moving, but one could just as well say the Earth moves; this merely describes what appears to our eyes. Anyone who observes carefully will see that the sun does not travel along the same path in winter and summer: in its revolutions, it gradually tilts toward the south until it reaches the edge, and then shifts and advances toward the north up to the northern edge, and back again.
This phenomenon causes the poles, in the north and south, to experience half a year of light. When the sun tilts northwards and makes circuits encompassing more of the globe's northern side, whoever is situated at the very edge sees the sun constantly, resulting in half a year of daylight. When the sun tilts southwards during the other half of the year, that pole will have half a year of night, while those on the southern side will now experience half a year of daylight.
What is gained by this? Wondrous Divine Providence ordained that the sun should not continuously revolve along the very same axis: first, to prevent a situation where the equator would be scorched by the sun constantly beating down upon it; and second, this gives us summer and winter. When the sun tilts toward the opposite side of the globe and is distant from us, it is winter; when it is closer to us, it is summer. As it recedes, winter becomes colder and rains fall. Through this mechanism, the seasons of spring, summer, autumn, and winter are established.
אֵי זֶה הַדֶּרֶךְ יִשְׁכָּן אוֹר, וְחֹשֶׁךְ אֵי זֶה מְקֹמוֹ׃ - Which is the way to where light dwells, and darkness, where is its place?
He says to him: Have you gazed across the entire expanse of the earth - where alone such phenomena can be observed - to see where lies the path where light dwells continually, and darkness on the opposite side? For when the sun is in the constellation of Cancer, the light is in the north and darkness is in the south; and the opposite side, the southern side, corresponds to the constellation of Aquarius.
כִּי תִקָּחֶנּוּ אֶל גְּבוּלוֹ, וְכִי תָבִין נְתִיבוֹת בֵּיתוֹ׃ - That you should take it to its boundary, and that you should understand the paths to its home?
"That you should take it to its boundary" - there is a place that marks the boundary of light and darkness, that edge where there are six months of light or six months of darkness, which are the northern and southern extremes. "And that you should understand the paths to its home" - a path refers to the course the sun follows in its revolution around the earth; do you understand the path it takes to reach one extreme at one time, and the other extreme at another?
יָדַעְתָּ כִּי אָז תִּוָּלֵד, וּמִסְפַּר יָמֶיךָ רַבִּים׃ - Did you know because you were already born back then, and the number of your days is so great?
After showing him how Hashem fixed the celestial luminaries at that time, He asks: Did you know that back then the cycle of years was established, determining when you were to be born, in a specific year, and what the number of your days would be, so that you would live many years? In short: were you there when everything was built, when everything was founded, when it all began? For back then it was already apportioned how long each person would live and what trajectory their life would take - did you know all of this?
הֲבָאתָ אֶל אֹצְרוֹת שָׁלֶג, וְאוֹצְרוֹת בָּרָד תִּרְאֶה׃ - Have you entered into the storehouses of snow, or have you seen the storehouses of hail?
Up to this point, He spoke of creation in its broad scope: the light, the atmosphere, the clouds, the rain, the sun and the moon, the depths of the ocean, and their formation. From here, He begins descending to specific details. "Have you entered into the storehouses of snow?" - there are mountains capped in perpetual snow, and there are places that are entire mountains of snow, or caves and valleys filled entirely with snow, where everything has remained frozen for thousands of years, only melting very slowly, until suddenly one hears that another ice shelf has detached from Antarctica and begun drifting toward Europe and other regions. There are places where the storehouses of snow are immense, and He asks: did you ever comprehend or know their magnitude?
And what are the "treasuries of hail"? In the upper reaches of the atmosphere lie treasuries of hail in a place unseen by human eyes. This can also be explained according to what is known today: that there are celestial bodies that are solid blocks of ice. We have already discussed the dispute in the Gemara between Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yehoshua over whether the earth drinks from the lower waters or the upper waters, and we explained that there is also precipitation originating from meteors that break away from those icy moons or celestial bodies. These meteors enter the atmosphere, reach extremely high temperatures, melt, and produce rain. This corresponds to the "treasuries of hail" in a realm hidden from human sight - "or have you seen the treasuries of hail?"
אֲשֶׁר חָשַׂכְתִּי לְעֶת צָר, לְיוֹם קְרָב וּמִלְחָמָה׃ - Which I have reserved for a time of distress, for a day of battle and war.
Regarding the storehouses of snow, He says, "Which I have reserved for the time of distress (tzar)": these mountains serve as fortified places (mivtzar). When a person wages war against his fellow, he seeks a fortress from which he can attack and fire, and these places function like fortresses. Does Hashem need to hide anywhere? No; rather, as we explained, the Holy One, blessed be He, uses the forces of nature to punish sinners. Just as we saw with the Deluge, where scalding waters welled up from the earth to punish the wicked, so it is with these storehouses of nature. How so? At times, freezing blizzards sweep in from those frigid regions and claim thousands of lives. This was especially true in ancient times, when widespread heating did not exist and people relied solely on wood; in those frozen regions there was not enough wood to go around, and a single such storm could kill hundreds and thousands of people.
It is like a sand haze: where does it come from? A haze cloud blowing in from the Sahara Desert. Meteorologists spot it on the synoptic chart, track its journey, and announce incoming haze - and here one ends up breathing grit and dust, stepping outside to see everything turned yellow, all originating from far away. In the same way, bitterly cold winds and blizzards blow in from those frozen realms, through which Hashem, as it were, wages war against wrongdoers.
"For a day of battle and war" - this refers back to the treasuries of hail: the treasuries of hail are preserved with Me for a day of battle and war. This was seen when Hashem cast down great hailstones at the descent of Beit Choron while Yehoshua fought. The Malbim notes that hail is known to cause immense destruction at times, such as the hailstorm that struck in the year 5548 (1788), about 120 years before his time. One can recall hail the size of tennis balls falling just about ten years ago; in some places, cars looked as though boulders had been hurled at them, with crushed roofs and shattered windshields. Thus, the Holy One, blessed be He, as it were, wages war against His enemies through hail, as occurred during the Ten Plagues.
And there in Egypt, when Pharaoh pleaded for the plague to be removed and Moshe Rabbeinu prayed for the hail to cease, what happened to the hailstones? They were suspended midair. Why were they halted? They waited for the battle of Yehoshua. Even then, not all of it descended; the remainder is reserved for the war of Gog and Magog - awaiting the enemies of Israel in every generation, and there is no need to worry, they will receive what they deserve. This is the meaning of "Which I have reserved for a time of distress, for a day of battle and war": the treasuries of hail above are withheld and guarded with Me. Hashem says to him: see how deeply My Providence reaches into the finest details, such that every stage and every event is watched over by Hashem, blessed be He.
The Holy One, blessed be He, leads Iyov from the primordial light that enveloped the globe during the first three days, to the single true dawn established on the fourth day; to the light that grasps the corners of the earth and shakes the wicked from it; to the seal imprinted upon the earth by the power of light, becoming its garment. From there, He leads him to the depths of the sea and the gates of death; to the order of days and years and the tilt of the sun that produces summer and winter; and to the treasuries of snow and hail reserved for a day of battle and war. The message is one: whoever was not present at the time of foundation cannot know the boundaries of light and darkness or the paths of the sun, and cannot judge divine guidance. Divine Providence is not merely general; it descends to the most minute details, and even the forces of nature stand ready in the Creator's hand, for reward and retribution, at any moment He decrees.