Heaven Is Built Down Here
On the second day God stretched a rakia across the waters and named it shamayim, heaven. Rashi reads the name as a recipe: אֵשׁ וּמַיִם, שֶׁעֵרְבָן זֶה בָזֶה וְעָשָׂה מֵהֶם שָׁמַיִם, “fire and water, which He mixed one into the other and made heaven from them” (Rashi on Bereishit 1:8).
Fire boils water away. Water puts fire out. Heaven is built from the two things that destroy each other, held together by force of will. The first heaven was a peace treaty.
Peace is made, from above
הַמְשֵׁל וָפַחַד עִמּוֹ עֹשֶׂה שָׁלוֹם בִּמְרוֹמָיו, “dominion and awe are with Him; He makes peace in His heights” (Iyov 25:2). Peace in heaven does not happen on its own. It is made, by Him, every moment the fire and the water stay mixed. Down here He makes it too, most of the time, and the times He leaves it to us are the times we are being asked to learn the trade.
The day without “it was good”
Every day of creation ends with God seeing that it was good, except the second. Rashi asks why, and answers: לְפִי שֶׁלֹּא הָיָה נִגְמָר מְלֶאכֶת הַמַּיִם עַד יוֹם שְׁלִישִׁי, “because the work of the waters was not finished until the third day” (Rashi on Bereishit 1:7). On the third day the dry land rose out of the water, and that day is called good twice.
Heaven was left unfinished on purpose, and the piece that finishes it is the earth. The deep work was always meant for the lowest place. קול תהום closes on that line, with the angels as an army that needs peace imposed on it and the hardest work handed to us.
Angel is a job title
A malach is a messenger, and the word is given to people. וַיֹּאמֶר חַגַּי מַלְאַךְ ה׳ בְּמַלְאֲכוּת ה׳ לָעָם, “Chaggai, the messenger of God, spoke to the people with God’s mission” (Chaggai 1:13). The kohen gets the same title: כִּי מַלְאַךְ ה׳ צְבָאוֹת הוּא, “for he is a messenger of the Lord of Hosts” (Malachi 2:7). The whole nation was cast in that role at Sinai: וְאַתֶּם תִּהְיוּ לִי מַמְלֶכֶת כֹּהֲנִים, “you shall be for Me a kingdom of kohanim” (Shemot 19:6).
Chaggai’s verse holds both words side by side: malach, messenger, and malachut, the mission. The same root gives melacha, work. An angel is whoever is doing the work they were sent to do. Every person on earth is an actor handed a part, and the part is messenger.
The crew
The Mishnah sorts the trades by the character they tend to produce, and gives one of them a remarkable grade: הַסַּפָּנִין רֻבָּן חֲסִידִים, “sailors, most of them are pious” (Kiddushin 82a). A person who knows there is only a hull between him and the deep stays humble and keeps praying.
The earth is a ship crossing the tehom, and everyone aboard is crew. The messengers who remember they are at sea are the righteous sailors. Their job is the one heaven was left waiting for on the second day: to take the fire and the water inside a person, in a family, between nations, and mix them into peace down here.
Join the crew
Zion Today is being built by hand, one day of creation at a time. If you write, translate Hebrew, paint in watercolor, build games, know WordPress, or can spread the word, there is a post on this ship with your name on it.
