The Sixth Day of Creation

by Petr Chylek (March 2023)

Days of Creation Angels, Edward Burne-Jones, 1871

Let me first review what happened on the Day One, Second Day and Third to Fifth Day. On Day One we have seen[1] that, according to Zohar, He created Elohim, the Heaven and the Earth. This was a result of unorthodox translation from Hebrew, where Elohim was treated as an object instead of a subject. We have also noticed that Elohim is a grammatically masculine plural, thus, there may be more than one Elohim. If you ask what is Elohim, we can say that this is a form of Creator, or some spiritual entity that was given a task to participate in the construction of the Universe. Then Elohim said “Let there be Light,” and there was light, where Light represents more than the light we know from our physical world. And Elohim saw that the light was good.

On Second Day,[2] Elohim said “Let there be Rakiah,” and nothing happened. It did not work, and Elohim had to make Rakiah. And Rakiah divided water from above Rakiah (from Heaven) and water from below Rakiah (from Earth). Thus, Heaven and Earth got separated, and Elohim did not say that it was good. Second Day is the only day of creation when Elohim does not say that it was good.

Now, I want to get to The Sixth Day. What happened on Third to Fifth Day? Why not deal with them? It would take too long. Elohim knows what is coming. He plans to create a Man, and He uses these days, third to fifth, to prepare a suitable place for the Man where he can live.

Elohim now sees what happened. After Second Day, the Heaven and Earth are separated and there is no easy path from Heaven to Earth or from Earth to Heaven. It needs to be fixed. Thus, Elohim says “Let us make a Man in our image and in our likeness.” (Gen. 1:26) Elohim knows that Man will get a Soul that spans all the worlds, from the Earth to Heaven. Thus, a Man if created as suggested, in an image and likeness of Elohim, would re-connect the Earth with the Heaven. However, according to some sources there were some angelic objections against creation of a Man as proposed. Thus, after some consideration, a compromise was achieved. And Elohim created a Man, but only in His image (Gen. 1:27), not in his likeness.

Some of great Rabbis asked why it is written in plural “Let us make …” There are of course several possible explanations. Let us just consider two of those. It seems obvious that there might be more than one Elohim, and thus the plural in the question is natural. Another possibility is that Elohim is talking to us, to mankind that is being considered. Let us work together, He, Elohim, would make a man just in His image, and man himself has to finish the work, he has to make himself in likeness of God. This is his task. “You be holy as I am Holy.” (Lev. 11:45) When a man changes himself in the likeness of God, his Soul potential will be realized in all the worlds and a direct connection between the Earth and the Heaven will be re-established.

Concerning the sustenance of man, Elohim said:

Behold, I have given to you all herbage yielding seed that is on the surface of the entire Earth, and every tree that has seed-yielding fruit, it shall be yours for food (Gen 1:29).

And Elohim saw all that He had made and behold it was very good (Gen: 1:31).

This is the only time Elohim said that it was very good. Please, note that this happened just after He assigned vegetarian food to man.

Of course, man knows better what he likes. Thus it is convenient for him to forget God’s original plan and adopt a later modification suitable for a fallen mankind after the flood (Gen. 9:3). God is not happy with the man’s choice and He openly expresses his displeasure with man’s desire for eating flesh. Man cries:

Who will give us meat? It was better for us in Egypt, and God replies, God will give you meat and you will eat. Not for one day, nor two days … nor twenty days. Until entire month of days, until it comes out of your noses and becomes nauseating to you …” (Num. 11:18-20).

Not exactly a loving offering. You will eat meat until it comes out of your noses …

Concerning the eating of meat, the Zohar (Zohar 1:89b) says:

And Elohim said: Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed … to you it shall be for food. But since he had sinned and the evil inclination was absorbed to his body and to all of his offspring … from here onward, because the body is already absorbed by evil inclination, let the body enjoy itself as much as it wants and eat meat. When man eats meat, the flesh of man receives pleasure from that flesh, and they mix together. And the body growth and is built by it. But as a result of the pleasure, his body commits many sins.

Thus, it may be wise not to eat meat. Your body does not need meat, it needs protein, which can be obtained from other more suitable food. If for a special medical reason you might require meat, just go ahead. Staying healthy and alive is the most beneficial thing you can do. Otherwise it may be worth considering at least to cut down on consumption of meat. Maybe you can introduce a one meatless day per week. If you already have a meatless day on your schedule, maybe you can change to three days per week, then to five, and then quit completely. All animals will bless you.

In the history of mankind, there were many mystics that advocated meatless diet. Among them we can name e.g., Pythagoras, Leonardo da Vinci, Basil the Great, Jerome, Tertullian, and Origen. And among more recent Leo Tolstoy (1829-1910), Abraham Kook (1865-1935), Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948), and Franz Kafka (1883-1924).

Rabbi Kook, mystic and the first chief Rabbi of pre-state Israel, considered man’s craving for meat as a sign of spiritual decline, rather than a real need. He believed that God permitted the fallen man, after the flood, to temporarily eat flesh. However, the future spiritually renewed mankind, after the coming of Messiah, would return to a vegetarian diet. Here we have to remember that Messiah will come only one day after he is not needed any more (attributed to Franz Kafka). This means that we have to fix all the mess we have made on the earth ourself, and we have to start right now. We cannot wait for Messiah to come. If we just wait, he would never come.

For Tolstoy and for Gandhi and for many others, the main point was non-violence in agreement with one of the commandments: “You shall not kill.”[3] It is unfortunate that many teachers of western major religions modified this commandment to their own taste in the form: “You shall not murder.”[4] It is true that in modern Hebrew Lo Tertzach mean either you shall not kill or you shall not murder. However, in the Biblical Hebrew and from the establishment of refugee cities in Old Testament (Num. 35:9-34), it suggests that Lo Tertzach as used in Torah means “You shall not kill.”

[1] New English Review, November 2022.
[2] New English Review, February 2023.
[3] Holy Bible, King James Version, Collins-World,The Chumash, The Stone Edition, Mesorah Publications, 2005.
[4] Hebrew-English Tanakh, The Jewish Publication Society, 1999.

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Petr Chylek is a theoretical physicist. He was a professor of physics and atmospheric science at several US and Canadian universities. He is an author of over 150 publications in scientific journals. He thanks Lily A. Chylek for reading the earlier version of this article and for her comments and suggestions.