What Does it Mean That God Separated the Light from the Darkness?

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And God divided between the light and the darkness.”

This means that when the light appeared in our world, it became clear that the entire universe consists of two opposite states: light and darkness, day and night.

Light and darkness within us are revealed in relation to our connection with God, which we usually call “the Creator” in the wisdom of Kabbalah. It refers to an upper force of love and bestowal, which is also called “upper light.” This force is opposite to our animate nature of receiving for ourselves alone.

If we rise a little above ourselves, i.e., above our animate nature, then we start feeling that there is light — the light of bestowal, connection, love and unity. First, we feel light and darkness within us, where light is all good, the positive states of connection that dwell among people, and darkness is the opposite.

The same applies to heaven and earth, where heaven symbolizes the desire to bestow of the Creator, and earth symbolizes the desire to receive of the creation.

It suggests that there are two forces in the universe: first, the force of the Creator, and secondly, the force of creation. They, in essence, develop and separate our thoughts. Darkness refers to our egoistic thoughts, where we think solely in terms of self-benefit, and light refers to thoughts of aiming outwardly from ourselves in a manner of bestowal, or in other words, thoughts that are directed at the Creator.

Accordingly, we can understand what it written, “And before that, the Earth was empty and chaotic,” i.e., before there was this separation of egoistic thoughts from thoughts of bestowal, there was no order, no separation of one from the other.