vibration is communicated to the angels and the holy Ḥayyot, to the other plants, and also to the trees and plants on earth, and to all the beings on earth and in heaven. It is the signal for them all to cast their eyes upward. As soon as they see the Ineffable Name, which is engraved in the sun, they raise their voices in songs of praise to God. At the same moment a heavenly voice is heard to say, “Woe to the sons of men that consider not the honor of God like unto these creatures whose voices now rise aloft in adoration.”106 These words, naturally, are not heard by men, as little as they perceive the grating of the sun against the wheel to which all the celestial bodies are attached, although the noise it makes is extraordinarily loud.107 This friction of the sun and the wheel produces the motes dancing about in the sunbeams. They are the carriers of healing to the sick,108 the only health-giving creations of the fourth day, on the whole an unfortunate day, especially for children, afflicting them with disease.109
When God punished the envious moon by diminishing her light and splendor, so that she ceased to be the equal of the sun as she had been originally,110 she fell,111 and tiny threads were loosed from her body. These are the stars.”112
The Fifth Day
On the fifth day of creation God took fire113 and water, and out of these two elements He made the fishes of the sea.114 The animals in the water are much more numerous than those on land. For every species on land, excepting only the weasel, there is a corresponding species in the water, and, besides, there are many found only in the water.”115
