Tanach · Rishonim on Tanach · Sforno · Torah
Sforno on Genesis 1:8/ספורנו על בראשית א׳:ח׳
אוַיִּקְרָא אֱלֹהִים לָרָקִיעַ שָׁמָיִם. מִפְּנֵי שֶׁפְּעֻלּוֹת הַשְּׁמִימִיִּים יַגִּיעוּ לָנוּ בְּאֶמְצָעוּתוֹ, כְּאָמְרוֹ וַיִּתֵּן אוֹתָם אֱלֹהִים בִּרְקִיעַ הַשָּׁמַיִם לְהָאִיר עַל הָאָרֶץ וְלִמְשֹׁל בַּיּוֹם וּבַלַּיְלָה וּלְהַבְדִּיל וְכוּ׳.
1ויקרא אלוקים לרקיע שמים. Seeing that activities occurring in the celestial regions reach us by means of G’d’s agents and not directly, the Torah had to tell us that G’d named the phenomenon, otherwise we would not have known this, [would have considered it as a result of an evolutionary process. Ed.] We know of this indirect activity of G’d when the Torah referred (verses 17-18) to “G’d placed them (the luminaries) in the רקיע השמים, and assigned to them the task to illuminate the earth, etc.”