1 From the beginning with wisdom the Memra of the Lord created and perfected the heavens and the earth. 2 And the earth was waste and unformed, desolate of man and beast, empty of plant cultivation and of trees, and darkness was spread over the face of the abyss; and a spirit of mercy from before the Lord was blowing over the surface of the waters. 3 And the Memra of the Lord said: “Let there be light” and there was light according to the decree of his Memra. 4 And it was manifest before the Lord that the light was good; and the Memra of the Lord separated the light from the darkness. 5 And the Memra of the Lord called the light daytime and the darkness he called night. And there was evening and there was morning: (in) the order of the work of creation, first day.

The great Rabbi Hoshaya opened [with the verse (Mishlei 8:30),] “I [the Torah] was an amon to Him and I was a plaything to Him every day.” Amon means “pedagogue” (i.e., nanny). Amon means “covered.” Amon means “hidden.” And there is one who says amon means “great.” Amon means “nanny,” as in (Bamidbar 11:12) ‘As a nanny (omein) carries the suckling child.’ Amon means “covered,” as in (Eichah 4:5) ‘Those who were covered (emunim) in scarlet have embraced refuse heaps.’ Amon means “hidden,” as in (Esther 2:7) ‘He hid away (omein) Hadassah.’ Amon means “great,” as in (Nahum 3:8) ‘Are you better than No-amon [which dwells in the rivers]?’ which the Targum renders as, ‘Are you better than Alexandria the Great (amon), which dwells between the rivers?’ Alternatively, amon means “artisan.” The Torah is saying, ‘I was the artisan’s tool of Hashem.’ In the way of the world, a king of flesh and blood who builds a castle does not do so from his own knowledge, but rather from the knowledge of an architect, and the architect does not build it from his own knowledge, but rather he has scrolls and books in order to know how to make rooms and doorways. So too Hashem gazed into the Torah and created the world. Similarly, the Torah says, ‘Through the reishis Hashem created [the heavens and the earth],’ and reishis means Torah, as in ‘Hashem made me [the Torah] the beginning (reishis) of His way’ (Mishlei 8:22).”