Introduction All of the mishnayoth in chapter five are taught anonymously. The chapter begins with mishnayoth that revolve around the numbers 10, 7, and 4.
With ten utterances the world was created. And what does this teach, for surely it could have been created with one utterance? But this was so in order to punish the wicked who destroy the world that was created with ten utterances, And to give a good reward to the righteous who maintain the world that was created with ten utterances. In the first chapter of Genesis the phrase “and God said” appears nine times. If you add to this the first three words of the Torah, which are also considered an “utterance”, you get to the number ten, which is considered a number of completion. God could have created the world with one utterance, but He took more effort in His creation in order to teach human beings their awesome responsibility in being stewards over the world. The wicked who ruin the world are ruining something that took God ten utterances to create and therefore there crime is greater. The opposite is true for the righteous, who preserve the “ten-utterance” world, and are therefore greatly rewarded for their actions. The ways that the wicked destroy the world and the righteous preserve the world can be understood on several levels. One explanation is that this refers to religious or moral wickedness or righteousness. When the wicked corrupt the world, they bring ruin on our great world, and when the righteous act morally and with piety, they preserve our world, which took a full ten utterances to create. On another level it may be taken environmentally. The world was not created with great ease and therefore those who destroy it, are destroying a carefully crafted structure. Those who physically take care of the world, are preserving this incredibly complicated world which God gave over to humanity.