One and All ----------- The world was created with ten Divine utterances. What does this come to teach us? Certainly, it could have been created with a single utterance. However, this was in order to make the wicked accountable for destroying a world which was created with ten utterances and to reward the righteous for sustaining a world which was created with ten utterances. - Ethics of the Fathers, 5:1 * * * * In other words, G-d chose to "expend" ten utterances on our world to make our life's mission within it more significant and valuable. Yet this explanation seems somewhat unsatisfactory. If G-d could create a world with a single utterance, then this ought to be the true measure of its worth. Any additional "expenditure" on His part seems but an artificial inflation of its value. As the commentary Midrash Shemuel puts it: If A pays ten zuz for an object worth only a single zuz, and B steals it, would B's obligation be for more than the object's tr...