With ten pronouncements (ma'amaroth) the world was created, [nine "And He said," and "In the beginning" is also a pronouncement, viz. (Psalms 33:6): "By the word of the L rd the heavens were made."] What are we hereby being taught? Could it not have been created with one pronouncement? But, [this was stated] to exact punishment of the wicked who destroy the world, which was created with ten pronouncements [For if one destroys one Jewish soul it is as if he destroys an entire world, and the wicked, who in their sins destroy their souls, are reckoned as having destroyed the entire world. (Thus have I found.) And to me it seems that they destroy the world itself, for they incline all of the world to the scale of punishment, so that it is destroyed because of them. "With ten pronouncements": There is no comparison between destroying a work created in one day and (destroying) a work created in many days], and to give goodly reward to the tzaddikim, who sustain the world, which was created with ten pronouncements.
Penei David
It is possible to hint that the word bereishit is [made up of] the letters, "beareshet yod (by expression of ten)," which hints to (Avot 5:1), "with ten proclamations was the world created." And see what is written in Petach Einayim on the Mishna, "In ten proclamations," with God's help. And I heard from an old God-fearing man that the words, Bereishit bara including the numerical equivalent of two [for these two words] is the numerical equivalent (gematria) of "Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One" (Deuteronomy 6:4). Up to here are his words, may His memory be a blessing for life in the world to come. And he gave me pleasure, since in the beginning of the Torah, there is found a hint to His unity, may He be blessed, and [also] all of the kavannot (mystical meditations) that are in the secret of the unification are hinted in these words, as it is stated in the Zohar and in the writings of Ari, of blessed and righteous memory - all of them are hinted in the beginning of our holy Torah. And after much time, I briefly chanced upon the book, Tsvi Kodesh, and I see at the end of page 2, that he wrote this gematria, and added that it is for this reason that our holy Rabbi (Rabbi Yehuda Hanassi) started the [corpus of the] Mishna with the commandment of reading the Shema, see there.
And with this, we will come to the explanation: and it is that the Master, may His name be exalted, created everything - all that He created in the world; places and all that exists, and the skies and the earth - in one word. And this is what it states, "Bereishit bara Elohim et hashamayim ve'et haarets" ("In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth"), and is exact to use the word et twice; to include all that is found in the world. And since the creations are numerous, as beyond the ten things that are recognizable and visible to everyone's eye - as were counted by the Sages, of blessed memory (Chagigah 12a), and this is what they said, "and ten things were created on the first day: heavens and earth, light, darkness, chaos and void, etc. water, wind" - besides these things, there are other creations that are hidden and absorbed by the powers of the foundational elements; some of them are recognized by way of dissection, some of the them by way of composition, some of them through the changing of time, some of them through the power of hyle, and [they] are too many to count. For this reason, the Creator grouped them into two large and enormous parts: in the havens and in the earth. And these are the two inclusions that were included in His saying "et hashamayim ve'et haarets," and in one proclamation did He, may He be exalted, create everything. And you will find that they, of blessed memory, said (Rosh Hashanah 32a), "[The word] 'In the beginning' [counts as a] proclamation [of creation], since with it were completed the ten proclamations with which the world was created (as there are only nine obvious proclamations of creation and this would be the tenth one)." Everything was created in the first of all [the proclamations] but it was not yet arranged, and all of the creations were there but they lacked order; and the Holy One, blessed be He, ordered them, each thing in its day: on the first day, He set up and separated the light from the darkness and the darkness acquired its place and the light acquired its place; and on the second day, etc.
And it is true that the Creator could have included the ordering [of the various creations] in the first proclamation, but for many reason did He [not] do this; and the Rabbis, of blessed memory, revealed one of them, when they stated (Avot 5), "and is it not that He could have created [everything] in one proclamation, but He wanted to take payment [from sinners for a world created with ten statements rather than only one] etc. and to give payment to the righteous etc."