את הארץ למה לי להקדים שמים לארץ והארץ היתה תהו ובהו מכדי בשמים אתחיל ברישא מאי שנא דקא חשיב מעשה ארץ תנא דבי ר' ישמעאל משל למלך בשר ודם שאמר לעבדיו השכימו לפתחי השכים ומצא נשים ואנשים למי משבח למי שאין דרכו להשכים והשכים
[If the purpose of "et hashamayim" is to show that it is not God's name,] why do I need "et ha'aretz"? To show precedence of heaven to earth. (Genesis 1:2) "And the earth was chaos and desolation." Let's see. He began with heaven first. What changed that it is [now] considering the account of the earth? The house of R. Ishmael taught, It is comparable to a king of flesh and blood, who says to his servants, Rise up early [and come] to my door. He himself rises early, and finds women and men. Whom does he praise? Those whose way is not to rise early, yet did rise early. [Thus, earth, mentioned second in order in verse 1, was created at the same time as the heaven, and is "praised" by being described first in verse 2.]
The Beginning of Wisdom
198. The fourth world is called the world of Asiyah. In this world the angels are of a lesser order than in the previous worlds. The chief angel of Asiyah is Sandalfon. Within this world are 7 firmaments - Raki'im that are mentioned in the Zohar and Talmud as follows: 1. Aravot 2. Ma'on 3. Machon 4. Zevul 5. Shechakim 6. Rekiah 7. Veelon The Ophanim - Wheels that are mentioned in Ezekiel exist on this level. Furthermore, our physical world and all that exists within it is included as the final level of Asiyah.
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Da'at Tevunoth
103 Behold, there is nothing that necessitates existence except for His existence may He be blessed, and everything that exists except for that has no existence except through His desire may He be blessed, and we find that it is dependent and stands only through His will may He be blessed. And therefore we read, that all existence which is found is dependent on His word may He be blessed, like the matter which they said with regard to the upper waters (Breisheet Rabbah 4:3, Taanit 10a) and like the matter that they said may their memory be for a blessing (Chaggigah 12b), "The land upon what does it stand - upon the pillars...", "... and the wind hangs upon the arm of the Holy One blessed is He". And similarly did they say further (Yalkut Shimoni section 1, 964), "...flesh and blood are under their load, but the Holy One blessed is He is above his load as it says (Deuteronomy 33:27), and the world is beneath his arms". He compared it as if he supports all that exists in all its details, and he stands upon them from above:
