The Gift of New Beginnings is the Bereisheet
Bereisheet (In the beginning), the first word of Genesis, is framed by a
Star of David.
Star of David.
Shabbat Shalom Dear reader.............
Welcome to Bereisheet
(In the Beginning), Parasha
(Torah Portion), this will be read in synagogues around the world during the
Shabbat (Saturday) service. Please read and be blessed as the Word of God gives
you a fresh start!
BEREISHEET (In the
Beginning)
Genesis 1:1–6:8; Isaiah 42:5–43:10; John 1:1–18
“In the beginning [Bereisheet]
God [Elohim] created the heavens and the earth.”
(Genesis 1:1) Isn’t it wonderful to have a fresh start?
To have an opportunity to begin again? This
is the precious gift we are given each year at the completion of the fall
feasts with Simchat Torah (Rejoicing in the Torah), when we start our cycle
of Parashiot (Torah study portions) all over again — from the beginning. Both
this first Parasha in the yearly cycle of Torah readings and the first book of
the Bible take their name from the first unique word in the text — Bereisheet, which means in the beginning. In English, the book of
Bereisheet is called Genesis.
Rolling the Torah scroll to the beginning.
A Good Creation
Parasha Bereisheet opens with a dramatic, awe-inspiring narrative of the
creation of our world.
In as few as 31 verses and 469 words, Genesis
describes how God takes confusion and emptiness (tohu
v’vohu תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ) and creates a perfect, delicate balance of
order and beauty. “The earth was unformed and void
[tohu v’vohu], darkness was on the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God
hovered over the surface of the water.” (Genesis 1:2) In this
Parasha, the Ruach Elohim (רוּחַ אֱלֹהִים The Spirit of God) hovers over the waters (mayim) as God separates the light from the darkness and land from
the water. He creates vegetation and creatures — fish of the
sea and birds of the air, as well as land animals.
Sunrise on Israel's Hula Valley in Galilee
Adonai looks at everything He has made and declares it good; however, He
is not quite finished.
On the sixth and final day of creation, God brings
forth the first human — Adam (אָדָם) —
out of the dust of the earth (adamah אדמה).
“Then the LORD God formed man [Adam] of the dust of
the ground [adamah], and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man
became a living soul.” (Genesis 2:7) Notice that it takes
the breath of God to transform Adam into a “living soul” — a being of flesh and
blood with personality, emotions and desires. Contained within the name of the
first “man” on earth is the Hebrew root word dam
(דָם blood). This is
not a coincidence, since God tells us often that life is in the blood (Genesis
9:4; Deuteronomy 12:23; Leviticus 17:11). Notice
as well that humankind — both male and female — are created in the very image
and likeness of God. Hebrew uses the word b’tzelmo (בְּצַלְמוֹ in His
image). The Hebrew root word tzelem
(image) is used in modern Hebrew to mean taking a photograph or making
a photocopy, and there is a very definite family resemblance between us
and our Heavenly Abba (Dad). “And God created man [Adam אָדָם]
in His own image [b'tzelmo], in the image of God [b'tzelem
Elohim] created He him; male [zachar]
and female [nikeivah] He created them.” (Genesis 1:27)
An artist at work in Jerusalem
In the Image of
God: Creativity
While we don’t necessarily resemble God in our
temporary vessels made out of dust, we do resemble Him in our souls and spirit.
One of the ways we resemble God is our capacity for creativity. Just as
God delighted in the creative process of earth and life, so is there an innate
quality within each human being to also be creative, which can express itself
not only as art, writing, or music but also strategic thinking, engineering,
programming, etc. But how did God create the universe? The Bible says He
spoke it into existence using words. For that reason, each act of
creation begins with the phrase “And God said ...” “And
God said: ‘Let there be light.’ And there was light.” (Genesis
1:3) Although we are not gods, as
some in the New Age movement claim, we have been given creative power in our
words. Even the power of life and death is in the tongue!
(Proverbs 18:21)
Orthodox Jewish men have a discussion at the Western (Wailing) Wall.
We see this principle at work when God tells the
Israelites that He would give them that which they had declared with their own
words. They fostered unbelief and disobedience and spoke death over
themselves. The result of their faithless words was that the entire
generation perished in the wilderness. “‘As I
live,’ says the Lord, ‘just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will surely
do to you; your corpses will fall in this wilderness.’” (Numbers
14:28–29) Keeping this in mind, let
us carefully guard our mouth and watch our words — for they have the power to
create good things in our lives and the lives of others, or to cause
destruction. (Proverbs 15:4) Moreover, the Word of God
spoken in faith is powerful and effective to create light in the darkness and
order out of confusion and emptiness. In the beginning, everything in God’s
creation worked perfectly and everything made perfect sense. He had
spoken all into existence in faith, hope, and love.
A young man at the Western (Wailing) Wall gets a little help carrying the
Torah scroll.
Torah scroll.
Six Days of Labor,
One Day of Rest
After six days of actively creating, God instituted the seventh day
Sabbath, a time to cease from labour and simply rest and be refreshed.
“By the seventh day God completed His
work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work
which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it,
because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.”
(Genesis 2:2–3) This holy day of
rest is so important that God included it in the Aseret HaDevarim (Ten Words or Commandments), chiselling
these words onto the stone tablets: “Remember the
Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labour and do all your
work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall
not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female
servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. “For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth,
the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the
Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” (Exodus 20:8–11)
Lighting Shabbat (Sabbath) candles to usher in the
Sabbath on Friday evening is a rabbinically
mandated law.
Sabbath on Friday evening is a rabbinically
mandated law.
The Problem of
Loneliness
“And the LORD God said: ‘It is not
good that the man should be alone; I will make him a help meet for him.’”
(Genesis 2:18) When Adonai placed man in Gan Eden (the
Garden of Eden), He declared that it is not good for a man to be
alone. He saw man’s need for a helper, counterpart, and companion;
therefore, God put Adam into a deep sleep and took from him a rib to create a
suitable partner for him. “And the LORD God caused
a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs,
and closed up the place with flesh instead thereof. And the rib, which
the LORD God had taken from the man, He made into a woman, and brought her unto
the man.” (Genesis 2:21–22) A
second century Jewish sage, Dosetai ben Yaanai, wrote that it is natural for a
man to woo a woman. Why? Because he seeks for that which
he has lost (his rib).
An Israeli husband and wife relax by the sea.
In Hebrew, a man is
called ish and a woman, isha,
the feminine form of ish. God uses this term when He woos Israel and
promises a time when Israel will regard Him with fond affection, rather than
stand at arm's length from Him, viewing Him as a stern authority figure. “‘It will come about in that day,’ declares the LORD,
‘That you will call Me Ishi (my Man) and will no
longer call Me Ba'ali (my Master).’” (Hosea
2:16) God wants Israel to serve Him
out of love — love like that of a woman for her husband. Likewise, His
love for Israel is that of a devoted, tender husband. Furthermore,
God is utterly concerned with our intimate relationships — with Him and with
one another. He wants our relationships to be borne of love and devotion,
not relationships ruled through domination, control, manipulation, and
coercion. And because good relationships and preserving purity are so highly
prized, Judaism has an effective method of finding mates for singles that is
uncommon in the non-Jewish world. The Jewish system of shidduchim (matchmaking)
attempts to bring Jewish men and women together for the purpose of
marriage. Creating a successful shidduch (arranged match) is considered a great mitzvah (good
deed) in Judaism.
An Israeli groom rejoices over his bride.
Although the verse describing Chavah (Eve) has
often been translated as "helper" or "helpmate", the word
used for the role of a wife in Genesis 2:18 is ezer
kenegdo, which literally means a helper
against him. The medieval Torah commentator Rashi comments on this text,
saying: "If he [Adam] is worthy, [she will be] a help [ezer]. If he
is not worthy [she will be] against him [kenegdo] for strife." The word ezer means a protector,
a guard, an aid,
and a help. So we can understand from
this text that helping a husband doesn't means always agreeing. A woman
was not created to be a yes person. There are times when she must
stand in opposition to her husband if he is planning something that is ungodly
or unwise. We can look at the example of Haman’s wife in the book of Esther
who tried to warn her husband that his attempts to destroy Mordechai would
never succeed because he was of Jewish origin. To his detriment, the
anti-Semite Haman did not listen to his ezer
kenegdo. As well, being a wife does not mean that the woman is less
important or inferior to her husband. After all, the Ruach HaKodesh
(Holy Spirit) is also called The Helper. And while being the helper
in Scripture connotes superiority, the addition of kenegdo to the word
ezer reveals that the position of wife is a position of equality.
A Jewish woman comes to the Western (Wailing) Wall to pray.
The Fall in the
Garden
Sadly, due to a crafty serpent’s trickery, Eve
sinned and Adam sinned soon after her; humankind went from grace to disgrace
in a single day! Adam blamed Eve, and Eve
blamed the serpent, and men and women have been pointing the finger at one
another ever since. There, in the Garden, for the first time in
human history, we see the emergence of shame. With shame came forth a
fear of God’s wrath. In his utter humiliation, Adam hid among the trees,
having become aware that he was naked. From their utopian, sheltered, and
innocent existence in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were thrust into a cruel
and unforgiving world of hardship and pain. Being cast out of the Garden
prevented them from eating from the Tree of Life in their fallen state.
Doing so would have turned their temporary fallen state into an eternal fallen
state. The barred door of the Garden actually opened the door for redemption
in the fullness of time.
Torah and yad (Torah pointer)
How quickly the order and beauty of God’s creation
deteriorated into moral degeneracy, even to the point of brother murdering
brother (Cain and Abel). With humankind spiritually separated from God and
deciding for themselves what was good and what was evil, only six chapters into
the book of Bereisheet, mankind descended to such depths of evil, depravity and
violence that God’s heart is broken, and He regrets ever creating mankind. The
good news, however, is that none of this came as
a surprise to God. Even before the foundations of the earth
were laid, God had a plan for redemption. God sent His one and only Son,
Yeshua, to pay the penalty for all of our sins. “All
inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast — all whose names have not been
written in the Lamb's book of life, the Lamb who was slain from the creation of
the world.” (Revelation 13:8)
A New Beginning
“By the word [davar] of the LORD the heavens were made,
their starry host by the breath of His mouth.” (Psalm 33:6) The New
Covenant book of Yochanan (John) echoes the Creation story. The very
first word of this book is the very same first word found in this Torah
portion: Bereisheet (In the Beginning): “In the beginning [Bereisheet] was the Word (HaDavar), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him,
and without Him nothing was made that was made… And the Word became flesh
and dwelt among us.” (John 1:1–3, 14) Yeshua was there at
the beginning, and Yochanan describes Him as the agent of creative power,
the power that made everything through the spoken word
(davar). It is also through Yeshua, who is called HaDavar (the Word),
that we enter into a relationship with God and our true conversation with God
begins. When we accept Yeshua, HaDavar has a
home in our hearts. This means we are born again and given a new beginning
as a child of the Heavenly Father, the God of the Universe.
