Parashat Bereshet
Parsha Overview
In the beginning, Hashem creates the entire universe, including time itself, out of nothingness. This process of creation continues for six days. On the seventh day, Hashem rests, bringing into existence the spiritual universe of Shabbat, which returns to us every seven days. Adam and Chava — the human pair — are placed in the Garden of Eden. Chava is enticed by the serpent to eat from the forbidden fruit of the "Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil," and in turn gives the fruit to Adam. By absorbing "sin" into themselves, Adam and Chava render themselves incapable of remaining in the spiritual paradise of Eden and are banished. Death and hard work (both physical and spiritual) now enter the world, together with pain in childbirth. Now begins the struggle to correct the sin of Adam and Chava, which will be the subject of the history of the world.
Cain and Hevel, the first two children of Adam and Chava, bring offerings to Hashem. Hevel gives the finest of his flock, and his offering is accepted, but Cain gives inferior produce and his offering is rejected. In the ensuing quarrel, Cain kills Hevel, and is condemned to wander the earth. The Torah traces the genealogy of the other children of Adam and Chava, and the descendants of Cain until the birth of Noach. After the death of Sheit, mankind descends into evil, and Hashem decides that He will blot out man in a flood which will deluge the world. However, one person, Noach, finds favor with Hashem.
Parsha Insights
Before the Beginning
“In the beginning…” (1:1)
The Torah opens, not with an explanation, but with a mystery: “Bereshit bara Elokim et hashamayim ve’et ha’aretz — In the beginning,
This verse does not describe a chronological event but a categorical transition — the moment when what had previously existed only in the Mind of the Creator became capable of being perceived by another. “Bereshit” means the inception of relationship — the possibility of something other than
Creation, then, is not about the formation of matter; it is about concealment. The Infinite withdraws, so to speak, to allow finitude to exist. Light is hidden so that darkness may have meaning. The tzimtzum, the contraction, is the first kindness: a
Yet the Torah does not end its first pasuk with “Bereshit bara Elokim.” It adds “et hashamayim ve’et ha’aretz.” Heaven and earth represent two poles — the spiritual and the physical, the eternal and the temporal — and between them lies the drama of human existence. Man stands at the intersection, a being of earth who yearns for heaven. The goal of life is not to escape one for the other, but to bind them — to bring Heaven down into Earth and raise Earth up toward Heaven.
The very first word of Torah, Bereshit, can be read as bara shith — “He created six,” alluding to the six directions of space, the six dimensions of the finite world. But the Torah’s story begins only to point beyond itself — toward the seventh, the hidden center from which all meaning flows. The world of six can be measured; the world of seven can only be sanctified. That seventh dimension is Shabbat, when creation ceases to conceal and once again reveals its Source.
And so, when man is created — “b’tzelem Elokim” — in the image of
The tragedy of Adam’s sin was not mere disobedience but the collapse of this balance. He sought to seize knowledge rather than receive it. The tree of knowledge was forbidden not because its content was evil, but because timing was everything. Da’at—knowledge—must be preceded by emunah—faith. When man consumes the fruit before he learns reverence, knowledge becomes poison.
Thus the exile from Eden is not punishment but mercy. Man is sent into a world of concealment to rediscover
“Bereshit” — the point before beginning — remains the key to all beginnings. The world’s story begins only when we recognize that behind every visible start lies the invisible One Who allows beginnings to be.
