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In the beginning God created heaven and earth - the earth being unformed and void, with darkness over the surface of the deep and wind from God sweeping over the water. God said, "Let there be light" and there was light. (Genesis 1:1-3)
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Chaim Stern introduces the Book of Genesis this way:
This week's portion, Bereshit, begins the book of Genesis with an epic poem about the creation of the universe; it starts with familiar words: In the beginning God created heaven and earth .... God said, "Let there be light" and there was light (Genesis 1:1), and when all has been created, we learn that God found it very good (Genesis 1:31). Our Sidra invites us to reflect on the miracle of creation, on the wondrous nature of all being: how precious it is, how gratefully we need to accept the gift of creation, we who are part of the creation and creators ourselves!
The Lekhivitzer Rebbe said: The Torah begins with the word Bereshit, which can be understood to say, God created the world, "for the sake of the beginning." All the Creator asks is that you make a beginning in the right direction.
Stern, Chaim, Day by Day - Reflections on the Themes of the Torah from Literature, Philosophy and Religious Thought (Boston: Beacon Press, 19980), p.1-2.
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Sforno subscribes primarily to Maimonides's teachings that the world was not created as a "temporal beginning" (Guide for the Perplexed 2:30), but rather time began after creation. This concept impacts on the translation and understanding of the opening words of the Torah. Sforno wrote:
In the beginning. This means at the beginning of time, the very first moment which could not be a part of time, since time did not exist prior to it.
Of God’s creating. God made "something" from "nothing" hence the concept of time cannot apply to this at all.
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As Rabbi Stern notes, this week of Parashat Bereshit, we begin, once again, to read from the very beginning of the Torah. For those who follow the weekly reading of the Torah, it always takes a little time after Simhat Torah to adjust to the universalism and celestial narrative of the story of creation after reading through the very particularistic stories of the last four books of the Torah and especially the highly covenantal material contained in the Book of Deuteronomy. However, as jarring a transition as it may be to go from the end to the beginning, from a description of Moses’ death back to the relating of the day to day creation of the universe, from the story of Israel entering into the Promised Land to the story of how humanity entered into creation, there accompanies that transition a powerful sense of renewal: new life, new opportunity, new appreciation for what God has made and continuously shares with us. No matter how much we come to focus on the minutiae of ourselves and our people, we are drawn into a cosmic awareness of the fact that there really is no such thing as an ending, just a transition into something new.
Creation is not just one of the defining moments of the history of the world, but in each of our own lives as well. As Stern enthusiastically notes, we human beings, the beginning of whom was the crowning moment of creation, need to recapture our sense of awe when reflecting on the act of creation. Our tradition teaches us that God created the universe ex nihilo - "out of nothing". That is the greatest miracle of all time! Even though we human beings received the gift of creation ourselves, to be able to reproduce ourselves through procreation and to be able to create constructively or artistically, we must always create something new out of something else. Yet God created the universe out of nothing, a concept that is so extraordinary that it is difficult to even grasp intellectually. The Kabbalists teach that not only did God create the universe, but God even had to withdraw somewhat, to retract or reduce the divine presence which filled all space, in order to make room for creation. God chose to make room for us, an act for which we should be eternally grateful, since creation is eternal.
Lessons for Today
It is difficult to imagine a time when nothing existed - not even time or any kind of space - outside of God. Therefore the very notion of our existence means we are somehow obligated to God, Creator of all , without whom we would not exist. So what is that obligation? Stern, in quoting the Chassidic Lekhivitzer Rebbe, suggests that we fulfill that obligation by making the most of our new beginnings. With each new beginning that is afforded us, from the start of our lives to the dawning of each new day, we should be mindful of the opportunities that "newness" grants us, embracing those opportunities and "exploiting" them to make ourselves and our world the best they can be. Just think of how many new beginnings we can have each and every day, just as long as we are aware, and how many opportunities we are given to make a new start. But, as the Lekhivitzer Rebbe states, we must "make a beginning in the right direction". If we are aware, grateful and full of wonder, and recognize the miraculous in each new beginning, then we truly have no endings. From nothing comes new opportunity.
With each new beginning, we give thanks to God with the following:
Baruch Attah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech HaOlam, shechechianu, v'ki'manu, v'higi'anu lazman hazeh.
Blessed are You, Our Eternal God, Ruler of the Universe, Who has kept us alive, sustained us, and brought us to this time.
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