Breishit bara Ehlokim....

Breishit is an interesting parasha.  It reads like a history, but clearly isn’t.  Look at the possibly conflicting creation stories, at Adam & Chava in the Garden of Eden able to live eternally as long as they do not eat from the Tree of Knowledge, at the creation of woman from man’s side, at their being cast out to toil the earth, the first murder and responsibility, a statement on revenge, and the introduction of Noah.  Ten generations rush past in one parasha, but even more meaning.

But if Breishit isn’t a history, what is it?  Breishit is a theology. 

To examine the theology of Breishit, just this first parasha could take an entire semester university course, and the parasha is so full we might still only scratch the surface.  The first word alone can fill a paper.  Breishit, b-reishit.  It is usually translated as “In the beginning…” although that should be BAreishit.  It is often also translated with the words that follow, “Breishit bara Ehlokim…”  “When God began to create…” A better translation might be “On beginning….” “B”- on; “reishit”- beginning.

In verse 2, “V’ha’aretz heita tohu vavohu vhosech al p’nei t’hom vruach Ehlokim mrachephet al p’nei hamayim.”  “And the earth was tohu vavohu and darkness on the face of the water, and Ehlokim hovered upon the surface of the water.”  Tohu vavohu is usually translated as null and void or as chaos.  How can something be null and chaos at the same time?  The Torah does not preach creation ex nihilo.  God does not create out of nothing.  The earth is there.  It is tohu vavohu, but it does exist.  Water is present, and God hovers over it.

Verse 27, “Vayivra Ehlokim et ha’adam b’tzalmo btzelem Ehlokim bara o’to zachar v’nekeivah bara o’tam.”  “And God created HaAdam in His image; in the image of Ehlokim He created it; male and female He created them.  On the sixth day God creates a being.  It is singular- o’to- it, and plural- o’tam- them, at the same time.  Centuries later Plato would see this as a creation of a hermaphroditic being split into two in the second chapter of the Book of Breishit.  This being is blessed like no other.  Beyond the blessing of pru urvu, be fruitful and multiply, God tells HaAdam to care for the world, its animals and plants.  “V’hinei tov m’od, and it was very good.”

But there is so much more to say about HaAdam.  Chapter two tells us that when God created the earth nothing grew; there was no Adam to work the ground.  Unlike the animals HaAdam is filled with nishmat hayyim, living breath straight from the breath of God.  Vayomer Ehlokim lo tov heyot HaAdam lvado; And God said, ‘it’s not good for HaAdam to be alone.” (Chapter 2, verse 18)  Unlike the animals, HaAdam is unique, alone, but this is not the final form.  In verse 5, we were told that nothing yet grew because there was no Adam to work the ground.  In just these few verses we learn that the being of HaAdam was always meant to be transformative.  We were always meant to work the earth, but also to care for it.

It is a heady message at the start of the new year.  Fall is a time for planning and for planting.  It is a time when the earth lies pregnant with all the possibilities of the spring and summer.  This has already been a transformative year.  Where it continues is up to each of us.