Torah Insights: Parasha Bereishit Part 1
Torah Insights: Parasha Bereishit Part 1
by Jerry Waxman
“I want to know how God created this world. I am not interested in this or that phenomenon, in the spectrum of this or that element. I want to know His thoughts.” Albert Einstein (The Expanded Quotable Einstein, Princeton University Press, 2000 p.202)
“We see a universe marvelously arranged and obeying certain laws, but only dimly understand these laws. Our limited minds cannot grasp the mysterious force that moves the constellations.” Albert Einstein as quoted in Glimpses of the Great (1930) by G. S. Viereck
“Parasha Bereishit: The Living Torah Starts Out With a Bang!”
The most amazing story imaginable is the story of life; your life, my life, and the lives of everyone who has ever lived and will ever live. The profound essence of that story is captured in the first parasha (the weekly Torah portion), Bereishit. If we could really grasp what the Torah tells us about ourselves and the world we inhabit, we would have the power to make whatever we want of our lives.
The power of knowledge begins with the origin of knowledge. The very first sentence in the Jewish Torah says, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”
Now there’s a thought to wrap your mind around: As in the theory of the big bang, this one sentence tells us that all the information about the universe, this planet, and the world we are in, was unleashed in a single action. Unlike what science tells us is possible, this single action was the creation of something from nothing. Perhaps the greatest mystery is, “Why?” And maybe that is our task to solve.
The Torah challenges us to think. We understand things with beginnings, middles, and ends. So it says, “In the beginning.” Whatever there was before the beginning, the Book doesn’t deal with it, Questions like “When was God created?” and “Who created Him?” are completely irrelevant. We have enough to occupy our minds just figuring out our own roles in this world.
The physical world and the non-physical world were created all at once. The one act of creating the heavens and the earth set in motion everything that has ever happened. And the Torah gives us the chance to make sense of it all.
At first all was in confusion: As the Book says, “All was in confusion.”
- Confusion was dismantled and simplified in 6 stages for the sake of the physical world.
- First, light and darkness had to be separated.
- Then space had to separate the physical waters on earth from whatever there is above.
- Then dry land got separated from the seas. Plants and fruit trees would grow on dry land.
- The sun, the moon, and the stars all had to be arranged and set in motion to mark cycles of time.
- Animals were invented. Autonomous living creatures populated the seas, the air, and the land.
- A unique law of nature was instituted so that animals would propagate only with members of their own species. Then the world was ready for the highest living form ever; the human being.
Do you think that Adam and Eve were the first humans? The Torah doesn’t exactly say that. It says that God created the human being, male and female, pretty much the same way He created the other animals. And He told them to go forth and multiply, pretty much the same way he blessed the other animals to get out and procreate.
The humans were a lot different from the other animals. They were special. They would most resemble their Creator. How? Humans are creative. And they would have dominion over all the other animals.
Where all other animals relied on their senses and instincts to survive, humans used their creative powers to live. Where the languages of animals were naturally installed behaviors, humans created languages to express ideas – concrete and abstract ideas – to one another.
God had set about installing some sense of order in the world; Humans would also install some sense of order in their lives and in their societies. They were commissioned to do so.
The stages of creation overlap. They are metaphorically called days to prepare us for the final stage – the “Seventh Day,” – the Shabbat, the Sabbath. At this stage, G-d stopped creating, so to speak. And the Torah says that the seventh day is separated from the other days because of this reason; to have a day that we don’t do creative work, but rather use that day to celebrate our relationship with our Creator.
Rhythms: Different animals have different cyclicle rhythms. Some have bodies that undergo change at different seasons of the year. Some sleep more than others. Some have definite seasons for going forth and multiplying. People live by a completely different plan:
Our mating season is year round. We are primarily daytime creatures who naturally tire at the end of the day, Our 24 hour circadian rhythm is a lot like the other animals. Unlike other animals we have a 7 day cycle. If we are not biologically programmed in this way, we must be psychologically programmed. Humans are inclined to feel fatigue at the end of a week. And in need of a day off.
[There have been attempts to deny the 7 day cycle. Different nations have tried at different times to redefine the work week, by adding a day or two or three. They have always failed and gone back to the now universally accepted 7 day week, ending on Saturday.]
The Torah is more than a story. It’s more than a history. Its characters and events have become icons in literature and all other studies in the humanities. The Torah is called a blueprint for life. By learning Torah, Jewish people have protected themselves and their way of life for millenia. Now I would like to explore Torah for some of its simple secrets, for what it can tell us about us.
From Bereishit, we have a little background in “what the world is made of.” We each are a unique part of this creation. We are all connected in ways we can’t see.. Our make-up and our connections all stem from one moment many millenia ago when all at once God created the heavens and the earth.
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