summary
Parashat Bereishit (Genesis 1:1-6:8) begins our new Torah cycle by telling us how God created the heavens and earth, all that fills it including human beings and Shabbat. It continues with the stories of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and of their sons, Cain and Abel. It concludes with the report that God regretted having created human beings because of all their wickedness. For that reason, God decided to destroy everything on earth except for Noah his family, and a male and family representative of all living beings.
commentary
There is a great temptation is to start the year on a low note with all that is ill about the world. Indeed, after the descriptions of the Creation of the world, the parasha goes on to describe how humanity immediately sets about destroying it, or at least destroying humanity itself:
However, this world offers so much to be optimistic about that we should perhaps begin by acknowledging the beauty of Creation and by recognising the opportunity that we are given to be God’s partner in its ongoing maintenance and development.
On the beauty of Creation and our opportunity in it:
A poem by Danny Siegal based on Ecclesiastes Rabbah 7:28
Adam was just a few hours old,
and the world not much more,
when God took the man by the hand
and said –
come, my friend,
let us walk around
before the sun goes down
and hides the shades and colours
of the Garden.
So Adam walked with God,
a bright red and blue macaw
perched on his shoulder.
Here, my friend,
said God,
is a stream
of goldfish and cod
and music to enjoy in the evenings.
Here the squirrels sit on
my maple trees
playing senseless children’s games.
(What are children,
My God?)
Come, friend,
sit here by the canyon’s edge
and watch the rhythms I have taught
the swooping eagle –
is it not beautiful the way she hunts
the mice and prairie dogs?
If you wish I will call her here –
you may pet her
and speak with the Queen of Heaven
without fear.
Shoshanah, Shoshanah!
Come here –
come, meet my boy Adam!
And riding the clouds and breeze
Shoshanah the Eagle glides
to Adam’s side
and rests her head in his hands.
The four of them rest,
Shoshanah’s eyes half-closed,
the macaw repeating
God’s words
“Watch the rhythms I have taught
the swooping eagle …”
Adam rubs his seeing eyes,
and God says –
it’s so very nice here.
The sun sinks behind the canyon walls
and the blue overhead turns orange
then red then dull grey
bringing on a twilight silence
that falls
gently and smooth
as the sands in a glass.
The evening chills
and the Lord calls
A tiger from a distant thicket
to lie at Adam’s feet
covering and warming his legs.
Adam, my child of wonder,
the Holy One says,
stroking the cat’s ears –
Adam, this
all this
is my gift to you.
Take care of Shoshanah
and the stream.
Treat my roses well
now and forever
and I will teach you the conversation
of the grass and the wind.
I will give you the keys to the storehouse
of snow.
I will take you for walks
at dawn
and show your hands how to awaken
the pines and the deer.
We will live long together in our garden.
Now sleep.
Now dream.
Now think of tomorrow
and all of Life’s surprises.
… and God braided Eve’s hair
On why each one of us has a role in the world, noting that ‘adam’ is used as an individual name and also stands for all humanity:
Why was Adam created alone? To teach you that whoever destroys a single person it is as if he had destroyed a complete world - and whoever saves the life of a single person is it as if he had preserved a complete world. Furthermore Adam was created alone for the sake of peace among humanity - so that no person can say to another "My ancestors were greater than yours" and so that no-one might say that there are many ruling powers in the heavens - for if a person strikes many coins from the same mould they all are identical but when the Supereme Sovereign, the Holy One of Blessing made every person in the image of the first Adam yet not one of them resembles is identical to anyone else. Therefore every single person can say: the world was created for my sake!
(Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 37a)
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