Parashat Bereshit

by Rabbi Frank Dabba Smith from Harrow & Wembley Progressive Synagogue

Bereshit, Genesis 1:1-6:8

Summary

The Torah begins with an account of the creation of the world by a single, undefined God who exists beyond all time and space. After this story, the Torah proceeds to illustrate the problematic nature of human free will: Adam and Eve defy God’s law by eating the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge and this results in a shameful loss of innocence and an anxious future consisting of hard agricultural labour and painful childbirth; Cain’s depressed emotional state leads to his killing Abel and his subsequent status as wanderer; humanity is renewed after the birth of Seth but the gift of free will is abused so terribly that a despairing God prepares to destroy creation.

Commentary

As with all other cultures, the Hebrew storytellers were fascinated by the problem of how to represent the origins of the world. The Hebrew text reflects an awareness of the myths of neighbouring tribes as well as distinct understandings of God, the environment and the place of humanity within the overall scheme of creation.

The structural representation of the six days of creation reflects a real understanding of resources and users as well as a sense of the development of life from basic to more complex forms. Note also how the structure of the story shows a single, undefined God creating light and that the luminaries are, in turn, fashioned later on in the sheme; a polemic against those who worshipped the sun and stars.

Resources: Users:

First day: Light Fourth day: Luminaries (sun, stars)

Second day: Sky, separation of waters Fifth day: Fish and birds

Third day: Land, vegetation Sixth day: Land animals and humans

Humans are the final work of creation. Jo Milgrom, of paper-Midrash fame, pointed out how the text portrays the peculiar status of humans in the world. If we look at the incidence of the phrases ‘and it was so [known, fixed]’ plus ‘and God saw that it was good’, we see that humans receive neither phrase directly. So, we are maximally unfixed and free and we aren’t necessarily good. As a kind of compensation for this anomalous existence, humans receive a blessing of fertility from God as well as the capability to control nature. This strange and special status of having both power and the freedom to choose, as we shall see throughout the rest of the Torah, is a curse as well as a blessing.

Rabbi Frank Dabba Smith

Harrow and Wembley Progressive Synagogue