Bereshit
Genesis 1:1 - 6:8
Précis: The first Book of the Torah, Bereshit (Genesis, literally “in the beginning” or “When God began to create”) begins with the familiar story of creation. The world is created in six days and God rests on the seventh. The stories of Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden are included, as is the story of Cain and Abel.
We begin the annual reading of the Five Books of Moses immediately upon its conclusion, celebrated this week on Simchat Torah. Why? Perhaps it is because with each passing year, our experiences allow us to understand more of what life has to offer, and what the text has to offer. Yochanan Ben Bag Bag said (Pirke Avot 5:25), "Turn it, and turn it, for everything is in it. Reflect on it and grow old and gray with it. Don't turn from it, for you have no better standard of conduct."
Gen. 2:3 “And God blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it; because that in it He rested from all His work which God in creating had made.”
Seven is perhaps the ultimate Jewish number. Creation took seven days, as we note in this verse. Noah collects seven pairs of kosher animals for the Ark, and after the Flood, he receives seven commandments (the “Noachide laws” which Jews believe apply to all people); Jacob worked seven years for each wife, Joseph interpreted Pharaoh’s dreams of seven years of abundance to be followed by seven years of famine; Jewish law requires land to remain fallow every seven years, and the 50th year (7x7 plus one) is the Yovel or Jubilee year.
There is more. Moses assembles 70 elders to help run the Israelite camp; there are seven branches on the menorah, seven weeks of the omer between Pesach and Shavuot, seven Canaanite tribes to be conquered, and seven kinds of fruits to be brought to the Temple as an offering. Today, we traditionally observe a week (seven days) of shivah following the death of a close loved one.
The focus on the number seven is significant in connection with this week’s reading: we are connected to creation. While humans were created on the 6th day, Creation was not complete until the 7th day. So when we act in ways to heal the world, we are continuing the creation described in this parasha.
