Is it time to write about our weekly parsha (Torah portion) already? It seems like I just wrote one. Ah, yes. This is what happens when we finish our cycle of the Torah and begin again. There really is no time, which means no rest for my Torah thoughts. Such is life.
So, here we are, back to the beginning. The parsha is called Breisheit and has many, many meanings. It is normally translated as, “In the beginning.” However it could also be translated as, “With the beginning.” Going with the first translation, our very first verse reads, “In the beginning, god/powers created the heaven and the earth.” Of course, we run into an interesting problem because the word used for god here is elokim which is plural. So another way to read the verse is, “In the beginning, created powers, the heaven and the earth.” Of course this leads to the question of what are these powers? One answer is that they are the powers that allow everything else to exist: the forces of nature. This then leads us to ask, “How can we call god elokim and still refer to a unity?” The answer to that is that these powers are all just aspects of god that exist in the realms that we can relate to. So, if you take all these powers together, what you have is what we can know about god. For those of you who have heard of the Shekinah, this is her. For those who haven’t, the Shekinah is the in dwelling part of the divine or the part of god within creation. So, the unknown part “creates” or puts part of itself into a place we can relate to it, and that part then continues to create, the heaven and the earth. Ok, that wasn’t so hard, now was it?
One line and a whole paragraph. If I want to give you an overview, I think I will have to go into a little less detail. Otherwise this email will become a book. Ok, so let’s see what we have from here… there is a void and the wind of god hovers over it and creates light. God then separates the light and the lack of light and gives the light the name, “Day,” and gives the lack of light the name, “Night.” And we have day 1.
God creates a firmament and separates the waters above from those below, and he calls this divider by the name, “Heaven,” and we have another day.
God draws the water to a single place and dryness appears and this dryness, god names, “Earth,” and the gathered waters he names, “Seas.” God tells the earth to bring forth seed bearing grasses and fruit bearing trees and this happens and we have a third day.
God puts lights into the heaven to separate day and night and to be for signs and testimonies and days and years and that is the fourth day.
God allows the waters to have swarming creatures and birds to fly on the land and the face of the firmament, and god creates big crocodiles and all the creatures that crawl, and god tells all of them to be fruitful and to multiply, and the fifth day is done.
God allows for the earth to bring forth the land animals and then makes the Adam (the human) to rule over everything, and god makes the Adam (from the word adamah which is Hebrew for ground), male and female, in the form of god. God blesses them and tells them to be fruitful and multiply, and to conquer all the animals. God also tells them that they can eat from any fruit bearing tree and seed producing grass, while all the other animals will eat from all the green vegetation. This was the sixth day.
The heavens and earth are complete, and on the seventh day, god stops this kind of work and blesses the day and separates the day.
And now onto….these are the generations of the heaven and the earth in their creation on the day god created them. There were no plants because there was no rain and no Adam to work the ground. Mist rose and watered the ground, and god formed the Adam from dust and blew into his nose the breath of life. God plants a garden in Eden from the east and puts the Adam into it, and also causes all the trees to grow including the tree of knowing of good and evil. A river goes out from Eden to water the garden and then divides into four rivers, and we read that god put the Adam in the garden to work it and to protect it. God tells the Adam that he/she can eat from any tree but the tree of knowing of good and evil. God says it is not good for the Adam to be alone, and that god should create a helper that is like against him. God forms from the ground all the animals who the Adam proceeds to name, but the Adam does not find a helper. God puts the Adam to sleep and takes one of his ribs (or from his side) and builds woman and presents her to the Adam. The Adam says this is, “Bone from my bone and flesh from my flesh,” and names her woman. The Torah then says that because of this, a man will leave his parents and attach himself to his wife and they will become one flesh.
Now we get the story of the serpent who convinces the woman to eat from the fruit of the tree of knowing, and she gives the fruit to Adam who also eats and their eyes become open. They hear god’s voice in the garden and they hide. God calls to them and they tell god what happened, and god curses the serpent, the woman and the ground and Adam will have to work for his food. Adam then gives woman a new name: Chavah, for she is the mother of all living. God chases them out of the garden and puts cherubim and a revolving, flaming sword to protect the way to the tree of life. Adam than knows Chavah and produces Kayin (Cain) and Hevel (Abel). Both bring offerings to god and god only accepts Hevel’s. This bums Kayin out, God tells Kayin that he has a choice. He can better himself and be pardoned, or he can not better himself, and let sin rule over him. Kayin kills Hevel. God confronts Kayin and sends Kayin out to be a wanderer.
From here, we read of the generations of Kayin and what some of them did. We then read that Adam and his wife produce another child named Shat which means, “To set,” or, “Foundation.” After this we read of the generations of Adam, starting with Adam being created male and female, like the first story of creation, and continuing until we get to Noah. We read that Noach produced three sons and that the sons of the elokim took human daughters and married them and god decided that Adam should live only 120 years. We then read of the nephalim and of where the heroes came from, and that man just thought of doing evil all the time and that this made god regret having made man and animals and birds. And the parsha ends with Noah having found favor in the eyes of god.
Boy is there a lot here. I really want to comment on each thing I wrote. I really bit my tongue, so to speak to get through this summary, because this would have been a major work otherwise. Ok, so now that we know how all of this came into being, let me tell you one or two things that struck me as I read it THIS year. 🙂
Ok, it is now a couple of days after I wrote the summary. I have not been feeling well, and could not get myself to write. So, now it is getting late in the week and the first thought that comes to my head is: what if god was late in getting around to creation? Would anyone know? Now I realize this is a silly question, for god is not within time like we are. But, it got me thinking because I was born a few weeks late, and I wonder how much that affected me. (Yes mom, I can hear you saying that it showed me that it was alright to always be late.) 🙂
Now that I have that thought off my chest, let’s see what other thoughts are rattling in my head. The first is how incorrect the story of creation was taught to me in popular culture in the USA when I was growing up. I was taught that the world was created in seven days, that woman came from man’s rib, and that people were supposed to rule the world. Now, it is true that the Torah does say these things. However, these last ideas are taken totally out of context, and are not meant to be put together in this manner. In the first creation story, the story that says we are to rule over the animals, it also says that god created the Adam, male and female, god created THEM. In other words, in this story, male and female are created together, at the same time, and only when they are together as equals are they in the image of god and hence allowed to rule over the animals. What this means is that one gender cannot rule the world, it can only be done when the genders work together, as co-creators and as balances for each other.
On the other hand, if you want to say that woman comes from man and therefore he is superior to her, then you have to look at that version of creation in its entirety. In that version, man’s purpose is to serve and protect nature. In other words, he first has to know that he is nothing more than a servant and protector to the world. Only then is woman built from a part of him. Interesting that the verb to build in hebrew (boneh) has the same root as the verb to understand (binah). So you could say that a part of man was taken and given understanding and this is what woman is. Then, she is returned to man, and he recognized part of himself in her, and she becomes his ezer k’negdo. This phrase, ezer k’negdo, is often translated as helpmate. It literally means, “Help like against him.” In other words, with her understanding she is to help him to serve creation by acting like she is opposing him, helping him to grow. Now, I know this sounds very male centric, and maybe it is. However, I feel the point being made here is that the genders have rolls to play and they are being spelled out here. I also wish to say that these two creations are not separate; they have to be integrated together to truly understand what creation is about and our purpose within it. When we do that, we might see the genders of the second creation as internal aspects of male and female that are within each and every person, male and female. And if we take that approach then we have to understand that we were created with both male and female energies, and each has a purpose, and we have to learn to use them appropriately. Once we do that, then we can begin to see how to treat ourselves, how to rule ourselves. Once we do that we can begin to see our purpose within creation, and how best to serve creation. And when we serve creation, then we also will find that we are dominating creation much the same way a super star player on a sporting team will dominate a game merely by doing his part as a team player so well, he helps the other players do their parts better.
Another thing that struck me as I was reading was what happens to Kayin. He is the first born of the first born. What an honor. His name comes from the verb, “To acquire,” because Chavah, “Acquired,” the ability to create life. Kayin becomes a farmer, while his younger brother becomes a shepherd. Now we learned when the Adam named the animals, that a name is the essence of the thing/person named. So, Kayin is an acquirer, and what is farming about? It is about gathering in/harvesting/acquiring. In other words, Kayin is a taker. I think this is why god ignores his offering, even though it is his idea to make an offering to god. How much is someone whose essence is to acquire really able to give? God ignores his offering to make just such a point. Kayin gets angry. God then tells Kayin that he has a choice, he can improve and do good and be forgiven, or he can not improve, stay angry, and be consumed by sin.
You know, as I was reading this, I was reminded of my second job as a software engineer. I had just joined a startup computer company and everybody was working long hours because of an approaching deadline. As I had just started, I really didn’t have a lot of involvement with the deadline, and so I was leaving after a normal day, at around 6pm. Well, by the end of the week, the VP of engineering came in and told me that I was not working at the level that was expected of me. He told me that people didn’t think I could carry my load. He then said the following: I had a choice. I could either be annoyed and indignant and continue as I have been and he would have to let me go. Or, I could take the attitude of, “Let me show them,” and increase my work level and prove everybody wrong.
The choice the VP of engineering gave me is the same choice god is giving Kayin. In both cases, Kayin’s case and my case, we felt like we were judged unfairly, and then the “judge” gave us a choice in how to respond. Thank god, I chose to do good. I stayed with the company for eight years and without going into the story, that job became the springboard that led me to being able to spend 9 years in Israel studying torah. Kayin did not choose to do good, and we read what happened to him. Now I don’t think this is a unique situation the two of us had; I think this is a test that we all will face at least once in our lives. The question is: What will YOU do when your offering is rejected?
About the Author
Shmuel Shalom Cohen spent 10 years studying Torah in Jerusalem. Six years ago, he started Conscious Torah to help Jews connect to their tradition in ways they didn’t think possible. Shmuel also started, and is the executive directory of Jewish Events Willamette-valley, a non-profit whose mission is to build Jewish community, pride, and learning. In his free time, Shmuel likes walks in nature, playing music, writing poetry, and time with good friends.