Parshat Beresheit: The Spirit of Words and Letters

Parshat Beresheit ~ Genesis 1:1-6:8

 

Baruch She'emar V'ha'ya ha'olam — Blessed is the One who spoke, and the world came into being.

 

We chant these words each morning, but do we fully understand their meaning in our sleepy, pre-coffee selves?

 

What power there is in the ability to create with words! Every day we acknowledge that our Creator has this power, but do we realize we possess a similar gift? Created b'Tzelem Elokim (in the image of God), we strive to emulate divine attributes—mercy, justice, forgiveness, and kindness. Just as God rested after creation, we too observe Shabbat. And just as God created the world with words, we also create through speech, though on a smaller scale. Our words can nurture and build or wound and destroy.

 

There are many stories about the creation of the world. One of my favorites comes from the Zohar, a foundational Kabbalistic text. It explores not only the power of words but also the very building blocks of those words—letters.

 

In Sefer Yetzirah (The Book of Creation), it says, “With 22 letters, God embossed, chiseled, weighed, changed, refined, and shaped all beings that exist or will come to exist.” This passage highlights the active, creative potential of each letter. Not only do words have power, but individual letters also carry immense creative energy. They are like master artisans, shaping the essence of our reality. When we speak, we too are artisans, crafting thoughts and utterances that shape the world around us.

 

A midrash in Bereshit Rabbah teaches that the Torah existed 2,000 years before the world, and during that time, God played with the letters. Let’s imagine the moment when God was ready to create the world. According to the Zohar, each letter appeared before God and made a case for why the world should be created with it. God considered each letter carefully, offering reasons for rejecting them, until reaching the one destined to be chosen.

 

The Hebrew alphabet contains 20 letters. The letters pled their case in reverse order, with Taf going first. When almost all the letters had been rejected, Bet appeared and said, “Create the world with me because I am the first letter of beracha (blessing).” God agreed, saying, “Indeed, by you, I will create the world.”

 

Interestingly, Aleph remained silent. After Bet was chosen, God asked Aleph why it had not appeared. Aleph responded that there was no point—it was clear from Bet’s expression that it had been chosen. God then reassured Aleph, promising it would be first of all letters, symbolizing unity (achdut). “With you,” God said, “all counting begins, and every deed in the world starts.” Thus, Bet and Aleph together begin the first 4 words of creation, Bereshit Bara Elohim Et.

 

Bereshit represents God’s blessing in creation, while Bara represents our role in continuing that creation. Elohim reflects God’s attributes of justice and might, while Et—the simple preposition—represents us, humans, and the endless possibilities that follow.

 

This week’s parasha reminds us of the power of words, both divine and human. From the beginning, God created with words. Later, destruction also came through words. We see how blessings can be bestowed or harm caused through speech, vows, and promises. Just as the world was created through powerful, active letters, so too are our lives shaped by the words we choose.

 

As we begin this new year of 5785, may we learn to choose our words carefully, crafting them with the same intention and care that went into the creation of the world. May our words build a world of peace and understanding.

 

 

 

As Jews we live in cyclical time. We read the Torah every Shabbat in the course of a year and instead of starting a new book when the next year rolls around, we make a big deal of ending the last chapter of the Torah and then immediately beginning again. So here we are, beginning anew with Genesis/Beresheit. 

We have the 6 days of creation and the 7^th day of rest, Shabbat. We learn that human beings were created towards the end of the 6^th day - therefore EVERYTHING was created before we were. It is true that Adam, and therefore all of humankind, were given the charge to be stewards over the earth and all that lives, breathes, grows upon it. (We can discuss at a later time whether or not we are doing a good job at that.) But what a lesson, what a realization that even the smallest of creepy crawly insects and garden weeds were here on the earth before we were. It should make us think, keep us humble – but as we are human, we are not always the best at doing what we know is right.  

Take Adam and Eve for example. The first humans. They are on the earth for maybe a New York minute before they break the only rule given to them and eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.  They had reason for doing so – Eve listened to the “still, small voice” that we talk about on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur: “The great Shofar is sounded and a still, small voice is heard.” But what is that still, small voice? God? Our conscience? The voice of the universe? Or… the snake in the Garden of Eden?  A voice that is pleasant and sounds reasonable but really isn’t. 

The Sages of Old might call it our Yetzer Hara, the evil inclination. However, that doesn’t work well because sometimes the still, small voice actually gives good advice if we are smart enough to listen to it. It’s when the advice leads us onto the path that we should not travel that we get into trouble. As did Eve when she listened to the snake and ate the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. As did Adam when he allowed himself to be persuaded to also eat of the fruit.

The kicker is what they did after God confronted them about their actions. They didn’t accept responsibility but passed the blame. Eve blamed the snake and Adam blamed Eve (the snake remained silent). Neither stood up and said, “Hey God, I listened to the wrong voice and did something I shouldn’t have. I apologize and I’ll do better next time.”

What is our lesson in all of this? We need to pay attention to the still, small voices within and around us. We need to make good choices, or at least the best ones that we can. Finally, we need to own up to our errors because the consequences of our actions can have ramifications on more than just ourselves. 

Take a few minutes and read the text of this week's Torah portion, Genesis 1-6:8.  Genesis is a book of amazingly interesting stories that just happen to have lessons, both positive and negative, within them. 

A final note: A year ago this Sunday, October 27, 2018 an event occurred which, for many American Jews, changed their – our- thinking about what it means to be Jewish in America. 

Eleven people were shot and killed because they were Jewish at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. It is our responsibility to remember them, not only because of who they were but because their deaths changed the way we American Jews see ourselves. This link takes you to an article containing some prayers that were written on Hanukah last year, just after the end of Shloshim (the first 30 days of mourning) ended. Please take a moment to read them, to perhaps add your own to them and then, as my colleague Alden Solovy writes, “May these prayers be heard in the highest heavens, for the Jews of Pittsburgh, for the Jewish community worldwide, and for all the nations of the earth.”   https://www.ritualwell.org/blog/12-one-line-prayers-pittsburgh-jews

Shabbat Shalom, 

Rabbah Arlene

The Holiness Around Us

THIS WEEK’S TORAH PORTION IS VAYETZE, GENESIS: 28:10-32:3.

In this parsha we meet Jacob as he is on the run from his brother Esau. One would assume that he is afraid, lonely, missing his mom and unsure of what is to come. He falls asleep in a place that is holy but he doesn’t sense the holiness until after he has that amazing dream of the ladder and the angels. Upon awakening he says, “Surely God is present in this place, and I did not know it.” (28:16)

I love this story because it shows what Judaism is all about — taking the ordinary and elevating it to holiness. We all have moments like this in our lives, perhaps the birth of a child or seeing a rainbow. Jacob falls asleep in what he assumes is this regular piece of land, but upon arising realizes that the place is steeped in holiness. He marks the place to commemorate the holiness. We can do that in our everyday life in many different ways.

 It’s what happens next that has always bothered me.

After Jacob marks the location, instead of thinking about how to incorporate this into his life, he strikes a bargain with God disguised in the form of a vow: “If God stays with me, if God protects me, if God provides for me, if I return safely, then I will believe in You, then “the Lord shall be my God.” (Genesis 28:20-22) Midrash has various explanations that try to prove that this is indeed a vow and not a bargain, including the idea that the Torah actually flips the order in which these events occurred such that Jacob’s vow actually came before the revelation in the dream. Thus, the dream is a response from God to Jacob’s vow/bargain. The second is that Jacob is pledging himself to specific behaviors in gratitude to God for the promise made to his ancestors and that will be fulfilled.

I am choosing to follow the order of the events in the Torah and interpret them accordingly. Jacob goes to sleep along the road and experiences a dream that includes a visible manifestation of God. He wakes up full of awe and appreciation of how the ordinary in one’s life can become extraordinary and holy. But instead of running with that feeling, he acts in a very human way and decides to take advantage of the moment. He thinks “OK, God, now that I know firsthand that you are with me, I am going to ask you to alleviate my deepest concerns. And if you do that, then I will believe in and follow you always.”

Not everyone will agree with my reading. It’s distressing when we see one of our patriarchs do something that lessens him in our eyes. Jacob, however, is one of our ancestors who revels in his humanity with all its frailties. In this reading, Jacob is every person. He has parents who love him but they too are flawed and their flaws impact Jacob’s every action. He does wonderful things, but makes some colossal mistakes. Jacob receives proof of God’s presence, and instead of integrating that into is his life, he proceeds to bargain with the Holy One in his if-then scenario.

Jacob is all of us. We forget that there is everyday holiness. When we notice it, we are awed — and then lapse back into our everyday lives, sometimes denying the very holiness we’ve just experienced. But when we are troubled or afraid, we know what to do. We turn to God and pray. We bargain bargains that are sometimes outrageous in scope but are designed to get us through the bad times. Later, after the crisis has passed, we forget the terms of our bargains and relapse into our everyday lives. We do this because we are human.

My dream for all of us is that we are able to recognize the holy in the world in both the good and the bad times. I pray that the bargains we strike, because we will strike bargains, are of a type that can be kept and that infuse our ordinary world with the holy and the extraordinary that is Judaism.

Rabbah Arlene Berger is the rabbi of the Olney Kehila in Olney, MD.

Published originally in Washington Jewish Week  11/18/15