(א) בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית
בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹקִ֑ים
אֵ֥ת הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם
וְאֵ֥ת הָאָֽרֶץ׃
(1) When
God began to create
heaven
and earth—
Even before Creation:
A Midrash, retold in The Alphabet of Creation: An ancient legend from the Zohar, perhaps based on the idea that God creates things with words, and hence letters, has each letter of the AlefBet petition God to create the world through him: Bet wins, but humble Alef gets to start the Ten Commandments.
God is referred to as Elokim in this chapter. While the word has a masculine plural form, God is singular (think of the Sh'ma) and the verbs for His actions are all masculine singular.
Elokim has come to refer to God's aspect of Justice; the tetragrammaton, usually translated as Lord, refers to His aspect of Mercy, which is not needed yet:
Rashi on Genesis 1:1
ברא אלקים GOD [AS JUDGE] CREATED — It does not state 'ברא ה “The Lord (the Merciful One) created, because at first God intended to create it (the world) to be placed under the attribute (rule) of strict justice, but He realised that the world could not thus endure and therefore gave precedence to Divine Mercy allying it with Divine Justice. It is to this that what is written in (Genesis 2:4) alludes — “In the day that the Lord God made earth and heaven”.
(ב) וְהָאָ֗רֶץ הָיְתָ֥ה
תֹ֙הוּ֙ וָבֹ֔הוּ
וְחֹ֖שֶׁךְ
עַל־פְּנֵ֣י
תְה֑וֹם
וְר֣וּחַ
אֱלֹקִ֔ים
מְרַחֶ֖פֶת
עַל־פְּנֵ֥י
הַמָּֽיִם׃
the earth being
unformed and void,
with darkness
over
the surface
of the deep
and a wind
from God
sweeping
over
the water—
Nothing has been created yet. The earth and water exist; also darkness and the deep. The earth is Tohu VaVohu (unformed and void / chaos). This creation is not "creation ex nihilo."
The wind from God is ruah, which can also mean soul.
Rashi on Genesis 1:1
… as a matter of fact the waters were created before heaven and earth, for, lo, it is written, (v. 2) “The Spirit of God was hovering on the face of the waters,” and Scripture had not yet disclosed when the creation of the waters took place — consequently you must learn from this that the creation of the waters preceded that of the earth. And a further proof that the heavens and earth were not the first thing created is that the heavens were created from fire (אש) and water (מים), from which it follows that fire and water were in existence before the heavens. Therefore you must needs admit that the text teaches nothing about the earlier or later sequence of the acts of Creation.
(ג) וַיֹּ֥אמֶר אֱלֹקִ֖ים
יְהִ֣י א֑וֹר
וַֽיְהִי־אֽוֹר׃
(3) God said,
“Let there be light”;
and there was light.
(ד) וַיַּ֧רְא אֱלֹקִ֛ים
אֶת־הָא֖וֹר
כִּי־ט֑וֹב
וַיַּבְדֵּ֣ל אֱלֹקִ֔ים
בֵּ֥ין הָא֖וֹר
וּבֵ֥ין הַחֹֽשֶׁךְ׃
(4) God saw
that the light
was good,
and God separated
the light
from the darkness.
God creates light by calling it into existence. No magic, no action on raw materials, just words: Yehi Or.
Only after He creates it does He see that the light is good. Like an artist admiring his work.
And then He separates it from darkness, which already exists, hovering over the face of the deep;
there'll be a lot of separating, making distinctions. (See the Havdalah prayer and the meaning of kodesh. And the expression, L'havdil.)
(ה) וַיִּקְרָ֨א אֱלֹקִ֤ים
׀ לָאוֹר֙ י֔וֹם
וְלַחֹ֖שֶׁךְ קָ֣רָא לָ֑יְלָה
וַֽיְהִי־עֶ֥רֶב
וַֽיְהִי־בֹ֖קֶר
י֥וֹם אֶחָֽד׃ (פ)
(5) God called
the light Day,
and the darkness He called Night.
And there was evening
and there was morning,
a first day.
Working backwards, it's ONE day, not a first day. Because an ordinal number (first) doesn't make sense if there is only one of something!
Having separated light and dark, God now names them.
This gets complicated: The names, day and night, are associated, at least to me, with the presence or absence of the sun in the sky, even though the sun hasn't yet been created.
And day refers both to the light and also to the day and night, since one day contains both day and night.
Note that the boundary of a day---it's beginning and end---is evening, not midnight, the endpoint of a secular day. Also, the boundaries separating night and day are dawn and evening. Finally, although light is named before darkness, the days of creation starts with evening and night.
(ו) וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֱלֹקִ֔ים יְהִ֥י רָקִ֖יעַ בְּת֣וֹךְ הַמָּ֑יִם וִיהִ֣י מַבְדִּ֔יל בֵּ֥ין מַ֖יִם לָמָֽיִם׃ (ז) וַיַּ֣עַשׂ אֱלֹקִים֮ אֶת־הָרָקִיעַ֒ וַיַּבְדֵּ֗ל בֵּ֤ין הַמַּ֙יִם֙ אֲשֶׁר֙ מִתַּ֣חַת לָרָקִ֔יעַ וּבֵ֣ין הַמַּ֔יִם אֲשֶׁ֖ר מֵעַ֣ל לָרָקִ֑יעַ וַֽיְהִי־כֵֽן׃ (ח) וַיִּקְרָ֧א אֱלֹקִ֛ים לָֽרָקִ֖יעַ שָׁמָ֑יִם וַֽיְהִי־עֶ֥רֶב וַֽיְהִי־בֹ֖קֶר י֥וֹם שֵׁנִֽי׃ (פ)
The second day (Gen. 1:6-8) is about separating; nothing new is created and nothing "good" is noted. The raki'a / expanse separates the waters above from the waters below. God calls the raki'a shamayim / sky. Others translate it as firmament. "dome: Heb. raki'a, literally a beaten sheet of metal. (Fox, p. 5)
There is a Kármán line, that marks the separation between earth's atmosphere and outer space. (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kármán_line for more details.)
Rashi on Genesis 1:8
ויקרא אלקים לרקיע שמים AND GOD CALLED THE EXPANSE HEAVEN — The word “שמים”, Heaven, may be regarded as made up of שא מים “Carry water”, or שם מים “There is water”, or אש ומים “Fire and water”. He mingled fire with water and of them He made the heavens (Chagigah 12a).
See also Rashi on Genesis 1:1 above.
On the third day, the rest of the water management is completed. While no separation is mentioned, moving the water around so that land appears involves separating water from land. Since there is a completion, once again God sees that it is good.
But it would seem that the land is not complete until there are plants. This new act of creation is also seen as good. This is the only day with two good things. Some therefore see Tuesday as a propitious day.
Rashi on Genesis 1:11
עץ פרי FRUIT TREE — that the taste of the tree be exactly the same as that of the fruit. It did not, however, do this, but (v. 13) “the earth brought forth a tree yielding fruit” and the tree itself was not a fruit; therefore when Adam was cursed on account of his sin, it (the earth) was also visited (because of its sin) and was cursed also (Genesis Rabbah 5:9).
This idea that the even non-human parts of creation can do wrong will show up again---in the flood story and Jonah 3:8, where the animals also wear sackcloth and ashes.
(14) God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate day from night; they shall serve as signs for the set times—the days and the years; (15) and they serve as lights in the expanse of the sky to shine upon the earth.” And it was so. (16) God made the two great lights, the greater light to dominate the day and the lesser light to dominate the night, and the stars. (17) And God set them in the expanse of the sky to shine upon the earth, (18) to dominate the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that this was good. (19) And there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.
In a Midrash, retold in Julius Lester's When the Beginning Began, the moon, annoyed with the sun's joy in shining, suggests to God that it would be better if either the sun or the moon were greater than the other. God, aware that the moon is envious of the sun, makes her smaller. Her tears become stars. A traditional version (The Midrash Says, p. 20-21) says that because the moon didn't complain when made smaller, she was given the stars as companions. And then of course there's the explanation in Chelm that the moon is more important than the sun because the sun shines when it's already light out, and the moon provides light when it's dark.
(כ) וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֱלֹקִ֔ים יִשְׁרְצ֣וּ הַמַּ֔יִם שֶׁ֖רֶץ נֶ֣פֶשׁ חַיָּ֑ה וְעוֹף֙ יְעוֹפֵ֣ף עַל־הָאָ֔רֶץ עַל־פְּנֵ֖י רְקִ֥יעַ הַשָּׁמָֽיִם׃ (כא) וַיִּבְרָ֣א אֱלֹקִ֔ים אֶת־הַתַּנִּינִ֖ם הַגְּדֹלִ֑ים וְאֵ֣ת כָּל־נֶ֣פֶשׁ הַֽחַיָּ֣ה ׀ הָֽרֹמֶ֡שֶׂת אֲשֶׁר֩ שָׁרְצ֨וּ הַמַּ֜יִם לְמִֽינֵהֶ֗ם וְאֵ֨ת כָּל־ע֤וֹף כָּנָף֙ לְמִינֵ֔הוּ וַיַּ֥רְא אֱלֹקִ֖ים כִּי־טֽוֹב׃ (כב) וַיְבָ֧רֶךְ אֹתָ֛ם אֱלֹקִ֖ים לֵאמֹ֑ר פְּר֣וּ וּרְב֗וּ וּמִלְא֤וּ אֶת־הַמַּ֙יִם֙ בַּיַּמִּ֔ים וְהָע֖וֹף יִ֥רֶב בָּאָֽרֶץ׃ (כג) וַֽיְהִי־עֶ֥רֶב וַֽיְהִי־בֹ֖קֶר י֥וֹם חֲמִישִֽׁי׃ (פ)
The giant sea monsters (ha-tani'im) are included with fish created on the 5th day. In Understanding Genesis, Sarna describes the creation story in the Babylonian epic, Emunah Elish: Tiamat, "the primal salt-water ocean, represented as a ferocious monster," is killed by Marduk, who then "sliced the carcass of the monster in two and created of one half the firmament of heaven and of the other the foundation of the earth." (p. 4)
Sarna, and others, say that the Jewish creation story knows about the other stories of ancient Middle East and references them while showing that God exists before and outside of nature, that creation is planned and orderly, that it is good, and that mankind is a crowning achievement, not annoying slaves to the gods.
Animals are created. And it is good.
(כו) וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֱלֹקִ֔ים
נַֽעֲשֶׂ֥ה אָדָ֛ם
בְּצַלְמֵ֖נוּ
כִּדְמוּתֵ֑נוּ
וְיִרְדּוּ֩ בִדְגַ֨ת הַיָּ֜ם וּבְע֣וֹף הַשָּׁמַ֗יִם וּבַבְּהֵמָה֙ וּבְכָל־הָאָ֔רֶץ וּבְכָל־הָרֶ֖מֶשׂ הָֽרֹמֵ֥שׂ עַל־הָאָֽרֶץ׃
(כז) וַיִּבְרָ֨א אֱלֹקִ֤ים ׀ אֶת־הָֽאָדָם֙
בְּצַלְמ֔וֹ
בְּצֶ֥לֶם אֱלֹקִ֖ים
בָּרָ֣א אֹת֑וֹ
זָכָ֥ר וּנְקֵבָ֖ה
בָּרָ֥א אֹתָֽם׃
(26) And God said,
“Let us make man
in our image,
after our likeness.
They shall rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the cattle, the whole earth, and all the creeping things that creep on earth.”
(27) And God created man
in His image,
in the image of God
He created him;
male and female
He created them.
Some Midrashim / commentaries explain the "us" as referring to a Heavenly Court of angels. And there is an argument about whether creating people is a good idea. (The Midrash Says, p. 25) Others say it is the Royal "we." This is just the beginning of the switching between singular and plural pronouns.
What does "in our image, after our likeness" mean? A traditional answer is that we should model our actions on the (positive) attributes of God. As He is kind, so we should be, etc. The Hebrew word is b'tzelem. Later, God will create woman from Adam's tzela; the first two letters are the same.
And what exactly is God creating here? The Hebrew is adam, a masculine singular noun similar to the feminine singular noun, adamah / ground. (Earth in these verses is the Hebrew word, eretz.) But adam in verse 26 becomes "They shall rule" with a plural verb. While in verse 27, it's both "him" and "them." Given that adam is male and female, it seems that the first human is not a man.
For some, this gives rise to the concept of Lilith, a woman created at the same time as Adam and equal to him. Eve then is the second woman, created after Adam and Lilith disagree about who is in charge, if anyone.
We've come to end of Creation. Maybe.
God blesses adam, now plural ("bless them"; "said to them"; "be fertile and increase" is p'ru orvu, which are plural. And this time what God made is "very good," not just good.
None of the other days are called "the" day; this day is "the sixth day, / yom ha-shishi." There are, of course, explanations for the ha at the beginning of the last word of the verse.
"Breath of life" is nefesh, another kind of soul. Remember ruah back in verse 2.
From The Midrash Says(?): there are four days with creations in Heaven and four with creations in Earth:
day 1: Heaven (light) (good) (separate light from darkness)
day 2: Heaven and Earth (raki'a separating heavenly waters from earthly ones)
day 3: Earth (dry land and plants) (2 goods: land and sea; plants)
day 4: Heaven (sun, moon, and stars) (good) (separate day from night / light from darkness)
day 5: Heaven and Earth (birds and fish) (good) (bless birds and fish)
day 6: Earth (animals and Adam) (good - animals) (bless Adam) (very good - Everything created!)
This is so that neither Heaven nor Earth will get jealous. Compare this with the Midrash, retold in Julius Lester's When the Beginning Began.
We're up to the 7th day, when God finishes His work and ceases from it.
This is the third time God blesses something.
This time He also declares something holy / vay'kadesh and explains why: because He rested. Perhaps stopping is an important part of doing. This is another separation; as in the first few days of creation?
These three verses are the introduction to the Kiddush prayer done to welcome the Sabbath on Friday evening.
Chapter 2: 4-25
A second creation story? Or, Chapter 1 was the outline, plan, and Chapter 2 is the doing of it.
This time the creator is called Lord God; Justice and Mercy are both here.
Chapter 3.
This starts with the serpent / ha-nahash being described as arum / shrewd. (People play with the connection between naked in the previous verse and shrewd in this one.)
Eve tells the serpent that not only must they not eat of the Tree of Knowledge, they also must not even touch it. Where did this come from? I have been taught for years that Adam added this prohibition, but nowhere in this chapter does it say that. Did Eve add this herself? In any case, it's a good example of the problem of adding restrictions (as we learned in Proverbs), even though putting a fence around the law is highly praised: The Sabbath starts 18 minutes before sundown so that we don't accidentally do any sort of creating on the 7th day.
<See my Bereshit booklet>
When they disobey, they are no longer protected by the structure, sense of order, that a set of rules brings to someone: they are naked. (See Rashi below.)
What made the Lord God angry was the fact that Adam blamed Eve (and God for providing her) and Eve blamed the serpent. In my son's Bar Mitzvah Dvar Torah he explained that the serpent was like a servant and Eve claimed that "the butler did it!"
The Lord God asks "ayaicha / where are you?" which can be also be read, with different vowels as Eicha, the first word of the scroll of Lamentations.
Adam finally names the woman Eve / Havva / "life-giver! For she became the mother of all the living." (v. 20 in Fox on p. 16)
Perhaps leaving Eden was necessary. (My "fractal" view of the Torah is that it is all about leaving a safe, comfortable place and wandering until another such place is found: Abraham leaves his homeland and finally settles in Canaan. Jacob leaves his home to marry and start a family. Joseph is sent to Egypt, where his family is welcomed. The children of Israel leave Egypt and wander until they settle in Canaan.)
Rashi on Genesis 3:7
וידעו כי ערומים הם AND THEY KNEW THAT THEY WERE NAKED — Even a blind person knows when he is naked! What then does “and they knew that they were naked” signify? One charge had been entrusted to them and they now knew they had stripped themselves of it (Genesis Rabbah 19:6).
Chapter 4
Cain / Kayin and Abel / Hevel are born. Rashi says this takes place before they sinned and were banished. "Hevel: The name suggests "something transitory" (see the opening of the book of Ecclesiastes: havel havelim). (Fox, p. 19)
We don't know why the Lord liked Abel's offering and not Cain's. Reasons are given---Abel gave the best of his flocks and Cain gave rotten fruit---but rotten fruit is not in the text.
John Steinbeck's East of Eden can be seen as a modern midrash (lower case m) on the Cain and Abel story.
The Lord says Abel's "bloods" cry out from the ground / adamah.
Rashi explains that this is either referring to all the descendents that Abel cannot have or that Abel was wounded many times.
The mark of Cain is meant to protect him.
The begats begin. Naamah, says Rashi, is Noah's wife.
Adam has another son, Seth. So that the mankind is not only descended from Cain?
Chapter 5
The begats start with a recap: Adam is made in God's likeness/ bid'mut Elokim, male and female equally at the same time, and God blesses them and calls them Adam on the day they are created.
The pattern is: When X had lived N years he begot Y, and X lived NN years and begot other sons and daughters, then he died.
- Adam
- Seth / Shet
- Enosh
- Kenan
- Mehalalel
- Yered
- Hanokh "Trad. English "Enoch." (Fox on v. 18, p. 23) "Now Hanokh walked in accord with God, then he was no more, for God had taken him." (v. 24 on p. 24 of Fox)
- Methushelah
- Lemekh
- Noah
Rashi on Genesis 5:1
‘ביום ברא וגו IN THE DAY THAT [GOD] CREATED etc. — This states that on the day when he was created he begot progeny (Genesis Rabbah 24:7).
Chapter 6
Sons of gods / divine beings / (Rashi says) rulers and magistrates took wives. The Lord did not approve and limited adam's age to 120, saying that His ruah /"breath shall not abide in humankind forerver. (v. 3, Fox p 25)
There are giants and heroes of old / men of renown.
The Lord regrets making ha-adam on the earth. (v. 6) and decides to destroy ha-adam and the animals and birds. But Noah finds favor in the eyes of the Lord / motza hein b'ainei Hashem. There's a mini-begat listing Noah and his three sons.
Noah is a tzadik tamim / "a righteous, whole man in his generation, in accord with God did Noah walk." (v. 9 in Fox on p. 26) Discuss whether that means that Noah was merely better than everyone else (a low bar) or whether he would have been truly great if he had lived in better times. Also, Noah is now dealing with God, not the Lord.
God tells Noah how to prepare for the flood and Noah does what God tells him. Note that we don't hear any conversation; Noah does not argue with God as Abraham does.
Chapter 7
The Flood happens.
Why is this such a popular topic for children's picture books and themed children's services?
Chapter 8
God remembers Noah and "all the living things, all the animals that were with him in the Ark and God brought a breath-of-wind [ruah] across the earth, so that the waters abated." (v.1 in Fox on p. 32)
Noah sends a raven and a dove out. The dove returns with an olive leaf (this is a symbol of peace nowadays) and then, sent again, does not return. So Noah and his family and the animals disembark and Noah sacrifices some ritually-acceptable animals and birds.
This pleases the Lord, who "said in his heart: I will never doom the soil again on humankind's account, since what the human heart forms is evil from its youth; I will never again strike down all living-things, as I have done; (never) again, all the days of the earth shall sowing and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, ever cease!" (v. 21-22 in Fox on p. 34) Notice that the Lord is saying---after the flood---that man is evil but, what's the use in trying to fix this.
There is a Midrash somewhere that God created many worlds before this one, but they were not acceptable to him.
Chapter 9
Some see the outcome of the flood story as another creation story: this time everyone descends from Noah, the earth is uncovered, pairs of animals and birds can start over, and plants appear. "Now God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them: Bear fruit and be many and fill the earth!" (v. 1 in Fox on p. 34)
We're now allowed to eat meat, but not the blood; similarly, we shouldn't kill anyone for God made us in His image.
God tells Noah and his sons that he will establish a covenant to not destroy the world by a flood and the rainbow is a sign and reminder of this covenant. (My thought: the rainbow contains the colors we see when light shines through a prism, and light is the first thing created. So it all connects.)
Noah plants a vineyard and gets drunk. His son, Ham, father of Canaan, sees Noah's "nakedness" and tells his brothers, who walk backwards with a cloak and cover their father. Noah is angry and curses Canaan.
Chapter 10
More begats, this time together with the clans and lands associated with them.
Chapter 11
Everyone spoke one language and lived together. They say, "Come now! Let us build ourselves a city and a tower, its top in the heavens, and let us make ourselves a name, lest we be scattered over the face of all the earth! (v. 3 in Fox on p. 41) But scattering seems to be what the Lord wants.
More begats, this time ten generations from Shem, Noah's son, to Abraham, whose wife, Sarai, is barren. (v. 30) This is the first time we hear of what will be an important problem.
Bibliography:
- Understanding Genesis by Nahum M. Sarna
- At the Start: Genesis Made New translated by Mary Phil Korsak
- In the Beginning by Everett Fox
- When the Beginning Began: Stories about God, the Creatures, and Us by Julius Lester
- The Midrash Says: The Book of Beraishis by Rabbi Moshe Weidsman
- The Pentateuch and Rashi's Commentary: A Linear Translation into English - Genesis by Rabbi Abraham Ben Isaiah and Rabbi Benjamin Sharfman
- The Alphabet of Creation: An ancient legend from the Zohar with drawings by Ben Shahn
- Eternally Eve: Images of Eve in the Hebrew Bible, Midrash, and Modern Jewish Poetry by Anne Lapidus Lerner