Parsha Bereshit - Creation
Judy Jacobson
Genesis 1:1 – 6:8. Creation (two versions), Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, generations.
Creation - The first version before the complications of separation of Adam and Eve and the prohibition about the tree (read Gen. 1:1 – 2:4):
When God began to create heaven and earth – the earth being unformed and void, with darkness over the surface of the deep and a wind from God sweeping over the water – God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. God saw that the light was good …
The language is beautiful. Serenity and perfection. The creation of humans – love and comfort.
And also - Creation by James Weldon Johnson
And God stepped out on space,
And he looked around and said:
I’m lonely--
I’ll make me a world.
And far as the eye of God could see
Darkness covered everything,
Blacker than a hundred midnights
Down in a cypress swamp.
Then God smiled,
And the light broke,
And the darkness rolled up on one side,
And the light stood shining on the other,
And God said: That’s good!
Then God reached out and took the light in his hands,
And God rolled the light around in his hands
Until he made the sun;
And he set that sun a-blazing in the heavens.
And the light that was left from making the sun
God gathered it up in a shining ball
And flung it against the darkness,
Spangling the night with the moon and stars.
Then down between
The darkness and the light
He hurled the world;
And God said: That’s good!
Then God himself stepped down--
And the sun was on his right hand,
And the moon was on his left;
The stars were clustered about his head,
And the earth was under his feet.
And God walked, and where he trod
His footsteps hollowed the valleys out
And bulged the mountains up.
Then he stopped and looked and saw
That the earth was hot and barren.
So God stepped over to the edge of the world
And he spat out the seven seas--
He batted his eyes, and the lightnings flashed--
He clapped his hands, and the thunders rolled--
And the waters above the earth came down,
The cooling waters came down.
Then the green grass sprouted,
And the little red flowers blossomed,
The pine tree pointed his finger to the sky,
And the oak spread out his arms,
The lakes cuddled down in the hollows of the ground,
And the rivers ran down to the sea;
And God smiled again,
And the rainbow appeared,
And curled itself around his shoulder.
Then God raised his arm and he waved his hand
Over the sea and over the land,
And he said: Bring forth! Bring forth!
And quicker than God could drop his hand,
Fishes and fowls
And beasts and birds
Swam the rivers and the seas,
Roamed the forests and the woods,
And split the air with their wings.
And God said: That’s good!
Then God walked around,
And God looked around
On all that he had made.
He looked at his sun,
And he looked at his moon,
And he looked at his little stars;
He looked on his world
With all its living things,
And God said: I’m lonely still.
Then God sat down--
On the side of a hill where he could think;
By a deep, wide river he sat down;
With his head in his hands,
God thought and thought,
Till he thought: I’ll make me a man!
Up from the bed of the river
God scooped the clay;
And by the bank of the river
He kneeled him down;
And there the great God Almighty
Who lit the sun and fixed it in the sky,
Who flung the stars to the most far corner of the night,
Who rounded the earth in the middle of his hand;
This great God,
Like a mammy bending over her baby,
Kneeled down in the dust
Toiling over a lump of clay
Till he shaped it in is his own image;
Then into it he blew the breath of life,
And man became a living soul.
Amen. Amen.
The poem considers, more explicitly, love as the meaning of human life.
If we could only stop here! But right away in the Torah, rules are issued. Humans disobey and are punished. Why? And – Cain & Abel – humans violent, murderous. Why?
Some say the stories are based on the “truth” that humans are “sinful,” basically violent, at our innermost nature. And have to be controlled by law or saved by grace. Or – the Jewish concept, two parts, both in each person, Yetzer ha-tov struggling with Yetzer ha-ra.
I don’t know. I never liked talking about “man’s nature,” so I won’t open that up! You could say the stories were written as one explanation of what went wrong in God’s perfect world, why people do such harmful, even horrifying things to each other and to the perfect world.
Consider another approach. Why ask ‘why’? No inherent bad proven.
Act as if humans have capability to respond to kindness, compassion, understanding.
The parsha says (among all the difficult stories)
So many uses of Bereshit. I’ve selected a small part. We begin again, we turn it and turn it.
We are on the Torah path again!
Judy Jacobson
Genesis 1:1 – 6:8. Creation (two versions), Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, generations.
Creation - The first version before the complications of separation of Adam and Eve and the prohibition about the tree (read Gen. 1:1 – 2:4):
When God began to create heaven and earth – the earth being unformed and void, with darkness over the surface of the deep and a wind from God sweeping over the water – God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. God saw that the light was good …
The language is beautiful. Serenity and perfection. The creation of humans – love and comfort.
And also - Creation by James Weldon Johnson
And God stepped out on space,
And he looked around and said:
I’m lonely--
I’ll make me a world.
And far as the eye of God could see
Darkness covered everything,
Blacker than a hundred midnights
Down in a cypress swamp.
Then God smiled,
And the light broke,
And the darkness rolled up on one side,
And the light stood shining on the other,
And God said: That’s good!
Then God reached out and took the light in his hands,
And God rolled the light around in his hands
Until he made the sun;
And he set that sun a-blazing in the heavens.
And the light that was left from making the sun
God gathered it up in a shining ball
And flung it against the darkness,
Spangling the night with the moon and stars.
Then down between
The darkness and the light
He hurled the world;
And God said: That’s good!
Then God himself stepped down--
And the sun was on his right hand,
And the moon was on his left;
The stars were clustered about his head,
And the earth was under his feet.
And God walked, and where he trod
His footsteps hollowed the valleys out
And bulged the mountains up.
Then he stopped and looked and saw
That the earth was hot and barren.
So God stepped over to the edge of the world
And he spat out the seven seas--
He batted his eyes, and the lightnings flashed--
He clapped his hands, and the thunders rolled--
And the waters above the earth came down,
The cooling waters came down.
Then the green grass sprouted,
And the little red flowers blossomed,
The pine tree pointed his finger to the sky,
And the oak spread out his arms,
The lakes cuddled down in the hollows of the ground,
And the rivers ran down to the sea;
And God smiled again,
And the rainbow appeared,
And curled itself around his shoulder.
Then God raised his arm and he waved his hand
Over the sea and over the land,
And he said: Bring forth! Bring forth!
And quicker than God could drop his hand,
Fishes and fowls
And beasts and birds
Swam the rivers and the seas,
Roamed the forests and the woods,
And split the air with their wings.
And God said: That’s good!
Then God walked around,
And God looked around
On all that he had made.
He looked at his sun,
And he looked at his moon,
And he looked at his little stars;
He looked on his world
With all its living things,
And God said: I’m lonely still.
Then God sat down--
On the side of a hill where he could think;
By a deep, wide river he sat down;
With his head in his hands,
God thought and thought,
Till he thought: I’ll make me a man!
Up from the bed of the river
God scooped the clay;
And by the bank of the river
He kneeled him down;
And there the great God Almighty
Who lit the sun and fixed it in the sky,
Who flung the stars to the most far corner of the night,
Who rounded the earth in the middle of his hand;
This great God,
Like a mammy bending over her baby,
Kneeled down in the dust
Toiling over a lump of clay
Till he shaped it in is his own image;
Then into it he blew the breath of life,
And man became a living soul.
Amen. Amen.
The poem considers, more explicitly, love as the meaning of human life.
If we could only stop here! But right away in the Torah, rules are issued. Humans disobey and are punished. Why? And – Cain & Abel – humans violent, murderous. Why?
Some say the stories are based on the “truth” that humans are “sinful,” basically violent, at our innermost nature. And have to be controlled by law or saved by grace. Or – the Jewish concept, two parts, both in each person, Yetzer ha-tov struggling with Yetzer ha-ra.
I don’t know. I never liked talking about “man’s nature,” so I won’t open that up! You could say the stories were written as one explanation of what went wrong in God’s perfect world, why people do such harmful, even horrifying things to each other and to the perfect world.
Consider another approach. Why ask ‘why’? No inherent bad proven.
Act as if humans have capability to respond to kindness, compassion, understanding.
The parsha says (among all the difficult stories)
- What God made – the world and the humans – is good, very good.
- We are the ‘keepers’ of our brothers and sisters.
- Doing harm, even murder, can be repented from, with a measure of forgiveness. Cain is not killed but is exiled and protected.
So many uses of Bereshit. I’ve selected a small part. We begin again, we turn it and turn it.
We are on the Torah path again!