New Beginnings, Old Traditions
בראשית ברא אלוקים את השמים ואת הארץ -Beraishit Bara Elokim Et Hashamayim V’et Ha’aretz
In the beginning G-d created the heavens and the earth”.
Once again, we find ourselves reading the first portion of the Torah, Beraishit. After the culmination of the reading the entire Torah on Simchat Torah we restart from Genesis once again for the 3,335th time (or 3,295th time since the completion of the Torah).
The book of Genesis begins with the account of creation, describing to us how Hashem created the world in six days and then rested on Shabbat, the seventh day. When one reads the account of creation in the Torah one can only be puzzled and left wanting more information. For the most part, the description in Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 of Genesis is sketchy and it is difficult to comprehend what was before the world was created and what happened afterwards. While the Torah places great emphasis on some parts of history it also skips out on hundreds of years with zero information!
It is for this very reason that our sages explain, that the Torah, while recounting the history of the world, is not really a history book. Rather, the Torah is a book of guidance, morals and teachings. The Hebrew word Hora’ah (teaching) has the same Shoresh (root word) as the word תורה -Torah. It is not about history as much as it is about the lessons, we are to learn from what the Torah is telling us. As such, when we read the stories of Bereishit it is important to approach these stories with the understanding that while we may have read the very same stories for so many years, the lessons we derive from them are grounded in our age-old traditions and teachings and are applicable in every day and generation.
In the beginning G-d created the heavens and the earth”.
Once again, we find ourselves reading the first portion of the Torah, Beraishit. After the culmination of the reading the entire Torah on Simchat Torah we restart from Genesis once again for the 3,335th time (or 3,295th time since the completion of the Torah).
The book of Genesis begins with the account of creation, describing to us how Hashem created the world in six days and then rested on Shabbat, the seventh day. When one reads the account of creation in the Torah one can only be puzzled and left wanting more information. For the most part, the description in Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 of Genesis is sketchy and it is difficult to comprehend what was before the world was created and what happened afterwards. While the Torah places great emphasis on some parts of history it also skips out on hundreds of years with zero information!
It is for this very reason that our sages explain, that the Torah, while recounting the history of the world, is not really a history book. Rather, the Torah is a book of guidance, morals and teachings. The Hebrew word Hora’ah (teaching) has the same Shoresh (root word) as the word תורה -Torah. It is not about history as much as it is about the lessons, we are to learn from what the Torah is telling us. As such, when we read the stories of Bereishit it is important to approach these stories with the understanding that while we may have read the very same stories for so many years, the lessons we derive from them are grounded in our age-old traditions and teachings and are applicable in every day and generation.
There is a beautiful custom that on Simchat Torah as we
read the account of creation, the entire congregation calls out the conclusion of
every day of creation “Vayehi Erev Vayehi Boker… It was evening and it was morning” One of the great Chassidic masters
explained that we do this as witnesses would proclaim their testimony. We are
essentially bearing witness to the history of the world, as we dedicate
ourselves, once more, to study the Torah yet again for the 3,335th time.
Shabbat Shalom
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