**Bereshit (בראשית) / In the Beginning**   (Genesis 1:1-6:8)

 

The first weekly Torah portion is called בראשית (Bereshit), which means "in the beginning." These are the opening words of the Torah:

"בראשית ברא אלהים את השמים ואת הארץ" (Bereshit bara Elohim et hashamayim ve’et haaretz)

which means "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." A reader familiar with Hebrew will notice a grammatical discrepancy in this sentence. In the phrase "ברא אלהים" (bara Elohim, "God created"), the ending "ים" (im) in the word "אלהים" (Elohim), translated in the Synodal Bible as "God," indicates that this noun is in the plural form. Yet the verb "ברא" (bara, "created") is singular. Is this mismatch between the subject and verb a mistake? Let's explore further.

In the Torah, this noun sometimes refers to a deity or god in general. In such cases, the word "god" refers to pagan gods or other deities, and thus the noun "אלהים" should agree with a plural verb. For example, in the sentence,

"You shall have no other gods before Me" or "אחרים אלהים" (Elohim acherim)

both the subject and verb are plural. However, in this passage, "אלהים" is a proper name, derived from the root "אל" (El), which means "God."

So, why is there a discrepancy between the subject and verb in the very first phrase, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth" in Hebrew? The plural form of "אלהים" has been a topic of reflection for rabbis for centuries. Various interpretations have been proposed. Some explained the use of the plural form as indicating the manifold expressions of God's power.

A similar grammatical inconsistency is found in verse 26 of the first chapter of Genesis. It says

"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens."

The verb "said" in Hebrew, "ויאמר" (vayomer), is singular, while the noun "אלהים" ("God") is again plural. Thus, the inconsistency does not point to different gods but to the name of God. However, the text continues with "in our image, after our likeness." How should this be understood?

In many midrashim (collections of sermons given in synagogues on Torah texts), various rabbis attempt to explain whom God is speaking to. Why "in our image"? What does "let us make" mean? They do not provide a definitive answer. But we can try to understand by examining other passages in Genesis related to the creation process.

The first chapter of Genesis describes the creation of the Earth from a "bird’s-eye view," while the second chapter gives a close-up, more detailed account of the same process. In the detailed account of the Lord creating man from the dust of the ground, we encounter another name for God, which in the Torah is always written with the four Hebrew letters "יהוה" (Yud-Hey-Vav-Hey), often replaced in Jewish tradition with the reading "Adonai" and known in Latin as the "Tetragrammaton." Interestingly, Rabbi Shneur Zalman, a Jewish leader, discusses these two names of God -- "יהוה" (Yud-Hey-Vav-Hey) and "אלהים" (Elohim) -- in his book *Tanya.* According to his interpretation, the first name, "יהוה," represents God as being close to humanity, while the second, "אלהים," refers to God’s transcendence, as being above and beyond everything.

This fascinating concept of the dual nature of God reflects a similar idea in Greek thought about deities. In Greek mythology, the Olympian gods were immanent and anthropomorphic -- close to humanity and human-like. Later, the Platonic "λόγος" (logos), as an embodiment of Universal Reason, became extremely distant and transcendent, so remote that it was impossible for humans to "reach" it.

This dual nature of God’s personality is illustrated in the first weekly portion, which shows two names of one God representing two key aspects of His being: His transcendence (existing above and beyond everything) and His immanence (closeness to humanity). Therefore, the difference in God’s names is not accidental but justified and deeply meaningful.

This distinction is highlighted by the verbs used to describe the process of God’s creation. In the first chapter of Genesis, the verb used in "in the beginning, God created" is "ברא" (bara). In the second chapter, the verb used for the creation of man is "יצר" (yatzar). The first verb, "ברא," is used only in relation to God. There are various other verbs for making or creating things, and they can be applied to both God and humans, but humans can never perform the action of "ברא." Many sages believe that "ברא" refers to God’s ability to create something from nothing.

This observation is crucial in understanding the uniqueness of God's nature in relation to humanity, since man is in some sense "similar" to God in this creative capacity. But human creation is limited in ways that God’s creative capacity is not. Today, many believers are concerned about a new trend in genetics: experiments with cloning. They wonder: why attempt to do what God does? No matter how far scientists go, even to the point of cloning humans, they cannot do what God does, for these experiments require a starting material: the DNA of a living organism. God, however, creates without any pre-existing material. He created the heavens and the earth entirely from "nothing," and for this, He needed no elementary particle, which He also created entirely from "nothing."

Interestingly, the alternative theory, the Big Bang theory, asserts that from a tiny elementary particle, a super-andron, a massive amount of energy was released during an explosion. Indeed, mathematicians, physicists, and theorists can calculate the amount of mass that was converted into energy using Einstein’s theory of relativity, but they cannot answer the question of how this tiny particle exploded or where it came from. They claim it came from radiation energy. But where did the radiation energy come from? These are questions in the realm of "what came first, the chicken or the egg?" And the answer is impossible, just as it is impossible to compare human and divine abilities. Humans cannot create something from nothing, but אלהים can because He alone has the power to create, as expressed by the verb "ברא."

On the other hand, God’s second name -- "יהוה" (Yud-Hey-Vav-Hey) -- is translated into English as "Lord," while in the Septuagint, this name is translated into Greek as "κύριος" which is Kyrios or "Lord." This name reveals a particular quality of the Lord’s character. He no longer creates humanity simply by His word, as He did previously:

"He spoke, and it came to be; He commanded, and it stood firm."

Here, through the verb "ברא," the Lord takes the dust of the earth and, particle by particle, like a potter, forms man with His own hands. In the other form, He is distant, capable of creating everything from nothing with a word, but in this form, He is the close God, able to kneel down and "form," touching His creation with His own hands. 

The verb "ברא" also contains the interesting root "בר" (bar). Although the first chapter of Genesis is not written in Aramaic, in Aramaic, the word "בר" means "son." If we were to translate this literally into Russian, it would imply that, in the beginning, God "adopted" the heavens and the earth. Though Russian lacks a verb meaning "to adopt as a son," the essence of this action is conveyed closely in the first chapter of the Gospel of John, which states: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made." This passage can be understood as the creation of the universe by God through the Son. However, let's clarify. In the Septuagint, "Word" is rendered as "λόγος," and this concept, influenced by Greek thought and Platonic philosophy, which permeates all modern European culture, distorts our contemporary understanding of God’s image and character.

This issue traces back to the history of the Gospel’s writing. John (Yohanan ben Zavdai or יוחנן בן זבדי), the beloved disciple of Jesus, was born in Galilee and probably knew Greek only at a conversational level -- enough to sell his fish at the market and explain the price to a Roman buyer. He certainly didn’t read Plato, but like every Jew, he came to the synagogue every Sabbath to hear the Word of God. This was his education. He heard the Torah and the rabbis’ interpretation of the Torah. And every Simchat Torah (שמחת תורה or "Rejoicing of the Torah"), the festival marking the beginning of the yearly Torah reading cycle, he heard these words: "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth" and heard the rabbis’ explanation: everything that was created was created according to God’s Law, or by God’s Law. As the midrash "Bereshit Rabbah" (בראשית רבה) writes, "In the beginning was the Torah, and with it, God created everything in this world." Doesn't this sound similar to what is stated in the Gospel of John?

This is what John meant when he translated the Hebrew word "תורה" (Torah) into Greek after learning the language during Pentecost, following the resurrection of Jesus. He could have translated it with another Greek word, "νομός" (nomos), which means "law." However, he didn’t, because in the eyes of Jews, including Hellenized Jews, this word would have been understood as the 613 commandments to be followed. By distinguishing these concepts, John aimed to show a higher Law -- the very principle God used in the creation of everything, which reflects His holy character. These words were addressed to Jews who, just a decade earlier, had witnessed the destruction of the Temple (70 CE) and knew that most of the commandments related to the Temple could no longer be fulfilled.

In the phrase "Through Him all things were made," John was conveying this: in the beginning, there was the Torah, and the Torah was with God, and the Torah was God, and everything was made through It, and without It, nothing was made that was made, and the Torah became flesh. In these words of comfort that John was offering to his people, the concept of "λόγος" (logos) later took root, introducing confusion between biblical and philosophical ideas.