“‘In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth’ (1:1). The first and most important fact established in the Bible’s opening chapter, indeed in its opening sentence, is that God, and God alone, created the world. This assertion represents a complete break with the prevailing view at the time, that nature itself is divine.”1
Genesis 1:1
Rabbi Yitzchak said that God did not need to start the Torah with “Bereishit” (בְּרֵאשִׁית) but instead, the Torah should have started with “This month shall be unto you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you” (Exodus 12:2).2
Why should the Torah have begun with this passage? Rabbi Yitzchak taught that this is the first commandment given to Israel and therefore this would be the proper place to start the Torah.2
Why did the Torah begin with Bereishit (בְּרֵאשִׁית)? According to Rashi, the Torah began with Bereishit (בְּרֵאשִׁית) in order to convey the message of “He has declared to His people the power of His works, in giving them the heritage of the nations” (Psalm 111:6).2
God did this in the event that the Nations declare that Israel is a bandit for conquering the lands of the Canaanites, Israel can declare that God created the world and He can give it to whomever He wishes.2
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). The rabbis expounded upon this verse by stating that the verse is to be understood as follows. The Torah is “the beginning of His way” (Proverbs 8:22) and Israel is “the LORD’s hallowed portion, His first-fruits of the increase” (Jeremiah 2:3).2
Rashi goes on to explain that the very first verse of the Torah was not written to teach the order of Creation by saying that the heavens and the earth were the first things created. If this is what the Torah was to teach us then it would have been written “At first, He created the Heavens, etc.”2
This can be shown throughout the Tanakh for there are no instances of the word reshit (רֵאשִׁית) that is not attached to the word that follows it. This can be seen in such passages as “In the beginning of the reign (בְּרֵאשִׁית, מַמְלְכוּת) of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah…” (Jeremiah 26:1) and “The first-fruits (רֵאשִׁית דְּגָנְךָ) of your grain…” (Deuteronomy 18:4).2
Rashi also explains that if one were to insist that this passage was intended to explain the chronology of Creation, one would be at a loss to explain the problems that come from this line of thinking.2
“Now the earth was unformed and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters” (Genesis 1:2). From this passage we see that the waters preceded the heavens and the earth. However the problem is that the scripture has yet to reveal when the creation of the waters took place.2
From this revelation, one realizes that the waters must have been created prior to the heavens and the earth. Therefore, one must conclude that this first verse of the Torah was not written to teach us the chronological order of Creation.2
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Genesis 1:1).
The Name of God used in this very first passage of the Torah does not use the personal Name of God (the tetragamatron – ה-ו-ה-י).
Rashi explains that Creation really began with God contemplating the Creation with the attribute of strict judgment but He realized that the world could not last if He only used the attribute of strict judgment.2
Instead, God gave precedence to the attribute of mercy but joined it with the attribute of strict judgment. This is the meaning behind “These are the generations of the heaven and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the Eternal One God made earth and heaven” (Genesis 2:4).2
In this passage we see the Personal Name (יהוה) associated with mercy followed by – and joined to – the Divine Name (אֱלֹהִים) which is associated with strict judgment.2
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1Joseph Telushkin. Biblical Literacy. (New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1997).
2Yisrael Herczeg. The Torah with Rashi’s Commentary – Genesis. (New York: Mesorah Publications, Ltd., 2000).