The First Mitzvah
Oct 24, 2008 By David Hoffman | Commentary | Bereishit
If the Torah is fundamentally a book of law, a work intended to instruct us on how to live a life that is holy and good, why did the Torah begin with the story of creation? More precisely, why did the Torah begin with the story of Genesis—of God’s creation of the world—and not the first commandment to the Israelites which is to establish a calendar: “This month shall be unto you the beginning of the months,” found later in Exodus 12? This is the first question that Rashi, the central medieval commentator on the Torah, asked on the opening words of the book of Genesis.
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In God’s Image
Oct 25, 2003 By Rachel Ain | Commentary | Bereishit
In Parashat Bereishit , we are told that “God created man in His image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them” (Gen 1:27).
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The Relevance of History
Oct 1, 2010 By Jonathan Milgram | Commentary | Bereishit
Although the book of Genesis is exceedingly familiar to us, there is not a year that goes by when most of us are not struck by one aspect or another of the text, as if reading it for the very first time. It is the universal and profound message of Genesis that enables us to look at the parashah, year after year, and find in it something new, fresh, and even inspirational. One of the central themes of the reading, Bereishit, is that God created humankind in God’s own image.
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The Torah and Its Clearly Ambiguous Message
Oct 17, 2009 By Robert Harris | Commentary | Bereishit | Simhat Torah
There is a verse that I love to invoke whenever I teach about “the poetics of biblical narrative,” and it doesn’t come from this week’s portion (but who’s keeping score, anyway?). Instead, it is found in the first extended legal section, Parashat Mishpatim (Exod. 21–24). Loosely translated, this is the text: “In all charges of misunderstanding . . . whereof one party alleges, ‘This is it!’—the case of both parties shall come before God” (Exod. 22:8); the Hebrew phrase underlying the words “this is it!” is: כי הוא זה (ki hu zeh). The verse seems to be addressing a case in which no one side has a total claim on the truth; in such a case, then, one is bidden to consider both possibilities.
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Mastery = Harmony
Sep 22, 2013 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Bereishit
This coming Shabbat, we return to the beginning of Torah with Parashat Bereishit.
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On New Beginnings
Oct 5, 2002 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Bereishit
As a teacher for JTS Kollot: Voices of Learning, I hear many voices of Torah that open my eyes to creative ways of reading the texts of our sacred tradition.
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The Gift of Shabbat
Oct 25, 2003 By Rachel Ain | Commentary | Bereishit
In Parashat Bereishit, we are told that “God created man in His image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them” (Gen 1:27).
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Between Creation and Revelation
Oct 21, 2006 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Bereishit
Creation and the act of creating stand at the essence of Parashat Bereishit.
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