The Book Of Bereishit

בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית

bereishit (pron. bre-sheet) - In the beginning [of God creating the sky and the ground]

Bereishit (or Genesis - the Christian name given to the first book of the Torah) is as its first word suggests, about beginnings. These beginnings apply to the sky, the ground, the animals, the plants, and the humans. It represents the first chapters in the story of the people who would become known as Israel, and which formally begins with the person of Abraham. What makes this story of beginnings still compelling today is that it is remains easy to relate to this story’s characters and their dilemmas.

If you do not know the Hebrew, then you do not understand that this word, בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית (bereishit), is never used to refer to a chronological sequence. For that ther are other words. Instead, it stands for a foundational awakening. Genesis as such lays out a context of the human condition as it exists under the sovereignty of God. Furthermore, it does this in a totally unique manner.

The Book of Bereishit defines neither a formal theology, nor a systematic philosophy. It is not a myth nor a history in the strict sense of either. Instead, it simply tells: (1) what exists, (2) what we know, (3) the limits of human freedom, and (4) the results of the choices we make regarding human behaviour. The West has highly developed intricate, reasoned systems concerning these over the past two millenia - ontology, epistemology, psychology, and ethics, respectively. But whereas Western truth has been highly systematized, Bereishit tells truth from the standpoint of story.

The chief characteristic of story is that stories both emerge from and encourage ongoing discussion. The context of stories is not academia; the context of stories is life as it is lived. The context of those who told the stories in the Book of Bereishit lived three thousand years ago in the outdoors in tents cooking over open fires, initially taking care of herds and then cultivating the soil. This story-telling mode made it possible for everyone to understand precisely what was at stake for them in their daily life. Everyone could participate in the discussion; for its hearers, everyone has to decide for themselves and their families what they will do if given the same choices. That is the point of stories. But more than being a device for discussion, the very form of stories makes it hearers realize that there is a breadth to God that is innate to the very character of God. That is good news that can be abused; we may obey or disobey, create or destroy, do good or evil. The result is a depth of understanding and engagement in the human drama that is ongoing. In other words, we do not know what will happen until it happens. And in Genesis things never quite happen in a predetermined fashion, which is clearly most true to life throughout the ages. The only certainty that arises from the Torah is that humans are quite capable of endangering the entire future of life on earth - this has always been most certainly true. And that is why the focus from chapter twelve onward is concerned with the life of one family in particular. In the stories of the beginning we discover that while humans will never reach the moral heights that they were created to be, Abraham is charged with the task of exemplary living, although he and his descendants will fail at it in its particulars. Abraham’s grandson even receives the name Israel - the one who wrestles with God - to this end. But this is not a bad thing, except to people who decide that it is better to quantify God as an abstration, a First Principle, or a Prime Mover, or Pure Being, or some such other nonsense.

In Bereishit God relates to people, God senses our suffering, God hears our prayers, and is in so many fashions present in our lives and our families. In myth gods are all too human; in Torah God makes space for humans to be human. It is a story that calls upon people who destroy peace in the family to awaken to the consequences of what they do, which in the end is not out of the ordinary. Genesis (and the Torah at large) continues to be a book that invites each generation to be drawn in to these lively scenarios. As physical and/or spiritual descendants of Abraham we are each of us a chapter in this unfinished story, which is not one of abstaction, but is one in which we are invited to be a solution in this yet ongoing unfolding of the relationship between God and people.