Be'Reshit - Genesis 1:1 - 6:8

This week we read the very first Portion of the Week – Parashat Be’Reshit. And jut like the famous saying on the First Amendment – that it is a First for a reason – so does the First Portion. Indeed, to write on Be’Reshit is no doubt a humbling task. Of all books in the world, the most has been written on the Bible; and of all books of the Bible, the most has been written on Genesis; and of all chapters of Genesis, the most has been written on Chapter 1; and of all words of Chapter 1, the most has been written on the very first words – “Be’Reshit Ba’ra Elohim” – or, if you will, “in the beginning God has created...“ [Followers of this blog would probably notice how unsatisfactory this – or any other translation – is, as the word “Ba’ra” in Hebrew denotes much more sophisticated a notion of “creation” than the translation allows: In fact, Ba’ra means creation ex-nihilo, that is “creating something out of nothing.” But let us not disturb this ceremonial opening with such details.]

To demonstrate, Professor Leibowitz opens his discussion of the first words with the following warning: “Assume all the trees of the world were converted into pens, and all the water in the seas into ink, and all mankind into writing clerks [or, in more modern parlance, “data-entry technicians”] – this will not suffice to hear, to read and to learn what was already said on this Portion.” (Yeshayahu Leibowitz, Seven Years of Discourses on the Weekly Torah Portion, 1 (2003) (Hebrew)).

So what is left to say on this magical Portion, describing the very creation of our universe, of all its creatures, of all our surroundings, and of human kind itself? To me, the most interesting aspect of the Portion is the text’s very subtle suggestion that two very important things were in existence way before “the Beginning”: Morality (or the concept of Good and Bad), and Mathematics. I would like to dedicate today a short note to each.

Did Morality Exist Before “The Beginning”?

Right after creating the Light – in a word, mind you, not by any deed – God turns to reflect on his new creation:

Gen. 1:4: “God saw the light, and saw that it was good. “ (WEB Translation, that seems to best capture the actual meaning; the more conventional translation is: “God saw the light was good.”)

God continues to reflect on his deeds every day, and on the third day he even observes (to himself, apparently, since no other earthly creature was in existence yet) that things are “good” twice. (Hence the Israeli custom of having many a wedding on Tuesdays – when God said twice that things are good.) Finally, God reflects on Friday on his entire creation, and decides it is “very good.” (Gen. 1:31)

But not everything is “Good” in the newly-created world. Right at the beginning of Chapter 2, we meet the newly-ordained king of nature (or, in today’s Wall-Street parlance, “Master of the Universe”), Adam, the human being (Gen. 1:26-28). Looking at Adam, God observes (this time, God actually “says” these words):

Gen. 2:18: “And the Lord God said, it is not good for the Adam to be on his own.”

To summarize, right off the bat in Genesis we encounter things that are “good,” “very good,” and “not good.” (To complete the description, it is important to note that on Gen. 2:9 we encounter the “tree of good and bad” [bad being the opposite of good], but I can’t even begin to dwell upon this enormous subject now.)

Let us turn back now to Gen. 1:4. There is very little that has been created by now – the heavens (or sky), the earth, and the light. There is no mention of creating the notion of Good (or not Good). Where, then, does God takes the measurements to appreciate the light he has just created? Well, obviously, he is God. But doesn’t the very use of Good as a measurement of things (or “not Good” for this matter) suggest that Good existed well before light? In other words, that Good, as a notion, preceded the entire creation?

One solution is that by God’s own reflection on light, God pronounced it to be Good – in a sense, God also created Good by reflecting on the light. But, as close readers of this Blog would be able to assume, this line of reasoning receives no support whatsoever in the Text itself. The text goes through great pains to point exactly what God has created in each one of the six days; nowhere Good is being mentioned as created. In addition, a contextual reading would suggest that once Good was created, there was no need to go back to it every single day – like God actually did. God never went back on any of his other creations – like the seas, the animals, and the like; why did God bother to return to Good every single day (and twice on Tuesday)?

And what about “not Good”? Did God create that as well? The answer is not self-evident. While God did not create a “non-tree” or a “non-animal,” it does seem like God created a “non-light” – the darkness. (see Gen. 1:4; but a close reading of the text suggests that – like Good – darkness was there even before God created the light.)

While there is much more to discuss here, I tend to the opinion that morality – the notion of Good things, and Not Good things – was in existence long before “the Beginning,” and, for that matter, that it will continue to be here long after “the end.” I like this view, because it shows that our actions in this world can always be measured against concrete, and very ancient, notions of “good” and “not good.” Next time you are about to do something, stop for a minute to ask yourself: Is it “good” or “not good”?

Did Math Exist Before “the Beginning”?

God created the universe in Six Days. Why six? Why not three, or seventeen, or one hundred? St. Augustine, an important – and very prolific – student of the biblical text, writes in his City of God that the choice of six days was not random. Rather, he writes:

It is recorded that all God’s works were completed in six days (the day being repeated six times), because six is a perfect number. Of course, no prolongation of time was necessary for God. He could have at once created all things and then let them measure time by their appropriate movements. It the perfection of God’s work that is signified by the number six. [here, St. Augustine explains why is six a perfect number: It is the first number which divisors sum up to the number itself. Thus, six can be divided into 1,2, and 3; at the same time, 1+2+3=6. The next perfect number, btw, is 28, which is approx. the length in days of the Jewish month.] … And six is the number of days in which God completed His work. Thus we see that we should not underestimate the significance of numbers, since in many passages of the sacred scriptures, numbers have a meaning for the conscientious interpreter. Not without reason it has it been said in to praise of God: Thou hast ordered all things in measure, and number, and weight. The City of God, Book XI, Ch. 30.

Thus, if God intended to use the number Six for reasons of perfect mathematical symmetry, then, again, we can only assume that these mathematical principles were in existence well before “the Beginning.”

Throughout history, the greatest minds mankind has created – Galileo, Newton, Einstein and others – were all convinced that the universe speaks to us in a mathematical language, and all we had to do was to unlock its code and reveal the mysteries of the creation. The first Portion of the Week suggests they had a very good reason to think that.

Shabbat Shalom,

Doron