1 Bereishit (Genesis 1, 1 – 6, 8) – the opening Biblical account of creation

The opening verse of the Hebrew Bible “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” begins with the letter bet, the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The letter bet is the first letter of the first word “in the beginning” (בראשית) of the opening verse of the Bible. In Hebrew letters have numerical value and the numerical value of bet is 2. The Bible could have opened by saying “God in the beginning created the heavens and the earth” in which case the Bible would have opened with the term God (Elohim) and the first letter of God (Elohim) is aleph, the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet with a numerical value of 1.

 

I want to suggest that the Bible opens with the letter bet with a numerical value of 2, and not with the term God, and not with the letter aleph with a numerical value of 1 symbolizing God, because the essence of religion in the Biblical conception is not faith or ritual – “between a person and God” (according to the Talmudic phrase). The essence of religion in the Biblical conception is morality as reflected in the verse (Deuteronomy 6, 18) “you shall do that which is righteous and good in the eyes of the Lord”. Morality is a social relationship (how we treat our fellow human being), symbolized by the letter bet (2) – “between a person and one’s fellow human being” (according to the Talmudic phrase). This is a consistent theme of the Bible that morality “between a person and one’s fellow human being” takes precedence in importance over faith and ritual “between a person and God” as the essence of religion.

 

There have been within the Jewish tradition many attempts to reconcile the opening account of the creation of the universe of the Hebrew Bible with scientific and philosophic conceptions. Such an approach is misconceived because the Hebrew Bible is not a scientific, philosophic or historical document. The Hebrew Bible is a religious document intended to give in the main moral and spiritual guidance how to live.

 

There is no term Judaism in the Hebrew Bible or in the Talmudic literature. In the Talmudic literature the term for Judaism is Torah (תורה), which literally means instruction or guidance (הוראה). The term Torah in the Jewish tradition can refer in a specific sense to the 5 Books of Moses, and in a broader sense to Judaism – and Torah (the 5 Books of Moses and Judaism) contains legal guidance (Halacha) and moral and spiritual guidance (Aggadah).

 

Thus, the opening account of the Torah of the creation of the universe is not meant to be a scientific account of the origins of the universe but a religious account that is a source of moral and spiritual guidance. Rabbi Abraham Kook (who lived in the 20th century) writes regarding the creation story:

 

Concerning the opinions of modern, academic research, the majority of which contradict the plain meaning of the Torah, my opinion in this matter is that…even though there is no necessary truth reflected in such research, in any case we are not obligated at all to deny such research and to oppose it because it is not the essence of the Torah at all to tell us simple facts and events that occurred.  The essence is the internal, the internal explanations of the matters.

 

Rabbi Kook here is relating to the issue of creation and evolution. He suggests that the essence of the Torah is not to record factual history – “it is not the essence of the Torah at all to tell us simple facts and events that occurred”. Rabbi Kook, who was a Jewish mystic, is expressing a mystical view that there are different levels to the study of Torah. It is only on a superficial level that the Torah records stories and events. The essence of the Torah, for Rabbi Kook as a mystic, is what Rabbi Kook calls the internal, by which he means the deeper moral, spiritual and mystical teachings of the Torah.

 

The opening Biblical account of creation is, in my eyes, teaching several fundamental ideas from a moral and spiritual point of view.

 

First, the Biblical account of creation must be understood in comparison with the ancient Babylonian account, the Enumah Elish, which is characterized by violence and bloodshed. In the Babylonian account, the world is created out of the carcass of a god following a war among the gods. By contrast, the Biblical account is a moral, non-violent, orderly and rational process of creation in which rational order is imposed upon primordial chaos – a rational and logical order progressing from inanimate to vegetation to animal life and to the creation of the human being, which is very compatible with an evolutionary process.

 

Second, the human being is created in the image of God (Genesis 1, 27), distinct from all other animals. The concept of the human being created in the image of God implies that human beings are to be moral – to act in a moral way worthy of being a human being and not to act like an animal. The concept also implies that all human beings are ultimately of equal worth and that human life is sacred. In ancient Sparta, for example, deformed children were put on a hillside to die. Such a practice is inconceivable in the Biblical conception and in the Jewish tradition because each and every human being, regardless of differing abilities, limitations or disabilities, is inherently worthy from an intrinsic and spiritual point of view, having been created in the image of God.

 

Third, the opening Biblical account of creation is characterized by optimism. The phrase is repeated “And God saw that it was good” implying that the material world is good. The view of classical Christianity that the material world is sinful in which the ideal is the life of a monk of “celibacy, chastity and poverty” (of asceticism and denial of material pleasures) is in contradistinction to the Biblical conception. In the Biblical account of creation the entire universe is good, and nothing is viewed as sinful in and of itself. We can use things for good or sinful purposes – but, nothing in the world is inherently sinful. God proclaims on the sixth day after creating the universe (Genesis 1, 31) – “behold, it is very good”, indicating that all of creation including the material world, and including our animal passions and drives as human beings, is very good.

 

However, in my eyes, the most important message of the creation story is the idea of “Tikkun Olam” (תיקון עולם) – literally, the repair of the world, which is a fundamental idea of traditional Judaism having Biblical roots in the very opening account of the creation of the universe. After God creates the universe, God says “behold, it is very good” (Genesis 1, 31). Strikingly, God does not proclaim that the world is perfect or even excellent but merely very good – meaning less than perfect, or imperfect in need of repair and improvement.

 

The human being created in the image of God is the only animal who has the creative power to take what is God given such as wheat and to transform it into something even better, bread – and, the concept of the repair of the world implies a moral obligation not only to overcome hatred, injustice, violence and cruelty in the world but a moral obligation to use scientific knowledge and technology in order to improve the quality of human life. After God creates the entire universe according to the Biblical account, the Torah says (Genesis 2, 3) “because on it (the 7th day) He ceased from all His work which God created to do” – God creates a world then that is imperfect in need of repair, in which there is what to do for the human being, and the human being is thus to be a partner with God in the creation in repairing and improving the world.

Jeffrey Radon

Author of orthopraxjudaism.com

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