2 Bereishit (Genesis 1, 1 – 6, 8) – the ungrammatical opening verse of the Bible

Many, and even among Hebrew speakers, are not aware that the very first verse of the Hebrew Bible, Genesis 1, 1 is actually not grammatical. Rashi, the great Biblical commentator of the Jewish tradition, who lived in the 11th century, points out the grammatical problem. If the verse were translated literally to English it would read “In the beginning of God created the heavens and the earth” (בראשית ברא). Rashi suggests that the verse in its literal, ungrammatical formulation can be interpreted and understood in one of two ways. First, the verse can be interpreted as if saying, as it is usually translated to English, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” – omitting the word “of”. Second, the verse can be interpreted as if saying “In the beginning of God creating the heavens and the earth” – in which the word “of” is preserved, but the grammatical form of the verb create is changed from “created” to “creating”.

 

According to the first interpretation, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”, the Biblical account of creation of the universe is understood as a chronological account with the creation of the heavens and the earth being the first act of creation. Rashi rejects this interpretation as the plain meaning of the verse (Genesis 1, 1) because in the second verse water already exists prior to the creation of the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1, 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”. Rashi prefers the second interpretation, “In the beginning of God creating the heavens and the earth”, as the plain meaning of the verse (Genesis 1, 1) – and, he understands then that the first two verses are a kind of background (in the beginning of God creating the universe when there was chaos), and the first act of creation is thus the creation of light in the third verse (“And God said: ‘Let there be light.’ And there was light”).

 

According to the Biblical account, the creation of light was through the use of words on the part of God (“And God said, let there be light”). The phrase “And God said” repeats throughout the story with each act of creation – and, the rabbinic phrase in the Jewish tradition “Blessed is the One who spoke and the world came into being” is faithful to the plain meaning of the Biblical story of creation. God, according to the Biblical account of the creation of the universe, creates the universe through the use of words and language. The use of words and language by God in creating the universe (in a completely rational and non-violent way) according to the Biblical account is in striking contrast to the ancient Babylonian account of creation (Enumah Elish) in which the world is created out of the carcass of a god following a war among the gods.

 

I want to suggest that what we learn from God creating the universe through the use of words is that just as God according to the Biblical account used words in creating the universe – so, too, we as human beings created in the image of God (Genesis 1, 27) use words in creating our internal universe of feelings and experience. It is a widespread misconception that our feelings and internal experience are a response to external reality. We as human beings as cognitive creatures interpret external reality. Our feelings and internal experience are not a direct response to external reality but come from our thoughts in relation to external reality – and, our thoughts are reflected in our language and words.

 

The famous analogy of cognitive psychologists is the cup half filled with water – whether half full or half empty. It is possible to measure the amount of water in the cup, which is a factual and quantitative matter; yet, the question of whether the cup is half full or half empty is not factual or quantitative but one of subjective value judgment and interpretation. Events and situations that occur in external reality are a factual matter – and not good or bad in an inherent sense in and of themselves. The concepts of good and bad are a matter of subjective value judgment and perspective – and good and bad do not exist in external reality. Likewise, the concepts of opportunity and problem are a matter of subjective value judgment and interpretation – and opportunities and problems do not exist in external reality. Events and situations exist in external reality from a factual point of view – but, they are neither good nor bad, and neither opportunities nor problems.

 

If we interpret a given event or situation in a positive way (a cup half full) as an opportunity (and every event or situation no matter how difficult may be viewed as, at least, an opportunity to learn and grow), we will feel positive feelings such as excitement, anticipation, appreciation, thankfulness and so on (or at least minimize negative feelings); conversely, if we interpret a given event or situation in a negative way (a cup half empty) as a problem, we will feel negative feelings such as anger, upset, discouragement, fear, anxiety, worry, despair, dejection, depression, stress and so on. We do not always have the power to change (or even influence) external events (as things often occur beyond our control); but, we always have the power and freedom to choose whether we will interpret circumstances and events positively (half full as opportunities) or negatively (half empty as problems) – and, this power to choose how we will relate to external reality applies even toward unwanted external reality. Even if unwanted external reality presents us with objective difficulties, nevertheless we may view the event or situation as offering an opportunity to grow and learn, in spite of, or even because of, the difficulties.

 

By the way, people widely think mistakenly (in my view) that such phenomena as depression, stress and trauma are things that happen to us – as if they are phenomena that exist in external reality and as if we are victims of such things. But, such phenomena do not exist in external reality – just as problems do not exist in external reality. Such phenomena do not happen to us and do not victimize us; rather, we cause ourselves such things by adopting a negative perspective. Just as problems exist only in our minds and are experienced only as a result of a negative interpretation (a cup half empty) – so, too, depression, stress and trauma exist only in our minds and are experienced only as a result of a negative interpretation (a cup half empty). There can be no event or situation in external reality that is depressing, stressful or traumatizing because events and situations are merely factual in nature; and the words depressing, stressful and traumatizing reflect subjective value judgment in viewing a given event or situation in a negative way. No event or situation can possibly occur in external reality that will necessarily cause me to experience depression, stress or trauma; I will experience depression, stress or trauma only if I view a given event or situation that occurs in external reality in a negative way.

 

I will give only one example in this regard – the tragic death of a loved one. Such an event cannot cause me depression, stress or trauma unless my perspective toward such a death is negative. On the Biblical verse (Genesis 1, 31) “behold, it is very good”, which God says in looking over all of creation, there is a Talmudic teaching that this includes even death. The teaching, in my mind, is not coming to say that the death of a loved one is good from a philosophic point of view. Rather, the teaching is saying, in my mind, that from a psychological point of view we must view death as part of life and creation, and as part of life and creation death is good – for, there can be no life without death and no death without life.

 

If our psychological attitude and perspective is positive in appreciating that death is a part of life, we can then accept our suffering with a joyful heart not in the sense that we will sing and dance when a loved one dies, or in the face of unwanted reality, but in the sense that we will not despair in the face of life’s difficulties – and we will thus not allow ourselves to be depressed, stressed or traumatized by the tragic death of a loved one even though we will feel unpleasant feelings such as sadness and grief. A positive attitude and outlook does not mean that we will not experience unpleasant feelings in the face of life’s difficulties and unwanted reality; it means that we will be able to minimize as much as possible such unpleasant feelings and not allow them to paralyze us or to cause ourselves much greater difficulties such as depression, stress and trauma.

 

Usually, we are not aware of the thoughts by which we interpret external reality. Our thoughts in this regard are largely of an unconscious nature. However, we can increase our self-awareness of our thoughts by which we interpret external reality. If I feel negative feelings in relation to some event or situation, then my starting point is my negative feelings and I can then infer that my thoughts are negative regarding that event or situation – and I can in turn examine my thoughts and bring those thoughts that were previously on an unconscious level to consciousness. We have no direct control over our feelings, and we do not choose our feelings. We experience feelings. We have direct control over our speech and behavior, and we choose what we say and what we do – I want to leave aside such a difficult philosophic problem as to whether we do truly have freedom of choice in our behavior; in any case our psychological experience is that we do consciously choose our speech and behavior in distinction to feelings.

 

Regarding our thoughts, we do not choose thoughts (and especially unconscious thoughts) just as we do not choose feelings, and our thoughts are a response to events and situations; however, in distinction to feelings, we can increase our awareness of our thoughts and change them from negative to positive. In such a case that I feel sad, I cannot simply become aware of my sadness and tell myself that I will no longer feel sad but happy; I can, though, become aware of my negative, unconscious thoughts leading to my sadness (thoughts such as “why me?” and “why did this happen to me?”) and change them from negative to positive (such as “this is not the end of the world” and “I will learn and grow from this”) thereby eliminating or at least minimizing my sadness. Therefore, by increasing our self-awareness of our thoughts we can (indirectly) develop greater self-control over our feelings.   

 

According to the Biblical account of the creation of the universe, God then creates the universe through the use of words and language – and, we as human beings created in the image of God create our own internal universe of feelings through the use of words and language. If our words and language in viewing situations as problems are negative, then we will necessarily experience negative feelings. If, though, our words and language in viewing situations as opportunities are positive, then we will experience positive feelings or at least minimize negative feelings.

 

The terms Jew and Judaism come from the name Judah in the Bible, the son of Jacob the patriarch, and the name of one of the ancient tribes of Israel. The name Judah, from which the terms Jews and Judaism are derived comes from a root in Hebrew (להודות) meaning thankfulness. A positive and optimistic psychological attitude of appreciation and thankfulness (rather than complaint and despair) is an essential element of a religious life in the Hebrew Bible and Jewish tradition. A true Jew then as reflected in the term Jew is not just one who from a legal point of view is born of a Jewish mother or has converted, but is one who from a spiritual perspective views life as a cup half full and is optimistic, thankful and appreciative rather than pessimistic, overly critical and complaining.

Jeffrey Radon

Author of orthopraxjudaism.com

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