bereshis
sholem aleichem,
let’s start the book again, yeah?
בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹהִ֑ים אֵ֥ת הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וְאֵ֥ת הָאָֽרֶץ
the masoretes broke this verse into two pieces: (1)בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹהִ֑ים (in a beginning god had created), and (2) אֵ֥ת הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וְאֵ֥ת הָאָֽרֶץ (the heavens and the earth).
abraham josephine riesman talks about this at 14:15 of Xaihowareyou 100a:
you can get crazy and ~kabbalistic~ and say בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹהִ֑ים like “the beginning created god”!? — whoaaaaa, like, mind blown.
or… you can do what I do, which is - my personal interpretation of why that’s there is that it’s supposed to signify that the creative act was this important thing in and of itself, independent of whatever was being created.
as the creation story unfolds, there’s a peculiar turn of phrase:
וַיִּקְרָ֨א אֱלֹהִ֤ים ׀ לָאוֹר֙ י֔וֹם וְלַחֹ֖שֶׁךְ קָ֣רָא לָ֑יְלָה וַֽיְהִי־עֶ֥רֶב וַֽיְהִי־בֹ֖קֶר י֥וֹם אֶחָֽד
elokim called to the light: “day!”
(and to the darkness he had called “night!”)there was evening, and there was morning: day one.
the darkness and light here are primordial darkness and light, not the darkness and light created by path of the sun (the sun and moon are not created until day four).
so what does it mean when it says, on day one, “there was evening and there was morning”?
a midrash:
Rabbi Yehuda bar Simon said: “It will be evening” is not written here, but rather, “it was evening” – from here we learn that there had been an order to time even beforehand.
Rabbi Abahu said: This teaches that He continuously created worlds and destroyed them, until He created the current one, and said: ‘This one pleases Me, those did not please Me.’
this not the story of a creator carefully planning out a creation. this is the story of a creator reveling in the act of creation in itself: hashem was not worrying about whether her creation would be good or trying to make it good. she was simply creating — and then she happened to see a creation that was good
וַיַּ֤רְא אֱלֹהִים֙ אֶת־כׇּל־אֲשֶׁ֣ר עָשָׂ֔ה וְהִנֵּה־ט֖וֹב מְאֹ֑ד
elokim saw all that it had made — and behold: good! so very good!
we are not hashem, of course. but (where we do not risk harm to ourselves or others), i want to bless us all with this spirit of creation in 5785.
as we begin new projects, as we cook and write and love, as we create selves and homes, as we breathe in and out, as we take care of each other: may we enjoy the act of creation for itself, the moment of creation in itself.
and if we see that a creation is good, if we find a home that is pleasurable, may we linger in its presence a while.
there will be evening and morning, a new day.
good shabbos,
ada
p.s. i wrote a zine for the high holy days: is it possible to change?
p.p.s. a while ago, i wrote a poetic version of the midrash quoted above among others.