The Heart of Creation: This week we begin again, commencing our annual cycle of Torah reading with B’reishit, the first portion of the Book of Genesis. It is the archetypal act of mythic creation, responding to one of civilization’s most probing questions: How did THIS all begin? But the Jewish gloss on the Big Bang beginning of everything is more detailed and inspiring. We learn that after God’s first words to bring “light” into the chaotic darkness, the critical, extended acts of creation were separating and naming—bringing physical order out of the primordial disorder. Thus, in continuing ma’aseh b’reishit—God’s first acts of creation–we join as partners with God when we bring social and moral order out of the chaos of our primitive past through the study of Torah and the acts that grow from it.
As a former professional organizer, I really appreciate the importance of order!
Love this! Thanks for sending. We say these Hebrew words over and over and over again throughout our lives and yet, do not understand, or fully understand their meaning.