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Bereishis: A Beginning With No End – By Rabbi Pinchas Winston
THERE IS A mitzvah incumbent on Jewish males above the age of thirteen years to hear the weekly public reading of the Torah on Shabbos. According to tradition this was established by Moshe himself, to make sure that one full week would not go by without some Torah being learned.
Aside from that obligation, one should read the upcoming parsha twice in advance, along with Targum Onkeles and preferably with Rashi as well. There is much reward for those who take this obligation seriously, since the weekly parsha is replete with accessible and keen insights into every aspect of daily living.
There is no way to fully measure or appreciate the profundity of each parsha. One must constantly study it and “turn it over and over again,” forever extracting finer and more subtle truths. Doing so certainly increases the awe of Torah, which is crucial for continuous growth.
The very first parsha, Bereishis, illustrates this point beautifully. If any parsha provides the essential concepts on which everything else is built, it is this one. It is Parashas Bereishis that discusses the spiritual and physical beginning of all existence, the basis of the mystical teachings—the account of Gan Aiden (Garden of Eden), the paradise we yearn for but know so little about; the creation of mankind; and the critical mistake that led to our mortality and expulsion from that paradise.
These early verses comprise but a fraction of the entire Torah. Yet they are the conceptual foundation on which all else is built. What happened in the first week of Creation and in the beginning of the world is paradigmatic for all of history until the end of days, a concept which will be explained later in the book.
It is clear that one lifetime would not be enough to make a thorough study of Parashas Bereishis—let alone the rest of Torah. According to the Torah-reading schedule set by the rabbis, even those who faithfully fulfill the obligation to personally review the weekly parsha receive less time to read and prepare Bereishis than any other weekly reading. We have an entire week to prepare most parshios before the upcoming Shabbos, but since Parashas Bereishis is read on the Shabbos following Simchas Torah—which is usually in the middle of the week—we have only the few days from Simchas Torah until Shabbos to prepare.
Thus when it comes to Parashas Bereishis, one finds himself perusing verses that hold the secrets to the universe. In order to keep the pace and finish the parsha before the upcoming Shabbos, we are often only able to scan some of the most fundamental concepts for living a meaningful life. This is no doubt frustrating and perhaps even absurd.
Many commentaries have been written on the entire Torah. However, the most comprehensive examinations of Parashas Bereishis are written by the kabbalists, the mystics whose intellectual grasp of Torah surpasses the average imagination and intellectual capacity. The more understandable commentaries usually provide but a glimpse of what is really available in Bereishis.
Perhaps this is how the rabbis meant it to be. After all, there is the famous account of the four rabbis who entered Pardes, of which only one “survived.” History is replete with other examples of those who tried to enter the “orchard”—with disastrous results. And since Bereishis is the basis of kabbalistic thought, perhaps the rabbis considered it prudent to permit only a taste. They knew in their wisdom that after years of profound learning and spiritual self-development, those who will merit to enter the “orchard” would eventually do so.
Nevertheless, when all is said and done, it is possible to examine in depth this seminal parsha even without entering into the realm of Jewish mysticism. Even on the level of pshat, Parashas Bereishis is a book in itself. There is plenty of room and need for a verse-by-verse examination of these early words of the Torah. A foundation is a foundation on every level, and though Bereishis is a beginning without an end, we must begin somewhere. It was in this spirit that I began this book.
A word of explanation: When I first started writing, I intended the book to be a manual of ideas from which others could gain exposure to some important concepts found in Parashas Bereishis. As such, much was left up to the reader to flesh out and investigate further. After receiving initial feedback, it was clear that the “manual” needed to be more than that.
Furthermore, after teaching the material I was able to see where intellectual bridges were crucial for relating to the ideas therein. Therefore I sat down for the third time to fill in the intellectual gaps left between many of the ideas. In order to keep the size manageable, I tried to strike a balance in how much explanation to provide. Thus there is still much that is left for the reader to work out and think through. I hope that this will not create too much frustration. I believe, as will be clear after reading the book, that such thinking will serve to enhance the impact of the concepts and be crucial for making the ideas come alive.
