Why Genesis?

Rabbi Melanie Aron

December 21, 2002

For modern Jews, Bereisheet is one of the most popular and most familiar books of the Torah. After all it has all the good stories. But for Jews of past generations, who saw the Torah as the source of mitzvoth, religious duties, Bereisheet, was a bit of a puzzle. Unlike the other four books of the Torah, it is not a major source of mitzvoth. In fact, no lesser figure than the master commentator Rashi, asks why couldn't the Torah have begun with Exodus, in particular Exodus chapter 12, with the commandments concerning Passover and with the following parshah, which is chock full of mitzvoth.

His answer is very interesting, especially given the current situation. Let me share this first Rashi on Bereisheet with you:

"Rabbi Isaac said: The Torah which is the law book of Israel should have commenced with the verse: This month shall be to you, the first of months" which is the first commandment given to the people Israel. What is the reason then that it commences with the account of creation?"

He answers his own question with a verse from Psalms which talks about God apportioning to Israel a place among the nations. He explains: Should the nations in later generations challenge the Jewish people's right to the land of Israel, Bereisheet can be brought as evidence of their right to the land. How ironic that hundreds of years after this commentary was written and two and a half thousand years after this text became our people's sacred scripture, the question of the right of the Jews to a national homeland remains such a live issue.

There is a second reason, less political, and more interesting on a theological level, for the book of Bereisheet. Before Mount Sinai people lived without the benefit of the instruction of the Torah, and I think the book of Genesis comes to show us what the results are. People may be born with a clean slate, but, as God observed, yetzer haadam raah mineurav, humans have this urge to get themselves into trouble, and we see evidence of it, all through the text. Adultery, fratricide, incest, jealousy, lack of generosity, murder, quarrelsomeness and xenophobia- there is no wrongdoing lacking in the book of Genesis. The rabbis speak about this in an analogy. A king is well advised first to convince his people of the need for laws, before attempting to impose them. Genesis comes to convince us that we need a better way.

Finally, there is a third meaning to the book of Bereisheet as a whole, found in the writings of Professor Uriel Simon of Bar Ilan University. He writes extensively about the Joseph narrative, a self-contained story , a novella as it were, that fills the last third of the book.

One of the tensions we live with as religious people is believing both in God's omniscence and human freedom. The rabbis express it in this way: in the words of Rabbi Akivah found in Pirke Avot, Hakol Tzafui, vehareshut netunah, All is forseen, yet choice is given. God knows what will happen but we are not puppets. That theme comes through especially in the stories about Joseph and his brothers. Here we sense God's hidden hand working constantly behind the scenes. Joseph goes off to find his brothers, and just happens on an anonymous man who knows where they are. The brothers sit down to discuss what to do with the troublemaker, and a caravan just happens to pass by. Joseph is imprisoned just at the time that the king's butler and baker happen to get into trouble and so forth. Yet, the choices of the characters, and not their circumstances, are what drives the story. Judah changes from the man willing to see his brother sold to the Ishmaelites, to the one willing to stand up to the Pharoah's representative, and offer himself in place of his father's beloved. The reality of his life, that his father favor's Rachel's children remains the same throughout. But he has overcome his jealousy, so that he can empathize with his father's devotion to Binyamin and not resent it.

We learn this too from the Pharoah's dreams. They are a correct prediction of what will happen and yet they do not determine the outcome of events. One could hear the prediction the dreams contain and despair saying that famine and death are predetermined for us. Or one could as Joseph did, come up with a plan to save life, to use one's strength's and talents to work within the limits that one's circumstances and times provide.

Why do we need Bereisheet, this longest book of the Torah that we conclude reading this morning? First we need it as a people, as it establishes our relationship with our ancient homeland. Secondly we need it as a religious faith, as it reminds us of why we cherish Torah. Finally, we require it as spiritual beings, who struggle within the limitations of what circumstances provides for us, to be, like Joseph, among those who promotes life.