Parashat Bereshit - First Aliyah
Read the biblical text and try to understand it on your own, before reading the commentary.
The first aliyah of Parashat Bereshit is one of the deepest and most central passages in the entire Torah. It opens the book of Genesis and sets before us the six days of creation and the Shabbat of creation, the divine act that establishes the whole world.
Over six days God creates the components of the world stage by stage: heaven and earth, light and darkness, water and dry land, vegetation, luminaries, fish, birds, animals, and finally man. Six times the words “vayar Elohim ki tov” (and God saw that it was good) recur (on the second day they are missing, and on the third they appear twice), and at the end of all creation it says “tov me’od” (very good).
Ramban’s commentary at the opening of Parashat Bereshit focuses on the great question of the nature of creation: was the world created from nothing, or was there a primordial matter from which it was formed? Ramban writes that the verse “Bereshit bara Elohim” (In the beginning God created) describes the moment when the first matter was created, the matter from which everything was built, and he calls it “hyle”, a concept that comes from philosophical thought. This is the foundation from which all the details of creation came to be.
Rashi, by contrast, opens his commentary with a question: why does the Torah begin with the creation of the world and not with the commandments? His remarkable answer: to teach that if the nations of the world say to Israel “you are robbers”, for having conquered the land of Israel, they will answer them: “The whole earth belongs to the Holy One, blessed be He. He created it and gave it to whomever He saw fit. By His will He gave it to them, and by His will He took it from them and gave it to us” (Rashi on Genesis 1:1).
In the ancient silence before time there was nothing. No light, no matter, no word. Only the will of the Creator. “Bereshit bara Elohim” (In the beginning God created, Genesis 1:1), and suddenly, out of nothing, being came into existence.
But is this a simple beginning? Rashi (on 1:1) brings the teaching of our sages:
“For the sake of the Torah, which is called ‘the beginning of His way’, and for the sake of Israel, who are called ‘the first of His harvest’.”
That is, creation itself already echoes purpose: it is not “what” was created, but “why”. The world was not created out of need, but so that wisdom, light, man and an eternal purpose would be revealed in it.
Kabbalah: the light that was created and is gone
On the first day light was created, but not the luminaries. It is written:
“vayomer Elohim yehi or vayehi or” (And God said, let there be light, and there was light, Genesis 1:3)
Rashi (on 1:4) brings the midrash (Chagigah 12a; Bereshit Rabbah 3:6):
“He saw that it was not fitting for the wicked to use it, and He set it apart for the righteous in the time to come.”
And the Zohar (I, 31b) speaks of the “hidden light”: a light that was hidden away from the wicked and kept for the righteous, to be revealed in the time to come.
The kabbalists teach: this light is not a physical light. The Talmud (Chagigah 12a) describes it as a light in which a person could see from one end of the world to the other. That is, not a light that illuminates the eyes, but a light that illuminates understanding: the ability to see the world not only as it appears from the outside, but as it truly is, with the purpose for which it was created. This light was hidden, but it did not disappear. It is kept for the righteous in the time to come.
The secret of the firmament: what was really separated?
On the second day the firmament was created, the partition between water and water.
“vayomer Elohim yehi rakia betoch hamayim vihi mavdil bein mayim lamayim” (And God said, let there be a firmament in the midst of the water, and let it separate water from water, Genesis 1:6)
The midrash asks: what water is above the firmament?
The commentators explain: there is physical water, and there is upper water, spiritual water. According to Kabbalah, the upper waters are the source of influence, the supernal kindness, the divine abundance. The firmament separates them, and still, through it the influence passes from above into this world.
This division between water and water is also the division between heaven and earth, between the upper and the lower, between the holy and the mundane. And again, it is man who connects them.
The creation of man: the deepest secret
“vayivra Elohim et ha’adam betzalmo betzelem Elohim bara oto” (And God created man in His image, in the image of God He created him, Genesis 1:27)
The holy Zohar asks: what is the “image of God”? And it explains that this does not refer to a likeness at all, but to the spiritual essence, the supernal root of man.
Ramchal (in “Derech Hashem”, part I, chapters 2-3) explains: man was created in order to cleave to his Creator, and therefore received a divine quality: free will, intellect, moral capacity and choice.
In many kabbalistic passages it is explained that the “image” is a supernal spiritual structure, parallel to the upper worlds, and that every person carries this structure. In simple words: just as a reflection in water mirrors what is above it, so man is built to reflect the supernal order in this world. When he chooses good, he does not only do a good deed, he shows in the world something of heaven.
The end of the aliyah: Shabbat, a creation of rest
“vayechulu hashamayim veha’aretz… vayechal Elohim bayom hashvi’i… vayekadesh oto” (And the heavens and the earth were completed… and God completed on the seventh day… and He sanctified it, Genesis 2:1-3)
The world did not end on Friday, it was completed only on Shabbat.
Rashi says (on 2:2), following the midrash (Bereshit Rabbah 10:9):
“What was the world lacking? Rest. Shabbat came, rest came.”
And the Zohar adds: Shabbat is the “supernal mother”, the root of blessing for all the days. On Shabbat man rests in order to become a creator himself: not acting, but resembling the Creator.
The first aliyah reveals not only the story of the beginning, but the root of all life: the world was created with order, with goodness, with kindness, and the purpose is that we choose good, resemble the Creator, and join heaven and earth within ourselves.
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