Process

This week was fun – we just finished a yearly process: reading the Torah all the way through! It seems only right, then, that the first Torah portion, Bereshit, tells us about G!d’s processes of creation, law-forming, relationships. Especially in relation to a person’s perception of G!d, this portion might be described as controversial, inspiring, confusing, systematic, vague, over-detailed. And how might he or she conceptualize G!d from the role he plays in these chapters? There has been considerable debate not only about the accounts narrated in this parsha, but also what it says about G!d. There are arguments from the same text about whether or not he changes his mind, how he relates to people, what is required of people in relationship, if he makes mistakes, whether or not he is really omniscient (according to the general definition). Perhaps the bigger question is whether or not this section (and the rest of our texts) is out to answer these particular questions, or to provide a variety of accounts, descriptions, and ideology which are the building blocks necessary to learn about G!d through a personal relationship with him. Ismar Schorsch’s words resonate with me: “No words are wasted on G!d’s biography or appearance. In this austere account, as throughout the Bible, G!d is a verb and not a noun. We come to know G!d only through his actions. Creation is effected by the spoken word of a supreme and omnipotent being.”

I’m not going to attempt to answer my own questions, but each time a passage is reread, it’s helpful to frame it with different questions in order to read it in a new way. That is especially true of a text as familiar as Genesis 1-6. What value should be placed on the words themselves (grammatical, creative power, definitions – in the original language). For example, what is the firmament and what did this mean to the original audience (and audiences prior to new scientific discoveries)? Why is the audience presented with more than one account of creation? Dr. Benjamin Sommer succinctly sums up a key theme in the study of scripture: “[The] love of varied opinions does not start with the rabbis. It can be traced back to the two beginnings of the Torah itself. [It announces] from its opening narratives that it will provide more than one approach to a subject…This week’s parashah, then, presents us with a model for our own Judaism, a Judaism that displays both multiplicity and limits. This week we begin once again to hear the Bible’s many voices in the annual cycle of Torah reading…”

It seems to me that the first parsha we read presents a great model for asking questions and thinking. G!d, beginning with Bereshit, is not understandable in entirety to the human mind (which this parsha says he created!). The author apparently refuses to give the reader all the details, and this has frustrated those people who study these texts for centuries. The first humans ask questions – of G!d, each other, of their world. However, I find the greatest beauty of Bereshit to be in its reassurance that from the beginning of time, there have been questions unanswered. This allows the opportunity for each person and community to be in continual open dialogue and relationship with G!d. What is more desired than that according to our scriptures?

The haftarah from Isaiah 42 offers an idea of creative purpose that applies even until today:
“Thus said G!d the L!rd,
Who created the heavens and stretched them out,
Who spread out the earth and what it brings forth,
Who gave breath to the people upon it
And life to those who walk thereon:
I the L!rd, in my grace, have summoned you,
And I have grasped you by the hand,
I created you, and appointed you
A covenant people, a light of nations…”