^{25 Tishrei 5782 | October 1, 2021}

Parshat Bereishit

Phoebe Ana Rabinowitsch

Class of 2022

When one opens the Torah, it can be seen in the special calligraphy or sofrut in the Ashkenazi tradition, the letter pey has a hidden letter bet inside of it, in the white space surrounded by black ink. The word pey in Hebrew means mouth, as the world was made into being through words, spoken communication. Accordingly, the very first word is bereishit, with the first letter in the Torah being bet.

The Talmud Yerushalmi, based on Deuteronomy 33:2 describes that when the Torah was given to Moses at Sinai, it was engraved in black fire on white fire. There are a few different explanations of what this means, mostly with the black fire being what one can see and the white fire being what one cannot see. One understanding is that the black fire is the written Torah and white fire is the oral Torah. Another more mystical possibility is that perhaps the black fire is the physical and the white fire refers to things that are hidden or not so readily apparent.

The Torah begins with the story of creation, that in the beginning there was nothing, everything was brand new, without a template. The all powerful God simply spoke, declared what would be and it was. And after each step, God proclaimed that it was “good.” Since there was nothing before, and something now exists, it seems to be objective, and I wonder what it could possibly mean that there is a goodness quality ascribed to these actions and results? Each creation is miraculous and unique, as it has never existed before, and each creation is harmoniously connected with the ones before it. The ultimate creation happens on day six, the last of creation, humankind.

God created man in His image, first stating the intention, using the word betzalmenu, then after it is done, betzalmo.

And, like the pattern before, a little later in verse 31, God concludes day six, looks around at his work and proclaims that it was good, but this time it is not merely good, it is very good. According to Ramban, this wording of והנה טוב מאוד, behold it was very good, signifies their permanent existence. This insert of meod, could also mean mostly, meaning that humankind is mostly good, leaving room for evil. Humankind is imperfect (as we will learn with the story of the Garden of Eden just shortly after) even though created in God’s image.

The creation of humankind is so complex, it has two stories, a few verses later on in Genesis 1:26-27

In this version of the creation of humankind, we continue to have the word b'tzelem, that now in two individuals, this creation of humankind was actively made in God’s image. God made man בצלמנו כדמותנו, in our image and after our likeness, according to Rashi refers to the power to comprehend and to discern. So as we saw before, even though humanity is created in God’s image, there is a balance here against greatness to imperfection, individuality, comprehension and discernment.

Can we learn from trying to define good as being not only satisfied, but pleased and proud of our accomplishments? We can be like God in understanding that there is room for imperfection within greatness. Our world needs the existence of the black fire and the white fire, what is obvious and what is hidden beneath the surface.