D'var Torah- Bereshit

 Bereshit

The beginning of the Torah comes along with the beginning of Earth. To start this portion, God creates the world over the first week of time. On the first day, God creates light and then separates it from the darkness. On the second day, God creates the sky, and uses it to separate the already existing water. On the third day, God gathers the water into one area, so that land can form in the other areas. God also creates vegetation; plants, fruits, seeds, and trees. On the fourth day, God creates the sun and the moon. They are created to tell time and to show a difference between night and day. On the fifth day, God creates fish and birds. On the sixth day, God creates animals, and one man in God’s image. Then, God blessed the seventh day, Shabbat, made it holy, and rested.

Next, God creates the Garden of Eden and puts the man in it. God tells the man that he can eat anything, except from fruit from the tree of knowledge. Then, God creates a woman for the man, to give man a “helper.” The man and the woman were naked, but they did not feel ashamed.

After this, a snake comes up to the woman and suggests that she eat from the tree of knowledge, and she does. She then gives some to the man, and he eats too. However, eating the fruit caused “their eyes to open,” and they realized they were naked, so they made loincloths. The man and the woman then hear God coming in the garden, so they hide because they were naked. This causes God to realize that they ate fruit from the tree. Since they broke the rules, he punishes each one of them. The snake is cursed to crawl on its belly forever, the woman is cursed to have pain while giving birth, and the man has to work to earn food. Then, the woman is named Eve (it doesn’t explicitly give a time when Adam is named), and God makes clothes for Adam and Eve. God then banishes them from the Garden of Eden.

Adam and Eve have two kids, Cain and Abel. Cain becomes a farmer, and gives God a fruit offering. Abel becomes a shepherd, and offers God his best sheep. God pays attention to Abel’s offering but not to Cain’s offering, which makes Cain sad. Cain then kills Abel while they are working, because he is mad. God then asks Cain where Abel is, and Cain lies and says that he doesn’t know. However, God says that he knows that Cain killed Abel. God then curses Cain to fail at farming and become a ceaseless wanderer. God also puts a mark on Cain to protect him, so that anyone who kills Cain would suffer 7 times as much as Cain.

The portion then goes on to list all of the descendants of Adam, all the way down to Noah. Next, God sets man’s maximum lifespan to 120 years. Finally, God realizes that men are not all good people, and he regrets that he made them. He vows to get rid of all men, animals, and living things. This is a sad way to end the portion, but the last line reads, “But Noah found favor with the Lord,” suggesting that humans might have one more hope in Noah!