Week One: Bereshit, a.k.a. "In the beginning…"

For the Parshat haShavua read on October 29, 2016/27 Tishrei 5777

Preparation

Some commentary and questions to consider:

Rabbi Jonathan Cohen--Sermons and Parsha'iot

ReformJudaism.org Torah Resources

MyJewishLearning.com Bereshit Resources

Huge page of Bereshit resource links from Aish.com

Jewish Kids website from Chabad.org

Genius link page for all sorts of kids resources about Judaism


Read along with us!

Torah Portion: Genesis 1:1 - 6:8
Haftarah Portion: Isaiah 42.5 - 43.10

What we talked about

We read Bereshit over a couple of nights. Despite her early attraction to the Torah (when she, as a toddler, selected a Torah with commentary as the book she wanted at the local library book sale and proceeded to read it to us--in gibberish--which she then translated into English and told us stories about Gandalf from Lord of the Rings selling things to people...), our wee one was not thrilled by the story and got fairly resistant about reading it. We got through it, but it was difficult and there was a LOT of negotiation!

Among the things we discussed were the two descriptions of Creation, the idea of the order of creation (last is not necessarily least), why 'each to its own type" was specified so often, and lying. We discussed how other people interpreted these things and how we thought about them. For example, the "each to its type" phrase is sometimes used to justify keeping categories of things apart, or suggesting that evolution is incorrect because "one thing cannot become another thing." We discussed that, and noticed that unless there is some way to categorize things and identify their similarities and differences, there was no way to recognize and appreciate diversity. We also noticed how God seemed to be pleased by the diversity.

We were also amused by the ages to which people reportedly lived. It made us wonder about how time was perceived by people long ago. The commentary mentioned that the great ages may be part of an attempt to mythologize and lend a mysticality to the origin of the religion, the way other religions have great heroes of the past with superhuman skills, like Hercules.

The part about how Eve and Adam lied--how Adam lied to God AND blamed Eve as well, and how Eve uses God's name--was really interesting to me, as well as all the information in the commentary about gender and how we often translate adamah as men, but it really meant people.

Oh, and then there's the bit about heavenly creatures taking human women as wives... and then nothing else about it. So many wacky Torah things so far, but the commentary is riveting. Looking forward to Noach!