בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹהִ֑ים אֵ֥ת הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וְאֵ֥ת הָאָֽרֶץ
In the beginning of God’s creation of the heavens and the earth (Bereishis 1:1)
There is nothing more beautiful in this world than a new beginning. A majestic sunrise or the cry of a new-born awaken within us feelings of optimism and hope. And so, when we begin Sefer Bereishis, those feelings of newness stir within us. Bereishis represents the start of the new year. It is the beginning of the post-Yomim Tovim season when we can take all the holiness, self-awareness, and determination we have accrued and use it to create something beautiful in the year ahead. It is the beginning of the Torah cycle, offering us an opportunity to begin or re-energize our relationship with Torah and Hashem.
Yet, the Talmud (Megillah 9a) explains that this first verse of the Torah is important for a different reason. King Ptolemy ordered a group of seventy-two sages to translate the Torah into Greek. In order to ensure they would not collude and alter any information, the sages were sequestered individually. The Talmud relates how miraculously they all made the same changes (in order to avoid an erroneous understanding of the respective verses).
The Talmud states:
And they wrote for him: God created in the beginning [Elokim bara bereishis] (reversing the order of the words in the first phrase in the Torah that could be misinterpreted as: “Bereishis created God” (Genesis 1:1). They did so to negate those who believe in the preexistence of the world and those who maintain that there are two powers in the world: One is Bereishis, who created the second, God.)
But why did Hashem write the verse in a way which leaves it open to misinterpretation? Why not write, “Elokim bara Bereishis, God created in the beginning” avoiding any potential misinterpretation?
Perhaps Hashem was teaching us the need to live with doubt and ambiguity. As much as we crave clarity, life is filled with much “gray.” We yearn to understand the events of our lives and the world. We yearn to make sense of tragedies and suffering. And as we open our holy Torah and begin the journey for the new year, we begin with an ambiguous verse, one that can be misinterpreted. Why? To allow us to embrace this all-important reality – that there are many confusing and difficult things that happen in life. There is much we will not understand, and there are events which defy comprehension. But if we maintain our belief in our Father – the architect and builder of all – if we remain connected and anchored with He who was Bereishis, we will succeed, thrive, and build.
