Bereishit — In the Beginning
The Torah opens with the act of divine creation — 'In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth' — establishing that existence itself is purposeful, ordered, and infused with divine intention.
Bereishit (Genesis 1:1) — 'In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth' — is the most commented-upon verse in Jewish literature. The Talmud asks why the Torah begins with creation rather than the first commandment, and answers: to teach that the Earth belongs to God, not to any nation, so that no one can claim exclusive title to it. Rashi notes that the Hebrew 'Bereishit' is a construct form meaning 'In the beginning of' — grammatically requiring an object that is implicit: 'for the sake of Torah' and 'for the sake of Israel' (the people who would receive it). The Kabbalists find in the first letter Bet (ב) — which is closed on three sides and open only forward — the teaching that we cannot ask what is above, below, or before creation; we can only move forward into existence. Creation ex nihilo (from nothing) is the foundational theological claim: God did not fashion the world from pre-existing matter but brought it into being through His word — every word of Torah is thus a continuation of the creative act.
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Philosopher Emmanuel Levinas argued that the ethical claim the Other makes on me precedes all ontology — a Levinasian reading of Bereishit would see creation as the act through which the Infinite makes room for the finite, establishing the ethical structure of existence before all else.
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