Beresheet (In the Beginning) Gen 1:1-6:8 HafTorah: Is 42:5-43:11
1.Though G-d has many descriptions, two are primary: Elohim and the four letter name we may not pronounce, known generally as Hashem or L-rd. In Genesis chapter 1 G-d is described as Elohim or G-d. In chapters 2 and 3, He is called Hashem-Elohim or L-rd G-d. In chapter 4, for the first time He is called Hashem or L-rd alone. Something is changing as we read through these verses and it is not G-d who is changing because He never changes. What do you think is happening here?
Elohim or G-d is used from the beginning of Genesis, through all that G-d created up to the point that He created Adam.
L-rd G-d (Hashem Elohim) is first used beginning in Genesis 2: 4 summing up G-d’s previous creations and His creation of man.
All through these verses including the creation of Eve the same name L-rd G-d was used.
To me this is revealing a fuller picture of who their Creator was. He was not only the Omnipotent Creator but He was compassionate. Even when He took them out of the garden these two names Hashem Elohim were used. Even in their sin He was compassionate.
Interestingly, If you look at Genesis 3:1-5 where Satan talked to Eve only the name G-d or Elohim was used. Satan did not use the name L-rd G-d (Hashem Elohim). Was he only wanting Eve to think of G-d as the one who had all the power? Was he careful to not remind her of Hashem the compassionate side of G-d or the totality of G-d? Satan is very talented in this respect. He usually speaks to us in half-truths.
The Sages distinguished these names by saying
Elohim refers to Divine justice.
Elohim conveys greatness, omnipotence, or Creator.
Elohim is G-d as we encounter Him in creation.
Hashem is more Divine compassion.
Hashem is The One who speaks to us and to whom we speak,
who loves us, who hears our prayers, forgives our failures, gives us strength in times of crisis, Hashem is G-d as we encounter Him not in creation but revelation.
Hashem is the totality of G-d.
So we can see G-d is revealing Himself more and more as He creates. The first time the singular name Hashem is used is in Genesis 4:1, “And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bore Cain, and said, I have acquired a man from the L-rd.”
2.In Genesis 3:16-20 we read G-d’s punishment for “the woman” and Adam. Up until that time Adam had called his mate woman. Immediately following G-d telling Adam that he would die a physical death, “for dust you are and to dust you shall return,” Adam gave his wife the name Eve, “she who gives life.” Torah is silent on Adam’s thoughts at that moment but what do you think might have been going through his mind that he chose to give his wife a personal name about the same time he realized he would not live forever.
When he heard the words, “dust you are and to dust you will return,” for the first time Adam probably became conscious of his mortality. There is no more profound self-knowledge than this – that the world will one day be without us, and we without the world. We live with the knowledge that our time on earth is limited.
Is there a part of us that will continue, even though we ourselves are no longer here? Probably as Adam was dealing with the news that he would not live on forever he remembered G-d’s words to the woman. She would give birth to children – in pain, to be sure, but she would bring new life into the world. So in the beginning Adam called her isha or woman because she was taken from man (ish). Then he gave her the name Chava or Eve because she was to be the mother of all chai (life)
So Adam understood that though he would eventually die, he could live on through children. That would be his immortality. When we have children, something of us will live on: our genes, our influence, our example, our ideals.
The Tower of Babel and the great buildings of Ramses II – the two most significant glimpses the Torah gives us of the empires of the ancient world – testify to the idea that we defeat mortality by building monuments.
But we have a different idea in that we defeat mortality by sharing our faith and engraving G-d’s love on the hearts of our children, and they on theirs, and so on to the end of time. Where the Mesopotamians and Egyptians thought of buildings, Abraham and his descendants thought of builders. There is nothing more important than passing on our faith to our children and other people we meet.
But there is one significant difference between personal immortality and the immortality we gain by those we bring to life and who will live on after us. The latter cannot be achieved alone. Until he became aware of his mortality, Adam could think of his wife as a mere helper. He thought of her as his assistant. “She shall be called ‘woman’ [ishah] for she was taken from man [ish].”
Now he knew otherwise. Without her, he could not have children – and children were his share in eternity. He could no longer think of her as an assistant. She was a person in her own right – more even than he was, for she, not he, would actually give birth.
Once he had thought these thoughts, recrimination ended, for he saw that their physical being, their “nakedness,” was not simply a source of shame.
There is a spiritual dimension to the physical relationship between husband and wife. It is as close as we come to the principle of Divine creativity itself, namely that love creates life. That is when he turned to her and for the first time saw her as a person and gave her a personal name, Chavah, Eve, meaning, “she who gives chai or life.”
The significance of this moment cannot be sufficiently emphasized. It was not that previously Adam had given his wife one name and now gave her another. It was that previously Adam had not given her a name at all. She was taken from him (ish) so he called her ishah, “woman,” a generic noun not a proper name. (Incidentally, he himself had not had a proper name until now either. He is simply called ha-adam, “the man” – a word that appears 21 times in this early narrative. Not until he confers on the woman a proper name does he acquire one himself, Adam.
3.Following the sad verses explaining G-d’s punishment for Adam and Eve we read Genesis 3:21, “For Adam and for his wife the L-rd G-d made coats of skins and clothed them.” What does this verse tell you about the G-d we serve? Can you think of other Biblical stories that shows this part of G-d’s personality?
G-d confronted Adam and Eve and as they avoided admitting to their sin and instead blamed each other for what had happened, G-d, in His compassion, clothed them. He covered them. He does the same for us. In our weakness he covers us.
What other stories in scripture describes G-d dealing with others in the same manner? Look at I Kings 19:4-15. Here Elijah had come to the end of himself. He sat down under a tree and told G-d he was ready to die. He was spiritually and physically exhausted. What did G-d do? He sent angels with food to replenish his body and then G-d told him to go stand on a mountain and there G-d revealed himself to Elijah.
Have you ever been physically or spiritually exhausted feeling you couldn’t go on? G-d is always there to pick us up and renew our strength so we can continue to serve Him. G-d did not reprimand Elijah and tell him he just needed to do better or do more. He met him where he was and gave him what he needed to be renewed.
4.In the opening verses of Genesis we read in Genesis 1:26-27, “And G-d said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth. So G-d created man in His own image, in the image of G-d created He him; male and female He created them.” These two verses tell us we are all created in the image of G-d. G-d has no form? He is spirit. So when we read these verses how do we interpret them?
What does it mean being created in the image of G-d? How do we go through our day, living our life in the image of G-d? In Exodus 34:6-7 we read of the attributes of G-d. These qualities of G-d would seem to me to be reflective of what it means to be created in the image of G-d. These traits include being merciful, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness and forgiving. These qualities of G-d are truly the image of G-d. However, they are not the norm in our world today nor have they ever been the world’s norm. In many countries around the world, even Christian countries, these qualities are in short supply. Even when you read scripture, most countries were governed by the powerful with little regard for the people.
Many times morality and ethics do not enter into decision making. Right and wrong are usually not the governing principles. However, here in our portion today we read not of power and position but rather a completely different way of looking at life. We see the introduction of the Hebrew word, “tov” meaning good and “ra” meaning evil. The standard the Father set for us as His people is this. Are we living our life for tov? Are we reflecting His image to the people we relate to each day? We all are to live life for the good and not for the evil. To know what this means we look to the verses I mentioned earlier in Exodus 34:6-7. G-d’s most fateful gift to us was freedom. As Adam and Eve misused that freedom so do we. This separates us from the Father. We find Him walking in the garden and asking us where are we? Will we use our freedom to touch people or will we not. The image of G-d lives in each of us. It even lives in the life of people not like us. G-d loves the world not only our tiny part of it. These verses in Genesis teach us that all of us have worth, not just some people. This is what G-d bestowed on His creation. It is our mission to be able to live that out every day.