This week the Torah cycle begings anew, “Bereshiet”, or literally, In the Beginning.
This is the bedrock the ‘foundation’ upon which all that follows rests. And it’s perhaps one of the most densely “information packed” sets of chapters in the entire Book. In the beginning is not just the creation story, or the garden story, or even ‘the Fall,’ and a whole lotta begattin‘
It’s really about Authority, and obedience, marriage, deception, and exile.
First, the Erev Shabbat (Friday evening) overview and intro:
People who understand that — whether it’s the human eye, a bird’s wing, the DNA double helix, the night sky, or Maxwell’s equations — that there MUST be a Creator, may not be so convinced that the Bible really IS His Word. Study Genesis!
And have them start ‘in the beginning.’ But, as Mark points out, if you REALLY want to understand just how much “information” is packed into even the first verse of that Word, get as close as you can to the Original, because it is literally impossible to translate it all into any other form. Even mathematics…
But that part of the story that ultimately tells us about the human condidtion, and “Adam-kind,” just begins in chapter 3!
“B’reshiet: In the Beginning…A Failure of ‘Covering’ – and THEN Comes the Deluge!” “
The combined two-part teaching is here, via the Hebrew Nation Radio page.
