The first moment of creation.  We can’t understand anything about it. And yet, the Torah tells us: Bereisheit Bara Elokim, in the beginning G-d created. We can’t understand these words fully, but we can learn from them. Each one of these first three words has an important message about who we are as created beings and what our purpose is in this world.

Bereisheit, In the Beginning

In the beginning, God created beginnings. Specifically, the Tikunei Zohar (19b) teaches, two beginnings. [Bereisheit = bet reisheit = two beginnings]. These beginnings were both created through the first utterance of creation, bereisheit, which brought time into existence. It is our perception of the nature of time and the nature of our existence within time creates the divergence between these two beginnings.

The first beginning is expressed in Bamidbar 24:20, “The beginning of nations is Amalek—and his end is eternal oblivion.”  This is the depressing way we normally think about time. We perceive ourselves as first existing, statically in this world. We imagine ourselves to be, essentially, as we are now, and then thing of time as a force, acting on that essential self. The force of time slowly wears us down, until, after what is often years of battle against the inevitable, we are worn down and disappear. The end is eternal oblivion.

There is, however, another beginning. It is the beginning of Israel. We are called beginning. The Torah is called beginning. And if we understand this way of beginning, we can perceive reality in a different way. The first creation of our world is time. Time is process. Our true existence is an eternal existence that exists beyond this world. For the purposes of existence in this world what we were given is not static existence, but time. Hashem has gifted each of us, individually, with an amount of time.

Our amount of time has a beginning. And the beginning means that our time is a path and a process. We are moving toward a defined end, Hashem’s planned destiny. We exist as fire exists, not statically, but in constant process. Just as the fire is the continuous expression of the hidden potential of its fuel, our lives are a continuous process of expressing the hidden depths of our soul. We were brought into this world in order to reveal the point of infinity that lies beyond us.

We were brought into this world for the process. This is the essence of who we are, of our existence in this world. We are not responsible for reaching the goal. We were never meant to achieve perfection, only to be in a state of polishing and perfecting ourselves. We are invited to enjoy the growth and the process, and trust that Hashem will bring us to our destiny.

Bara, Created

The first Ramban in Bereisheit explains that there is only one time that the word “bara, He created” is used in the description of creation, because it was only once that Hashem created something from nothing. All of creation was brought into being in the first moment of creation. “In the beginning G-d created heaven and earth.” Everything was there, but nothing was formed. It all existed in potential. “The earth was tohu.” It was astonishing in its lack of form. And then it was “boho,” an unformed mass where the potential for form can be seen. Still, “there was darkness on the depths of unformed matter” until Hashem said, “Let there be light.” And with light came the ability to perceive meaning and form.

Rav Shapiro sums up the process of creation: desolateness, followed by emptiness, and then light. It sees unrelatable, but it is actually an explanation of our entire avodah in this world. We were created to be creators. G-d’s first act in forming the world was to create light. After the conclusion of the first Shabbat, as Adam was sent out of Gan Eden into the world, Hashem gave Adam the knowledge and ability to create fire from two stones (Pesachim 54a). As a nation our first mitzvah was to find the new moon, that bit of light in the darkness and sanctify it.  

As we mentioned, our existence in this world is all process. We exist at the moment of our birth as the world existed at the moment of its birth. We are all potential. The world around us also exists only in potential. Our experience of the world, and our understanding of the world, is what invests it with form and meaning. Our experience of ourselves is what invests us with significance.

We begin in any moment in time in darkness, because the meaning of the moment is unclear. Sometimes the meaning is astonishingly unclear. Sometimes it is just hidden behind the veil of habit. We are in tohu and bohu. But we can create light. For six days Hashem formed the world into an astonishing variety of meaningful forms. We are created in G-d’s image, with the power of speech. We can choose to form the world around us in a meaningful way with our thoughts and our words. At one and the same time we create ourselves and our world.

Elokim, G-d the Creator

We were created b’zelem elokim, in the image of G-d, with the ability to create our world. The process of our creation as creators involved the combination of earth and water. The earth was taken from the place of the mizbayach, the place of our atonement. The water of our creation came from a special mist that Hashem brought on the land. This was necessary, because as Rashi (Bereisheit 2:5) tells us, it had not yet rained. There could be no rain because man had not yet been created. Rain only comes down into the world through our prayers. It is the physical expression a spiritual truth: the higher and lower worlds are interconnected. For this reason, it is inherently impossible to predict or control.

Water is necessary for our existence, and we can only acquire it through prayer. We are created from something that depends upon our prayers, because just as water is the necessary component of our existence, so is prayer. It is not that we exist, and then when we need something we pray. We exist because we pray. Just as without water we cannot exist, without prayer there is no existence.

We were created to create ourself and our world through prayer. This is why the tamid offering is called “karbani lechmi,” (Bamidbar 28:2) my offering, my bread. Just as food sustains the bond between our body and soul, the korbanot, together with our prayers sustain the bond between Hashem’s Will and Presence and our physical world.

Hashem created our world as an expression of His Kingship.  A king is connected to his subjects. He can hear, accept and fulfill requests. Prayer is therefore reciprocal. Just as we stand before Hashem and speak to Him, so too, He stands before us and listens. This is the act of prayer. It is for our benefit, but it also fulfills something beyond us. Every time we stand before Hashem, we uphold the attribute of Kingship. When we stand in prayer, we are together with Hashem. We strengthen the bond of Hashem’s presence in our world. We literally create our world and keep it in existence.

We are just beginning to pray for rain. May all of us be blessed with a year of physical and spiritual abundance.