D’var Torah for Rosh Hashanah Morning

The Creation – Genesis 1:1-5

In the beginning -- there was nothing -- void -- emptiness -- silence-- no place to stand-- no certainty -- and certainly no answers -- because there were no questions. And then we read that God spoke… and it was good… This is the primal beginning -- naked -- pure -- both metaphorically and literally -- there is no big bang -- no black hole -- no science -- just God’s words. … and unlike other creation myths that are full of turmoil and fury, with gigantic battles between the forces of Good and Evil, or Gods and Goddesses, or the pains of birthing, the words on the page of Torah are stark and very simple… Bereshit… In the beginning… Even the first letter, Bet, is stark – three connected straight lines - open only on one side, open towards the letters that are following it… this is When the Beginning Began as Julius Lester’s book of Midrash is so wonderfully called --this is the when -- at least in Jewish time…

Today in a world made intimate by technology, it’s impossible to imagine such purity -- such nothingness. Yet we are being asked to imagine just that. We know with scientific certainty that the physical world we live in, did not come into being in six days. We know that humankind did not become flesh by the action of God on the sixth day, and we know that Creation myths are part of every ancient civilization this world has known. Yet, these are our cradle stories. They don’t test us or stretch us until we begin to wonder, why today? Why on Rosh Hashanah are we reading what may be the first Bible story we learned as a child? Why today, when the liturgy is solemn and the demands on us severe? Why today must we confront the irrational, the mythic, the absurd, when we’re really hoping to be moved, to find some spiritual anchor, some profound religious experience during this most holy time of year? Why Bereshit, which any child can tell you is a fairy tale?

The surface answer is that today is supposed to be the birthday of the world and this is the Creation story. That seems fairly simple -- but we’ve had a few thousand years to get past the simple part. In fact, traditional synagogues often don’t read this portion on Rosh Hashanah, but read the story of the birth of Isaac. Some also believe that the world was created on the 25th of Elul and today should really be the celebration of the 6th day of Creation when humankind began… So we can’t slide past this reading as if it were just a birthday acknowledgement. Nothing in Torah study is ever that simple-- that’s part of its joy.

But back to why we are about to read this oh so familiar story -- I think part of the answer is simply because it’s a story we know. We know this myth. We know it in our bones. We may not know its nuance. We probably couldn’t tell you which day God did what or why in most translations there’s a day that isn’t pronounced “good” and a day that gets two “goods” (Day 2 doesn’t get a “good” which is the day God separates the waters above and below and Day 3 gets the two when earth, seas and plants are created in case you were wondering.)

Today we read Bereshit as part of our High Holy Day ritual -- not as part of our regular Torah cycle. We read it completely out of context because in the weekly cycle we’re in Deuteronomy, the very end of our story, and we’ve come a long way from the Garden. The creation story read on Rosh Hashanah is therefore highlighted against the people Israel listening to a dying Moses giving them their final instructions. We certainly don’t have to be great Torah scholars to appreciate this kind of point-counterpoint. But we do need to be able to at least see the Creation story up against what I would call, for lack of a better phrase, Torah’s “greatest hits” -- the big stories of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Rachel and Leah, Joseph in Egypt and of course, Moses, in order to know without a doubt that the road ahead is far from smooth. Then the logic of why I believe this is the absolutely right portion to read this morning, in the midst of our liturgy of reflection and repentance, becomes clearer.

The path to this position came to me when I was rereading Rabbi Lawrence Kushner’s wonderful Book of Words and saw his definition of Teshuvah, repentance and return, as “Coming Home.” He talks of returning home as returning to the source, to the place where we are most truly our honest selves. He says “This going back to our Source is a great longing that flows through and animates all creation. Through apology, repair, and attempting to heal damage done, we effectively rewrite the past. What was once some thoughtless or even wicked act, when set within the present context of meaning, becomes the commencement of a greater healing.”

So what does this Creation story Illuminate that can help us to get back to the metaphorical home we are aiming for? What does it do to help us on the path of teshuvah?

I think we need to look at the story as a whole. I think part of the beauty of presenting us with a story we know so well is that it can sit comfortably in the framework of our whole story. We know what’s coming. We know that when God metaphorically sits back on the Sabbath, pleased with all that has been created, disaster lies just around the corner. We know that there is temptation, murder and flood just a few chapters away. We know that God will regret, again and again, the great work of these six days. So even as we read these lines of joy we know… we know… it won’t be very good… we know that sin lies around the next corner… we know that these creatures created in God’s image, designed to complete God’s work, fulfill God’s plan, will fail again and again. We are like children watching a scary movie, wanting to warn the heroine of the evil villain lurking behind the corner -- to shout -- “Watch out -- God -- give better instructions -- maybe don’t make the serpent this time -- or even, why don’t you give Adam and Eve a couple of daughters in between Cain and Abel -- they might mediate?”… See what I mean? You know the story…and when this story ends our cautionary tales begin…

Bereshit gives us our primal vision even more than our primal story- - it reminds us of what was given to us to care for -- what our assignments were, so to speak… that we were created in the image of the divine… that we are the children of God… related to each other because of these common ancestors… raised to do God’s work… and today we are reminded that that is still what we should be aiming for and focusing on… that is home base… when we were our purest selves… that is where our teshuvah is headed… home is Eden… inaccessible perhaps… guarded by an angel with a flaming sword… but the path to Eden is a glorious one… and this Rosh Hashanah we are reminded of what home looks like… we are reminded that our goal of repentance is to turn us in the direction of home -- to become more Godly -- more holy -- because we are created in God’s image -- we are God’s partners in the care of this troubled world -- and it is our souls -- our imaginations and our hearts -- that look to this ancient text and say -- yes, I understand why this is the day to think about my place in the world -- to think about my obligations to be God’s partner in creation… I am aiming my soul towards home…

Barbara Carr
© 2003