Genesis - Cycle One - 0101-0608 - Bereshith

And so we begin. We have one God, one man created in His image. But even beginnings have beginnings. Much happens before. As we cycle from Deuteronomy to Genesis we feel close to so much. We feel the sphere of revival and rebirth, read that God creates heaven and earth and/or (depending on commentary) that God is born from Himself. There is the inhale and exhale, birth and the first division, the first dichotomy, as well as a merging. If God is one, time is one. And if time is one, then all acts of creation are concurrent. This brings us back to birth and the first dichotomy, the one God. Cyclical logic, no doubt. But so is Torah.

Let’s look at line 1-27 in Bereshith. In the image of God, He created him, male and female, He created them. He blessed them.

What jumps out at me is the grammar. He created him and He created them are pushed together. Two full actions. One sentence, a run on. There’s lightning speed, almost an explosion of creation. Regardless of meaning, we breathe in a dichotomy and a merging simply through structure.

To continue with the grammar in this line, God is in the singular. The verb conjugation in Hebrew is in the third person singular. God is one name. Elsewhere, when God speaks, we get one voice (see how it moves later in the wind like a leaf). And yet the word Elohim infers the plural with the ending in im. Mayim. Shemayim. These words (with Elohim) show up at least 8 times in the first five lines of Bereshit. They have plural endings but often refer to singular forces. If we don’t grasp by now that this singular/plural thing is a major issue in Torah then we are missing the main event.

Let’s look at the grammar some more. To be correct the first two phrases would read… In His image, God created him… In this (and other) translations, however, the He comes right after God. This creates juxtaposition between two forces. At best, they may be two within one. We see this in line 5-1 as well. The word choice though has changed. It is written…On the day that God created man, He made him in the likeness of God. Here, after man has made a few mistakes, the dichotomy is not as easy to discern. We see juxtaposition (God with God) but it feels distant, blurred. I think part of man’s punishment therefore (for eating the apple, for murder, etc) is the struggle to connect forces that have blurred boundaries. The commandment love your neighbor as you love yourself (Leviticus 19:18) is a good example of such a challenge. If we are already doing it, we wouldn’t be told to. And clearly, the closer we get (as human beings) the more blurred the boundaries and the more we wrestle with connection and love.

Now let’s look at the meaning of the words in line 1-27. First, one man is created…him. Then, suddenly (with just a comma) we have male and female. Given earlier events, it doesn’t surprise me that we go from one to two quick as a snap. After all, in the beginning of Genesis, God is on a roll. Huge events occur in no time at all. God creates day and night, the earth and the seas, the greater and the lesser light. And we always get God’s stamp of approval, that rhythmic short sentence…and God saw that it was good. Of course, it… and not the word they...shows the intent of oneness.

What’s our God to do? I mean, creation is good. But it causes dichotomies and God wants God to be one. In the creating of man, therefore, the divine throws in a gift: them. The sea and the earth are never them. Neither is darkness and light, the morning and the evening. But man, male and female, now are one word. We are given the ability to connect not only ourselves but everything around us. This is huge, joyous. We have a purpose. We are gatherers of light, alchemists, magicians, people with blood flow and heart flow and minds that can bring divine sparks to a place of oneness. My guess is that God probably keeps his hypothetical fingers crossed. And then he blesses us.

Repeat. He blesses us. This blessing is more than any blessing. It’s the first in all the scriptures. Therefore, in my opinion, it can be seen as a contract. Through Torah, man is to re-connect light and re-establish divine consciousness (or find the Promised Land). In short, man is to love. This is the law. And what a glorious law! We want to love within ourselves as well: We want to bring our heightened and earthly selves into one being. As Martin Buber says… God has drawn (the world) out of the divine essence so that you may bring it back to God. Meet the world with the fullness of your being and you shall meet God.

Finally, we are allowed to make mistakes. This is clear when the meaning in line 1-27 is repeated in line 5-1. Even after the het of Adam and Eve, the murder of Abel, more murders by Lemekh, we are to bring together the upper with the lower lights, the earth with the sea. This is the reason for our being. If we can’t do this, if we become wicked, then our existence becomes futile. What’s clear though is that given that we are here, God’s trust is strong. We can all practice tikkun olam. No matter the struggles and how they may manifest to our human eyes. No matter how we yearn for someone to show up and do it for us. Our kavanah is to keep the practice in body and/or in soul. This isn’t only Bereshith. This is Torah. And it’s beautiful.

So, no matter the blurred boundaries, let us all love our neighbor. Let us all collect divine sparks. May we feel the love as one in our hearts. May we show others how. May we respect the dichotomies inherent in creation without fear. May we smile as the upper lights merge with the lower even if it happens in a blink of an eye. May we love Torah. And now and always may we all merge as one in the divine light of the heavenly sea.