News - Chag Sameach! - Parshas Bereishit

[Elias Friedman]

Chag Sameach everyone;

 

I'd like to thank everyone who came and helped out to make our 101st annual high holyday services a success. Rabbi Zweig expressed great pleasure in visiting our community and many congregants reciprocated that feeling.

 

As you already know, we aren't having services for Sukkos, Shemini Atzeret, or Simchas Torah. I'll be leaving my own sukkah up over Shemini Atzeret if anyone would like to visit and have a snack with me, you'll be very welcome. My address is 69 Crane Rd in Ellington and directions can be found by clicking here.

 

This Saturday being the first Shabbos in October, we will be having our regularly scheduled Shabbos Shacharis services at 9:00 am. The Parsha is Bereishit since it's right after Simchas Torah. You'll find a great summary of the parsha with links to commentary and resources at the bottom of this email.

 

Today is Hoshana Rabbah, the final day of the high holydays. As Rabbi Zweig explained it to me, while our judgement was written on Rosh Hashonah and was sealed on Yom Kippur, Hoshana Rabbah is the day when it's put in the mail - so to speak. So here's to hoping everyone was written with a good judgement in the book of life.

 

And finally on to a bit of unpleasant news. I wouldn't bother you all with this, but since the story is in the newspaper, I figured I'd better address it. Last week sometime between Yom Kippur and the begining of Sukkos, a vandal threw two bricks through two of the windows on the south side of the shul. A storm window, a screen, and one of the main windows were broken. No other damage was done and nothing was stolen. The police have listed it as a criminal mischief as there is no direct evidence that this was an overtly anti-semitic act. It really looks like this is an isolated incident, but nevertheless the police have promised me that they would be getting back into their former habit of waiting for speeders in our parking lot. If any of you would like to talk about this, feel free to write, call or visit- I won't be answering the phone for Yom Tov then Shabbos starting tonight though. As I invited above, come visit me in my sukkah tomorrow or see me at shul on Shabbos if you want to chat with me prior to Saturday night.

 

As always, be safe and be well and enjoy the parsha summary below.

--
Elias Friedman A.S., EMT-P
President Congregation Knesseth Israel
http://www.ellingtonshul.org/

elip...@gmail.com
http://elipongo.blogspot.com/

 

 

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bereishit (בראשית) Genesis 1:1–6:8 The Weekly Torah portion in synagogues on Shabbat, Saturday, 24 Tishrei , 5768; October 6, 2007 "God created man in His image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them." (Genesis 1:27.)When God began creation, the earth was unformed and void, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and God's wind swept over the water.

Creation of Light (illustration by Gustave Doré)

God spoke and created in six days:

• First day: God separated light from darkness.
• Second day: God separated the waters, creating sky.
• Third day: God gathered the water below the sky, creating land and sea, and God caused vegetation to sprout from the land.
• Fourth day: God set lights in the sky to separate days and years, creating the sun, the moon, and the stars.
• Fifth day: God had the waters bring forth living creatures, and blessed them to be fruitful and multiply.
• Sixth day: God had the earth bring forth living creatures, and made man in God's image, male and female, giving man dominion over the animals and the earth, and blessed man to be fruitful and multiply. God gave vegetation to man and the animals for food.
• Seventh day: God ceased work and blessed the Shabbat|seventh day, declaring it holy.

The Creation of Adam (painting by Michelangelo )

Before any shrub or grass had yet sprouted on earth, and before God had sent rain for the earth, a flow would well up from the ground to water the earth. God formed man from the dust, blew the breath of life into his nostrils, and made him a living being. God planted a garden in the east in Eden, caused to grow there every good and pleasing tree, and placed the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and bad in the middle of the garden. A river issued from Eden to water the garden, and then divided into four branches: the Pishon, which winds through Havilah, where the gold is; the Gihon, which winds through Cush; the Tigris, which flows east of Asshur; and the Euphrates. God placed the man in the garden of Eden to till and tend it, and freed him to eat from every tree of the garden, except for the tree of knowledge of good and bad, warning that if the man ate of it, he would die.

Announcing that it was not good for man to be alone and that God would make for him a fitting helper, God formed out of the earth all the beasts and birds and brought them to the man to name. The man Adam named all the animals, but found no fitting helper. So God cast a deep sleep upon the man and took one of his ribs and fashioned it into a woman and brought her to the man. The man declared her bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh, and called her woman. Thus a man leaves his parents and clings to his wife, so that they become one flesh. The man and the woman were naked, but felt no shame.

The Fall of Man (painting by Lucas Cranach the Elder )

The serpent, the shrewdest of the beasts, asked the woman whether God had really forbidden her to eat any of the fruit in the garden. The woman replied that they could eat any fruit other than that of the tree in the middle of the garden, which God had warned them neither to eat nor to touch, on pain of death. The serpent told the woman that she would not die, but that as soon as she ate the fruit, her eyes would be opened and she would be like divine beings who knew good and bad. When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, pleasing in appearance, and desirable as a source of wisdom, she ate some of its fruit and gave some to her husband to eat. Then their eyes were opened and they saw that they were naked; and they sewed themselves loincloths out of fig leaves.

Adam and Eve Driven out of Eden (illustration by Gustave Doré )

Hearing God move in the garden, they hid in the trees. God asked the man where he was. The man replied that he grew afraid when he heard God, and he hid because he was naked. God asked him who told him that he was naked and whether he had eaten the forbidden fruit. The man replied that the woman whom God put at his side gave him the fruit, and he ate. When God asked the woman what she had done, she replied that the serpent duped her, and she ate. God cursed the serpent to crawl on its belly, to eat dirt, and to live in enmity with the woman and her offspring. God cursed the woman to bear children in pain, to desire her husband, and to be ruled by him. And God cursed Adam to toil to earn his food from the ground, which would sprout thorns and thistles, until he returned to the ground from which he was taken.

Adam named his wife Eve, because she was the mother to all. And God made skin garments to clothe Adam and Eve.

Remarking that the man had become like God, knowing good and bad, God became concerned that he should also eat from the tree of life and live forever, so God banished him from the garden of Eden, to till the soil. God drove the man out, and stationed cherubim and a fiery ever-turning sword east of the garden to guard the tree of life.

Death of Abel (illustration by Gustave Doré)

Eve bore Cain and Abel, who became a farmer and a shepherd. Cain brought God an offering from the fruit of the soil, and Abel brought the choicest of the firstlings of his flock. God paid heed to Abel and his offering, but not to Cain and his, distressing Cain. God asked Cain why he was distressed, for if he did right there would be uplift, but if he did not, sin couched at the door, yet he could be master it.

Cain spoke to Abel, and when they were in the field, Cain killed Abel. When God asked Cain where his brother was, Cain replied that he did not know, asking he was his brother's keeper. God asked Cain what he had done, as his brother's blood cried out to God from the ground. God cursed Cain to fail at farming and to become a ceaseless wanderer. Cain complained to God that his punishment was too great to bear, as anyone who met him might kill him. So God put a mark on Cain and promised to take sevenfold vengeance on anyone who would kill him. Cain left God's presence and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

Cain had a son Enoch, founded a city, and named it after Enoch. Enoch's great-great-grandson Lamech took two wives: Adah and Zillah. Adah bore Jabal, the ancestor of those who dwell in tents and amidst herds, and Jubal, the ancestor of all who play the lyre and the pipe. And Zillah bore Tubal-cain, who forged implements of copper and iron. Lamech told his wives that he had slain a lad for bruising him, and that if Cain was avenged sevenfold, then Lamech should be avenged seventy-sevenfold.

Adam and Eve had a third son and named him Seth, meaning "God has provided me with another offspring in place of Abel." Seth had a son named Enosh, and then men began to invoke the Lord by name. After the birth of Seth, Adam had more sons and daughters, and lived a total of 930 years before he died. Adam's descendants and their liefspans were: Seth, 912 years; Enosh, 905 years; Kenan, 910 years; Mahalalel, 895 years; and Jared, 962 years. Jared's son Enoch walked with God 300 years, and when he reached age 365, God took him. Enoch's son Methuselah lived 969 years and his son Lamech lived 777 years. Lamech had a son Noah, saying that Noah would provide relief from their work and toil on the soil that God had cursed. When Noah had lived 500 years, he had three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Divine beings admired and took wives from among the daughters of men, who bore the Nephilim, heroes of old, men of renown. God set the days allowed to man at 120 years. God saw how great man's wickedness was and how man's every plan was evil, and God regretted making man and became saddened. God expressed an intention to blot men and animals from the earth, but Noah found God's favor.

Hebrew and English Text Hear the parshah chanted Commentary from Conservative Judaism by the Jewish Theological Seminary Commentary from Conservative Judaism by the University of Judaism Commentary from Reform Judaism Commentaries from Orthodox Judaism by Project Genesis Commentaries from Orthodox Judaism by Chabad.org Commentaries from Aish.com Commentaries from Reconstructionist Judaism  

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