Unimaginable Potential

The first words of Parashat B’reishit (Gen. 1:1–6:8) state: “In the beginning Elohim created the heavens and the earth.” It is the very beginning of all things, compacted into seven Hebrew words that describe a massive, expansive event that resulted in time, space and all matter flashing into what we perceive as reality—yet these words take up up less space than the Torah’s description of the marriage between Isaac and Rebecca.

The brevity of the Creation narrative hints at a universe bursting forth into a complex, finite existence. But the brevity, and what follows, is also a kind of metaphor.

Those few words expand into a world of profound lessons that embody scientific prinicples and life-lessons that can shape our world by helping us actualize the potential God embedded within our physical and spiritual nature.

The late Dr. David Medved, an observant Jewish physicist, in his book Hidden Light: Science Secrets of the Bible, speaks of science’s limited understanding of how the universe began. Even so, the Torah’s description of the universe’s beginning is consistent with current ideas in theoretical physics.

To demonstrate this, Medved rephrases the first sentence of B’reishit by expressing its meaning in scientific terms:

“In the beginning God created space-time (HaShamayim) and compacted matter (eretz).”

Even the Torah’s use of the Hebrew word et, as in “...et HaShamayim ve’et HaEretz,” suggests an intriguing idea of totality. Et is spelled aleph-tav, the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet, suggesting the beginning and the end of something—and everything in between.

That concept provides an interesting parallel with the Law of Conservation of Energy. This scientific principle holds that the total amount of energy in an isolated system remains constant; energy cannot be created or destroyed, but only transformed from one form to another.

A sense of completeness can be seen throughout the six days of Creation.

The Torah teaches, for example, “The earth brought forth seed-bearing plants of every kind.” In other words, living things are presented as possessing within themselves the ability to replicate and reproduce.

The unity of the Creator with His Creation can also be contemplated in the instant when all things came into being. It sounds like the so-called Big Bang Theory.

Modern cosmology traces the observable universe back to an extraordinarily hot and dense initial state from which space expanded and the universe developed. Popular descriptions sometimes call this beginning “the singularity”—the mysterious boundary beyond which our present theories cannot adequately describe what occurred.

The Big Bang theory is usually credited to the work of Georges Lemaître, a Belgian priest, astronomer and professor of physics who, in 1927, proposed an expanding universe.

Yet the same ideas developed even earlier.

For example, in 1884, writer Edgar Allan Poe composed a prose poem called Eureka wherein he explains that the universe exploded outward from a single point. He proposed that the darkness at night was proof of an expanding universe because the light from stars far from our own galaxy had not yet reached us.

And Poe believed in God.

Centuries earlier, Rabbi Isaac Luria, the Arizal (1534–1572), taught that Creation involved a concealment or contraction of God’s infinite light in order to allow a finite world to exist.

According to this concept, finite beings and genuine human freedom require a reality in which God’s presence is not overwhelmingly apparent. This contraction or concealment is known as Tzimtzum.

The Arizal seemed to be describing a concept similar to the Big Bang.

Lurianic Kabbalah tells us that God begins with a contraction (withdrawing the infinite light) so that the universe can experience an expansion—the projection of physical reality into the void.

Many other core Torah concepts emerge from the opening passages of B’reishit.

For example, the Torah employs the name Elohim for God which can mean “judges,” which points to judgment, order and the natural laws through which Creation operates.

It is no coincidence that Elohim and HaTeva, the Hebrew word for “nature,” share the same gematria, a numerical value of 86. The correspondence suggests that the physical realm itself expresses divine will which is the ultimate order of things.

It is not until Genesis 2:4 that the Tetragrammaton, the four-lettered name for God appears (sometimes translated as HaShem, or The Name) for the very first time:

“These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that יהוה God made the earth and the heavens"

The Likutei Moharan teaches that the Four-Lettered Name and Elohim, are "aspects of chesed (kindness, mercy) and gevurah," and that both are needed.

The Gate of Unity underscores how the Tetragrammaton's pure mercy keeps creation from collapsing into pure judgment of Elohim.

Proverbs 3:19 tells us, “By wisdom, God laid the foundation of the earth. He established the heavens by understanding.”

The fact that B’reishit is an exhilarating mixture of metaphor, symbolism and narrative that at times seems almost to conceal its subject is—again a lesson—our God is hidden from mortal eyes.

And that concealment makes genuine Free Will possible.

God created the earth and saw that it was good. We emulate God when we consciously choose good.

The moment we open the Torah to B’reishit, we confront the most fundamental choice of all: whether to accept or reject the Creator of all things.

On the sixth day, God created (bara) Adam from the dust of the earth. Jewish tradition identifies the place where his creation occurred—on the Foundation Stone which would later serve as the resting place for the Ark of the Covenant within the Holy of Holies, in the Temple of Solomon, thus connecting humanity from its beginning with the place ultimately associated with divine service.

In the Hebrew of Genesis 2:7 we learn that HaShem forms (vayitzer) Adam.

Physicist Adam Goldfinger states in his book Thinking About Creation: Eternal Torah & Modern Physics that the word vayitzer is written with two yuds. Rabbinic tradition sees significance in this unusual spelling, associating it with the two inclinations within man: the yetzer hatov and the yetzer hara—the inclination toward good and the inclination toward evil.

The same Creation that begins with heavens, earth, light, matter and life culminates in a creature capable of choosing what he will do with all that has been created.

Following the creation of man, God rests.

Thanks to the grounding principle that Torah means “instruction” we can learn that HaShem wants humans to take a break, to chill so that we can refresh and regroup.

As expressed in contemporary parlance, God “gave it rest”. The “it” being the Creation process, something that I alluded to above.

In essence He stopped short of perfection.

It was His love for us that He did so. If we had been brought into a perfect world we would have nothing to do. The ability to create, build and sustain gives us joy, making us co-creators with HaShem.

On a more profound level, God was speaking to our souls when He said, "Let us make man in our image." The Rambam tells us that the soul's ability to receive experiences and choose its response is fundamental to being created in God's image. This is not passive mirroring; it is active participation in the unfolding of reality."

The Genesis narrative takes an alarming turn with the Torah’s account of the first murder, Cain kills his brother Hevel.

God marks Cain for this act.

The text tells us that the mark identifies and protects him from being killed in retaliation. Yet one might also wonder whether there is another reason to Cain’s punishment: he has violently destroyed the physical life of another being who, like himself, was created b’tzelem Elohim—in the image of God.

This seems to be an introduction to another vital principle found in Torah—midah k'neged midah—literally “measure for measure” which alludes to the God’s fairness.

You will be judged only for the act you committed.

Admittedly, the seriousness of our action can mean a harsher judgement. Thankfully, God's measure-for-measure is itself an act of kindness because it allows a person to see the connection between their transgression and its consequence, and thus to return in repentance. Unless one rejects God’s love and chooses a path that leads to destruction.

HaShem formed us in His image so that we can seek wisdom and understanding. We achieve that by fearing God and embracing Torah principles as keys to knowledge, moral discernment and purposeful living.

The universe described in the first words of B’reishit emerges with unimaginable potential, especially for humanity.

We have been given the ability to form our lives for good, to build our world and establish it according to the wisdom embedded in Torah.