It's the Beginning, All Over Again!

One of the most beautiful things about Torah is that every year, we get to rediscover each story, lesson, and law. After Simchat Torah, once we have gone through the arduous task of rolling and rolling the scrolls and parchment from the end of D'varim all the way back to the beginning of B'reishit, we start anew. After all of the experiences of the year that has ended, we begin to read the parshiyot, the weekly Torah portions, with eyes that have changed just a bit since the year before.

This Shabbat we start again with Parshat B'reishit, the first parsha in the first book of Torah. Like many of the parshiyot in the first two books of Torah, B'reishit contains a number of pretty seminal Biblical stories. We have the story of Creation, human beings are created and given the task of protecting the Garden of Eden, the expulsion from the Garden of Eden, the story of Cain and Abel (are we our siblings' keepers?), and the birth of Adam & Eve's third son, Seth. Torah lists the ten generations between Adam and Noah, and the parsha concludes with God's sorrow over human wickedness.

Some discussion questions:

• Each time God creates something, Torah says that it was "good" - what do you think this means?
• Why do you think God names things? What is the importance of a name?
• In Jewish tradition, Shabbat and holidays begin at sundown - what clue in these first verses explains why this is?
• What does it mean to be your "brother's keeper"? What are your responsibilities to other people in your family?

For more commentaries on this parsha, consider the following resources:

• Torah Sparks - from the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism - a brief summary of the parsha with some great discussion questions
• Here is a list of various commentaries from across the denominations, courtesy of My Jewish Learning.
• g-dcast.com is a wonderful website with animated shorts for each week's parsha - check it out!

I will leave you this week with something a little fun - Torah in Haiku. This comes from The Torah in Haiku and was written by Ed Nickow of Temple Chai in Long Grove, IL.

Cain's question to G-d:
"Am I my brother's keeper?"
The right answer? "Yes"