Exploring Genesis: This week’s Torah reading

This week the Torah scroll is rolled back to the beginning, the opening chapter of the book of Genesis. The first words in the Torah are among its most important.

In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth (Genesis 1:1)

The world was created singularly by God. The Hebrew word bara (created) in the Torah is used exclusively for God—for only God can create from nothing. While humans can “form” or “make” from other materials, we are unable to create from nothing. God is the beginning, the Source of everything.

Perhaps most important, with God as the sole Creator and therefore the God for all humanity, the world did not come about randomly. There is meaning and purpose to our existence.

— Rabbi David Woznica