Bereishit: A Very Good Place to Start

God is portrayed in many different ways throughout the Bible. Sometimes God is jealous, other times vengeful, loving, judgmental, parental, or regal. I imagine that these different images mirror who we are, and how we ourselves relate to God. But throughout it all, God is portrayed as omnipotent - all powerful and in control. Or maybe not...

Why does it take God six days to create the world? Might one not think that if it's God, who is able to do anything, that the world could be created in an instant; fully functional and flawless? Why the slow, gradual approach to creation (that is, of course, if you accept that creating the sun, the moon, and all the stars in one day is slow and gradual)?

And even after God employs this incremental strategy, the result STILL isn't perfect! Next week we'll read about the story of Noah, and how God was displeased with the world, and decided to start over again after the Great Flood. Does this really mean that God made a mistake, that God is fallible?

Before we descend into a theological crisis here, I'd like to digress for a moment. More than teaching us about the nature of God, I think the Bible teaches us about humanity, and how WE imagine God, how WE imagine creation. And therefore, the story of creation teaches us patience and trial & error. Even God created one thing at a time, made sure that it worked, and then moved on to the next stage. We too should learn to not expect to accomplish too much at once, and not be impatient with progress or development. We have to allow things to move along gradually, and sometimes even accept failure, as well as the need to start over again from square one.

When we allow ourselves to let go of the infallibility of the Torah and the flawlessness of our perception of God, we approach the texts of our Tradition with greater integrity, honesty, and with our eyes wide open. The Torah is teaching us about life! Let us embrace its lessons and shed our preconceived notions and expectations. Today we begin with the first page of the Torah, so let's set off on our journey with a fresh start.