RR B’reisheet Genesis 1:1-6:8 by Jeffery Freeman
Shabbat Shalom,
We are starting our Torah reading schedule once again. Our first portion is B’reisheet – In the Beginning Genesis 1-6:8. The name Genesis comes from the Septuagint, an early Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures. Genesis translates to “Origins” which is a fair understanding of B’reisheet.
The name for this portion comes from Genesis 1:1 In the beginning (B’reisheet) God created the heavens and the earth.
Contained in this reading are the creation story, the fall of man when Adam and Eve eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, the story of Cain and Abel, the genealogy from Adam to Noah, and the descent of mankind into near complete corruption.
Let’s start with the beginning. In Hebrew Genesis 1:1 reads: B’reisheet bara Elohim et ha’shamayim v’et ha’eretz. Literally – In the beginning created Elohim the heavens and the earth.
The second word, bara, means “created.” Bara, in its various forms, appears 55 times in the Hebrew Scriptures. Yet bara never takes a human subject. Humans asah (make or do) or yatzar (form), only God can bara. Humans cannot create anything from nothing. Everything we form or make uses materials that God created. Just a random thought.
What I really want to discuss is night and day. In Genesis 1 the phrase “There was evening and there was morning” is repeated after stating what God had just finished creating.
We western thinkers consider the new day to begin either at midnight or at dawn. The phrase “A new day is dawning” comes to mind. We think of night following day. But that’s not how the Bible sees it. The Bible sees day following night.
Let’s analyze the first day. Verse 2 Now the earth was chaos and waste, darkness (night/evening) was on the surface of the deep… verse 3 Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light (morning/day). Verse 5 There was evening and there was morning, the first day.
When a baby is born, he or she comes from darkness (the womb) into the light of the world. Yeshua talked about spiritual rebirth with Nicodemus.
John 3:4-5 “How can a man be born when he is old?” Nicodemus said to him. He cannot enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born, can he?” Yeshua answered, “Amen, amen I tell you, unless one is born of water and of spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”
When someone is baptized, probably the most common statement used is a variation of: “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Buried with Yeshua in baptism, raised to walk in newness of life.” (Matthew 28:19 and Romans 6:3-4).
Yeshua was born, like us, from the dark womb to the light of the world. He was baptized into the darkness of the water and raised into the light of the Ruach Ha’Kodesh when John baptized him. And he has already done us one better, he went into the darkness of death and was raised physically into the newness (light) of life.
Because of Yeshua’s sacrifice, we now look forward to the day of his return when we all will be physically raised to eternal life (light), when there will be no more darkness.
Revelation 22:3-5 No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in the city, and his servants shall serve him. They shall see his face, and his name shall be on their foreheads. Night shall be no more, and people will have no need for lamplight – for ADONAI-Elohim will shine on them. And they shall reign forever and ever.
The Parshah ends with a warning and a promise.
Genesis 6:5-8 Then ADONAI saw that the wickedness of humankind was great on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their heart was only on evil all the time…So ADONAI said, “I will wipe out humankind, whom I have created, from the face of the ground…because I regret that I made them.” But Noah found favor in ADONAI’s eyes.
We don’t know what exactly society was up to that was so wicked that God sent the flood waters, but when we look at our world today it is hard to believe that it must have somehow been worse.
We are indeed at a point in history that Isaiah warned us about in 5:20
Oy to those who call evil good and good evil; who present darkness as light and light as darkness…
In Genesis 15:16 God tells Abraham that it will be a while (like 430 years a while) before his descendants will inherit the Promised Land because “the sins of the Amorites are not yet complete.” Apparently, as bad as it seems to us, the sins of this world are not yet complete. When will God put an end to this madness?
Matthew 24:26 But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, not the Son, except the Father alone.
Until the Father sends Yeshua, we can only do the best that we can to be the light by representing Yeshua and the Father bringing people out of darkness by making disciples, baptizing them, and teaching them all God and Yeshua have commanded us…oh and praying Bo Yeshua, Bo!
Shabbat Shalom
Daily Bread, reading plan by Lars Enarson (https://www.thewatchman.org/)
Sat 10-Oct-2026 29th of Tishrei, 5787 Parashat Bereshit Shabbat Machar Chodesh
Ge 5:25-6:8 1 Sa 20:18-42 Jn 1:1-17
We are starting our Torah reading schedule once again. Our first portion is B’reisheet – In the Beginning Genesis 1-6:8. The name Genesis comes from the Septuagint, an early Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures. Genesis translates to “Origins” which is a fair understanding of B’reisheet.
The name for this portion comes from Genesis 1:1 In the beginning (B’reisheet) God created the heavens and the earth.
Contained in this reading are the creation story, the fall of man when Adam and Eve eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, the story of Cain and Abel, the genealogy from Adam to Noah, and the descent of mankind into near complete corruption.
Let’s start with the beginning. In Hebrew Genesis 1:1 reads: B’reisheet bara Elohim et ha’shamayim v’et ha’eretz. Literally – In the beginning created Elohim the heavens and the earth.
The second word, bara, means “created.” Bara, in its various forms, appears 55 times in the Hebrew Scriptures. Yet bara never takes a human subject. Humans asah (make or do) or yatzar (form), only God can bara. Humans cannot create anything from nothing. Everything we form or make uses materials that God created. Just a random thought.
What I really want to discuss is night and day. In Genesis 1 the phrase “There was evening and there was morning” is repeated after stating what God had just finished creating.
We western thinkers consider the new day to begin either at midnight or at dawn. The phrase “A new day is dawning” comes to mind. We think of night following day. But that’s not how the Bible sees it. The Bible sees day following night.
Let’s analyze the first day. Verse 2 Now the earth was chaos and waste, darkness (night/evening) was on the surface of the deep… verse 3 Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light (morning/day). Verse 5 There was evening and there was morning, the first day.
When a baby is born, he or she comes from darkness (the womb) into the light of the world. Yeshua talked about spiritual rebirth with Nicodemus.
John 3:4-5 “How can a man be born when he is old?” Nicodemus said to him. He cannot enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born, can he?” Yeshua answered, “Amen, amen I tell you, unless one is born of water and of spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”
When someone is baptized, probably the most common statement used is a variation of: “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Buried with Yeshua in baptism, raised to walk in newness of life.” (Matthew 28:19 and Romans 6:3-4).
Yeshua was born, like us, from the dark womb to the light of the world. He was baptized into the darkness of the water and raised into the light of the Ruach Ha’Kodesh when John baptized him. And he has already done us one better, he went into the darkness of death and was raised physically into the newness (light) of life.
Because of Yeshua’s sacrifice, we now look forward to the day of his return when we all will be physically raised to eternal life (light), when there will be no more darkness.
Revelation 22:3-5 No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in the city, and his servants shall serve him. They shall see his face, and his name shall be on their foreheads. Night shall be no more, and people will have no need for lamplight – for ADONAI-Elohim will shine on them. And they shall reign forever and ever.
The Parshah ends with a warning and a promise.
Genesis 6:5-8 Then ADONAI saw that the wickedness of humankind was great on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their heart was only on evil all the time…So ADONAI said, “I will wipe out humankind, whom I have created, from the face of the ground…because I regret that I made them.” But Noah found favor in ADONAI’s eyes.
We don’t know what exactly society was up to that was so wicked that God sent the flood waters, but when we look at our world today it is hard to believe that it must have somehow been worse.
We are indeed at a point in history that Isaiah warned us about in 5:20
Oy to those who call evil good and good evil; who present darkness as light and light as darkness…
In Genesis 15:16 God tells Abraham that it will be a while (like 430 years a while) before his descendants will inherit the Promised Land because “the sins of the Amorites are not yet complete.” Apparently, as bad as it seems to us, the sins of this world are not yet complete. When will God put an end to this madness?
Matthew 24:26 But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, not the Son, except the Father alone.
Until the Father sends Yeshua, we can only do the best that we can to be the light by representing Yeshua and the Father bringing people out of darkness by making disciples, baptizing them, and teaching them all God and Yeshua have commanded us…oh and praying Bo Yeshua, Bo!
Shabbat Shalom
Daily Bread, reading plan by Lars Enarson (https://www.thewatchman.org/)
Sat 10-Oct-2026 29th of Tishrei, 5787 Parashat Bereshit Shabbat Machar Chodesh
Ge 5:25-6:8 1 Sa 20:18-42 Jn 1:1-17
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