The 1st Letter

'Bereishit Barah Elo-him, et hashamayim, v'et ha'aretz - In the Beginning of G-d's creating the heavens and earth...' (Genesis 1:1)

After the joyful celebration of Simchat Torah, where we celebrated the completion of the reading of the Torah, this week is "Shabbat Bereishit" - the beginning of the Torah anew. Action packed and full of "creation", innumerable gallons of ink have been spilled over the centuries by Sages deciphering & revealing the hidden layers in this week's Torah portion - "Bereishit - Genesis." There is a famous saying of the Baal Shem Tov: "One who grabs a part of 'etzem' (essence), he seizes it in its totality." As grand as something may be, if one grasps a level of truth somewhere in it, he has connected to the entire truth of that thing. Applying this idea to the Torah, perhaps when we learn a beautiful idea in any verse of the Torah, we have touched on the core of what the Torah is in its essence: G-d's will & wisdom.

When looking at this monumental parashah, let's look no further than the 1st word; actually the 1st letter. It is mentioned in the writings of Kabbalah (way before the theory of the 'Big-Bang' was theorized by scientists), that the entire universe can be found in the 1st word of the Torah, Bereishit - בְּרֵאשִׁית. The Sages continue, saying that all can actually be found in the first letter בְּ. Finally, they conclude, all can be found in the "dot" in the letter בְּ. So the idea that this universe began minute and expanded, seems to be shared by Torah & science alike.

But what can we, as Jews, learn from this 1st letter of the Torah? At first glance, it is a bit strange that the Torah begins with this letter at all, "bet - בְּ" which is the 2nd letter in the Torah! Why not start with the obvious 1st letter? The simple answer given, is that the 1st Hebrew letter alef - א, can begin the word "arrur - curse", while "bet" begins the word "bracha - blessing." But there are plenty of positive & negative words for both letters, so what's really going on here? The Torah is teaching us an important lesson by starting it with the 2nd letter: Reading the text, studying the Torah, is only the 2nd step. Something must come 1st. But isn't learning Torah an end all? What possible "preface" is necessary? When studying Torah, focusing one's mind on comprehending the subject matter is of primary importance. But what about the author? The answer is through preparation, step 1: Reflecting for a few moments that this that you are about to learn is G-d's wisdom which He condensed into a humanly intelligle form.

This is why the Torah begins with "bet", to hint to us that study is only the 2nd phase. When we 1st reflect on the source of what we are learning, its inner essence, we will merit the original explanation of our Sages on our lives - that Torah begins with a "bet" because it stands for the word "blessing".

Shabbat Shalom!