Emmanuel's Email : Shabbos Tzetl: Bereishit & Mevarchim Cheshvan

CANDLE LIGHTING

6:16pm - Early candle lighting

7:20pm - Candle Lighting, Friday.

8:20pm - Havdalah, Saturday.

These times are for Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Eruv Status: KOSHER

Shabbat Shalom!

This Shabbat is Shabbat Mevarchim ("the Shabbat that blesses" the new month): a special prayer is recited blessing the Rosh Chodesh ("Head of the Month") of the upcoming month of Cheshvan (also known as "MarCheshvan"), which falls on Sunday and Monday of next week.

Prior to the blessing, we announce the precise time of the molad, the "birth" of the new moon. See molad times.

YESHIVA SHULE TIMES

Please click here to view the Yeshivah Shule Tzetel for Shabbos Bereishis.
Please click here to view the PDFs of the Weekly Publications previously distributed in Shule each Shabbos.

PARSHAH IN A NUTSHELL

G‑d creates the world in six days. On the first day He makes darkness and light. On the second day He forms the heavens, dividing the "upper waters" from the "lower waters." On the third day He sets the boundaries of land and sea, and calls forth trees and greenery from the earth. On the fourth day He fixes the position of the sun, moon and stars as timekeepers and illuminators of the earth. Fish, birds and reptiles are created on the fifth day; land animals, and then the human being, on the sixth. G‑d ceases work on the seventh day, and sanctifies it as a day of rest.

G‑d forms the human body from the dust of the earth, and blows into his nostrils a "living soul." Originally Man is a single person, but deciding that "it is not good that man be alone," G‑d takes a "side" from the man, forms it into a woman, and marries them to each other.

Adam and Eve are placed in the Garden of Eden, and commanded not to eat from the "Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil." The serpent persuades Eve to violate the command, and she shares the forbidden fruit with her husband. Because of their sin, it is decreed that man will experience death, returning to the soil from which he was formed, and that all gain will come only through struggle and hardship. Man is banished from the Garden.

Eve gives birth to two sons, Cain and Abel. Cain quarrels with Abel and murders him, and becomes a rootless wanderer. A third son, Seth, is born to Adam; Seth's eighth-generation descendant, Noah, is the only righteous man in a corrupt world.

HAFTORAH IN A NUTSHELL

Isaiah 42:5-21.

The haftorah of this week's reading opens with a statement by "the Almighty G‑d, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who laid out the earth and made grow from it." This echoes the Torah portion's recounting of the creation of the world in six days.

G‑d speaks to the prophet Isaiah, reminding him of his life's purpose and duty, namely that of arousing the Jewish people to return to being a light unto the nations, "To open blind eyes, to bring prisoners out of a dungeon; those who sit in darkness out of a prison."

The prophecy continues with a discussion regarding the Final Redemption, and the song that all of creation will sing to G‑d on that day. G‑d promises to punish all the nations that have persecuted Israel while they were exiled. The prophet also rebukes Israel for their errant ways, but assures them that they will return to the correct path and will be redeemed.

SAGES ON THE PARSHAH

In the beginning G‑d created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1)

The Torah says: "I was the tool of G‑d's artistry." An architect who builds a palace does not do so on his own; he has scrolls and notebooks which he consults regarding how to place the rooms, where to set the doors. So it was with G‑d: He looked into the Torah and created the world.

(Midrash Rabbah)

G‑d looked into the Torah and created the world. Man looks into Torah and sustains the world.

(Zohar)

The Torah's first word, bereishit, is an acronym for beit reishit—"two firsts" (the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet, beit, stands for the number two). This is to say that the world was created for the sake of two things called "first" (reishit)—the Torah (Proverbs 8:22) and the people of Israel (Jeremiah 2:3).

(Rashi; Midrash Rabbah)

In the beginning G‑d created the heavens and the earth (1:1)

Said Rabbi Yitzchak: The Torah ought to have started with "This month shall be to you . . ." (Exodus 12:2), which is the first mitzvah commanded to the people of Israel. Why, then, does it begin with "In the beginning [G‑d created the heavens and the earth]"? . . . So that if the nations of the world say to Israel, "You are thieves, for having conquered the lands of the seven nations," they can reply to them: "The entire world is G‑d's; He created it, and He grants it to whoever He desires. It was His will to give it to them, and it was His will to take it from them and give it to us."

(Rashi, Genesis 1:1)

The above dialogue between the "nations of the world" and the "people of Israel" also takes place in the "miniature universe" within the heart of man.

The Jew serves G‑d in two ways: 1) by fulfilling the divine commandments (mitzvot) of the Torah, and 2) by living his or her ordinary life—eating, sleeping, doing business, etc.—as an exercise in experiencing the divine and serving G‑d's purpose in creation (as expressed by the ideals "All your deeds should be for the sake of Heaven" [Ethics of the Fathers 2:12] and "Know Him in all your ways" [Proverbs 3:6]).

It is regarding the second area that the Jew's internal "nations of the world"—his worldly outlook—argues: You are thieves, for having conquered the lands of the seven nations! What business have you commandeering the "secular" areas of life? Must you turn everything into a religious issue? Serve G‑d in the ways He has explicitly told us to serve Him, and leave the rest to their rightful, worldly owners!

To answer this argument, the Torah begins not with its first mitzvah, but with the statement "In the beginning G‑d created the heavens and the earth." The entire world is G‑d's; He created it, the Torah is saying—not just the matzah eaten on Passover or the percentage of one's income given to charity.

With its opening statement, the Torah is establishing that it is not merely a rulebook, a list of things to do or not to do. It is G‑d's blueprint for creation, our guide for realizing the purpose for which everything in heaven and earth was made. Every creature, object and element; every force, phenomenon and potential; every moment of time was created by G‑d toward a purpose. Our mission in life is to conquer the lands of the seven nations and transform them into a Holy Land—a world permeated with the goodness and perfection of its Creator.

(The Lubavitcher Rebbe)

In the beginning (1:1)

"In the beginning" refers to the beginning of time—the first, indivisible moment, before which time did not exist.

(Sforno)

Therein lies the answer to the question, posed by certain philosophers, as to why did G‑d create the world only when He did. Why not one year, a hundred years or a million years earlier, since whatever reasons He had for creation were certainly just as valid then? But time is itself part of G‑d's creation. We cannot ask why the world was not created earlier, since there is no stretch of time that can be termed before creation.

(Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi)

Time was the first creation; thus the first mitzvah is kiddush hachodesh—the sanctification of time by setting the months and seasons of the Jewish calendar.

(The Lubavitcher Rebbe)

In the beginning G‑d created (1:1)

The Hebrew verb bara ("created") employed by this verse specifically means the creation of something from nothing.

(Ibn Ezra; Nachmanides)

LAMPLIGHTER
LL 1474 Bereishit

ZICHRON YAAKOV
ZY Bereshis 5781.pdf