Bereshit פָּרָשַׁת בְּרֵאשִׁית

Bereshit;  We begin again!

But this time we begin the last third of our Parsha, which creates a different kind of challenge from last year’s reading which put us right in the middle of each narrative. Amazingly, when we begin this week’s Parsha, the universe has already been created. We have heaven and earth. We have living creatures. We even have “man” the first human being, even though we see the creation of that first human -ADAM- at the middle portion of the Parsha as well.

We read of that creation earlier in Bereshit:

“The Lord God formed man from the dust of the earth. He blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being.”

Think about this for a moment. God is omnipotent, all powerful. That means that God could have created human beings out of anything. It also means that God could have created human beings out of NOTHING. Yet here we see that God chose to create us out of the “dust of the earth.” In some way, we could not have had more humble beginnings. Perhaps that’s the point- if we keep in our pocket the message that we are “nothing but dust,” it would be pretty hard to become arrogant and vain. We also can’t help but think of how we also return to dust when we die, dust to dust. Rashi tells us that this passage reminds us that we are all a combination of the earthly and the divine. This is a beautiful sentiment that we can keep in mind as we worry about our place in the universe. But, in addition, think about the fact that we are from the earth.

I know that most interpretations of Genesis focus on Adam’s POWER over the earth, including the animals. But the fact that we come from the earth perhaps also gives us not only power but also RESPONSIBILITY. Responsibility to treat the earth with care and respect. To think of the earth as our original home, our original state, and to think of ourselves in partnership with the planet. If we consider that perspective and focus less on our control, then perhaps we can learn to live more harmoniously with nature and the miracles around us.