#berisheet

As Jews, we are partners with God in creation-- the creation of goodness, wholeness, love, justice, and peace in our world.

In addition to reading Parshat Berisheet, the Creation Account, Jews around the world will be reading Isaiah 42:5-43:10 this beautiful Shabbat morning.

In the text, we find praises to God because of the Divine’s handiwork in creating the world.  Throughout the entire Hebrew of the Tanakh, God is usually given masculine pronouns but on this first Shabbat of our Torah cycle, we encounter maternal imagery for God.

“יְהוָה֙ כַּגִּבּ֣וֹר יֵצֵ֔א“ [”Adonai kagibor yetzeh”] “Adonai goes forth like a warrior...” (Is. 42:13), and God said that “כַּיּוֹלֵדָ֣ה אֶפְעֶ֔ה אֶשֹּׁ֥ם וְאֶשְׁאַ֖ף יָֽחַד׃" [”kayvoleydah efeh eshom v’eshaf yachad”] “Now I will shriek like a woman in labor, I will pant and I will gasp” (42:14)

God’s essence is attributed to a warrior that becomes as powerful as a woman in labor.  Imagine how revolutionary that statement was when our ancestors developed this and other texts, and how revolutionary it was when it was canonized in the Tanakh within the book of Isaiah, and how revolutionary that we as Jews have been reading it right alongside our Creation narrative for ... God knows how long!

May the start of the Torah bring you all strength, love, and joy!

"וַיִּבְרָ֨א אֱלֹהִ֤ים ׀ אֶת־הָֽאָדָם֙ בְּצַלְמ֔וֹ בְּצֶ֥לֶם אֱלֹהִ֖ים בָּרָ֣א אֹת֑וֹ זָכָ֥ר וּנְקֵבָ֖ה בָּרָ֥א אֹתָֽם׃”

“And God created humankind in God’s own Image, God created them: male and female, God created them.”  (Gen. 1:27)

In and out of Synagogue, we pray to the One who created us in Their Image. We feel obligated to show everyone the same basic respect as people are בצלמו, in God’s Image.  As Jews and human beings we are curious by nature and therefore we honor the wonderful research that medical professionals have made in the fields of gender, romantic and sexuality identities as well as in mental health. 

Although the text specifically mentions זכר ונכבה, male and female, we understand that the ancient biblical writers who interpreted God’s creations did not have an understanding of gender other than man and woman.  But the texts mention of multiple genders (rather than simply אדם, man) can illicit contemporary understandings of the text. One can interpret it to mean that God created all people, thus all of our genders.

“THE UNIVERSE BEGAN WITH A HUM. A HUM… AND THEN A BANG. And each day it grew larger and larger and contained more and more. We cannot live each new day in the same way we lived the last, for we have all of the experiences and memories of the previous day filed away in our internal memory bank. And so each day is created anew, filled with new opportunities. And each day, we have the potential to become partners with God in the act of creation, adding to the world in a way that only you can. The words for this prayer are about creation. “The Holy One, who lights up the world and all of her inhabitants with mercy.” The key here is light. The first act of creation, mentioned first, and inherently interwoven with the divine attribute of mercy. And then this: “And in the Divine’s goodness, every single day, She renews the act of creation.” And in thinking about creation and rebirth, Coleen Dieker and I were immediately drawn to the feminine. Hebrew is a gendered language, and most of the time in liturgy the masculine suffix is used for God. But here, praying for rebirth and renewal, we wanted to sing to The Divine in the feminine, and so we changed the suffixes to reflect that: Hame’irah, Uv’tuvah, Mechadeshet. This week we begin the cycle of reading the Torah again. Now is the time for us to be partners with God again in creating a better world. As we enter this Shabbat, may we continue to merit to be partners with the Holy One. Grant us the capacity to value our friends and family, and to enrich the lives of those whom we love. Change happens every day. Sometimes it’s hard to see and hear, like a hum, but if we all hum together, we can move mountains. Shabbat Shalom”