The other day I finished the book of Deuteronomy and immediately opened Genesis to begin my annual reading of the Torah all over again. I never did get past the first three words: Bereshit Bara Elohim. They’re three simple words, but they have inspired hundreds, maybe even thousands of different interpretations. And that’s not even counting the interpretations of Christians and Moslems. Who is to say which one is right?

I began to think about a letter that appeared in last week’s edition of the Jewish Week. xxxxxx wrote a letter in response to Gary Rosenblatt’s weekly column. Mr. Rosenblatt bemoaned the diminishing commitment of contemporary Jews to synagogue and Jewish life. And apparently xxxxxx believes that he knows the reason for this. He writes: “Then there’s the problem of teaching adults and children that the Torah is a collection of allegories written to control people and give them something to coalesce around. We are debasing our own religion. Our ancient heroes are as real as the tooth fairy. After teaching that the entire basis of our religion is invalid, we sit in the sanctuary to recall Moses, the Exodus and to praise the Torah. The hypocrisy is not lost on our listeners.”

Hypocrisy, indeed! It seems that unless you believe that every word of the Torah is literally true, you’re a hypocrite. For xxxxxx there is no middle ground. Either you accept the literal veracity of the Torah or you reject it. And if you don’t accept (his) understanding of the literal meaning of the Torah then the whole thing must be invalid and meaningless in your eyes. xxxxxx concludes by asking, “Why pay dues for punditry or …fairy tales?”

I don’t believe the Torah is made up of fairy tales but neither do I believe that it is true in the sense that xxxxxx believes it is true. And neither did our ancestors! If they did, there would only be one official correct interpretation of the Torah and only one way of reading it. The very fact that there are hundreds of interpretations of each verse suggests that there are many types of truths and many different ways of reading the Torah besides the one that xxxxxx espouses.

I realized that was the case as soon as I opened the Torah and began reading Bereshit Bara Elohim. What do those three words mean? Without getting bogged down in grammar and syntax, I’d like to offer five interpretations of these words, and five radically different ways of understanding of what the Torah means when it says God created the universe. The truth is the word “truth” has many meanings. Only one of them is chronological. The truth that I look for in the news is not the same one I search for in the pews. And the truth that I find in poetry, in a biology book or on the editorial page is different from the truth I find in the Bible.

So here are just five of many interpretations of the first three words in the Torah. You tell me which one is true…

Interpretation Number 1: The most common translation of Bereshit Bara Elohim is “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Ironically this translation is borrowed from the King James Version of the Bible. This statement sounds decidedly chronological. There is a beginning and there are events that follow the beginning. But this interpretation has been the subject of much controversy. Does it suggest creation ex nihilo – that before God created this universe nothing existed; God created “something from nothing”? Or does “In the beginning…” suggest that there was something from which God then created the universe? Rashi and Ibn Ezra, two medieval commentators did not agree on this point. Some Jews continue to argue about this issue. Even those who accept the historical veracity of the Torah don’t agree on what this means.

By the way, Rashi already suggested that the world was not created in six ’24 hour’ days – days may actually be a segment of time that we cannot calculate because its God’s time? So what is it? Seven days? Seven years? Is it seven thousand years or maybe seven eons?

Interpretation Number 2: In some translations Bereshit Bara Elohim is translated “When God began to create.” And this translation is a reflection of an ancient rabbinic teaching which suggests that God did not create one universe but countless worlds until he created one which was the right balance of the moral and spiritual elements necessary for harmony. When God began to create suggests ‘this world’ but there may have been others before it. God had to experiment before he got it right. Some worlds had too much justice and not enough compassion and others worlds had too much compassion and not enough justice. When God saw that his creation is good, it is because God compared it with previous creations. The story of creation, then, is about how we too must fashion a world that balances justice and forgiveness – without both we cannot live.

Interpretation Number three. Be-Reshit bara Elohim. The word Bereshit is made up of two parts: the letter bet means “with;” or “for the sake of” and the second part of the word Reshit can mean “beginning” but it has other connotations as well. Reshit is associated with wisdom, with reverence and with faith. So the verse now reads, “God created the universe with wisdom, with reverence, with faith.” Or even better, “for the sake of wisdom God created the world.” This verse is no longer a chronological statement of fact – rather it tells us what the purpose of the world is - to seek the inner wisdom of the universe and search out a sense of wonder with which God has created the universe.

Interpretation Number 4: A Hasidic master suggested that Bereshit Bara Elohim means “God created beginnings” God made it possible for us to begin again and again. When we begin again we imitate God. Beginnings can often appear overwhelming and daunting. The fact that God fearlessly faced beginnings teaches us something about how we should face life.

And last but not the final interpretation: Bereshit Bara Elohim is read by Kabbalists: “In the beginning God created Elohim!” Now this is a hard one to understanding but maybe the most profound interpretation of all. Genesis Chapter 1 is not about the creation of the world at all but about how God comes to reveal Himself in the world. In a sense God cannot be God without a universe in which he can be present and without beings with whom God can interact. So when God creates the universe, God is really revealing and creating God’s self. Without beings who recognize God, who is God anyway?

So I have a problem with Mr. xxxxxx. Which reading of Bereshit Bara Elohim does he think is correct? The fact that I understand truth in a different way from him does not mean that I view the Torah as any less real or meaningful than he does. Non- orthodox Jews may argue about the meaning of Torah min hashamayim but that does not mean we do not revere the Torah as a divine truth. We may not understand Bereshit Bara Elohim literally but neither did all our ancestors and they did not reject the Torah because some of them read it as parables or allegories. The Torah is just as much mine as it is his.

Seven hundred years ago the author of the Zohar suggested that the Torah is more than just history or chronological facts. In fact he suggested that if you read it as factual then you may actually demean it. The Zohar, which is the central text of Kabbalah, says: “Woe to the human being who says that the Torah is mere stories and ordinary words! If so, we could compose a Torah right now with ordinary words better than it! Is it to present matters of this world? Even rulers of the world possess words more sublime!”

Simply put this statement contradicts Mr. xxxxxx. I can believe in the Torah and believe that it has something more to say to me than when the Exodus took place, or how the world was created, or how old Moses was when he died. The truths of the Torah are deeper, more sublime, and more significant than simple facts.

So I’m going to dwell on those first few words of the Torah and maybe a few more. I hope that as I do so I will gain insights into living that will help me become a better person and a better Jew. And I hope that the truths that I learn will allow me to come closer to God and closer to my neighbors. Who wrote the Torah? Did all the events happen just as they are described? I don’t know and I’m really not that concerned – because there are greater lessons and insights to be gained from this eternal text which contains the signature of God than when how and what. The Torah can teach us why and who.

So Tzay U’l’mad. Go and learn – there is so much that that the Torah can teach us!!

Shabbat Shalom