Bereshit

📜 The Story

At the very start of the Torah it says: 'In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.' Hashem created the whole world in six days: light and darkness, sky and sea, trees and grass, the sun, moon and stars, fish and birds, and animals. Each day Hashem said 'let there be' and it was so, because Hashem's word can do anything.

On the sixth day Hashem created the first man, Adam, from the dust of the earth, and breathed into him a soul of life. Hashem gave Adam the beautiful Garden of Eden to work and to guard, and brought all the animals to him so he could name them. Then Hashem said 'It is not good for man to be alone,' and He built the first woman, Chava (Eve), from Adam's rib.

On the seventh day, after finishing all the work of creation, Hashem rested and made that day holy. This is where we learn the important mitzvah of Shabbat, to rest and sanctify the seventh day just as Hashem Himself did.

In the Garden of Eden there stood the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil, and Hashem commanded Adam and Chava not to eat its fruit. The clever snake tempted Chava to eat from the tree, and she gave some to Adam too. When Hashem asked them about it, they were punished and sent out of the Garden, now needing to work the ground with hard effort.

Adam and Chava had two sons, Cain and Abel. Cain worked the soil and Abel was a shepherd. When both brought an offering to Hashem, Abel's offering was accepted but Cain's was not, and Cain grew jealous and killed his brother, the first murder in the world. The parsha ends with a list of the generations from Adam to Noach, ten generations in all.