Rabbi Daniel Siegel – Head of Jewish Life

Beginning, again

It is appropriate that we begin the Jewish New year, after the special festival Torah readings, with parashat BeReishit.

However, as Bible scholars point out, and as Jewish commentators have long ago argued, the correct reading of the opening words of BeReishit is “When God began to create/bara” (rather than “In the beginning God created”). Not only is the word bara never used in the bible for creating something out of nothing, but the world, as reflected in the Genesis narrative, was perceived as coming into existence our of a pre-existing, if formless, primordial matter. 

BeReishit reminds us that there is always a before, even as the new-born babe enters the word with a history encoded in “its” DNA. Yet, while we are of the past, Judaism demands that we ceaselessly begin anew. BeReishit, begins with the letter bet; every year we are asked to start with a beginning letter that points to an existing, though not determinative, prior letter (aleph).

We hope that our new Jewish Year will be one that is COVID-free. At the same time, we recognise it cannot and should not be divorced from this pandemic experience. May we be empowered to create ourselves anew in a post-COVID world. A world that cannot rid itself of its past but make itself better for it.