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Why is the first chapter break in B'reishit where it is, and not a few verses later at the beginning of the second creation telling (where we place the aliya break)?

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Is this a Jewish Life and Learning question? Wikipedia thinks not – Baal Shemot Tovot Mar 29 '12 at 19:08
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@l, although the chapter divisions are not Jewish in origin, they're certainly referred to routinely in Jewish learning, for better or for worse. I think that this is a valid question whose answer could be "ask the monks; according to Jewish tradition, this break is inapt. Here's why." – Isaac Moses Mar 29 '12 at 19:16
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@jake and l, These divisions are printed, usually with no disclaimer, in nearly every contemporary Jewish edition of the Bible, sometimes even as the primary organizational structure. Therefore, this is a legitimate question on Artscroll, JPS, Koren, et al. (not to mention the various web resources we use for reference here) and is therefore a legitimate question about Jewish learning. – Isaac Moses Mar 29 '12 at 19:22
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@MonicaCellio, in my opinion, no. I think that questions should reflect the curiosity/problem whence they originated, to best help people who come up with the same issue and may word it the same way. (Is it likely that someone else studying Torah will come up with the same question, worded the same way? Yes!) Do feel free to add some of what you've learned in the comments into the question, or just leave it to the answerers. I think that "Why do we follow this" is a separate, interesting follow-on quesiton. – Isaac Moses Mar 29 '12 at 19:30
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@AdamMosheh, No thought went into which page numbers content ended up on in the Vilna Shas. But I'm sure a lot of thought went into the chapter divisions in the Bible. Just not Jewish thought. – jake Mar 29 '12 at 19:41
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As l' said, the chapter divisions are indeed of Christian origin. This article says that the originator of this division separated Shabbos from the other weekdays for reasons having to do with Christian theology, but doesn't specify how. I seem to recall reading a suggestion that the idea behind it was to downplay our Shabbos in favor of their Sunday.

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I was under the impression that "their Sunday" has nothing to do with "our Shabbos". – jake Mar 29 '12 at 19:49
@jake: right, that seems to be the idea. To them, Saturday is not the day that Hashem blessed, etc.; since they couldn't expunge those three verses from their Bible, they moved them to another chapter, as if to suggest that the six days of creation - headed by Sunday - stand on their own. – Alex Mar 29 '12 at 19:54
What I was trying to say was that I don't think Christians disagree with the fact that the Sabbath is blessed by God and holy etc. The reason they don't observe Shabbos like we do is the same reason they don't follow all the rest of halacha like we do. And the reason they pray on Sunday is not because they believe it to be any better that Saturday. – jake Mar 29 '12 at 19:58
@jake: they might indeed not keep Shabbos because of the considerations you mention (and indeed, the mitzvah to keep it is addressed specifically to "the children of Israel"). But the description in Bereishis simply says that it's a holy day, yet most Christian denominations don't consider it any different than the other days of the week - so in effect, they are disagreeing with the idea that it has any special status. Dissociating it from the other days of the week subtly suggests that idea. – Alex Mar 30 '12 at 14:52
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Maybe. I'm not entirely sure if they view Shabbos as holier than the other days or not. But in my mind, "disassociating it from the other days of the week" suggests that it is holier than the others. Unless you're saying that they wanted to "hide" the Shabbos passage by placing it in the next chapter so that anyone who just reads chapter one but never gets around to chapter two will never see it. That seems like a stretch, though, and kind of naive on their part. – jake Mar 30 '12 at 15:37
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According to Wikipedia, the Chapters were divided by Christians, based on their understanding of the bible. Although we use their system, we only use it for reference. Regarding understanding, we have our own division, comprised of setumot, petuchot, aliyot (to some extent), and parshiyot. The breakup of chapters in no way represents Jewish understanding.

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wow, that must be the swiftest -1 in J.SE history! – Baal Shemot Tovot Mar 29 '12 at 19:30
@Vram - You think so? (:-p) – Adam Mosheh Mar 29 '12 at 19:39
up vote -2 down vote

Perhaps the reason is to distinguish the holiness of Shabbat from the rest of the week, which comparatively is more mundane. Shabbat, being holy, is level two, and the rest of the week, being mundane, is only on level one.

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Why is this a bad answer to the question? – Adam Mosheh Mar 29 '12 at 19:41
Because it is irrelevant to Jewish Life and Learning. – Baal Shemot Tovot Mar 29 '12 at 19:41
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Because it's both unsourced and very likely wrong. – msh210♦ Mar 29 '12 at 20:19

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