Questions tagged [parashat-bereishit]
The weekly Torah portion of Bereshit (Genesis 1:1-6:8)
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What Was The Source Of The Primordial Light On The First Day Of Creation
It says on the first day of creation in Genesis that there was light. On the fourth day of creation, the sun was created. So what was the source of the primordial light on the first day of creation?
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Who is more truthful in the Garden of Eden Story, God or the Serpent?
The Garden of Eden Story is very complex and it seems to me that both the Serpent and God fall short of telling the absolute truth.
Genesis 2:16-17
טז וַיְצַו יְהוָה אֱלֹהִים, עַל-הָאָדָם לֵאמֹר:...
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Age of Universe and Shabbat
If one believes that our world is billions of years old, i.e. accepting the idea of each day in Sheshis Imei Berieshit (the Six Days of Creation) as eras and not literal days, then how does one ...
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The snake slept with Chavah?
Chazal say (Avodah Zarah 22b) that the snake had relations with Chavah. Does the Gemara elsewhere ever fault her explicitly for this? If not, why not, as she was already commanded in it (Sanhedrin 58a,...
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Did Chava tell Adam she was giving him fruit from the etz ha'das?
When Chava gave Adam fruit from the etz ha'das to eat did she tell him where the fruit was coming from or not?
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Why should we be punished for Adam's sin? [duplicate]
My kid asked:
I understand that Adam and Eve violated God's command by eating from the tree of knowledge and thus deserved punishment: as described in Genesis, Adam would have to work for his food ...
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What happened to the "D'mut"?
In Bereishit 1:26, Hashem says (all text and translation from the Chabad site's Judaica Press version)
And God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness,
וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים נַעֲשֶׂה ...
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Why doesn't the Torah start with "And God spoke to Moses: In the beginning God created, etc"?
Both Talmudic opinions about the dictation of the Torah to Moses (either at once or scroll by scroll, Gittin 60), agree on the fact of the dictation. Therefore the Torah must reflect that fact and, ...
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When exactly was Eve named?
While reading Paradise Lost, I noticed that at some point in the text before the forbidden fruit is consumed, Adam refers to Eve by name. This bothered me: I read the beginning of Genesis a couple ...
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What is the meaning of יוֹם (yowm) in Bereshit?
I've heard conflicting reports of how the creation days' יוֹם (yowm), in Bereshit are interpreted in the Jewish community. How do actual Hebrew scholars define day in Bereshit? Six 24 hour periods or ...
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What does the term "sons of G-d" mean?
The term "sons of G-d" בני האלהים is found 5 times in the Hebrew Bible, once in Genesis (6:2), three times in Job (1:6, 2:1 and 38:7) and one time in Psalms (29:1). What does it mean? Does it have the ...
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When did people living for 900 years start to look old?
In the early days of the world, the standard age of living was well into the hundreds, with many people living until they were 800 or 900. Being that people lived so long, when did they start to "look ...
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What are the 10 utterances in Pirkei Avot 5:1
Pirkei Avot (Chapters of the Fathers) 5:1 says that the world was created with 10 "utterances" (מאמרות). Both Rash"I and Rav Ovadiah Mibartenura explain the term מאמרות to mean that it refers to the ...
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Definitions of Creative Words
What is the difference between יצירה, בריאה, and עשייה? (Three terms for creation). The first is used in Genesis (1:1), the second in Genesis (2:7), the third in Genesis (1:11).
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What drove humans to their first sin?
What caused Adam and Chava to sin; to do the wrong thing; to make the wrong choice: What was it in their human being, thats being called Tov me'od (Bereshit 1:31), that drove them into eating from the ...
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Does Genesis 2:4 say there was only one day of creation?
Right after it says all the different parts of the world and sky being created on six separate days and rest on the seventh, it says, "These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they ...
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Does "die" in Bereishit 2:17 imply the *beginning* of a process death, or simply *death*?
It is true that Adam and Eve didn’t die the exact day they ate, as some seem to think Genesis 2:17 implies. The Hebrew is die-die (muwth-muwth), which is often translated as “surely die” or literally ...
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Walking behind a woman if you can't see her
The gemara in עירובין יח has a very interesting discussion, it wants to know according to the מ"ד that אדם and חוה were created together back-to-back שני פרצופים, who walked first (i.e. which ...
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Why Abel didn't ask Cain to bring his sacrifice?
The Torah declares that before Matan Torah, the firstborns were responsible for bringing sacrifices and Cohanim replaced them after the Golden Calf incident (Num 3,40):
:וְלָקַחְתָּ אֶת־הַלְוִיִּם ...
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Was Adam with Chava when she first ate the fruit?
My impression (since childhood) of the incident in the garden is that the serpent persuaded Chava to eat, and then she took some fruit to Adam and he ate it. This question asks if he knew where the ...
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Is Cain a prophet?
According to some views, prophecy is not a gift that is arbitrarily
conferred upon people; rather, it is the culmination of a person's
spiritual and ethical development. When a person reaches a ...
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How did the trees deviate from God's command?
In Bereshis 1:11 God commands עֵץ פְּרִי עֹשֶׂה פְּרִי לְמִינוֹ however in the next pasuk where it happens we find וְעֵץ עֹשֶׂה-פְּרִי אֲשֶׁר זַרְעוֹ-בוֹ, לְמִינֵהוּ. This discrepancy is explained by ...
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Why did Da'as Zekeinim leave out the mitzvah to procreate?
Da'as Zekeinim (compilations of teachings from the Ba'alei Tosafos) to Genesis 1:1 ask a question on one of the first comments of Rashi:
ועוד פרש"י א"ר יצחק לא היה צריך להתחיל התורה וכו', וקשה שהרי ...
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Is there still a prohibition on eating from the Eitz Hadaat (Tree of Knowledge)?
Obviously this is a philosophical question, not a practical one, but I am curious to see if anyone has commented if whether the prohibition for eating from the Eitz Hadaat still stands today.
On the ...
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Why does Scripture in parashat bereishit need to mention the four rivers?
In Bereishit 2:10, scripture mentions the following:
10: And a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it separated and became four heads.
11: The name of one is Pishon; ...
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How did Noah react to being childless?
Rashi to Genesis 5:32 reads:
אמר רבי יודן מה טעם כל הדורות הולידו למאה שנה וזה לחמש מאות אמר הקב״ה אם רשעים הם יאבדו במים ורע לצדיק זה ואם צדיקים הם אטריח עליו לעשות תיבות הרבה כבש את מעיינו ולא ...
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Difference Between Shamayim and Rakia
In parshas Berashis, the words Shamayim and Rakia keep on coming up. someone asked me what is the difference between the 2, and I had no idea.
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Purpose of Torah in Gan Eden
We know from several midrashim (see first chapter of Midrash Tanchuma to Bereshit) that Torah had already existed before the world was created. It should have contained all the positive and negative ...
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Why did God take 6 days to create the world?
Generally we assume that God is omnipotent, and could have created the world in a single day/act, so He must have had a reason to organize creation into 6 days. Why?
In other words:
Why didn't God ...
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Did God create color in Genesis?
Can I assume that every creation in this world was first manifested in the world during the first six days of the Genesis, which therefore includes color? So was color (the spectrum of hues and ...
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How widespread is the belief that Adam had a first wife?
I have heard of that the idea that Adam had a wife before Eve comes from Jewish tradition, and also about the idea that this wife was Lilith. From what I can tell the story of Lilith and the story of ...
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What does Judaism teach about Eve's addition to divine commandment that she not touch the fruit?
In Genesis 2:17 we read:
But of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat of it, for on the day that you eat thereof, you shall surely die."
Later, during Eve's temptation, we read:
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Why is there no "Vayehi Erev..." for the seventh day?
After each day of creation, the text reads "Vayehi erev, vayehi boker, yom ____" with (basically) the number of the day listed.
While there was no creative creating on the seventh day, it is set ...
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Did Hevel slaughter his sacrifice?
Genesis 4:4 states that Hevel offered an animal sacrifice. I recall learning that Kayin attacked Hevel with several blows because he did not know where/how to kill. My question is, did Hevel slaughter ...
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What was Hevel (Abel's) sin?
The Arizal says that Hevel was reincarnated many times to purify his sin. What was his sin?
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What is Shevirat Hakeilim?
Shvirat hakeilim seems to be a Kabbalistic concept denoting how the light was created within the Genesis account. However, I cannot seem to find information regarding it. Can someone please explain ...
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What is the purpose of naming animals?
In Genesis 2,19 it is written that the animals were brought to Adam so that he would name them.
Of course we cannot say what exactly the purpose of living is but there are some 'explanations'. For ...
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Why add pain and travail to the birthing process?
After Adam and Chava went against the Will of HaShem, HaShem seems to give them some repercussions for their deeds. But why was it that HaShem said to Chava: 'I will greatly multiply thy pain and thy ...
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How was Adam to conquer the land?
In Bereshis 1:28 God tells Adam to to conquer the land, וְכִבְשֻׁהָ. How or in what way was Adam supposed to do this? Build buildings? Farm? Something else?
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What is significant about nakedness in Bereishit?
In the story of Adam and Eve we see that "they were both naked, the man and his wife, but they were not ashamed." Bereishit 2:25 Then after they eat the fruit they become aware of their nakedness and ...
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What does Mimenu mean in Bereishis 3:22
Bereishis 3:22 writes: וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוָה אֱלֹהִים, הֵן הָאָדָם הָיָה כְּאַחַד מִמֶּנּוּ, לָדַעַת, טוֹב וָרָע; וְעַתָּה פֶּן-יִשְׁלַח יָדוֹ, וְלָקַח גַּם מֵעֵץ הַחַיִּים, וְאָכַל, וָחַי לְעֹלָם
The ...
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Does Rambam take the 6 days of creation literally?
I was told in this answer to another question: "The Rambam did not take the '6 days' of Bereishis literally, as well as other details." The answer linked to Moreh Nevuchim (link) but I couldn't find ...
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Description of the Yetzer HaRa in Parshat Bereshit
In Parshat Bereshit, the yetzer hara's relationship to man is described in very similar langauge to the woman's relationship to man.
Regarding the woman, it says (Gen. 3:16) וְאֶל-אִישֵׁךְ ...
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Understanding derivation of rule that "פרו ורבו" is mandatory only for men?
The Gmara (Yevamot 65b) says that the reason why men are the only ones that have to keep "פרו ורבו" is because right after it its written "וכבשוה" (the human has to take over the world), and men are ...
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Why "nostrils" and not mouth?
Breishit 2:7:
... He blew into his nostrils the soul of life ...
Why did HaShem use nostrils instead of mouth?
PS. ISTR that, according to a midrash, the fire which killed Nadav & Avihu did ...
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Breishis 5:5 - Adam's 930 years are written backwards?
When recounting the 10 generations from Adam to Noach, the years of their lives are written in the style of 1's, 10's and 100's place, e.g. ויחי ירד שתים וששים שנה ומאת שנה. Except for one exception, ...
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The second yod in Mechiyael
Bereishit 4:18 contains the word:
וּמְחִיָּיאֵ֗ל
There is no vowel under the second yod, so I assume that it is not pronounced at all.
What is its function?
Is it a mater lectionis? Is a yod ever ...
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In what way was Lemech foolish?
In Rashi's second explanation (Bereishit 4:24 שבעים ושבעה) of what Lemech said to his wives, he explains that Lemech didn't kill anyone, but Ada and Tzila were worried because they knew the flood ...
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How did G-d make animals and how did they became living beings?
I read a couple of questions and answers that are related to mine, but I could not find any answer to my specific question.
The first human being was formed from the dust of the ground; this became ...
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Cursing other opinions
In Bereishit Rabbah 26:5 we read רַבִּי שִׁמְעוֹן בֶּן יוֹחָאי מְקַלֵּל לְכָל מַאן דְּקָרֵא לְהוֹן בְּנֵי אֱלָהַיָּא -- that R. Shim'on Bar Yochai cursed anyone who interpreted Bereishit 6:2 as ...
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