B’resheet 2015

Torah Portion: Genesis 1:1-6:8
Haftarah Portion: Isaiah 42:1-43:10
New Testament Portion: John 1:1-14, Colossians 1:1-22, Hebrews 1:2, 8-10

Rav Chanoch Waxman, in his commentary “And God Saw That It Was Good,” notes that concerning the creation of man, in stark contrast to the creation of the animals [1:25], there is no explicit statement that God saw that it was good. Was not man the crescendo of the creation narrative?

B’resheet – In the Beginning

Torah Portion: Genesis 1:1-6:8
Haftarah Portion: Isaiah 42:5-21
New Testament Portion: John 1:1-14, Colossians 1:1-22, Hebrews 1:2, 8-10, 11:13

It is, at best, a daunting task to put together a commentary on B’resheet, let alone attempt to do it in one day, having just returned from the Feast of Sukkot.  The opening portion of the annual Torah cycle not only gives us the Creation story, the fall of Adam and Eve, and approximately 1000 years of history of mankind, it contains the seeds of the most important themes in Scripture.