The First Word Revisited
Ours is a world of falsehood. Torah is the very essence of objective and absolute truth. By connecting to the Torah we can transform our falsehood into truth.
Falsehood 613?!
The Torah begins with the word: Bereishis, translated as “In the beginning.”
Much has been said of how the first word of the Torah encapsulates some of the most basic tenets of Judaism [see preceding essays].
Indeed, the word Bereishis contains within it the word Rosh, which means head. And just as the head is not just the most important part of the human anatomy, but it also contains the brain that generates the energy for and exercises control over all other parts of the body, so too, Bereishis, which is the “head” of the Torah, reflects the energy of the entire Torah.
Rabbi Moshe Sofer, one of the great Jewish scholars of the nineteenth century and author of the classic work of Jewish law, Chasam Sofer, discusses one of the many hints contained in the word Bereishis.
Bereishis, he writes, contains the Hebrew letter shin. The balance of the word Bereishis contains five other letters that numerically add up to 613—the total number of commandments in the Torah.
What is the significance of the letter shin and its juxtaposition to the number 613?
According to the Chasam Sofer, the letter shin (spelled phonetically) is an acronym for three Hebrew words shem Hashem nikra- “the name of G-d is invoked.” Thus the entire word Bereishis conveys the following idea: When we observe the 613 commandments, we enable G-d’s name to be expressed through us.
One may raise an interesting question about the significance of the letter shin appearing in the first word of the Torah.
The letter shin, the Zohar states, is also the initial of—and therefore signifies—the word sheker-falsehood. How can it be that the opening word of the Torah should allude to falsehood? And how can the letter shin, which signifies falsehood, be situated in a word wherein all of its other letters correspond to the 613 commandments? How can we reconcile falsehood with G-d’s commandments?
The Duality of Torah
The answer lies in a better understanding of the first word and letter of the Torah. Our Sages raised the question: why does the Torah begin with the letter beis—the second letter of the Alphabet—and not with the letter aleph, the first letter? The question is predicated on the notion that the numerical value of the letter beis is two, while aleph is numerically the number one. Why then would the Torah, which is G-d’s wisdom, begin with a number that suggests duality, and not with the letter and number one that suggests unity? (See preceding Essay).
One answer to the question is that there are two dimensions of Torah: Torah in its pristine form, where it is united with G-d, and Torah that was “sent” by its Author to affect our fragmented world and bring unity into multiplicity, order and harmony into chaos. This is not a suggestion that there are two Torahs, but that Torah, when introduced into our consciousness, has the capacity to change the world.
Bereishis, by virtue of it beginning with the letter beis that connotes division, thus conveys the message that Torah belongs to our world precisely because our world is inherently false and dualistic, while G-d’s Torah is inherently true and unified. It is the word Bereishis that introduces G-d’s creation of a world that is obstructive of His presence and allows for the emergence of falsehood. And yet, within Bereishis, one discovers the power of the Torah to reverse the process by its commandments.
The simple message conveyed to us from the above is:
Left to its own devices, the world is devoid of absolute truth. Truth will always elude those who seek it, if they seek it from within the framework of creation itself. In order to introduce truth to the world, it must be introduced to the world by the Creator. This is, of course, the function of the 613 Divine commandments.
One may still ask a follow-up question: Granted the allusion to falsehood in the first word of Bereishis is to suggest how the Torah and its commandments is designed to transform the falsehood of the world into truth, but wouldn’t it have been more desirable to begin the Torah with a word that signifies truth, without reference to falsehood?
True Truth
To answer this question we must examine the premise of our question. The underlying assumption of this question is that pure truth is superior to truth that is introduced into, and therefore intermingles with, the environment of falsehood.
In fact, the reverse is true. When truth is not tested, there can always be a question as to whether it will survive future challenges. And if truth were to pass all the tests but fail the last one, it would not be truth at any point.
Only when an idea encounters falsehood and prevails consistently can it be said that the idea is truly true. This concept is rooted in Talmudic law that when a contract is challenged and subsequently certified by the court as authentic it is stronger than an uncontested contract.
The ultimate demonstration of the Torah’s truth is that it has survived every imaginary challenge throughout the ages.
Why all the Suffering?
This explains why the Messianic Age follows thousands of years of exile. The phenomenon of exile with its attendant suffering raises a powerful question: Why did G-d have us go through so much travail?
Certainly, it does not suffice to state that it is a punishment for our misdeeds thousands of years ago. Although we say in our prayers “And because of our sins we were exiled from our land,” the punishment does not fit the crime and cannot serve as the lone explanation for our languishing in exile. Furthermore, even when G-d punishes us for our sins it is not for the sake of punishment G-d forbid, but for our ability to cleanse ourselves and grow spiritually. What did we gain in exile all these thousands of years?
That Torah and the Jewish people have not only survived the twin challenges of exile, persecution and assimilation, but have flourished, reveals the utter truth of Torah and worthiness of Israel.
Thus our Sages have stated (Berachos ) that three things were given to us with suffering: Torah, the Land of Israel and the World to Come.”
These three items share their identification with truth. Torah is called Toras Emes, the Torah of truth. The Land of Israel is associated with truth as it says in the Book of Psalms ( ): “Truth sprouts forth from the Land” and the “World to Come” is the period when G-d’s ultimate truth will be revealed. To realize truth, it must be tested.
Thus, in the Messianic Age, we will be able to appreciate the truth of Torah even more so than we were able to fathom it in the preexile glorious Temple era. For only after the challenges of exile can we appreciate the full depth of the message of Bereishis; that the Torah is absolute truth and is undeterred by the falsehood of existence. Moreover, Torah is empowered to transform the falsehood into truth.
That realization will be fully manifest in the Messianic Age of Redemption, when the world will be liberated from its association with falsehood in all of its forms, and unadulterated truth will be revealed.
From the book Light from the Future: Parshas Breishis by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.
