Parashat Bereshit

Creation in Six Days

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. ^{[a] 2} Now the earth was chaos and waste, darkness was on the surface of the deep, and the Ruach Elohim was hovering upon the surface of the water.^[b]

³ Then God said, “Let there be light!” and there was light. ⁴ God saw that the light was good. So God distinguished the light from the darkness. ⁵ God called the light “day,” and the darkness He called “night.” So there was evening and there was morning—one day.

⁶ Then God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the water! Let it be for separating water from water.” ⁷ So God made the expanse and it separated the water that was below the expanse from the water that was over the expanse. And it happened so. ⁸ God called the expanse “sky.” So there was evening and there was morning—a second day. ⁹ Then God said, “Let the water below the sky be gathered to one place. Let the dry ground appear.” And it happened so. ¹⁰ God called the dry ground “land,” and the collection of the water He called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.

¹¹ Then God said, “Let the land sprout grass, green plants yielding seed, fruit trees making fruit, each according to its species with seed in it, upon the land.” And it happened so. ¹² The land brought forth grass, green plants yielding seed, each according to its species, and trees making fruit with the seed in it, each according to its species. And God saw that it was good. ¹³ So there was evening and there was morning—a third day.

¹⁴ Then God said, “Let lights in the expanse of the sky be for separating the day from the night. They will be for signs and for seasons and for days and years. ¹⁵ They will be for lights in the expanse of the sky to shine upon the land.” And it happened so. ¹⁶ Then God made the two great lights—the greater light for dominion over the day, and the lesser light as well as the stars for dominion over the night. ¹⁷ God set them in the expanse of the sky to shine on the land ¹⁸ and to have dominion over the day and over the night and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. ¹⁹ So there was evening and there was morning—a fourth day.

²⁰ Then God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures! Let flying creatures fly above the land across the expanse of the sky.” ²¹ Then God created the large sea creatures and every living creature that crawls, with which the water swarms, according to their species, as well as every winged flying creature, according to their species. And God saw that it was good. ²² Then God blessed them by saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the water in the seas. Let the flying creatures multiply on the land.” ²³ So there was evening and there was morning—a fifth day.

²⁴ Then God said, “Let the land bring forth living creatures according to their species—livestock, crawling creatures and wild animals, according to their species.” And it happened so. ²⁵ God made the wild animals according to their species, the livestock according to their species, and everything that crawls on the ground, each according to its species. And God saw that it was good.

²⁶ Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness! Let them rule over the fish of the sea, over the flying creatures of the sky, over the livestock, over the whole earth, and over every crawling creature that crawls on the land.” ²⁷ God created humankind in His image, in the image of God He created him, male and female He created them. ^{[c] 28} God blessed them and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, fill the land, and conquer it. Rule over the fish of the sea, the flying creatures of the sky, and over every animal that crawls on the land.”

²⁹ Then God said, “I have just given you every green plant yielding seed that is on the surface of the whole land, and every tree, which has the fruit of a tree yielding seed. They are to be food for you. ³⁰ Also for every wild animal, every flying creature of the sky and every creature that crawls on the land which has life, every green plant is to be food.” And it happened so. ³¹ So God saw everything that He made, and behold it was very good.

So there was evening and there was morning—the sixth day.

Shabbat For Rest

2 So the heavens and the earth were completed along with their entire array. ² God completed—on the seventh day—His work that He made, and He ceased—on the seventh day—from all His work that He made. ³ Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, for on it He ceased from all His work that God created for the purpose of preparing.

Humanity in Gan-Eden

⁴ These are the genealogical records of the heavens and the earth when they were created, at the time when Adonai Elohim made land and sky. ⁵ Now no shrub of the field was in the land yet, and no green plants of the field had sprouted yet. For Adonai Elohim had not caused it to rain upon the land, and there was no one to work the ground. ⁶ But a mist came up from the land and watered the whole surface of the ground.

⁷ Then Adonai Elohim formed the man out of the dust from the ground and He breathed into his nostrils a breath of life—so the man became a living being. ⁸ Then Adonai Elohim planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there He put the man whom He had formed. ⁹ Then Adonai Elohim caused to sprout from the ground every tree that was desirable to look at and good for food.

Now the Tree of Life was in the middle of the garden, and also the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. ¹⁰ A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden. From there it divided and became four riverheads. ¹¹ The name of the first is Pishon, the one that winds around the whole land of the Havilah, where there is gold. ¹² The gold of that land is good—bdellium and lapis lazuli stones are also there. ¹³ The name of the second river is Gihon—it winds around the whole land of Cush. ¹⁴ The name of the third river is Tigris—it runs east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.

¹⁵ Then Adonai Elohim took the man and gave him rest in the Garden of Eden in order to cultivate and watch over it. ¹⁶ Then Adonai Elohim commanded the man saying, “From all the trees of the garden you are most welcome to eat. ¹⁷ But of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil you must not eat. For when you eat from it, you most assuredly will die!

¹⁸ Then Adonai Elohim said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. Let Me make a well-matched helper for him.” ¹⁹ Adonai Elohim had formed from the ground every animal of the field and every flying creature of the sky, so He brought them to the man to see what he would call them. Whatever the man called them—each living creature—that was its name. ²⁰ So the man gave names to all of the livestock, and to the flying creatures of the sky, and to all the animals of the field; but for the man He did not find a well-matched helper for him. ²¹ Adonai Elohim caused a deep sleep to fall on the man and he slept; and He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh in its place. ²² Adonai Elohim built the rib, which He had taken from the man, into a woman. Then He brought her to the man. ²³ Then the man said,

²⁴ This is why a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife; and they become one flesh.^[d]

From Innocence to Shame

²⁵ Now both of them were naked, the man and his wife, and they were not ashamed.

3 But the serpent was shrewder than any animal of the field that Adonai Elohim made. So it said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from all the trees of the garden’?”

² The woman said to the serpent, “Of the fruit of the trees, we may eat. ³ But of the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘You must not eat of it and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

⁴ The serpent said to the woman, “You most assuredly won’t die! ⁵ For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

⁶ Now the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a thing of lust for the eyes, and that the tree was desirable for imparting wisdom. So she took of its fruit and she ate. She also gave to her husband who was with her and he ate. ⁷ Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they knew that they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made for themselves loin-coverings. ⁸ And they heard the sound of Adonai Elohim going to and fro in the garden in the wind of the day. So the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Adonai Elohim in the midst of the Tree of the garden.

⁹ Then Adonai Elohim called to the man and He said to him, “Where are you?”

¹⁰ Then he said, “Your sound—I heard it in the garden and I was afraid. Because I am naked, I hid myself.”

¹¹ Then He said, “Who told you that you are naked? Have you eaten from the Tree from which I commanded you not to eat?”

¹² Then the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me—she gave me of the Tree, and I ate.”

¹³ Adonai Elohim said to the woman, “What did you do?”

The woman said, “The serpent deceived me and I ate.”

¹⁴ Adonai Elohim said to the serpent, “Because you did this,

¹⁷ Then to the man He said, “Because you listened to your wife’s voice and ate of the tree which I commanded you, saying, ‘You must not eat of it’:

²⁰ Now Adam named his wife Eve because she was the mother of all the living. ²¹ Adonai Elohim made Adam and his wife tunics of skin and He clothed them. ²² Then Adonai Elohim said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil. So now, in case he stretches out his hand and takes also from the Tree of Life and eats and lives forever,” ²³ Adonai Elohim sent him away from the Garden of Eden, to work the ground from which he had been taken. ²⁴ And He expelled the man; and at the east of the Garden of Eden He had cheruvim dwell along, with the whirling sword of flame, to guard the way to the Tree of Life.