The Complexity Of Creation
Recognizing that Creation and many natural phenomena are clouded in mystery can actually enrich our lives with meaning.
By Rabbi Jonathan Glass; The following article is reprinted with permission from the Orthodox Union.Every child knows the story of Creation.
The
Torah gives us a day-by-day account, describing how God, in His
omnipotence, benevolently brought forth all that we know--light and
darkness, dry land and sea, trees and plants, stars and planets, animal
and man.The text reads so simply and orderly that one is tempted to skim through it to get to the "meat" of the parashah--the story of Adam and Eve. The story of Creation remains an introduction, one that poses little difficulty for believers.
But Rashi, the great commentator, does not see it that way. He says that the opening sequence cries out for interpretation. It cannot be that these verses are telling us about the chronology of Creation, he writes, for the Torah’s second verse tells of God’s Presence "hovering on the face of the water," before any account of God’s creating water is given.
Rashi therefore does not subscribe to the popular translation of the opening verse of the Torah, "In the beginning, God created heaven and earth." Instead, he renders the words to leave open the possibility that water was created prior to heaven and earth.
What looked like a neat and clear account of Creation turns out to be full of mystery. And the Torah beginning with mystery is important--it reveals the very nature of Creation and of the Torah itself.
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