What are the central themes of Parashat Bereshit, and how do the comme

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What are the central themes of Parashat Bereshit, and how do the commentators read them?

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Two hosts · 11 min · 2026-10-05

Sources: the Tanakh and the Talmud; answered in English in the Darshan style.

1. THE IDEA

Parashat Bereshit is not primarily a cosmological account but a statement about the dignity and responsibility of the human being: created last, in the image of God, as a partner in the ongoing work of Creation — a partnership sealed by Shabbat.

2. THE OPENING TEXT

[Genesis 1:1]: > "בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹהִ֑ים אֵ֥ת הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וְאֵ֥ת הָאָֽרֶץ׃" > "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."

The difficulty: Why does the Torah begin with Creation at all? And if it must begin there, why does the human being appear last — seemingly as an afterthought — rather than first?

3. THE MOVES

Move 1 — The human is created last, deliberately.

The Talmud in [Sanhedrin 38a:13] gives three reasons why Adam was created on erev Shabbat, the eve of the Sabbath — that is, last of all creatures:

> "שֶׁלֹּא יְהוּ מִינִים אוֹמְרִים: שׁוּתָּף הָיָה לוֹ לְהַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא בְּמַעֲשֵׂה בְרֵאשִׁית. דָּבָר אַחֵר: שֶׁאִם תָּזוּחַ דַּעְתּוֹ עָלָיו, אוֹמֵר לוֹ: יַתּוּשׁ קְדָמְךָ בְּמַעֲשֵׂה בְרֵאשִׁית." > "So that heretics should not say he was a partner of the Holy One in Creation. Alternatively: so that if a person becomes arrogant, one can say to him: the mosquito preceded you in the work of Creation."

Being created last is therefore a theological statement in two directions at once: it guards against human arrogance, and yet — as the third reason adds — it ensures the human enters immediately into the commandment. Lateness is not insignificance; it is placement at the threshold of obligation.

Move 2 — Yet the human is created in the image of God.

[Genesis 1:27] states: > "וַיִּבְרָ֨א אֱלֹהִים אֶת־הָאָדָם בְּצַלְמ֔וֹ בְּצֶ֥לֶם אֱלֹהִ֖ים בָּרָ֣א אֹת֑וֹ זָכָ֥ר וּנְקֵבָ֖ה בָּרָ֥א אֹתָֽם׃" > "And God created the human in His image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them."

[Genesis 5:1] repeats the same formulation: "בִּדְמ֥וּת אֱלֹהִ֖ים עָשָׂ֥ה אֹתֽוֹ" — "in the likeness of God He made him." The repetition is not accidental. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, in [Lessons in Leadership; Hebrew Edition, Kedoshim], reads this as the Torah's foundational statement of human dignity: every human being, by virtue of bearing the tzelem Elohim, carries within them something of the divine. This is not a privilege of the few but the condition of all.

Move 3 — The image of God is expressed in speech, and speech built Creation itself.

[Lessons in Leadership; Hebrew Edition, Tazria] notes: > "אלוהים ברא את העולם במילים... בשורש האנושיות שלנו נמצא כושר הדיבור." > "God created the world with words... At the root of our humanity lies the capacity for speech."

This connects directly to [Megillah 21b:10], which observes that the Talmud counts "ten utterances" (asarah ma'amarot) through which the world was created — God's speech is the instrument of Creation. The human being, uniquely gifted with language, shares in that creative power. To speak is already to imitate the Creator.

Move 4 — The partnership is sealed by Shabbat.

[Genesis 2:3] records: > "וַיְבָ֤רֶךְ אֱלֹהִים אֶת־י֣וֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִ֔י וַיְקַדֵּ֖שׁ אֹת֑וֹ כִּ֣י ב֤וֹ שָׁבַת֙ מִכׇּל־מְלַאכְתּ֔וֹ אֲשֶׁר־בָּרָ֥א אֱלֹהִ֖ים לַעֲשֽׂוֹת׃" > "And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because on it He rested from all His work which God had created to do."

Rabbi David Zvi Hoffmann, commenting on Exodus 20:11 [David Zvi Hoffmann on Exodus, .20:11:5], draws out the full weight of this verse: > "גם מלמדנו שכביכול שותפים אנו להקב"ה במעשה בראשית. ה' רצה שהאנושות תעבור אותו מתוך רצון חופשי, וכי תוביל את מעשה בראשית שלו לקראת השלמתו." > "It also teaches us that we are, as it were, partners with the Holy One in the work of Creation. God willed that humanity should traverse it of free will, and lead His work of Creation toward its completion."

Shabbat is therefore not a withdrawal from partnership — it is its ratification. By resting, the human being acknowledges that the work is God's; by returning to work on the six days, the human being takes up their assigned share.

4. THE TURN

The Talmud in [Sanhedrin 38a:13] warns that if a person becomes arrogant, one reminds him: "יַתּוּשׁ קְדָמְךָ" — the mosquito came before you. And yet the same passage insists that the human enters immediately into mitzvah. These two facts belong together. The tzelem Elohim of [Genesis 1:27] is not a reason for pride but a reason for responsibility. Hoffmann's reading of Shabbat [David Zvi Hoffmann on Exodus, .20:11:5] makes the claim concrete: we are partners in leading Creation toward its completion — b'ratzon chofshi, of free will. That means our choices about how we speak, how we treat other human beings who also bear the divine image, and how we rest and return to work, are not private matters. They are acts of co-creation. Parashat Bereshit asks each of us: what kind of partner are you being?

5. THE DRAFT

The Torah begins not with a commandment but with a story — and that itself is a teaching. Bereshit bara Elohim et hashamayim ve'et ha'aretz [Genesis 1:1]: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Everything else follows from that opening: the sequence of days, the unfolding of light and darkness, water and dry land, creature after creature — and then, last of all, the human being.

Why last? It would seem more natural to place the crown of Creation at the beginning, not at the end. The Talmud in Sanhedrin asks exactly this question, and gives three answers [Sanhedrin 38a:13]. The first is a warning against heresy: so that no one could claim the human being was God's partner in the original act of making the world. The second is a corrective against arrogance: "im tazuach da'ato alav, omrim lo: yatush kadamcha bema'aseh bereshit" — if a person becomes puffed up, one says to him: the mosquito preceded you in the work of Creation. And the third reason is the most striking of all: so that the human being could enter immediately into the commandment — kedi sheyikanes lamitzvah miyad.

These three reasons are not in tension. They describe the same human being from three angles. We are not the origin of the world — that guards us against the delusion of self-sufficiency. We are not even the first inhabitants of the world — that guards us against contempt for other living things. And yet we are placed at the threshold of Shabbat, at the very moment Creation becomes complete, so that our first act is already an act of response to God's call.

What is it that makes the human being capable of that response? The Torah tells us in a verse it repeats twice, almost word for word. First in chapter one: "vayivra Elohim et ha'adam betzalmo, betzelem Elohim bara oto, zachar unekevah bara otam" [Genesis 1:27] — God created the human in His image, in the image of God He created him, male and female He created them. Then again in chapter five: "bidmut Elohim asah oto" [Genesis 5:1] — in the likeness of God He made him. The repetition is not stylistic padding. It insists: this is the central fact about every human being. Not their strength, not their intelligence, not their lineage — but that they bear within them something of the divine image.

And what does that image consist of? One answer comes from an unexpected direction. In a passage on speech and its power, Rabbi Sacks observes [Lessons in Leadership; Hebrew Edition, Tazria]: "Elohim bara et ha'olam bamilim... beshoresh ha'enoshiyut shelanu nimtza kosher hadibur" — God created the world with words; at the root of our humanity lies the capacity for speech. The Talmud itself counts the ten utterances through which the world was created [Megillah 21b:10]: vayomer Elohim — and God said — is the instrument of Creation. To speak is already to imitate the Creator. And therefore the way we use language — whether we build with it or destroy with it — is not a trivial matter. It is a theological one.

But the deepest expression of the human partnership with God comes in the verse that closes the Creation account. "Vayevarech Elohim et yom hashvi'i vayekadesh oto, ki vo shavat mikol melakhto asher bara Elohim la'asot" [Genesis 2:3] — God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because on it He rested from all His work which God had created to do. That final phrase — asher bara Elohim la'asot, which God created to do — is grammatically odd. Created to do what? The work of Creation is finished; what remains to be done?

Rabbi David Zvi Hoffmann, in his commentary on Exodus [David Zvi Hoffmann on Exodus, .20:11:5], answers directly: "gam melamdeinu shekiv'yakhol shutafim anu laKadosh Barukh Hu bema'aseh bereshit. Hashem ratza she'ha'enoshut ta'avor oto mitokh ratzon chofshi, vekhi tovi'l et ma'aseh bereshit shelo likrat hashlamato" — it teaches us that we are, as it were, partners with the Holy One in the work of Creation. God willed that humanity should traverse it of free will, and lead His work of Creation toward its completion.

This is the theology of Parashat Bereshit in a single sentence. Creation is not finished. It was handed over, on the sixth day, to a creature who bears the divine image, who possesses the divine gift of speech, who was placed — deliberately, last — at the threshold of the first Shabbat. And Shabbat itself is not a withdrawal from that partnership. It is its ratification: by resting, we acknowledge that the world belongs to God; by returning to our six days of work, we take up our share of bringing it toward completion.

The mosquito came before us. We should not be arrogant. But we entered immediately into the commandment. We should not be passive either. Parashat Bereshit opens the Torah by placing on every human being — every bearer of the tzelem Elohim — the weight and the privilege of that responsibility.

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