Parshat Bereshit: From the Streets to the Light

· Ariel Hanasi · Six1Trey · Parashah · Bereshit (Genesis 1:1–6:8)

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Parshat Bereshit (Genesis 1:1–6:8) restarts the Torah cycle. This year it was read on Shabbat, October 10, 2026 (29 Tishrei 5787), which was also Shabbat Machar Chodesh, the Shabbat before the new month, so the haftarah was I Samuel 20:18–42: the covenant of friendship between David and Jonathan.

Every year the whole Jewish world goes back to page one. Whatever happened last year, however far you got or however far you fell, on Shabbat Bereshit everybody starts again from "In the beginning". The Lubavitcher Rebbe used to quote the saying that the stance a person takes on Shabbat Bereshit sets the tone for the whole year. That makes this parasha the best place to start a new life, too.

בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵת הָאָרֶץ "In the beginning G-d created the heaven and the earth." (Genesis 1:1)

Read this teaching in Spanish: Parashat Bereshit: de la calle a la luz.

The parasha in seven aliyot

  1. Rishon (1:1–2:3): Six days of creation and the first Shabbat.
  2. Sheni (2:4–19): Adam is formed from the earth and placed in the Garden; the four rivers; "it is not good for man to be alone".
  3. Shlishi (2:20–3:21): Chava, the serpent, the fruit, and the first time a human being hid from Hashem.
  4. Revi'i (3:22–4:18): Exile from Eden. Cain and Hevel.
  5. Chamishi (4:19–22): Lemech's family: the first city builders, musicians and metalworkers.
  6. Shishi (4:23–5:24): Ten generations from Adam to Noach.
  7. Shvi'i (5:25–6:8): The Nephilim, a world gone wrong, and Noach, who "found favor in the eyes of Hashem".

Watch the reading, aliyah by aliyah, on the Six1Trey Torah page.

1. Light comes first

On the first day Hashem says "Let there be light", and there is light (Genesis 1:3). The sun, the moon and the stars don't appear until the fourth day (1:14–19).

So where did the light of the first day come from? The Sages taught that it was a special light, a light by which a person could see from one end of the world to the other, and that Hashem hid it away for the righteous in the future. Whatever else that means, it means this: light does not depend on circumstances. It came before the sun. It came before anything that we usually think makes light possible.

That is a message for anybody who is waiting for the conditions to be right before they change. Waiting for the case to close, for the money to come in, for the people around you to change first. The Torah says the light comes first. The sun comes later.

Notice also the order of every day: "And there was evening and there was morning" (1:5). Evening first. In the Jewish calendar the day begins at night. Darkness is not the end of the story; it is the start of the day.

2. Why start with creation at all?

The Torah is a book of commandments, so Rashi's very first comment asks why it doesn't start with the first commandment given to Israel. His answer: so that if the nations of the world ever say to Israel, "You are robbers, because you took the lands of the seven nations of Canaan", Israel can answer: "All the earth belongs to the Holy One, blessed be He. He created it, and He gave it to whom He pleased."

The very first comment in the most-read commentary in Jewish history is about a people being called thieves and standing on its right to exist. Nine hundred years later it reads like it was written this morning. Meet the man who wrote it on our page Who is Rashi?

3. "Let us make man"

On the sixth day, Hashem says "Let us make man in our image" (1:26). Why the plural? There is only One.

Rashi explains that we learn humility from here. Because man would resemble the angels, Hashem consulted His heavenly court before creating him, so that they would not be jealous. The One who needs no advice asked for it anyway, to teach us that the bigger you are, the more you should ask.

And what is the "image of G-d" in a human being? The Torah says that Hashem breathed into Adam the breath of life and "man became a living soul" (2:7). Onkelos translates: man became "a speaking spirit". Animals are alive too. What makes us human is speech: the power to name, to promise, to pray, to lie, to curse, to heal. Read about the Roman nobleman who wrote that translation on our page Who is Onkelos?

4. Naming the animals

Hashem brings every animal to Adam "to see what he would call them" (2:19). The Chassidic masters teach that Adam didn't pick random sounds. In the holy tongue, a name expresses what a thing really is, its inner life. To name something correctly you have to see past its outside and into what it is.

Adam names the animals, and then he names his wife: Chava, "because she was the mother of all living" (3:20). The Breslov teachers bring a beautiful idea in Rebbe Nachman's name: the letters of Chava's name hint at a verse in Psalms, "who crowns you with kindness and mercy" (Psalms 103:4). Speech that sees the good in another person draws down kindness and mercy.

5. "It is not good for man to be alone"

Everything in creation is called "good". The first thing the Torah calls not good is loneliness: "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a help meet for him" (2:18).

Rashi explains: so that people should not say there are two gods, the Holy One alone in heaven without a partner and Adam alone on earth without a partner. Only Hashem is truly One. Human beings are built to need each other.

A lot of men who come out of the streets come out alone. The crew is gone, the family is broken, trust is shot. The Torah's first "not good" is a warning: don't try to do the next chapter alone. Find a community, a teacher, a partner, a minyan.

6. "Where are you?"

Then comes the serpent, the fruit, and the first hiding. Adam and Chava eat from the tree, their eyes are opened, they realize they are naked, and when they hear the voice of Hashem in the garden they hide among the trees (3:7–8).

Rashi gives us his whole method in a comment on that verse: "I have come only for the plain meaning of Scripture", and for the teachings that settle its words.

And then Hashem asks the first question ever asked of a human being: "Where are you?" (3:9).

Hashem knows where Adam is. The question isn't a request for information. It's an invitation to stop hiding and tell the truth. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks pointed out that the sin of the garden was about choosing what they saw (the fruit was "a delight to the eyes", 3:6) over what they heard (the command of Hashem). And the result was shame: eyes opened, naked, hiding. Judaism, he taught, is a religion of listening, of conscience, not of appearances.

"Where are you?" is still the question. Not where you're from, not what you did, not what people say about you. Where are you, right now?

7. Blame

Adam's answer is the oldest move in the book: "The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree" (3:12). The woman blames the serpent. Nobody says "I did it".

Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis taught on this parasha that the beginning of growth is accepting personal responsibility instead of looking for someone to blame. Every person who has been through the system has heard every version of "it wasn't me". The way out of the garden's curse starts with the words Adam couldn't say.

8. Sin at the door

Cain and Hevel each bring an offering. Hevel brings the best of his flock; Cain brings "of the fruit of the ground", whatever was lying around. Hashem accepts Hevel's and not Cain's, and Cain is furious.

Hashem speaks to him before anything happens: "Why are you angry? … If you do well, will you not be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin crouches at the door, and its desire is toward you; but you can rule over it" (4:6–7).

This is the Torah's charter of free will. Hashem doesn't tell Cain he isn't angry, or that the anger isn't real. He tells him it's crouching at the door like an animal, and that he can master it.

Anybody who knows what rage at the door feels like knows how true that is. The moment before. The phone call that sets you off, the look across the room, the voice in your head saying you have to answer it. The Torah says: you can rule over it. Cain didn't. He spoke to his brother in the field, and he killed him (4:8).

9. "Your brother's bloods"

Hashem asks Cain, "Where is Hevel your brother?" and Cain answers with the line that every street code is built on: "Am I my brother's keeper?" (4:9).

The Torah's answer is yes.

"The voice of your brother's bloods cries out to Me from the ground" (4:10). Why "bloods", plural? Rashi explains: his blood, and the blood of all the descendants he would have had. One killing destroys a whole world of future people: the kids he would have raised, the grandkids, the generations. Everyone who has buried a friend from the block knows that math.

The Midrash teaches that Cain eventually repented, and when Adam saw the power of return, he began to sing the Psalm for the Shabbat day (Bereshit Rabbah 22:13). Even after the first murder, the door back was open. Rebbe Nachman put it in one line: "If you believe that you can damage, believe that you can repair" (Likutei Moharan II:112).

10. The universal laws begin here

The Talmud derives the commandments that bind all of humanity, the Noahide laws, from a single verse in this parasha: "And Hashem G-d commanded the man, saying: Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat" (2:16; Sanhedrin 56b). The Rambam writes that six of those laws were already given to Adam, and the seventh was added for Noach (Laws of Kings 9:1).

For Bnei Noach, non-Jews who want a real relationship with Hashem, Bereshit is page one. The covenant comes into focus next week in Parshat Noach.

11. The seventh day

Creation doesn't end on the sixth day. It ends with rest: "And on the seventh day G-d finished His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day… And G-d blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it" (2:2–3).

Hashem doesn't get tired. So why rest? The Sages answer that rest itself was the last thing created. Until Shabbat, the world was busy. Shabbat gave it peace.

Anybody who came up hustling knows what it means to never stop: the phone is always on, the money is always moving, and you sleep with one eye open. The Torah's answer to that life isn't only "stop doing wrong". It's "stop". One day a week, the world goes on without you, and you find out it was never on your shoulders in the first place.

For many people who come back to Torah, the first real change is Shabbat. Not the whole system at once, just one Friday night: candles, a meal, the phone off, people around a table. Start there.

12. Yuval, the father of music

The short fifth aliyah lists the children of Lemech. One of them, Yaval, was "the father of such as dwell in tents and have cattle". His brother Yuval "was the father of all such as handle the harp and pipe" (4:20–21). Their half-brother Tuval-Cain was the first to forge copper and iron (4:22).

In four verses the Torah gives us the beginning of herding, of music, and of metalwork. And it puts them in the family line of Cain. Every gift can go either way. The same metal makes plows and swords. The same music can lift a soul or feed its worst side.

For Six1Trey, a ministry that started with hip-hop, that verse is personal. Music was there almost from the beginning, and it has always been a question of what you use it for. Listen to the Six1Trey music.

13. Chanoch, who walked with G-d

In the long list of generations, one man stands out: "And Chanoch walked with G-d, and he was not; for G-d took him" (5:24). Everyone else in the list "lived" and "died". Chanoch just "was not".

Rashi explains: Chanoch was a righteous man, but his mind was easily swayed to turn from his righteous ways. So Hashem took him early, before his time, while he was still good.

It's one of the hardest comments in Rashi, and one of the most honest. Some people are good, and fragile. The pull of the old life is strong, and the people around them pull hard. Chanoch's story is a reason to guard the good you have built: change your surroundings, change your phone numbers, change your friends if you have to. Don't count on being strong enough to stand in the middle of temptation forever.

14. A world gone wrong, and one man

The parasha ends darkly. The Nephilim appear (6:4), the earth fills with wickedness, and the Torah says Hashem "regretted" making man (6:6). Rashi reads the word as consolation as well as regret: it was a comfort that man was made on earth and not among the heavenly beings, where he would have led them astray too.

And then the last verse: "But Noach found favor in the eyes of Hashem" (6:8). In a whole world gone wrong, one person was enough to keep the story going.

New to the Torah? Start here

If you've never opened a Chumash, Bereshit is the perfect place, and you don't need to know Hebrew to begin.

  • Read one aliyah a day. Seven aliyot, seven days. Sunday is creation, Friday is the Nephilim and Noach.
  • Read it in your language first. Sefaria shows Hebrew and English (or Spanish) side by side, verse by verse.
  • Then read Rashi. He asks the question you were about to ask. If something bothers you in a verse, it probably bothered Rashi too.
  • Watch it. We read Bereshit aliyah by aliyah, in Hebrew and English with Rashi, on the Torah page.
  • Bring a question to the table. The Torah was never meant to be read alone. Bring one question to someone else this Shabbat.

Every week the cycle continues, one parasha at a time. Next stop: Noach.

The haftarah: David and Jonathan

This year Shabbat Bereshit fell on the day before Rosh Chodesh, so the haftarah was the special one for Machar Chodesh, "Tomorrow is the new moon" (I Samuel 20:18–42). Jonathan, the king's son, risks everything to protect David from his own father, King Saul.

Cain asked, "Am I my brother's keeper?" Jonathan answered it with his life. That is what real loyalty looks like: not covering for your friend's crimes, but protecting his life, even against your own family. The street code says "don't snitch". The Torah's code says "keep your brother alive".

Five questions for your Shabbat table

  1. What comes first for you, the light or the sun? What are you waiting for before you change?
  2. Where are you? Answer it honestly, out loud, to someone you trust.
  3. Who do you blame? Adam blamed Chava, Chava blamed the serpent. What would it sound like to say "I did it"?
  4. What's crouching at your door? Name it. The Torah says you can rule over it.
  5. Whose keeper are you? Who in your life needs you to protect him, and from what?

Rashi this week

Five comments from Rashi that we read in the Six1Trey Bereshit video, each linked to the full text:

What other teachers are saying

Learn from more than one voice. Here are four great Torah sources on Bereshit. Read them in full on their sites:

  • Chabad.org · The Lubavitcher Rebbe: 5 Powerful Insights From the Rebbe on Bereishit. Bereshit as a yearly renewal, the stance you take on Shabbat Bereshit setting the tone for the whole year, and the meaning of a name as the inner life of a thing.
  • Aish.com · Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks: The Art of Listening. The sin of the garden as choosing what we see over what we hear, and why Judaism is built on conscience, not shame.
  • Aish Latino · Rebetzin Esther Jungreis: El poder de las palabras (in Spanish). "Death and life are in the power of the tongue" (Proverbs 18:21), the commandments about speech, and Adam's failure to take responsibility.
  • Breslov.org · Chaya Rivka Zwolinski: How To Get Hashem's Lovingkindness and Mercy. Adam naming the creatures, Chava's name as a hint to "who crowns you with kindness and mercy", and holy speech in Rebbe Nachman's teaching.

More on Bereshit: Bereishit in a Nutshell (Chabad.org) · Bereishit archive (Aish.com) · ¿Qué significa "Bereshit"? (Aish Latino) · Reb Chaim Kramer on Bereishis (Breslov.org)

From the book

G2G: From Gangster to Ger is the story of a man who heard "Where are you?" late, after a lot of hiding, and finally answered. If Bereshit is about starting over, the book is about what it actually takes. Read G2G free.

Shabbat shalom.

Sources: Torah text, Rashi and Onkelos from Sefaria (JPS 1917 and public-domain translations). Talmud Sanhedrin 56b; Bereshit Rabbah 22:13; Rambam, Laws of Kings 9:1; Likutei Moharan II:112; I Samuel 20:18–42. Teachings attributed to other teachers are summarized in our words; please read their original articles at the links above.