Genesis 1:1

Bereshit bara Elohim et hashamayim ve'et ha'aretz

Within the word בְּרֵאשִׁית (Bereshit) "In the beginning,"we can find the following:

• בְּ – in
• בַּר – son
• בָּרָא – create
• רֹאשׁ – head
• רֵאשִׁית – beginning
• אֵשׁ – fire

Word Study:

Without changing the order of the letters, you can find 6 words within the word בְּרֵאשִׁית(Bereshit). Anyone who knows Hebrew could identify these words. This is common in the Hebrew language; we can often find words that contain other words within them. Generally, each smaller word has a meaning connected to the bigger word, the "mother" word.

The word בָּרָא (barah) - created refers to the creation of something from nothing. The letters of this word are ב-ר-א, three letters that appear in the wordבְּרֵאשִׁית (bereshit) - In The Begining.In fact, these are the first three letters of the Bible, so they have a special significance, which you will read in day 2. Furthermore, the verb ברא(barah) - created is attributed only to God in the Hebrew Bible and never to a human being. There are a number of words used specifically to describe God, His attributes, or His actions. For example, the word סְלִיחָה (slicha) - “forgiveness” appears many times throughout the Old Testament. In each of these cases, God is the one who is doing the forgiving. In the story of Jacob and Esau or Joseph and his brothers, situations in which one person is forgiving another, the word ‘forgiveness’ is not written only implied.

Reflection on the word בְּרֵאשִׁית(Bereshit):

Unfortunately, the first chapter of the Bible is typicallynot reread or it is simply used for children’s Sunday School. However, there are many precious insights in every single word of the Bible. Just within the first word בְּרֵאשִׁית(Bereshit) we can find the words create, son, in, head, beginning, and fire. God chose for the Old Testament to be written mostly in Hebrew. Since the small words are connected to a larger word in this language, there is profound truth in how they interact. One idea is that before we do any action, we must use our headsand give it thought. We should never perform an action out of pressure or haste, but from conscious forethought and preparation. Anything we want to createmust first go through a planning stage. We should start executing our idea only after that.

Obviously, we could never reach the level of the Creator and create something out of nothing. However, each of us, at different times in our lives, choose to create different things and we need to give each project special attention.The same is true about our faith. We need to understand that everything is from God, who created the world with forethought and preparation.

Do not allow pressures to control you. Prepare things ahead of time, while setting a clear goal. If you will do this – you will be more successful.