This week’s parasha, Parashat Beresheit, begins with a phrase known the world over – beresheit bara Elokim et hashamayim ve’et ha’aretz – “in the beginning G-d created the heavens and the earth”.
In reference to this verse, the Talmud, in Masechet Megila, records the very interesting and somewhat famous “origin story” of the Septuagint – the Greek translation of Tanach written in Egypt in the second century BC. The Gemara records that King Talmai placed seventy Torah scholars (hence the name Septuagint – seventy) into separate rooms to individually translate Tanach into Greek.
The Talmud explains that the first phrase of the Torah, beresheit bara Elokim, contains an ambiguity. In Hebrew, the subject of a sentence can come before or after the verb. In the phrase beresheit bara Elokim, the object of the phrase, beresheit (in the beginning), is located before the verb, bara (created), which is placed before the subject, Elokim (G-d) – G-d created in the beginning (Object-Verb-Subject).
Herein lies the ambiguity. From a grammatical perspective, beresheit bara Elokim can be translated as: “in the beginning” created G-d. The philosophy of dualism, a belief that two competing godly powers control the world, was ascendant at that time. This philosophy goes back to the time of Paroh in Egypt and is totally antithetical to the Torah’s teaching that Hashem is One. The Talmud teaches that each of these seventy scholars, independently, was concerned that keeping the Torah’s word order (in the beginning – created – G-d) in the Greek translation, would lead to a corruption of the Torah’s teaching that Hashem is One – as it may communicate dualism, chas v’shalom. Miraculously, explains the Gemara, each of the scholars translated the verse identically, but in a way that created no ambiguity, “G-d created, in the beginning the heavens and the earth”.
Why did the Torah not simply write the phrase less ambiguously – Elokim bara beresheit – G-d created, in the beginning? What message is the Torah conveying through this ambiguous word order?
Rashi explains that “in the beginning” is a reference to the Torah. In other words, this verse is communicating that G-d created the heavens and the earth in service of Torah. Hashem’s ultimate goal in creating the world was to promote the ideas, values and ideals of the Torah. The promulgation of the Torah is the purpose of the world.
By placing “in the beginning”, referring to Torah, prior to the verb, “created”, the Torah teaches a fundamental idea – actions should be in service of a purpose. “G-d created, in the beginning” would not have taught this lesson. Only by writing the object before the verb, “In the beginning, G-d created” does the Torah convey that actions are in service of a purpose. (See Yalkut HaUrim cited in Torah Le’Da’at for a related interpretation)
Purpose and intentionality precede action. Think before you act. By considering our purpose before acting, we emulate Hashem and act with the part of us that makes us uniquely human, our tzelem Elokim, our Free Will.
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