Shabbat Shalom and welcome to Judeo Talk. This week we return to the beginning of the Five Books of Moses, having read the concluding passages of the Tanakh in the past two weeks. Rather than continuing to pursue direct biblical exegesis every week on this blog, I feel that it would be appropriate to explore the importance of applying the lessons of Torah to our modern lives. So, every week I will be inviting you to think about how some element of Torah can manifest in your daily existence by analyzing the words, themes and history of particular passages, some from the parsha, some from the haftarah and some from other sources like the psalms or other supplementary texts. This week we will be looking at one of the larger meanings of the creation story as well as the haftarah from Isaiah that accompanies the first portion of the Tanakh.

Because every culture has one, we tend to fixate on the mythology of the creation story as an attempt by an ancient civilization to explain the origin of life. While that is certainly part of it, there's a danger to ignoring the many nuances of this famous story. It not only illuminates how Jews of antiquity viewed the hierarchy of life, it is also an expression of how people in that time and place thought of themselves in relation to nature. It should catch a reader's attention that the creation story puts the emergence of humanity as the very last thing to happen. This is a common convention in many creation stories. In an implicit sense, many human cultures viewed themselves as an advancement beyond nature, something that had not always been.

In a sense, this feeling of being new and ultimately separate from nature indicates a sort of existential crisis inherent to our species. If we are not of nature, then what is our origin, what is our purpose? We are not dedicated hunters like carnivores or indicators of habitability like plants. This first story in our cultural tradition is a contemplation on the direction of human existence. These early passages express a sense of wonder for the natural world, but also a deep sense of loneliness as creatures made separate from it.

Almost all people experience some form of this existential dilemma. We feel compelled to define ourselves and in doing so guide ourselves to action. This can lead to religious devotion, i.e. "I am a Jew, so I will go to Shabbat services on Friday night", and it can lead us to careers, "I am a baker, so I will make bread." While devotion and purpose can be very good things indeed, there is also a danger in becoming too locked-in to how we define ourselves.

The haftarah, the supplemental text, for Genesis 1 is a reading from the book of Isaiah. In it, God expresses the perpetuity of creation and the impossibility of people defining their own fates. In so many words, the sentiment is that all new things are themselves a continuation of creation. Not just the physical entities of the world, but all the events and actions related to them as well. It is impossible to predict the path of a life, if only because it is a thing in motion.

This haftarah is a counterpoint to the assertion that the creation ended after the sixth day. We live in a constant stream of creation, all our works and products included. Though it is important to find purpose in our lives, we must not mistake today's sense of purpose for a conclusion. Like it or not, the stream keeps flowing and the very stuff of the self continues to change just like the seasons of the natural world.