Parshat B'reishit: An Expression of Consciousness
Tuesday, October 6, 2015
Parshat B'reishit
(An excerpt from my upcoming book)
The first verse of B'reishit (Genesis) is commonly translated as, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." However, this translation is impossible from the Hebrew text. Further, this statement is also unintelligible- a "beginning" of time and space is as unthinkable as their non-beginning. The Hebrew narrative does not have a "hey" (ה) as a prefix to the word reishit רֵאשִׁית and thus there is no "the beginning" possible in the text and those who have translated the verse thus into the English language have not even attempted to be true to the original Hebrew narrative. If translators have failed to correctly translate the first word of the Bible then what hope does that provide that the rest of the English Bibles are any better?
Another example of Hebrew differences from the English texts is in the first chapter of Genesis wherein the phrase "God said..." repeatedly occurs. There is no such word or equivalent of the word "God" in the Hebrew narrative. The Hebrew phrase is "v'yomer Elohim…" and read according to its letters presents an idea of cosmic energy evolving into the human psyche or the psyche of existence. Read according to its letters the text is impossible to accurately translate literally into the English language. Elohim אֱלֹהִים represents a process whereby Aleph (א) becomes Yod (י) in evolutionary existence and the term yomer (יֹּאמֶר - yod, aleph, mem, reish) is the process of emanation of both Yod and Aleph in a state of existence and life. How do you adequately translate this into English?
The Bible is a lot deeper and richer in its Hebrew context than what an English translation could ever adequately capture. This is not to make an assertion that a study of the Bible in English has no merit rather it’s a statement of a simple fact and an encouragement for those who are serious concerning obtaining a proper understanding of the Scriptures to begin developing some competency of Hebrew language and idiom. Your Bible study will become infinitely deeper and more meaningful. Don't ever think that your studies of the Scriptures have brought you to a mastery of the texts and their meanings. One who thinks this hasn't truly understood anything.
Now, several things will be misunderstood if we leave it at that. A little word ‘et’ (אֵת) that is the combination of the first and last – aleph and tav – letters of the Hebrew alphabet, has been left out of translation. Also, recall that it does not say ‘In the beginning’ which suggests a process in time and space. The word ‘Elohim’ literally means ‘potencies.’ That is, the seven creative forces emerging from that which lies behind the emergence of the universe. The word ‘created’ is translated from the word Bara (בָּרָא), which broken into letters means “internal movement of the creative life energy in its first action, or from the primary cause”. It suggests an artist arriving at an internal conception of a work, which he will later materialize. i.e., it is all in the mind at this point. The words Heaven (שָּׁמַיִם) and Earth (אָרֶץ), are therefore not talking about physical realities, but spiritual realities in the conception of the Creator. The word Heavens is ‘Shamayim’, which means infinite source or potential of life forms or life energies. The word Earth is ‘Eretz’, which in Hebrew means primal vibrating substance. So we have the source of life forms – the mother, and that substance which it uses.
Obviously, the sentence ‘In the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth’, gives no idea of these meanings. If we enlarge upon it we may arrive at something that brings this understanding.
“That which moved not and remains always unmanifest expressed out of itself seven creative forces. There was conceived within the one purpose of these the plan and living spiritual reality of the whole cosmos. From beginning to end, all existed as divine realities in this conception. But, it was not yet made real in time, space and motion. But the creative energies began to bring into being the forces and archetypes that would be the spiritual body upon which the physical universe would later hang.”
Let’s examine the first verse of Genesis in greater depth and see what can be found within it coded letter sequence…
Let’s examine the first verse of Genesis in greater depth and see what can be found within it coded letter sequence…
Expression of Consciousness
Before we move on any further with our examination of the rest of the Genesis narrative we have another important observation to make concerning the word reishit רֵאשִׁית, which is the first word of the first verse of our first book.
By examining the word reishit (erroneously translated as “Beginning”) we can see that this word is followed by a verb and in Hebrew grammar the word reishit is always found in the construct state, meaning it is always connected to the word which comes after it. Therefore the accurate way of rendering this verse would be “Beginning created God (Elohim);” reishit is the causative principle and Elohim (falsely translated as God) is the product. In truth the idea that God created the Universe based on this verse is wrong as the verse in Hebrew clearly states that God was created. Rashi points out that if the verse intended to say that “In the Beginning God created…” then the correct word to use would have been BaRishona, meaning at the head of, not B’reishit as the text includes.
Rashi brings a Midrashic interpretation; The word "bereishit" is actually the word "reishit" preceded by the preposition letter "beit" which means "in", "with", or "for". Therefore, the translation of the verse is, "For 'reishit', God created the Heavens and the Earth". God created the world for the sake of the Torah, as it is written, "(Said the Torah: God created me as the beginning ("reishit") of His way, the first of His works of old." (Proverbs 8:22)
The Zohar (I:24b) explains "Bereishit": "With (or by way of ) 'reishit', God created the Heavens and the Earth". "Reishit" means Torah. God created the world with the Torah. God looked into the Torah and created the world. (Zohar Terumah 161b)
The next question is obviously; “If Torah was created first then what does Torah represent?” It obviously is not the five books written down later by Moses.
Rav Menachem Nachum of Chernobyl wrote:
“Therefore all of Creation is suffused with the vitality and spirit of God, as is written, "...and You enliven all things." (Nehemia 9:6) Therefore God diminished and contracted His vitality and His light in order that the world could exist, for His full influence is far too great for the limited capacity of the physical world to bear. This allowed even the lowest spheres to be permeated with and contain His light without risk of shattering. The task left for us in our world is to raise up our awareness of, and to reveal as much of this light as possible” (B'Ohel Hatzadikim).
Rav Menachem is pointing out that this primordial Torah is the extension of consciousness into the lower degradations of all of the planes of manifest existence. This Consciousness is routinely referred to as the Upper Light and is allegorically said to be diffused as it manifests the whole of Creation until is ultimately comes to rest in the world of Matter (Assiyah). Humanity is of Assiyah in our physical mundane existence and all matter is a reflection of Light although the five sensory human doesn’t typically perceive the world of Light around him. Rav Menachem states that it is our job to “raise up our awareness” or expand our consciousness to perceive the Light and that our essential nature and existence is the manifestation of the same Light. This higher perception will reveal the true nature and purpose of the nature of reality.
It is appropriate to assert that Reishit= Consciousness = Torah.
The Reishit is Consciousness. Consciousness is everywhere. Everything is related to us through our consciousness and we cannot know anything except through it. With observation it is easy to see that Consciousness is the BEGINNING for everything in our experience. We cannot be aware of, or experience anything except through mental recognition. With the understanding that Moses is using Reishit (beginning) as a symbol for Consciousness we can easily understand that Consciousness is the impetus of Creation and that we are all individuated sparks of this same Conscious expression.
This realization defies any concept of self that claims a separate identity. Through Consciousness we are linked with all others and all things, even while we feel separate from everyone and everything. This is why reishit (Consciousness) is conjoined to the prefix beit. Beit equates to dualism and Consciousness cannot be expressed or actualized except in the context of dualism. This is why the first word of the Torah is “Bereishit.”
In the context of dualism we are individual, and yet, we are one with all others and everything that exists, even the Cosmos. Indeed, the ability to be aware of our individuality and at the same time to be aware of our connection to Singularity is essential to spiritual illumination and much effort will be spent in this book to explain this oneness and paradoxical duality.
Let’s also realize that when Consciousness is referred to we are not talking about the brain of a human being. The brain is a portion of the vertebrate central nervous system in the physical body. It is the organ of thought and neural coordination and receives stimuli from the sense organs. In this first line of the Bible, a physical brain does not exist. Reishit is the organized conscious and unconscious adaptive mental activity of an organism. It is classically Kabbalistic, in the sense that it is not obvious but is hidden. The brain is the exoteric, or the obvious physical receiver and and transmitter for the Consciousness of Reishit.
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