In the Beginning

Photo by NASA

In the beginning, God created
the heaven and the earth.

— Genesis 1:1 JPS

What is this “beginning” described in Genesis? Torah teaches that God is infinite, eternal, immortal, unbounded. How could infinite, eternal, immortal, unbounded Being—pure consciousness—ever exist without knowledge and proof of It’s own nature?

Infinity has no beginning or end. The use of the word “beginning” in virtually every translation of the Bible not only presupposes a finite starting point, but it also assumes an end. This is not consistent with the eternal nature of God.

Is our translation wrong? Or does our usual understanding of the translation require a closer look?

Let’s look more closely!

The Hebrew alphabet (aleph-bet) offers an important clue. The first letter aleph is, literally, the “beginning” of the Hebrew alphabet. 

Numerically, alef [aleph] equals one
and therefore represents the Divine Oneness
inherent within all of reality.¹ 

— Rabbi Mendel Kalmenson

The aleph is not only silent, as are several other letters,  but it is the quietest letter of all in the aleph-bet. It is pure silence, if you will.

The aleph stands for the silent presence of God.²

— Rabbi Rami Shapiro

So we see that the Hebrew letters—which make up the entire Hebrew scripture and are said to comprise the building blocks of creation—actually begin with pure silence.

Could it be that the “beginning” of creation referred to in Genesis 1:1 is pure silence, nothingness (no-thingness)? If so, we can read these familiar words in a whole new light: “In the silence of God’s divine pure consciousness, God cognized the heaven and the earth...”

Of course creation unfolded! The Creator could not be the Creator without expression, hence we can say that heaven and earth were ‘born’ of divine silence. This ‘birth’ is less a ‘creation,’ as it is an on-going, eternal revelation of divine silence knowing It’s own nature.

Photo by Greg Rosenke

With this in mind, it’s no surprise to find the principle of “Silence as the Beginning” expressed repeatedly in Nature:  A tree begins with the silence of a seed; each day begins with the silence of the night; every wave rises from the silence of the ocean.

This principle of silence is expressed in our own experience as well: There’s silence between each word we speak and between each note we sing; the blueprint for a building—in fact, a plan for anything—springs from the silence of pure consciousness, the divine Source of Thought.

All of creation arises from its Source: divine silence.

As we celebrate Rosh Hashanah let us awaken, more than ever before, to the eternal silence that manifests all of creation. When we are awake to the divine silence of our own nature, “In the beginning...” takes on an even more profound meaning to inspire us throughout the entire year. 

Echo

Below is an excerpt from, The Infinities of Torah,
appearing in Chapter 7 of God and The Big Bang
by Zohar scholar Daniel C. Matt

“Only the very first letter of the Ten Commandments was spoken by God. And what is the first letter? The alef of Anokhi, “I am.” An alef without a vowel has no sound. It simply represents a glottal stop, a position taken by the larynx in preparation for speech. A silent alef indicates the beyond. It frames a window onto the infinite realm of possibility.

“A kabbalist would appreciate the German mathematician Georg Cantor’s decision to symbolize various types of infinity with the alef. The alef is the uncarved block, preceding the shaping of words, the verbal formulations of Torah. It represents pure potential, with no specific content spelled out.”

Enrichment

Cosmology and Creation with Dr. Stephen Barr • https://youtu.be/_lqGUMmPk_Y 03.29.2023

Martin Timms, Manifolds, and Consciousness, https://medium.com/@martintimms/the-emergence-of-duality-bindu-manifolds-and-consciousness-7eada8bd9032 11.09.2024

Waves of the Ocean

[1] Rabbi Mendel Kalmenson, Positivity Bias, (Chabad.org & Ezra Press, Kindle Edition), p. 228

[2] Rami Shapiro, @One Daily Minyan, April 13, 2000

This post includes updates and edited excerpts
from d’var Torah, In the beginning…
Rosh Hashanah 5756
Congregation Beth Shalom Newsletter, Fairfield, Iowa

© Copyright 1996 Joy Hirshberg   All rights reserved.

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