Parashat Bereshitפָּרָשַׁת בְּרֵאשִׁית

Bereshit (“In the Beginning”), the first parashah in the annual Torah reading cycle, begins with God’s creation of the world. The first people, Adam and Eve, eat from the Tree of Knowledge and are banished from the Garden of Eden. Their elder son, Cain, kills their younger son, Abel, and Cain is destined to a life of wandering. As the opening portion of the annual Torah cycle (Genesis 1:1-6:8), Bereshit lays down the Torah's foundational claims about God, creation, and the moral order. It moves from the cosmic to the personal: God brings the world into being over six days and rests on the seventh, instituting the Sabbath, and humanity is created b'tzelem Elohim ("in the image of God"), entrusted with dominion over and stewardship of creation. The narrative quickly turns to the consequences of free will, as the Garden of Eden, the Tree of Knowledge, and Cain's killing of Abel introduce temptation, disobedience, and moral accountability ("Am I my brother's keeper?"). The portion then traces the generations from Adam through Seth to Noah, ending as human wickedness grows and sets up the Flood narrative of the next reading. It is read on the Shabbat immediately following Simchat Torah, marking the restart of the public Torah cycle from the beginning.

The haftarah is drawn from Isaiah and begins at Isaiah 42:5, where God is described as the one who "created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it," a direct echo of the parashah's Creation account and the reason the two are read together. The exact ending varies by rite: in most Ashkenazi communities the reading is the longer Isaiah 42:5-43:10, while in most Sephardi communities (and in Chabad/Lubavitch custom) it is the shorter Isaiah 42:5-21. Beyond the opening echo, Isaiah extends the theme of creation toward purpose, presenting Israel as formed to be "a light to the nations," so that both the world and the covenant rest on God as their creator. Some other rites, such as the Italian and Yemenite, differ slightly in the closing verses.

The most famous passage is the Torah's very first verse, "Bereshit bara Elohim et hashamayim ve'et ha'aretz" ("In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth," Genesis 1:1), which gives both the portion and the Book of Genesis their Hebrew name. Other widely known verses include "Let there be light" (Genesis 1:3), the creation of humanity "in the image of God" (Genesis 1:27), the institution of the Sabbath (Genesis 2:1-3), and Cain's retort "Am I my brother's keeper?" (Genesis 4:9). Bereshit's special status is calendrical rather than a "special Shabbat": as the first portion of the annual cycle, it is always read on the Shabbat following Simchat Torah, marking the restart of the Torah from the beginning.