Bereshit
Genesis 1:1-6:8
Isaiah 42:5-43:10
Everyone loves the stories from Shalom Aleichem, and we are fortunate that one of them has gained worldwide prominence. Jew and non-Jew alike know that when two men come with a disagreement to the rabbi of Anatevka in “Fiddler on the Roof,” he listens carefully to each man’s complaint. He then tells each one separately that he’s right.
His wife, overhearing this, says to her husband, “My dear husband, both men cannot be right. Either one is right or the other is right!” To which the rabbi responds, “You know, you’re right!”
For a text that might not be as well known, what about our biblical text? A confusing feature in the book of Genesis is that the story of creation that appear at least twice. Yes, it is obvious that there are at least two stories of creation — or are there?
In the first chapter, creation follows an orderly pattern, beginning with chaos and ending with harmony. In the second chapter another creation narrative begins with the Garden of Eden already in existence; however, it lacks vegetation and people. Then Adam is created and God breaths into him nishmat hayyim, the breath of life. So, what should we think?
Traditional commentators noticed these apparent contradictions, and there are many modern Bible scholars who postulate that this development of stories reflect the existence of different authors, or editors. That may or may not be true. However, where the Bible comes from is not nearly as important as what it says to us at the present time.
There is a truth with a capital T in the opening chapters of the Bible. These chapters teach us that our perception of reality is never monolithic, and that there are several different ways to tell, and to understand, the same story.
Our ancestors have not been troubled by these contradictions or apparent inconsistencies. We might think that in the matters of creation and God, there has to be one truth. But I think that Genesis (and much of the rest of the Bible) should be read as poetry, not science.
In our daily lives, what we perceive and what objectively happens can be two different things. A number of people can witness an accident and there will be many different versions of what took place. The time of day, the events that occurred and the order in which they happened all are at the mercy of our subjective perception. Each person might be prepared to swear beyond a shadow of a doubt that what they saw is true, yet the narratives can be different. (There is a reason that eyewitness testimony has been overturned so often.)
And with creation? None of us were present at the creation of the universe, so it is not surprising that there should be more than one version — not only of what happened at creation, but also what it means.
A crucial purpose of these Genesis chapters is not that they tell us where we come from, but that they can give us some insight into what our lives mean and what our relationship is to the planet, to one another and to God.
“In the beginning … God said ‘Let there be light.’ ” What is the whole story? First there was a garden and then God fashioned humanity from the dust of the Earth. God created man and then fashioned woman from one of his ribs. Is that the whole story? According to other verses in the Bible, God created man and woman simultaneously. So which version is correct? We will never know, and maybe it does not really matter.
In Pirkei Avot we learn not to judge another until we have had the opportunity to stand in their place. If the Bible can begin with two contradictory versions of the same story, maybe we can acknowledge the limitations of how each one of us perceives reality.
So the advice to the rabbi in Anatevka might have been right — on the one hand and on the one hand. Who’s to say that sometimes both aren’t right?
Rabbi Larry Raphael is the senior rabbi of Congregation Sherith Israel in San Francisco.