Jewish audio on Chabad.org. This class is presented by Rabbi Leib Shapira. Rabbi Leib Shapira, a noted Talmudic scholar, is the dean of the yeshivah gedolah Rabbinical College of Greater Miami, the rabbi of Congregation Beis Menachem, and a community leader in Miami Beach, Florida. Concerning פרשת בראשית, which is the first parshah of Chumash Bereishis, and is also the first parshah of the whole Chamishah Chumshei Torah, of all five chumashim, there is a famous kushya that's brought down in many places: Why is it that the Torah starts with the letter Beis? The first word Bereishis starts with the letter Beis, which means that the whole Torah starts with the letter Beis. Why didn't the Torah start with the letter Alef? Since Alef is the first letter, then it's self-understood that this is the most important letter, because the seder, the order of things in Torah, is also part of Torah, and therefore, since in the order the Alef comes before the Beis, obviously Alef is חשובר, is more important than Beis. So why did the Torah start with the letter Beis, not with the letter Alef? And in different places we find different answers to this question.

In Yerushalmi, in Chagigah פרק ב׳ הלכה א׳, and the same is in Tanchuma, this week's parshah, in Bereishis Rabbah, in Tanna D'Bei Eliyahu Rabbah פרק ל״א, in Zohar the beginning of פרשת ויגש, many other places, the answer is given because the letter Alef is an abbreviation of the word ארירה, ארור, which means cursed. The letter Beis, the first letter is the abbreviation of the word berachah, blessing. And therefore the Torah starts with a Beis rather than with an Alef because the Torah wants to start with a letter that hints to the concept of berachah, of blessing, rather than an alef which would hint to the concept of arur, of curse.

Then there's another reason given, and that is in Midrash HaNe'elam in Shir HaShirim, which is printed in the Zohar Chadash, and also the Da'at Zekenim miBa'alei HaTosafot here, and the Chizkuni in the beginning of Parashat Bereshit, they write that the letter bet symbolizes the shape of the world. Because the Gemara says in בבא בתרא דף כ״ה עמוד ב׳ that the world is similar to an אכסדרה. The world was created similar to a porch, which means it only has three sides, and the ורוח צפונית אינה מסובבת, and the northern side is not finished off. Whatever the Gemara shall mean, but this is what the Gemara says: that the world is shaped that it has only three sides, and the fourth side is open. The reason for that is given in Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer פרק ג׳ that just in case somebody will come and say that \"I am just like God, I could also create,\" so we will tell him, \"If you could create, why don't you go and finish off the fourth side of the world?\" But in any event, the world is shaped like a bet: has three sides, and the fourth side is open. And therefore, the Torah starts with a bet, because the world is shaped like a bet.

But be'emet we have to understand both of these answers. The first answer is not understood, as the Ibn Ezra asks in his hakdamah, as an introduction to his commentary on the Torah, that we find many words that start with a bet, and they mean things which are the opposite of blessing. On the other hand, we find many words that start with an alef, and they have meaning of blessing. So just because the bet is the beginning of the word berachah, and alef is the beginning of the word arur, that's why the Torah should change the normal order which it really should have had, that it should have started with an alef? And just because there is a word arur that starts with an alef the Torah should change it? There are other words that start with an alef and they do mean blessing, and there are other words that start with a bet and mean the opposite. Concerning the second teirutz, so the question is: Why is it that the Torah should change the order the way it should be because of the shape of the world? We know that the Torah does not depend, chas veshalom, on the world. On the opposite, the world depends on the Torah. We know what Rashi brings and brought down in different places from Chazal, that בראשית, בשביל התורה שנקראת ראשית. The whole world was created because of the Torah, which is called ראשית. We also know what the Chazal say in the Zohar חלק ב׳ דף קס״א עמוד א׳ and in the beginning of Bereishit Rabbah, that אסתכל באורייתא ברא עלמא. Hashem looked into the Torah and created the world. The Torah was the blueprint of the creation. So the world should follow the Torah, and not chas veshalom that the Torah follows the world. So why is it that because the shape of the world is like a בית, that's why the Torah should start with a בית? If we would say that there's a reason why the Torah should start with a בית, we would understand, but here we're saying that מצד התורה itself, really it should start with an אלף. The only reason it changed and started with a ב is because the world is shaped like a ב. So it comes out that the thing in the Torah follows what the world has. How can we say that the Torah follows the world, when really the world follows the Torah?

Then there is another question in this inyan. The Gemara says in Megillah דף ט עמוד א that Talmi HaMelech, the king Talmi, gathered together 70 זקנים and wanted them to translate the Torah. And he put them into separate rooms because he wanted to have a real translation and he thought that maybe if they'll sit together they're going to change certain things. And he wanted to have an authentic translation to know exactly what the Torah says, for whatever reason he had. So he put them into separate rooms, and nevertheless Hashem put into every one of these 70 זקנים, in their minds, to change the same things. Certain things they had to change because he wouldn't understand, or he would have טענות because of what they would have written, so Hashem put into their mind they should change it. One of the changes was that instead of translating it to בראשית ברא אלקים, which would mean in the beginning Hashem created, in their translation they wrote אלקים ברא בראשית, that Hashem in the beginning created. The reason was because if they would write בראשית ברא אלקים, he might think that there is this thing called בראשית and that created Hashem. So in order not to make that mistake, they all wrote אלקים ברא בראשית. But in the meantime we see that the way they translated it for Talmi HaMelech, the Torah started with an א. According to their translation, it started with אלקים ברא בראשית, so it comes out it starts with an א. And this is something that was put into their mind min hashamayim by Hashem. So obviously there is a reason by Hashem why the Torah, when it was translated to Talmai HaMelech, had to start with an א. Lichorah, why? Since there are reasons, as we said before, why the Torah should start with a ב, so then why didn't Hashem make it so that the way they started the Torah in their translation for Talmai HaMelech should also start with a ב? So there must be a reason for that, too.

The explanation to this is on the Pasuk in ירמיה קפיטל ט פסוק יא and פסוק יב, where it says על מה אבדה הארץ, why was the land lost? Why did the Yidden go into Galut? And the Pasuk continues על עזבם את תורתי, because they left my Torah. So the Chazal say in נדרים דף פא עמוד א that it means שלא ברכו בתורה תחלה, that they didn't make the blessing before they learned Torah. And the Bach in Orach Chaim סימן מז explains this. And his Peshat is also hinted in the Perush of Rabbeinu Yonah there in Nedarim. And he writes like this, that they did learn a lot of Torah. It doesn't mean that they didn't learn Torah at that time. It means that what they were missing was the Kavanah, he says, להתעצם ולהתדבק בקדושת ורוחניות התורה ולהמשיך השכינה. That what they were missing was the Kavanah, the intentions, of becoming connected to the Kedushah of the Shechinah that you bring out through the Torah. And that's what the Pasuk means, אבדה הארץ, that the land was lost, that means it was destroyed, and what was left of it was left only the Chomriyut, he says, only the physicality. The Ruchniyut, the spirituality, the Kedushah left because they didn't feel the Kedushah in the Torah. Which means, in simple words, as explained in the Tiferet Yisrael of the Maharal in his hakdamah, his introduction, that in Torah there are two things: there is the learning Torah that you learn and understand with your mind, and then there is the concept in Torah that you get connected with the נותן התורה, with Hashem who gave the Torah. And that is the kedushah of the Torah, which is beyond the understanding of the Torah. The essence of the Torah, which is one with Hashem, as the Rambam writes that הוא וחכמתו אחד, השם and His chochmah and His wisdom are one. So this is the kedushah of the Torah. And the order is that first, before you even start learning, you have to have this feeling that you want to get connected to the etzem of the Torah, to the essence of the Torah which is beyond understanding. And then you get to learn the Torah with your understanding, with your intellect. And this is what the Gemara means שלא ברכו בתורה תחלה. תחלה means first. First comes the berachah, which means first comes the feeling, the approach that you have to have to the Torah, that this is תורת השם and there is a kedushah in the Torah. The Torah is one with Hashem, and then you could start learning Torah with your understanding. And this is the simple reason why the Torah starts with a ב and not with an א. א is the first, ב is the second. When we start learning Torah, we have to remember that this is supposed to be already the second step. This is supposed to be the ב. The א, the first thing we're supposed to do is, before we start learning yet, we're supposed to have this connection to the נותן התורה. We're supposed to have this feeling in our mind that the Torah is תורת השם, the Torah of Hashem. The kedushah of the Torah, and if we have that feeling in our mind, then when we sit down to learn with understanding, we're going to learn properly, we're not going to get off the track, we're not going to do learn wrong things, we're not going to learn wrong peshat, because we started off with the proper approach. And that is the reason why the Torah starts with a ב, to tell us that when you start learning Torah, this is the ב, this is the second step. There was an א before that, and that is the feeling of connection to the נותן התורה.

In essence, this is the meaning in the two pshatim that we brought before why the Torah starts with a ב. The Yerushalmi gave the reason because ב is an abbreviation brachah, and א is an abbreviation arur or arirah, as it says there. In essence, what the Yerushalmi means is what we said before, because the Chazal say in Yoma that זכה נעשית לו סם חיים, לא זכה נעשית לו סם מיתה. If a person learns Torah and he is zocheh, he merits, then the Torah becomes to him a medicine, a medicine of life. If he is not zocheh, he doesn't merit, it becomes poison. What does it mean he merits? The word זכה means clear. If he learns Torah in a clear way, then the Torah is a medicine of life. If he learns Torah not a clear way, then the Torah is poison. What do we mean learning Torah in a clear way? That means if you learn in a clear way, you learn with the feeling that there is a kedushah in the Torah, then it's סם חיים. If you don't have this feeling, לא זכה, then it becomes poison. And this is what the Yerushalmi means, not just that the Torah starts with a ב because ב is an abbreviation of brachah and א is an abbreviation of arur. But the Yerushalmi means if you learn in a form of ב that you realize that this is the second thing, then you get the brachah, because the Torah will bring you life, it's סם חיים. If you learn in the form of א, it means that you start learning thinking that this is the first step, then this is arur, this itself will bring a curse because in that case, נעשית לו סם מיתה, it becomes poison to the person.

And this is also the explanation in the other reason, that the Torah started with a ב because that's the shape of the world. As we said before, the reason the world is shaped like a ב is to tell everybody that Hashem created the world, that nobody should be able to say that I could also be like Hashem, so we tell him, go and finish off the fourth side. So by having three sides, this brings out the feeling that Hashem created the world. In order for a person to really feel that Hashem created the world, first in Torah you have to feel that Hashem gave the Torah. If in Torah you learn if you learn the Torah with the kedushah, with the feeling of kedushah in the Torah, then you could understand in the world also that Hashem created the world. If a person learns Torah not with the feeling that this is the kedushah of Torah, but he thinks that this is only chochmah, then we could understand that when it comes to the world, this person will also look at the world and not realize that Hashem created the world. And that's what the Midrash means, that the reason the Torah started with a ב because that's the shape of the world, it means that in order for a Yid to get the feeling of what the world is, which expresses itself in the shape of the ב, which means that one side is open, to teach us that יש מנהיג לבירה זו, that there is a creator and a controller to this world, that is the reason why the Torah started with a ב, because if you remember that the Torah, the learning of Torah, is ב, is the second step, but before that you have the approach, the proper approach of kedushah in Torah, so then you will understand in the world, too, that יש מנהיג לבירה זו. And this is the reason why when the זקנים translated the Torah for Talmi HaMelech, they started with an א. Because this whole concept that when you learn Torah you feel the kedushah in the Torah, this only applies to Yidden. By goyim, it's not like that. On the contrary, the din is, as the Gemara says in Sanhedrin דף נ״ט עמוד א׳, and the Rambam paskens in הלכות מלכים פרק י׳ הלכה ט׳, that עכו״ם שעוסק בתורה חייב מיתה, a goy is not allowed to learn Torah. He's only allowed to learn Torah those parts that teach him how to keep his seven mitzvot. Which means that to him, the Torah is only wisdom. He only has to take the Torah to learn it to know what to do, which is the sechel of the Torah. But the Torah itself, which is be'etzem essentially connected to Hashem, and Hashem is one with the Torah, the kedushah of the Torah, does not apply to a goy. And therefore, when they translated the Torah to the goy, to Ptolemy HaMelech, they specifically started with an א, to show that by the goyim, the learning of Torah is the א, that's the first step. They don't have the step before that, which is the connection to Hashem, the נותן התורה, the devekut with the kedushah of Torah. And that's the lesson we're supposed to take, that when we start learning Torah, we're supposed to keep in mind first that we're going to learn here something which is holy, which is the chachmah of Hashem, and become davuk connected to the נותן התורה, and not just that we're going to study some other chachmah, just like lehavdil we study חכמות חיצוניות, secular studies, but we have to keep in mind that this is חכמתו של הקדוש ברוך הוא. We have to, before we start learning, have the connection to the נותן התורה, to the Giver of the Torah. This is also connected to the fact that we begin learning Parshat Bereishit right after Simchat Torah. At Simchat Torah we dance with the ספר תורה, and it says in the Zohar, חלק ג דף רנ״ו עמוד ב׳, that דנהיגין למעבד ישראל עמו חדוה, that the Yidden have a Minhag to make Simchah, to do a חדוה, a Simchah with the ספר תורה, ואתקריא שמחת תורה, and it's called שמחת תורה, ומעטרן לספר תורה בכתרא דיליה, and we crown the Sefer Torah with its crown. What is the idea of the crown of the Torah? A crown is on top of a person's head. The head represents the person's brains, the person's intellect. The crown that's on top of the head represents the idea that is beyond the intellect, beyond the understanding. When we say that we crown the Sefer Torah with its crown, that means that we connect ourselves not to the הבנה והשגה, the understanding that's in the Torah, but we connect ourselves to the עצם of the Torah, the essence of the Torah, the Kedushah of the Torah, which is beyond the understanding, as we said before. And that is the reason why on Simchat Torah we dance with the Torah to express our connection to Torah rather than to sit down and learn. Lichorah, the Minhag should have been that on Simchat Torah everyone has to learn, because when you learn Torah, then you're connected to the Sechel of the Torah. But on Simchat Torah we want to express the connection that we have to the essence of the Torah, and that is the reason why we dance with the Torah. And right after Simchat Torah, when we show our connection to the עצם of the Torah, we start learning Bereishit, which, as we said before, expresses the same idea, that when we come to learn, it is only the ב׳, it's the second step. But the first step is the fact that we realize that we're going to learn חכמתו של הקדוש ברוך הוא, the Chochmah of Hashem, and we connect ourselves to the נותן התורה, we bring down the Shechinah that's in the Torah, and by doing that, when we sit down to learn, our learning is in a different level, and we definitely will be Mechuvan to the Emet of Torah, we will learn and understand the Torah the way Hashem wants us to understand.