It is common knowledge that parashat Bereishit includes two different accounts of Creation that have differences between them, yet they complement each other. In the first chapter of Genesis, we find Creation divided into seven days. In the second chapter, we find the second account that highlights additional details about the creation of Adam and Eve, the temptation by the snake, the sin of the Tree of Knowledge, the punishment, and the repentance they took upon themselves. Finally, we learn of the birth of Cain and Abel and then the story of Cain murdering his brother Abel appears. These are all within the Torah’s second account of Creation.
However, there is a third account of Creation that begins in the fifth chapter of Genesis with the verse, “This is the book of the generations of Adam on the day that God created man, in the likeness of God, He made him.” The third account then proceeds to describe the first ten generations of humanity, from Adam to Noah, including the birth of Noah’s three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
The first account provides a very fact-based perspective telling us what God created on each day, and how God assessed that the work done on each day was “good” (until the end of all Creation, which is described as “very good.” This is a very objective (and positive—everything is good) perspective on the account of Creation.
The second account is described as a tragedy, maybe even a trauma. It tells of Adam’s sin, of the hatred between brothers, and of murder. Nothing can be more traumatic. The second account provides a very subjective perspective on Creation.
The third story returns to a more objective description. Most of it focuses on the 10 generations, how long each one lived, when he gave birth to his primary successor, and how he later had sons and daughters. Adam’s lineage continues through his third son, Seth. In practice, the third account includes the entire text of the Pentateuch that follows it. This is why Ben Azzai, one of the sages of the Mishnah, stated that the verse, “This is the book of the generations of Adam” is a “great inclusive principle of the Torah,” even greater than, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
These three accounts with their perspectives on creation correspond to the three intellectual sefirot: wisdom (chochmah), understanding (binah), and knowledge (da’at). Let us see how.
The first word of the first account is, “In the beginning” (בראשית), which the Jerusalem Translation of the Torah into Aramaic renders as “with wisdom” (בחכמה), based on the verse, “The beginning of wisdom is the fear of God.” God created the world with wisdom, "In the beginning, God created", as it is also written "You made them all with wisdom". In Chasidut, wisdom is referred to as, “the beginning of [Divine] revelation” (ראשית הגילוי) and thus the first account describes creation as emerging from nothingness and being revealed step by step. Everything is good, everything is perfect, or as the sages say, “The world was created complete.”
The subjective and tragic second account is a psychological tale of people sinning and even murdering one another and corresponds to the sefirah of understanding (binah). Regarding understanding, it is written, “From it, judgments emerge.” Understanding (the root of the left axis of the sefirot) is the root of the psychological emotional attributes in general, and negative emotions in particular, both of which are manifest through sin and failure.
The third account presents us with a historical perspective. It describes generation after generation. According to this third account, the world is historically unfolding, from generation to generation. The historical perspective on reality is explained in Chasidut to originate from the verse, “He who calls upon the generations from the beginning.” This perspective is thus presenting God’s consciousness, as it were, from which first emerges Adam Kadmon, the source of all the generations that follow, and from there all of history unfolds (and descends). This perspective corresponds to the sefirah of knowledge (da’at), the most important among the intellectual sefirot, or as the verse states, “If you have acquired knowledge, what are you lacking? If you lack knowledge, what have you acquired?”
(from a class given on the 28th of Tishrei, 5778)
