Start Again
It seems that Bereishis should be read at the beginning of the year, but we don't do so. We first read Bereishis after Simchas Torah. The Shinover Rav zt’l and Rebbe Yehoshua of Belz zt’l say that this is to encourage the people who made kabbalos to become better but fell from their resolves. Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, etc. are times that people do teshuvah and they want to improve their ways. When Shabbos Bereishis comes along, they may regretfully find themselves returning to their old patterns again. Therefore, at this time of year, we read parashas Bereishis. Bereishis means "in the beginning," telling people they can begin now.
It states ראשית- 'ב, which alludes to two beginnings. Start again, and if you fall from it, start another time, until you succeed with your teshuvah. (It is also possible that you fell from your kabbalah because you had taken on too much. If that is the case, Shabbos Bereishis is an excellent time to assess the situation more correctly and to take on a kabbalah that is more sustainable.)
The first letter of the Torah is a ת"בי, which is a letter that is closed from all three sides and opened in the front. This tells us that our focus should be on the future that is in front of us. We block out the disappointment of the past (that we failed to keep our resolves) and we focus on improving the future.
The Arugas HaBosem teaches that after the yomim tovim, people ask themselves, "How did I let these holy days pass without taking proper advantage of them?" When they have this feeling, all the yomim tovim return to them. It can be in the middle of the year, but for him, it is Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Succos, and/or Shemini Atzeres, because when one yearns for the holidays, the yomim tovim come to him.
The Arugas HaBosem proves this from Yaakov Avinu who was upset that he had passed Har HaMoriah, "the location where my forefathers davened," and he had forgotten to daven there. He decided to go back, and "immediately, the place came to him" (see Sanhedrin 95, and Rashi, Bereishis 28:17). The Arugas HaBosem zt'l writes that this is how it is when it comes to ruchniyus. When you yearn for it, it comes to you. So, when one longs for the yomim tovim, including when one yearns regretfully that he didn't utilize the yomim tovim well enough, they return to him. It is in the middle of the year, but for him, it is Rosh Hashanah, or Yom Kippur, or it's Succos. He yearned for the yomim tovim, so they come to him.
The Arugas HaBosem explains: We attain yiras Shamayim from Rosh Hashanah, thoughts of teshuvah from Yom Kippur, buckets of joy and love to Hashem from Succos. Hashem knows that in the later generations, we will not make use of the yomim tovim as we should, and we will ask ourselves, "How did I allow these special days to pass without fear, teshuvah, and joy? I hardly accomplished what I wanted to. I wish these days were here again." When you have those thoughts, the holy days come back to you. With your yearning, you have tapped into the times of fear, teshuvah, and joy, and you can attain the levels you yearned for and the yeshuos you sought.
