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Shabbos Braishis

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Connecting the end with the beginning

It is well known that the Torah repeats the story of creation twice, once in the first chapter of Genesis and again in the second chapter. The first story begins with the familiar verse: “In the beginning God [Elokim] created the heavens and the earth.” The second account begins with the verse: “These are the chronicles of the heavens and the earth when they were created, on the day that God [Havayah Elokim] made earth and heavens.”

On the first verse, Rashi comments that it denotes God with His name, Elokim and not with his Name, Havayah, because,

At first He thought of creating the world with the measure of judgment, but He saw that the world could not be sustained this way, so he placed mercy first and added it to the measure of judgment. And that is why later it says: “…On the day that God [Havayah Elokim] made earth and heavens.”

Thus, the first account of creation is underscored by the measure of judgment, while the second account is inspired by the measure of mercy.
Amazingly, the numerical difference between these two verses exactly equals the numerical value of the last three words of the Torah, לעיני כל ישראל “before the eyes of all of Israel.”

בראשית ברא א־להים את השמים ואת הארץ = 2701

אלה תולדות השמים והארץ בהבראם ביום עשות י־הוה א־להים ארץ ושמים = 3462

And,

לעיני כל ישראל = 761

Thus, the last three words of the Torah, when connected (like a ring) and added back to the first verse of the Torah, equal the first verse of the second account of creation:

לעיני כל ישראל בראשית ברא א־להים את השמים ואת הארץ =

אלה תולדות השמים והארץ בהבראם ביום עשות י־הוה א־להים ארץ ושמים

This is a beautiful example illustrating how “the end [of the Torah] is enwedged in the beginning [of the Torah],” a point that we illustrate on Simchat Torah by completing our public reading of the Torah and then immediately commencing its reading at the beginning.

[inner.org]