In the Beginning…Again

This week, we begin again. The scroll rolls back toבְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים  (b’reishit bara ElohimWhen God began to create). And with those words, everything starts anew.

There’s something quietly miraculous about that. No matter what has happened — the chaos, the noise, the exhaustion of the year just past — we return to the beginning. And the Torah greets us not with “the first day,” but with a day.

That tiny difference matters. It’s as if the universe itself refuses to close the circle. Creation isn’t locked in history. It’s not finished. By saying a day — not the first — Torah leaves the door open for us to step inside the story, to take part in the making of the world.

Every sunrise becomes “a day.” Every choice, every kindness, every act of imagination can be the beginning of something new.

As we enter this Shabbat, and the days that follow, may we treat them not as a continuation of what’s already been, but as a beginning all over again — a chance to create light from darkness, order from confusion, hope from the raw material of our days.

Here’s to new beginnings, to unfinished worlds, and to the sacred work of beginning again.

שבת שלום,

Ben