page_title: Bereshit (parashah)
section_title: Modern
hierarchical_section_title: Bereshit (parashah) / Further reading / Modern
caption_attribution_description: Mark Twain photo portrait. One of a series of photographs taken by A.F. Bradley for the purpose, arranged by George Wharton James, of helping California poet laureate Ina Coolbrith after she lost her home in the fire following the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. In his New York City studio, Bradley placed Twain on a revolving platform to make the capture of different lighting "looks" easier on the subject. The portraits were signed by Twain and sold for Coolbrith's benefit. Twain said four of the series were the finest images ever taken of him. http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/publications/siycfall_05.pdf http://www.twainquotes.com/Bradley/bradley.html
context_page_description: Bereshit, Bereishit, Bereshis, Bereishis, B'reshith, Beresh't, Beresheet, or Bereishees is the first weekly Torah portion in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading. The parashah consists of Genesis 1:1–6:8.
  In the parashah, God creates the heavens, the world, Adam and Eve, and Sabbath. A snake convinces Eve, who then invites Adam, to eat the fruit of tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which God had forbidden to them. So God curses them and expels them from the Garden of Eden. One of their sons, Cain, becomes the first murderer, killing his brother Abel out of jealousy. Adam and Eve have other children, whose descendants populate the Earth. Each generation becomes more and more degenerate until God, despairing, decides to destroy humanity. Only one man, Noah, finds God's favor.
  The parashah is made up of 7,235 Hebrew letters, 1,931 Hebrew words, 146 verses, and 241 lines in a Torah Scroll. Jews read it on the first Sabbath after Simchat Torah, generally in October, or rarely, in late September or early November.
context_section_description: Isaac Abravanel. Commentary on the Torah. Italy, between 1492–1509. In, e.g., Abarbanel: Selected Commentaries on the Torah: Volume 1: Bereishis/Genesis, translated and annotated by Israel Lazar, pages 13–53. Brooklyn: CreateSpace, 2015. And in, e.g., Abarbanel on the Torah: Selected Themes. Translated by Avner Tomaschoff, pages 11–285. Jerusalem: Jewish Agency for Israel, 2007.
  Obadiah ben Jacob Sforno. Commentary on the Torah. Venice, 1567. In, e.g., Sforno: Commentary on the Torah. Translation and explanatory notes by Raphael Pelcovitz, pages 1–39. Brooklyn: Mesorah Publications, 1997.
  Moshe Alshich. Commentary on the Torah. Safed, circa 1593. In, e.g., Moshe Alshich. Midrash of Rabbi Moshe Alshich on the Torah. Translated and annotated by Eliyahu Munk, volume 1, pages 1–61. New York, Lambda Publishers, 2000.
  Avraham Yehoshua Heschel. Commentaries on the Torah. Cracow, Poland, mid 17th century. Compiled as Chanukat HaTorah. Edited by Chanoch Henoch Erzohn. Piotrkow, Poland, 1900. In Avraham Yehoshua Heschel. Chanukas HaTorah: Mystical Insights of Rav Avraham Yehoshua Heschel on Chumash. Translated by Avraham Peretz Friedman, pages 27–40. Southfield, Michigan: Targum Press/Feldheim Publishers, 2004.
  Thomas Hobbes. Leviathan, 2:20; 3:34, 36, 38; 4:44. England, 1651. Reprint edited by C. B. Macpherson, pages 259, 430, 432, 440, 453, 479, 486, 636–37, 645–47. Harmondsworth, England: Penguin Classics, 1982.
  John Milton. Paradise Lost. 1667. Reprint, Penguin Classics, 2003.
  Baruch Spinoza. Theologico-Political Treatise, chapters 1, 2, 9. Amsterdam, 1670. In, e.g., Baruch Spinoza. Theological-Political Treatise, translated by Samuel Shirley, pages 17, 29, 32, 127. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, second edition, 2001.
  Chaim ibn Attar. Ohr ha-Chaim. Venice, 1742. In Chayim ben Attar. Or Hachayim: Commentary on the Torah. Translated by Eliyahu Munk, volume 1, pages 1–91. Brooklyn: Lambda Publishers, 1999.
  Moses Mendelssohn. Sefer Netivot Hashalom (The "Bi’ur," The Explanation). Berlin, 1780–1783. In Moses Mendelssohn: Writings on Judaism, Christianity, and the Bible. Edited Michah Gottlieb, pages 208–11. Waltham, Massachusetts: Brandeis University Press, 2011.
  Moses Mendelssohn.Jerusalem, § 1. Berlin, 1783. In Jerusalem: Or on Religious Power and Judaism. Translated by Allan Arkush; introduction and commentary by Alexander Altmann, page 70. Hanover, New Hampshire: Brandeis University Press, 1983.
  Lord Byron. Cain. 1821.
  Doctrine and Covenants 27:11; 107:54. Missouri, 1835.
  Jones Very. Enoch. 1838. In Harold Bloom. American Religious Poems, page 95. Library of America, 2006.
  Emily Dickinson. Poem 1 (Awake ye muses nine, sing me a strain divine,). 1850. Poem 428 (Taking up the fair Ideal,). Circa 1862. Poem 503 (Better — than Music! For I — who heard it —). Circa 1862. Poem 724 (It's easy to invent a Life —). Circa 1863. Poem 1069 (Paradise is of the option.). Circa 1866. Poem 1119 (Paradise is that old mansion). Circa 1868. Poem 1195 (What we see we know somewhat). Circa 1871. Poem 1545 (The Bible is an antique Volume —). Circa 1882. Poem 1657 (Eden is that old-fashioned House). 19th century. In The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Edited by Thomas H. Johnson, pages 3–4, 205, 244–45, 355, 486, 503, 528–29, 644, 677. New York: Little, Brown & Co., 1960.
  Samuel David Luzzatto (Shadal). Commentary on the Torah. Padua, 1871. In, e.g., Samuel David Luzzatto. Torah Commentary. Translated and annotated by Eliyahu Munk, volume 1, pages 1–99. New York: Lambda Publishers, 2012.
  William Butler Yeats. Adam's Curse. 1902. In The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats: Definitive Edition, With the Author's Final Revisions, pages 78–79. New York: Macmillan, 1956.
  Mark Twain. Extracts from Adam's Diary. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1904. In, e.g., The Diaries of Adam and Eve. Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books, 2000.
  Mark Twain. Eve's Diary. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1906. In, e.g., The Diaries of Adam and Eve. Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books, 2000.
  Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter. Sefat Emet. Góra Kalwaria (Ger), Poland, before 1906. E
caption: Twain
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