God the Creator
29 January 2022
Earlier we posted about beginnings…and we focused on the Hebrew word RESHITH (רֵאשִׁ֖ית) which means “beginning” or “chief”. It is derived from the word ROSH (רֹאשׁ) which means “head”. That word, of course, is used for everything from that anatomical structure that holds your brain to the first part of the year. ROSH HA-SHANAH (רֹאשׁ הַשָׁנָה) means “head of the year”.
Keeping with this theme of beginnings, let’s look today at another word that makes its debut in Genesis’s first sentence: BARA (בָּרָא). It is the verb used for “to create”, which is its primary definition. It can also be translated as “cut down” (Ezekiel 23:47). The Hebrew Bible features it more than 50 times, from Genesis to Ecclesiastes, most often as “create” and almost exclusively a verb attributed to G-d Himself alone.
“Remember your CREATOR in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, ‘I find no pleasure in them’…” Ecclesiastes 12:1
“For this is what the LORD says—He who CREATED the heavens, he is God; He who fashioned and made the earth, He founded it; He did not CREATE it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited — He says: ‘I am the LORD, and there is no other.’” Isaiah
When the Scriptures refer to human activity in making, the word BARA is never used; Hebrew has other words to describe that. We can make (ASAH). We can build (BANAH). We can erect (QUM). We (and the Avengers) can assemble (QAHAL or ASAPH). We can repair (BADAQ) and renew (CHADASH). But only the Living G-d can create (BARA) in an “ex nihilo” way.
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