The Art of Creating Yourself | Parsha with the Chief: Bereishit

Do you think of yourself as a creative person? We generally associate creativity with artists, with painting and music and writing. Yet in a fundamental sense, every one of us is a creator.

This week we begin the Torah again, with the parsha of Bereishit and its most radical statement about the human being: that we are created b'tzelem Elokim, in the image of God. The Rishonim understand this as our intellect and our moral freedom. Yet the very first thing the Torah reveals about God is that He creates. "In the beginning, God created heaven and earth." To be made in His image is to be a creator like Him.

Some of that creativity faces outward: medicine, architecture, technology, everything that makes the world a place where human beings can live. Looking at the parsha through the lens of Pirkei Avot, Chief Rabbi Goldstein helps us begin to understand another kind of creativity. One that is more personal and more foundational.

Key Questions

If creativity belongs to artists, what is the rest of us doing every day?

Why is the very first thing the Torah tells us about God that He creates?

What could it mean for a person to give birth to themselves?

If our nature, our parents and our circumstances are given to us, how much of who we become is still ours to make?

Why would an act of kindness require creativity?