In The Liturgy
The first word of Genesis 1:1, bereishit, and thus God’s role as Creator, is recited in the Aleinu, a prayer near the end of each of the three prayer services.
God’s creation of heaven and earth in Genesis 1:1 is reflected in Psalm 96:5,11, which is in turn one of the six Psalms recited at the beginning of the Kabbalat Shabbat prayer service.
The waters of creation in Genesis 1:2 may be reflected in Psalm 29:3, which is in turn one of the six Psalms recited at the beginning of the Kabbalat Shabbat prayer service.
At the beginning of the K’riat Sh’ma prayer service, following the Barchu, Jews recite a blessing that acknowledges God’s miracle of creation, noting, among other acts, God’s “separating day from night,” as recounted in Genesis 1:18.
In the Passover Haggadah, if the Seder takes place on Friday night, then many Jews recite Genesis 1:31–2:3 or 2:1–3 at the beginning of the Kiddush section of the Seder.
Following the Kabbalat Shabbat service and prior to the Friday evening (Ma'ariv) service, Jews traditionally read rabbinic sources on the observance of the Sabbath, including an excerpt from Babylonian Talmud Shabbat 119b. In Shabbat 119b, Rava instructed that one should recite Genesis 2:1–3 on the eve of the Sabbath.
The Lekhah Dodi liturgical poem of the Kabbalat Shabbat prayer service reflects the role of the Sabbath described in Genesis 2:2–3, characterizing the Sabbath as the “last of the work (of Creation)” (sof ma’aseh).
Reuven Kimelman found in the “awake and arise” stanza of the Lekhah Dodi poem a play between the root or, from which stems the word for “skin” or “leather,” and the homonym or that means “light.” In Genesis 3:21, Adam exchanged garments of light for garments of leather; the Lekhah Dodi poem calls on God to exchange our current garments of skin for garments of light.
The “Divine beings” or “sons of God” mentioned in Genesis 6:2 are reflected in Psalm 29:1, which is in turn one of the six Psalms recited at the beginning of the Kabbalat Shabbat prayer service.
Read more about this topic: Bereishit (parsha)
Famous quotes containing the word liturgy:
“You never see animals going through the absurd and often horrible fooleries of magic and religion.... Dogs do not ritually urinate in the hope of persuading heaven to do the same and send down rain. Asses do not bray a liturgy to cloudless skies. Nor do cats attempt, by abstinence from cat’s meat, to wheedle the feline spirits into benevolence. Only man behaves with such gratuitous folly. It is the price he has to pay for being intelligent but not, as yet, quite intelligent enough.”
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)