Bereishit/Genesis 1
‫א‬ ‫בראשית‬
‫תישארב‬
Bereishit 1 1
When Hashem began to create heaven
and earth—
b’-ray-SHEET ba-RA e-lo-HEEM AYT ha-sha-MA-yim v’-AYT ha-A-retz

1:1 When Hashem began The first word
in the Torah is Bereishit (‫)בראשית‬, which
begins with the letter bet (‫)ב‬, while the last
word in the Torah is Yisrael (‫)ישראל‬, ‘Israel,’
which ends with the letter lamed (‫)ל‬. Together,
these two letters spell the word lev (‫)לב‬, which
means ‘heart’ in Hebrew. The first lesson hinted
at in the very first letter of the Tanakh is that
Torah is the heart of the People of Israel, and
the ultimate expression of Hashem’s love for
us. By studying the Torah, from the first letter
through the last, we can access the ‘heart’ of
Hashem.