פָּרָשַׁת בְּרֵאשִׁית

Parshat Bereishit tells us how the world began and how mankind began. Hashem creates everything in six days and rests on the seventh day, Shabbat, which He blesses and makes holy. He places Adam in Gan Eden, forms Chava from him, and commands them not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge. The serpent persuades Chava, and they (Adam and Chava) both eat, and Hashem punishes all three, and sends Adam and Chava out of the Garden of Eden into a world of work, pain and death. Adam will now have to work the field to have food and sustenance. Chava will have pain in childbearing.

Their older son Kayin (Cain) kills his brother Hevel (Abel) out of jealousy from his perception of Hashem preferring Hevel's offerings better than his own. Kayin is punished and sent to wander the earth. The Torah then counts the ten generations from Adam to Noach and the long years each of them lived. By the end of the parsha mankind has become wicked and turned from Hashem; Hashem decides to wipe out what He made, but Noach finds favor in His eyes.

Parshat Bereishit is read on the Shabbat after Simchat Torah, when the yearly cycle of the Torah begins again.