For the Sake of Raishis ...

Today we get two summaries to compare! Jenny Ungar and Jill Joshowitz.

Jenny writes:

-We asked the question- if "bara" means created from nothingness, and "hyuli" was a substance created from nothingness to make everything else, why does the word "bara" appear more than once?

-We discussed a Rashi that says how the Midrash translates the word "Reishit"

-We discussed a Midrash that talks about 3 things that are described as "Reishit"

-We discussed Sforno's opinion on what "Bereishit" means

-We discussed a Midrash about why the Torah begins with a "bet"

-We discussed why there is a "bet" as the first letter of the Torah instead of an "alef"
Thanks, Jenny!

Jill writes:
Today in class we continued our discussion on the Ramban. Why does the word Bereishit appears an additional 2 times in the perek if Bereishit means creating something from nothing? One time should be sufficient because after the “Hayuli” was created, all things came from the Hayuli. We’ll discuss the answer to that question when we reach those places later.

The Midrash Raba explains that the world was created for 3 things: Challah “Reishit Asiroteinu,” Maaser “Reishit Deganacha,” and First Fruits or Bikurim “Reishit bikuri adametecha...”
Mrs. Langer added: This is because these three mitzvot remind us that there is a Creator Who owns the entire world.

We also wanted to know why the Bet was so large and why the first letter of the Torah is Bet. The Midrash Raba answered our question and explained that true to the shape of a Bet we should not look up towards the Heavens, or down towards the ground, or back into the past, we should simply look forward and live our lives.
Mrs. Langer added: an interesting interpretation of the Midrash!