The opening word of the Torah — Bereshit, "in the beginning" — has hidden agendas the sages loved to excavate. Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Bereshit 3:1 records one of the boldest. R. Judah bar Shallum taught: the world was created for the sake of Israel.
The word game
His proof begins with negation. The Torah does not open with "from of old" or "from the start." It opens with Bereshit — a word that, in Hebrew, means not just "in the beginning" but "for the sake of the first thing." And in Jeremiah 2:3, Israel itself is called exactly that: "Israel is holy to the Lord, the beginning (reshit) of His harvest."
Stitch the two verses together and a startling reading emerges. Genesis 1:1 does not simply say "in the beginning God created." It says "for the sake of the reshit — for the sake of Israel — God created the heavens and the earth."
A theology of purpose, not privilege
R. Judah bar Shallum's teaching can sound exclusionary if misread. The midrash does not mean the rest of creation is disposable, or that other peoples do not matter. It means the world has a telos — a reason it was set in motion — and that reason is the covenantal project of Israel bringing Torah into history.
The same idea appears in 4 Ezra 6:55 and 7:11, first-century apocalyptic texts that echo the rabbinic formulation: the world was made for Israel, and Israel exists to sanctify the world. It is a theology of responsibility disguised as election.
Why this reading matters
The midrash assumes that creation is not random. The universe has intention woven into its first word. Bereshit points forward — to Sinai, to the Temple, to the messianic age. Every star, every ocean, every species was called into being because a people would one day say Shema Yisrael and mean it.
R. Judah's contemporaries offered parallel readings. Some said the world was created for the sake of Torah. Some for the sake of Abraham. Some for the sake of the Messiah. Genesis Rabbah 1:4 collects them all and declares no contradiction — each is true because each is folded into the same reshit.
The takeaway: the first word of the Torah is not a date. It is a dedication. The world begins with a purpose, and the purpose has a name.