In his commentary on Parashat Bereshit, Rebbe Elimelech of Lizhensk (the Noam Elimelech) asks a deceptively simple question: why does the Torah begin with the word "beginning"? Rashi explains that creation happened "for the sake of Israel, who are called 'beginning,' and for the sake of Torah, which is called 'beginning.'" A midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary) adds: "for the sake of the first fruits offering, also called 'beginning.'"
These three opinions are not arguing. They are describing three pillars. The Mishnah (the earliest code of rabbinic law) in Pirkei Avot (1:2) states: "On three things the world stands—on Torah, on Service, and on Acts of Loving Kindness." Another mishnah (Avot 1:18) says: "On Judgment, Truth, and Peace." Rebbe Elimelech insists both are describing the same reality from different angles.
The first pillar is Torah study for its own sake—lishmah. The sages permitted studying Torah even with impure motives (Pesachim 50b), because a person cannot leap to selfless study overnight. It requires enormous inner work. The second pillar is Prayer, which the Talmud (Taanit 2a) identifies as "service of the heart." The word tefilah itself comes from the root meaning "connection"—the worshiper ties their consciousness to the Creator. The third pillar is good deeds, particularly resisting the evil inclination.
Here is Rebbe Elimelech's radical insight. He reads (Genesis 6:5)—"God saw that the evil of humans on earth was great"—not as a condemnation but as a consolation. God recognized that the very struggle against evil is what makes human service meaningful. "Were it not for three verses," the Talmud says (Sukkah 52b), we might think God was cruel for creating the evil inclination. But the struggle is the point.
In a beginning created God etc - see the explanation of Rashi "in a beginning - due to Israel that are called beginning, and due to Torah that is called beginning" and the midrash, too, has "due to the mitzvah of first fruits, that are called beginning" (Rashi on Genesis 1:1). And one could say that all those opinions have the same intention, that one opinion says this, the other opinion says that, and they do not dispute. Since there is in the mishnah "on three things the world stands on Torah, and on Service and on Acts of Loving Kindness" (Avot 1:2) and there is in the mishnah "on three things the world stands, on Judgment, and on Truth and on Peace" (Avot 1:18). And we can also say that they have the same intention, that behold we are presented with three levels in the service of the High Creator, one - Torah learned for its own sake, and in truth our sages of blessed memory allowed us [study of Torah] even not for its own sake, as they said "a person should always engage etc" (Pesachim 50b:5) even if one does not reach to the levels of learning for its own sake nevertheless you should not refrain from it, since it is not quickly that one attains to learn for its own sake, but through a great exertion in one's service to the Blessed Name with all the good personal qualities. And the second level "Service" - this is the Prayer that is the center of the service of the heart as they said "and to serve God with all your heart, this is Prayer [Tefilah]" (Taanit 2a), because the heart understands and with [Prayer] it can rise to clinging to the Creator and tie itself to the Blessed One, since Tefilah comes from the expression knot/connection, to cling oneself to the Blessed Creator with a great clinging, and this hints to the knot of the tefilin of the hand to tie the thought in one's heart to the High One, and for that one needs more effort to always pray to the Holy Blessed Name that God will help that one's yetzer hara [inclination for evil] will never be separated from clinging to the Creator, because the nature of a person is that one is likely to turn [at any moment] his thoughts to the issues and preoccupations of this world. (4) And this is the explanation of the verse "And Hashem saw that the evil of the humans on earth was great" (Genesis 6:5), that is to say, at all times that one is on earth and one's evil is great, ["and all the humans' impulse of thought in their heart"] through that, also the one who wants to serve the Holy Blessed Name and does not do evil, even though one's thought reins that person in "only evil all day", "and Hashem נחם nacham [had pity/regretted/consoled]" meaning, there was a consolation for the Blessed One in that a human could exert effort in front of the Blessed One, "that he made the humans", meaning, like the saying of our sages of blessed memory: "were it not for three verses etc" (Sukkah 52b and Berakhot 31a) and one of them is "that I made evil" (Micah 4:6) their hearts - that I gave them the impulse to evil. "And God was sad עצב in his heart" - meaning, that the Holy Blessed name was sad due to the heart of the human, that God had given the human a heart of stone like that. "And Noach found favor" (Genesis 6:8) - meaning, that Noach נח was a tzadik and switched himself from the nature that makes humans likely to separate themselves from clinging to the Exalted Creator and strengthen oneself to cling to the Creator, and so [Noach] found favor, Noach נח with switching the letters becomes חן Chen, favor/grace, which is him becoming a favor/grace in the Blessed Name's eyes. The third level "acts of lovingkindness" - that behold in the upper worlds God set 'Compassion', which is love and 'beloved' that is the the Holy Blessed Name loves the righteous because of the righteous' holy deeds on the earth, yet in this world they are called 'lovingkindness', that even for a person who is not decent, the Holy Blessed Name does lovingkindness freely, providing for that person's needs. Nevertheless, the righteous who attain the level of rising up every physical thing, which is rising the holy sparks that exist in corporeality, which is in one's eating and drinking and so on, and all one's thoughts in the time of doing physical things are only to rise the holy sparks in them, and a righteous person such as this one does not need lovingkindness, meaning, free lovingkindness as explained above, giving the things needed in this world from the side of lovingkindness, because the Holy Blessed Name showers [the righteous] with their needs according to the deserved letter of the law because of their good deeds. And this is the explanation for "deeds of lovingkindness [roots g.m.l./kh.s.d.]": from the expression "the weaning [g.m.l.] of Yitzchak" (Genesis 21:8) - there is no need for the levels "lovingkindness" [חסד] just what is deserving to the righteous through the love of the Blessed God for the righteous, and through that the righteous connects him/herself above above to the eternal life, even while in this world the righteous attains the higher pleasure of the eternal life, and this is the explanation for the gemara "you will see your world in your lifetime" (Berakhot 17a), that through one's deeds and movements which are all done in holiness and purity and clinging to God and happiness and love and awe, from that one attains pleasures of the higher worlds in this world. And there is to say that this is also the intention of the verse "and y'all who cling to Hashem you God are all alive today" (Deuteronomy 4:4) . Meaning, through clinging that y'all cling to the Blessed Creator y'all will get eternal life, even "today", in this world, as explained above. And this is also the explanation of the verse "Moshe commanded [to] us Torah, the legacy of the congregation of Yaakov" (Deuteronomy 33:4) - it is also a hint to the three levels discussed above. "Moshe commanded us" - all of us were commanded to learn God's Torah even if it is not for its own sake, and this is "to us", every person according to their own level. Second, "legacy", this is the second level discussed above, to raise the holy sparks that are called "inheritance of the forebears", as it is known, and the Holy Blessed Name gave us the aspect of this inheritance and legacy to raise up the holy sparks, and this is "legacy". And this is the intention of "maintaining His faith on those that sleep in dust" (Machzor Vitry, Order of Shacharit 88:15), it wants to say that the holy sparks fell down, and the Holy Blessed Name maintains faith with them, to raise them from dust to holiness. And the third level "congregation of Yaakov" is the complete clinging that the righteous have, through which they bring down the flow to all Israel, only good, and behold the righteous congregates the congregations of Yaakov that are collected under the shadow of the righteous' wings to bestow on them. And through this the saying of the Gemara "Satan said 'where is Torah?' the Holy One said 'go to the earth' earth said 'I don't have it, go to the sea' and the sea said 'I don't have it, go to the son of Amram" (Shabbat 89a) will be explained. One needs to understand: how is it that the Holy One said something that is not [true]? And it seems that behold the Holy One of Blessing said to Satan the Accuser 'go to the earth' because [God is saying that] there is learning of Torah in worldliness and corporeality, that is, Torah not for its own sake, and even that learning is received by Me, and you cannot accuse the children of Israel. And the earth said 'I don't have it' - the explanation is that the essence of the purpose [of studying Torah] does not exist in corporeality, as explained, just 'go to the sea' which is the tzadik who raises the sparks to the Upper Sea for the sake of their raising, the tzadik that get to this level he is the essence of the purpose. And regarding this they said 'all rivers go to the sea' (Ecclesiastes 1:7) meaning rivers/nachalim נחלים comes from the expression נחלה legacy and ירושה inheritance that is the raising of sparks to the Holy are called 'inheritance' as known, and they go to the sea, "and the sea said 'I don't have it, go to the son of Amram'" meaning that there is yet another level higher than this, third, like the level of Moshe our teacher, peace be upon him, that reaches the heights of the clinging to the Creator, Blessed be, in the eternal life. And let us return to the first issue, "on three things the world stands, on judgment [din]" (Avot 1:18) - this is Torah, as there is that Torah is also called judgment in whichever way it will be, as explained above [for its own sake or not]. "And on truth" - that is the level of Yaakov, that is the average, that is compassion רחמים [rachamim], as it is written 'gave truth to Yaakov' (Micah 7:2) that through the raising of the holy sparks one awakens compassion and there is no need for lovingkindness, as explained above. "And on peace"- that is clinging to God, that one clings to the Blessed Creator since the name of the Holy Blessed One is Peace (Tractate Derekh Eretz Zuta, Section on Peace 11). And through this one understands the holy reading in this parsha, 'and God commanded etc from every tree of the garden you shall eat, yea, eat, yet from the tree of good and evil you shall not eat from it, for on the day you eat from it you shall die, yea, die' (Genesis 2:16-17). There are many specific questions: (a) the doubling of the expression eat, eat; (b) the expression 'from it' is superfluous; (c) the doubling of 'die/die'; (d) what Rashi explained, and this is his language - "because she added to the commandment she ended diminishing it" (Rashi on Genesis 3:3) is difficult, since didn't she know that in truth Hashem had not ever forbidden to touch? Therefore no proof can be brought from touching to eating, because eating was truly the commandment. And it appears to me that the root of the issue is this, that the Blessed Holy One of Blessing said "from all the trees of the garden you shall eat, yea, eat" (Genesis 2:16) - a hint to Torah, which is the tree of life, "eat" is an expression of hidden, the explanation is that this is learning for its own sake which is the root and the essence, as the Blessed Holy One of Blessing warned about, and at any instance, if you have not yet reached [the level of] Torah learning for its own sake, in any instance "you will eat", meaning, for your benefit [is] learning not for its own sake, and this is "you will eat": be present, and do not depart from My Torah. "And from the tree of good and bad you shall not eat from it" specifically, meaning, the physical things are in them - the mixture is also good, which are the holy sparks that are in every physical thing; "shall not eat from it", the explanation is that your intention should not be exclusively from the material and physical sides only, rather only from the spiritual side, in which the holy sparks are, from that you shall eat. "Because from the day you eat from it you shall surely die מות תמות" (Genesis 2:17) - mot tamut meaning, "die-mot" in the next world, the eternal life, and the expression "die - mot" is also hidden, a hint to the next world, the eternal life, [and] "die - tamut" in this world. And behold, Chava heard the two levels, that are the learning of Torah in any way that it is learned as explained above, and also the rising of the sparks, and so she understood immediately that there is another level which is the complete clinging to the Creator, of Blessed Name, and this is what she said "you shall not eat from it neither shall touch it" (Genesis 3:3) - meaning, touching in this world, that is any pause on clinging [to God] you should not do, "lest you die" that is, interrupting clinging, since she reasoned that she was also commanded regarding this third level. And in truth, clinging comes directly from the two levels previously mentioned, and she wasn't yet on that level. And the snake that pushed her until she touched it and said "just as you did not die from this touching" (Rashi on Genesis 3:4 and Bereshit Rabbah 19:4) - the explanation is that you do not pause clinging through this, "so too there is no death from eating" meaning, even if you don't eat with the aforementioned intention, to rise [your] spirituality, "you will not die" (Genesis 3:4). And this is the explanation for "In a beginning - due to Torah etc and due to Israel etc" (Rashi on Genesis 1:1:2) this is a hint to clinging to the Blessed and Elevated Creator, the clinging to the Blessed One through songs and praises, and this is the hint "Israel" - "God is direct / yashar E'l "ישראל" - יש"ר א"ל". "And due to the first fruits that are called reshit/beginning" a hint regarding the rising of the holy sparks, as it is said "the beginning of the first fruits of your soil you shall bring to the house of etc" (Exodus 23:19), that are the sparks that fell down, "you shall bring to the house of Hashem" to rise them from the ashes, as explained. Hashem taught us the true way to serve God, in completeness, in truth and in honesty/innocence, amen, may it be God's will. In a beginning, created - And the explanation of Rashi, may his memory be for blessing: "due to Torah that is called 'beginning' and due to Israel etc" (Rashi on Genesis 1:1). And it seems that we should explain Rashi, may his memory be for blessing, that since these things are to expose the Unity of the Holy Blessed Name that God is unique in God's marvels and being the True Creator, that this is the sign and the proof of God's people Israel, the righteous, that the light of their minds and hearts is immense in its levels and good personal characteristics with no limits, that our eyes see [Israel's] level is higher than all of the other nations, and the holy Torah that the good God, in God's mercy, gave to them... those two [Israel and Torah] will testify and justify on most of God's wonders and marvels, that God created the world by Godself, with no help and no aid, through what they say "three testify on each other's behalf, the Holy One of Blessing, Torah and Israel." And this is "Hear Israel Hashem" - "Hear" hints to Torah, since "Hear" is Torah that we heard from the mouth of the Blessed One, and "Israel" are testifying about Hashem that God is the Maker and the Creator, and to that since Rashi also in his commentary "due to Torah and due to Israel" is saying that those two are proof regarding 'Beginning'/creation. And this is easy to understand. Created El-him the heaven and the earth etc - this issue will be explained, but first let us interpret the verse (Ps. 11:7) "because Hashem is righteous, He loves righteous deeds" the explanation is such: behold, we see the ways of humans: the thing they have now is not treasured anymore, rather, people always desire what is out of their reach. But that is not the way of the Blessed Creator. Even though "Hashem is righteous in all His ways" (Ps. 145:17) and does righteousness with all flesh, even though that is the case, God still desires and wants the righteousness of people.
