[Avodah] RSRH on the First Pasuk in Bereishis

[Yitzchok Levine]

IMO Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch's commentary on the 
first pasuk in Bereishis gives fundamental 
insight into the was Yahadus views the world as 
opposed to the way the gentile world views the 
world . Below are some selections from this 
commentary. I have posted his entire commentary 
on this pasuk at http://www.stevens.edu/golem/llevine/rsrh/Bereshis_1_1.pdf

Our verse, then, means: “In the beginning of all existence, it was
God Who created”; or, if we add to the predicate the two objects that
follow: “From the very beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”
In any event, “Bereishis” proclaims that nothing existed prior to God’s
act of creation, and that heaven and earth were created only through
God’s Word. Scripture thus teaches us that the world was brought into
existence from nonexistence, Yeish Ma ayin. This constitutes the basis of the
conviction that the Torah seeks to instill within us.

The opposite notion is the belief in the eternity of the world, which
is the cornerstone of pagan belief until this very day. This belief is not
only a metaphysical falsehood, a misrepresentation of the origin of the
universe, but even worse: it undermines all morality, and denies all
freedom in both God and man. If matter had antedated Creation, then
the Creator of the universe would have been able to fashion from the
material given Him not a world that was absolutely good, but only the
best world possible within the limitations of the material. In that case,
all evil — natural and moral — would be due to the inherent faultiness
of the material, and not even God would be able to save the world from
evil, natural or moral. God would not be master over the material of
the world, and man would not be master over his body. Freedom would
vanish, and the whole world, including its God and the men who live
in it, would be propelled by a blind, immutable fate.

And just as God rules freely over His world, so has He made man
master over his small world. God breathed into man a spark of His
Own free essence, so that man should freely master his body and its
forces. Thus, He created man in His image, in the free image of the
free God; He placed man as an image of God in a world governed by
His omnipotence.

The world that was created Bereishis is not the best one that can be
fashioned with the given material; rather, it is the only good world.
This world — with all its seeming flaws — corresponds with the wise
plan of the Creator; He could have created a different world, had such
a world corresponded with His Will. Man who was created Bereishis —
with all his moral shortcomings — has the ability to attain the moral
perfection set before him by the Creator. The possibility of sinning is
part of his moral perfection; it is a basic condition for his moral freedom.
Both, the world and man, will reach the highest ideal of the good,
for which both were created. They will achieve this level of good because
God, Who has placed this goal before them, has created them both for
this goal, in accordance with His free and unlimited Will. He could
have created a different creation, a different world and a different man,
had this served the purpose that He set before them in freedom.
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