Summary of parashat Bereshit
God created the world in six days. On the first day, He created light and darkness. On the second, He formed the heavens, dividing them into the "waters above" and the "waters below." On the third, He established the boundaries of the land and the sea and called forth the trees and grasses of the earth. On the fourth day, He fixed the positions of the sun, moon, and stars as signs for measuring time and as lights for the earth. Fish, birds, and reptiles were created on the fifth day; land animals, and then humankind, on the sixth. God finished His work on the seventh day and sanctified it as a day of rest.
God forms humankind from the dust of the earth and breathes into their nostrils "a living soul." Originally, man is a single person; but deciding that "it is not good for man to be alone," God takes one "side" of the man, transforms it into a woman, and marries them to one another.
Adam and Eve are placed in the Garden of Eden and commanded not to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The serpent persuades Eve to violate the command, and she shares the forbidden fruit with her husband. Because of their sin, God decrees that humankind will experience death, returning to the ground from which they were formed; and that all gain will come only through hard work and difficulties. Humankind is expelled from the Garden.
Eve has two sons, Cain and Abel. Cain argues with Abel, murders him, and becomes a nomad. Adam has a third son, Seth, whose descendant in the tenth generation, Noah, is the only righteous man in a corrupt world.
