"In the beginning G‑d created the heavens and the earth." In the beginning the world was one big mess; nothing was in its place. During the six days of creation G‑d put each thing where it belonged. Let us see how:
On the 1st day, G‑d separated night and day.
On the 2nd day, G‑d divided the sky from the earth.
On the 3rd day, G‑d separated the land and the sea, and created the trees, flowers and grass.
On the 4th day, G‑d put the sun, moon and stars in their right places.
On the 5th day, G‑d put the fish, birds and reptiles (like snakes and lizards) in their places.
On the 6th day, G‑d created land animals like cows and sheep and the very first human beings — our grandparents, Adam and Eve!
On the 7th day, G‑d stopped working and rested. It was Shabbat.
Adam and Eve marry and go to live in the Garden of Eden, a beautiful place where everything is available and ready for them. They have beautiful fruit trees from which to eat and plants, flowers and rivers to enjoy. Adam and Eve are able to eat of any tree or plant except one: the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil which G‑d does not allow them to eat from.
However, the evil snake convinces Eve to take a bite, and she gives one to Adam, too. So Adam and Eve are thrown out of the Garden of Eden as punishment and from that day on they have to work for a living and do not have it easy as before.
Adam and Eve have two children, Cain and Abel; one day the two have a fight and Cain kills Abel. From then on, G‑d curses Cain and he becomes a wanderer, a person who has no home and goes all over the world without a place of his own. Adam and Eve have another child, Shet, from whom the great Noach of whom we will read in next week’s parshah descends.
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