By: Brandon Rattiner
Senior Director, Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC)
The High Holiday season is now behind us. After weeks of examining our own inner worlds, the Torah pulls our gaze outward to the birth of the universe. We are reminded that creation begins in nothingness and is the holiest act we can undertake.
This week’s parsha, Bereshit, opens with a world that is tohu vavohu—astonishingly void and dark. Out of that chaos, God spoke: “Let there be light.” And there was light. The mystics teach that this act of creation was not simple. Because God’s presence filled all existence, something profound had to happen first: a tzimtzum, a contraction of the Divine self, to make room for something other than God. Creation, they remind us, was not effortless. It required determination, courage, and boundless generosity.
That lesson feels especially resonant this week, as we watch the first fragile steps toward peace begin to unfold. After years of anguish and despair, hostages are returning home. A ceasefire, however uncertain, is taking hold. The void of these past two years has felt so deep, and yet from that darkness, something resembling light is flickering again.
In this moment, we, too, have an opportunity to create. To build a Jewish community strong and welcoming enough to hold our diverse perspectives. To nurture a Colorado where Jews and all people feel safe and empowered to be themselves. To help shape a civic culture that resists oversimplification, dehumanization, and political violence. To imagine a world of peace grounded in another truth from this week’s parsha: that all people are created b’tzelem Elohim, in the image of God.
The Torah reminds us that this is what holiness looks like—bringing order where there was chaos, compassion where there was cruelty, and hope where there was none. Creation was never a single act but an ongoing process. The world God made was unfinished, and humanity was entrusted to continue the work.
As we step into this new year, let’s rise to meet that challenge. Let’s channel our yearning for peace into the hard, holy work of creation. May we find the courage to carve light from darkness, to build community across difference, and to see in every face the reflection of the Divine.
Please email Brandon Rattiner at brattiner@jewishcolorado.org with questions or comments.