[Please read this in your most up-beat, newscaster voice:] Hello, and welcome to the Etymology Happenings with Elyssa Hurwitz! Thank you for joining me today for this super-brief moment of nerding out about Hebrew, followed by a little translation time, and then a tiny woo-woo intention for us as we head into this exciting new Jewish year of 5786. 

Hebrew Nerd Time: Parashat Bereishit is named this way because of the first word in it – בְּרֵאשִׁית (B-ray-sheet). You may recognize the r-[vowel]-sh sound from Rosh HaShanah – aka ‘the head of the year,’ aka-aka the new year we just had. Or the word “rishon,” which is “first.” These two words are tied together because they both are about firsts, but… 

Translation [is interpretation]: I’ve often heard a translation of “bereishit”that I don’t love – “in the beginning.” A biblical word for a “beginning” is connected to “rosh” – it’s “reishit.” Now, a fun fact about Hebrew is that we can squish prefixes together with words to create a new word. For example, “ha-” is the prefix for “the-.” “B-” is the prefix for “in.” If we squish those two together, “ba-” is the prefix for “in the-.” Pretty cool, huh? So! That means that “b” + “reishit” is “in” + “[a] beginning.” Woo-Woo Intention: As we head into the “rosh” (head/start) of this year, I hope that we’re able to remember that we will hopefully be blessed with many opportunities for “reishiyot” (firsts). Our first times meeting new people, trying new foods, traveling to new places, leaving or starting new jobs, and learning new things. God willing, there will be many firsts and many new things – and what a blessing that will be!!