It is known that each person by nature desires all the sciences,[25] whether he be an ignoramus or a sage. [It is further known] that it is impossible for a person to begin the study of these sciences, and direct his thought towards them, without the appropriate premises, and without entering the stages of science; they therefore forbade this and warned against it.[26]
Why Is Creation in the Torah?
Why does the Torah begin with the account of creation?[1]The answer depends on the nature and purpose of the Torah.[2]
In traditional circles, the best-known explanation is that of Rashi (Rabbi Solomon Yitzhaki, ca. 1040–1105), whose question makes it clear that he sees the Torah as primarily a book of commandments,
אמר ר' יצחק: לא היה צריך להתחיל התורה אלא מהחדש הזה לכם (שמות י"ב:ב'), שהיא מצוה ראשונה שנצטוו ישראל. ומה טעם פתח בבראשית,
Rabbi Isaac (3rd/4th cent. C.E.) [3] said: The Torah should have commenced with the verse (Exodus 12:2) “This month shall be unto you the first of the months” which is the first commandment given to Israel. What is the reason, then, that it commences with the account of the Creation?
Rashi (still quoting R. Isaac) answers that the Torah wishes to support the people of Israel’s claim to the land:
משום: כח מעשיו הגיד לעמו לתת להם נחלת גוים (תהלים קי"א:ו').
Because of [the thought expressed in the text] (Psalms 111:6) “He declared to His people the strength of His works (i.e., He gave an account of the work of Creation), in order that He might give them the heritage of the nations.”
שאם יאמרו אומות העולם לישראל: לסטים אתם שכבשתם ארצות שבעה גוים, והם אומרים להם: כל הארץ של הקב"ה היא, והוא בראה והוא נתנה לאשר ישר בעיניו, ברצותו נתנה להם וברצותו נטלה מהם ונתנה לנו.
For should the peoples of the world say to Israel, “You are robbers, because you took by force the lands of the seven nations of Canaan,” Israel may reply to them, “All the earth belongs to the Holy One, blessed be He; He created it and gave it to whom He pleased. When He willed, He gave it to them, and when He willed He took it from them and gave it to us.”[4]
Not About History but Science: Maimonides
In contrast, Moses Maimonides (1138–1204) argues that the creation story is meant to teach us science.[5] This is important, Maimonides argues, because correct knowledge of the physical world is necessary in order to have knowledge of God (Guide of the Perplexed, introduction):
God, you see, chose to improve us and enhance our lives in society with His practical norms. But this could not be done without our reaching certain intellectual convictions – chiefly, an awareness of Him, so far as we are able. That depends on metaphysics, theological knowledge, which is won only after study of natural science. For physics borders on metaphysics and is its prerequisite, as its students clearly see.[6]
For Maimonides, the Torah is not merely or even primarily a law book, as Rashi believes, but aims at the overall improvement of individuals’ and society’s moral and intellectual life. Since Maimonides’s Judaism is orthodox, not orthoprax,[7] practical norms (mizvot) rely upon certain intellectual convictions, the first of which is knowledge of God to the greatest extent possible.[8] This, he argues, requires knowledge of metaphysics, the prerequisite for which is the study of natural science:[9]
That is why God opens His book with the Account of Creation, which belongs to physics, as I’ve explained.[10]
Thus, the Torah opens with ma’aseh bereshit, i.e., the science of physics.
WORTH READING IN ITS ENTIRETY:
https://www.thetorah.com/article/why-is-creation-in-the-torah