A New Beginning
Yael Eckstein | October 5, 2026
Shalom, and welcome to a new year of Holy Land Moments Devotionals.
This year, we’ll continue our time together studying the Psalms on Sundays and Proverbs on Fridays—two books that have brought comfort and wisdom to so many of us. But from Monday through Thursday, we’ll start a new journey through the entire Torah, from beginning to end, following the same weekly reading cycle the Jewish people have cherished for generations.
Each day, we’ll open God’s Word together. We’ll step into the world of the Bible—or into moments where His people have felt His presence—and then reflect on a teaching rooted in Jewish tradition.
It’s my prayer that this time will draw you closer to God, strengthen your faith, and remind you that His Word is alive and speaking to us still.
With blessings from the Holy Land,
Yael
Genesis 1:26
Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness…”
With the holy day of Simchat Torah—whose name in Hebrew means “rejoicing in the Torah”—the Jewish people once again start a weekly Bible study plan that’s been followed for thousands of years. Starting at the beginning of the Bible, with Genesis 1, we read a different portion—or parshah—each week, completing the Torah, the Five Books of Moses each year.
As we begin a brand-new year of daily Bible study together, we start with the very first words of Scripture: “In the beginning, God created.”
Genesis 1 may feel familiar—almost too familiar. We’ve heard it since childhood. But this opening chapter isn’t just about how the world was made. It’s about God’s heart—and our place in His creation.
Before He created human beings, God made a world of beauty and order. He separated light from darkness, land from water, day from night. Then He filled that world with life—birds in the sky, fish under the sea, animals all across the land.
And then came the pinnacle of His Creation.
In Genesis 1:26, God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness.”
Now, as we study the Bible together over the next year, I’ll often share questions that a particular Bible verse might raise. Today, that question is: Why did God say “let us?” God is there, but who is the other being that would make an “us?” Well, the Jewish sages wrestled with this question for hundreds of years, and I’d like to take a look at one particularly beautiful explanation.
It suggests that God is speaking to the human being He is about to create. He is saying, “You and I will do this together.” Isn’t that beautiful? From the very beginning, we have been partners with God, and even today, He is always with us. And just as God spoke to the first human even before He created him, He is still speaking to us—we just have to listen!
As we open the Bible again at the beginning, we’re reminded of something powerful: God is still inviting us into that partnership today. He is still speaking. And He still calls us to reflect His goodness in the world.
May this new year of study help us hear His voice more clearly—and walk more faithfully in His image.