Genesis בראשית
The first book of the Torah: from the creation of the world to the death of Yosef in Egypt.
Bereshit is the book of beginnings: creation, Eden, Kayin and Hevel, ten generations to Noach, the Flood, the Tower of Babel, ten more generations — and then Avraham. From there the story narrows: instead of the history of mankind, the history of one family over four generations.
Rashi opens his commentary by asking why the Torah begins with creation rather than with the first commandment, and answers: so that the nations could not call Israel a thief of land — the land belongs to its Creator. The sages call Bereshit «the book of the upright» and read it as an account of where human traits come from: envy, hospitality, jealousy, forgiveness.
It contains very few commandments and a great many family quarrels. «The deeds of the fathers are a sign for the children.» It ends in Egypt, with a coffin.