The entire Sefer Bereshit contains only three mitzvoth out of the 613. So why do we need to know all the episodes and stories taking place in Sefer Bereshit?

Kabbalah compares the Torah, but especially Sefer Bereshit, to a mirror and teaches us that each and every person is reflected in it and can see himself in the Torah. According to Kabbalah, the soul of each and every Jewish person ever born will find an explanation in the Torah personally tailor made to him or her.

The Mei Hashiloach writes that the entire Torah, but particularly Sefer Bereshit, helps us to overcome our faults, flaws and character defects. Just as we use a filter to enhance a picture and hide the blemishes, so too the Torah is meant to make us better people. Rabbi Mordechai Yosef Leiner, the Chasidic Rebbe who wrote the Mei Hashiloach states “The Torah was only given to complete what is lacking in us. Any flaw or character defect that we possess can be corrected by the Torah.”

Professor Nechama Leibowitz explains why we need to know all of the stories about the Patriarchs and Matriarchs that are contained in the Book of Bereshit. She said “Just imagine that Sefer Bereshit with all of its stories is a long love letter from G-d. When a lover writes a love letter to his beloved, she reads each and every word over and over again with great excitement. She wonders why her lover used this particular word in one place and not elsewhere. And why her lover uses that word or this word twice. For me, the Torah is G-d’s Love Letter to us and that is how we should read it.”

Therefore, we should cherish and hold precious the stories in Sefer Bereshit, because it is our Personal Love Letter from our Beloved. As the verse in Shir Hashirim states, ANI L’DODI V’DODI LI (I AM MY BELOVED’S AND MY BELOVED IS MINE).