The Torah starts with the details of the six days of Creation. On the first four days, God created light, water, dry land, vegetation, the sun, the moon and the stars.
On the fifth day, He created creatures of the sea and the air.
On the sixth day, He created animals and the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, whom He blessed to be fruitful and to have dominion over the rest of Creation. There are two accounts of how they were created. The first is that they were created at the same time, and the other is that Adam was created alone first, and the God decided that he needed a ‘helpmate’ and created Eve from his side.
On the seventh day, God rested.
Adam and Eve were warned not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil or they would not live forever. The snake, the most cunning of animals, manipulated Eve into eating from the Tree of Knowledge, after which Adam also ate from it. God rebuked them, punishing Eve with the pain of childbirth and Adam with the need to toil and sweat for his sustenance. The snake is cursed to crawl on his stomach and eat the dust of the earth.
Eve gave birth to two sons, Cain and Abel. They both bring offerings to God. Abel’s offering is accepted. However, Cain’s offering is inferior and is not accepted by God, who then appears to Cain and tells him to improve his ways rather than remain downcast. Nevertheless, Cain goes into a field and murders Abel. God punishes Cain by decreeing that he will be a homeless wanderer for the rest of his life.
The generations of Cain and their jobs are all listed. Eve and Adam had another son, called Seth. The ten generations from Adam to Noach are listed, including their age at death. Adam dies aged 930.
Noach had three sons: Shem, Cham and Yefet. Immorality started to spread and God decides to limit mankind’s lifespan to 120 years. After further sins, God ‘regrets’ the fact that He created mankind and decides to wipe out all living creatures, apart from Noach and his family.