I would like to know the importance, teachings, and meanings of Genesis, and how it would effect a Jew’s attitude towards the world today inc. relationship with G-d, with one another, with the environment, reward and punishment etc. Thank you very much

You know, that’s kind of a big question! I can’t even begin to
do it justice. Let me just say a few things.
The whole purpose of the world is for us to build a relationship
with Hashem. Everything that happens here, everything that will ever
happen, is Hashem’s moving us toward that goal. Even when we turn away
from him.
Adam and Eve turned away from him, and did tremendous damage to
their relationship. Hashem set up the relationship on a new footing,
designed for humanity as it had become. Kain turned away from him. The
people of Bavel turned away from him. The generation of Noah turned away
from him. The people of Sodom and Amorah turned away from him.
A human being would have been discouraged by all this. But
Hashem loves us more than anything, and never gives up on us. Each time,
he found a way to continue.
Genesis is the preparatory history for the creation of Israel.
With Abraham our father, Hashem finally found someone who would respond
to his love. Abraham tried to emulate Hashem: Hashem only made this
world so he could give; Abraham devoted his whole life to giving
kindness to others. And so on for the rest of Genesis. Israel grew
through many trials, to weed out its imperfections, to learn what it
must know to become the nation that is devoted to G-d.

You asked about the environment. In the ideal of the Torah,
mankind has a very close relationship with the earth. We were actually
made from earth. And the earth, after all, is the vehicle by which
Hashem gives us life and sustenance. More than anything else, we can see
Hashem’s love through the kindness that he does for us via the ground.
An apple, a ear of wheat, is a love song from Hashem.
But when humanity turned away from G-d, they lost their close
connection with the ground. Adam caused the ground to be cursed. More
so, with Kain, who lost the ability to live in a fixed location. The
people of Bavel were scattered across the earth. The generation of Noah
lost the ground entirely – the world became an ocean.
With Abraham, mankind began the process of reconnecting to its
roots. He was promised the most wonderful place in the world, a place
where the ground is holy. His descendents Isaac and Jacob brought the
connection closer to reality. By the end of Genesis, Yisroel has begun
the process of becoming a nation, of being ready to the receive the
Torah, and ready to return to the land of Israel.

What I’ve said doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface. All
the fundamentals of understanding G-d and our relationship with him are
to be found in Genesis. The Vilna Gaon actually said that all the events
in world history, large and small, are hidden away in it, if we only
knew how to look.

Best wishes,
Michoel Reach