BEREISHITH 1986

The rabbis teach us that the Torah begins with the letter Beis, the second letter of the alphabet in order to teach us what we are to do on this earth.  We are not to be concerned about what is above or below or what happened before the world was created.  Our job is to perfect this world and make it a better place.  Our job is to be G-d's junior partner in creation and help Him complete the work of creation. We do that by leading moral lives and gaining knowledge.  

However, knowledge, itself, is not always good.  What we must do is not only gain knowledge but also learn how to be good people.  The rabbis tell us that the earth did not obey G-d’s command when G-d told the earth on the third day to produce Tadshay Hooretz Esev, that the earth should produce grass and vegetation Eitzpree Osepree, trees that produce fruit and, trees that, themselves, are fruit.  In other words, the tree and the fruit should taste identical.  They should both be pleasing and good.  We know that trees that many times produce good fruit are not good themselves.  There are very few trees that you can take and eat the bark. When it comes to human beings the same applies.  There are many times people who produce great things but they, themselves, are not good people. In our public school system today we teach skills and not character.  In fact, a study was made in Harlem of the students there and it was found that students attending Catholic schools have a much better attitude toward life, a much lower instance of delinquency, and which standards match the normal standards of the American public.  

In our school system today we have decided to make our school system valueless, which means we do not teach values at all.  All we teach are skills.  Knowledge without character is a trap.  Knowledge without morality is very dangerous.  The same chemistry that is used to preserve food and grow food and make our lives better is the same chemistry that was used to create gas chambers.  Hitler1s cabinet was composed of geniuses.  Everyone except one had an exceptionally high IQ.  Almost all the members of his cabinet had doctorates but yet they produced the most evil regime the world has ever known.  Knowledge by itself is no guarantee that man will lead a good and upright life.  Before the Holocaust   man believed that knowledge alone was sufficient.  Give people enough knowledge and they can solve all the problems of the world.  The same physics which allows us to have television sets and automobiles and airplanes also produces atomic bombs.  All the sciences that are very good to promote life can also promote death.  The same drugs that save life can be used in germ warfare.  

Knowledge, alone, is not enough. We need more than knowledge.  Man must realize there is a morality outside himself. Not everything is subjective.  If we say everything is subjective, then Hitler could make a very good case.  And, of course, to the people of Germany, the most educated people of the West, he made a very good case.  He said that Jews were nothing more than cockroaches and vermin who had to be destroyed in order for Germany and the world to survive.  The Jews were a parasitical virus who had invaded the mainstream of western Europe and would cause its destruction from within unless they were destroyed.  Based upon these premises, of course, Hitler made a good case.  The problem is, his premises were all wrong, but he was able to mobilize all the great knowledge the Germans possessed in order to eradicate our people.  Knowledge is a two-way sword.  The more knowledge we have not only the more good we can do but the more we can do as well. That's what it mentions in the Torah when it says Adam was told not to eat from the tree of knowledge good and bad.  Once you eat from the tree of knowledge you have the capacity to do great good but also great evil.  The more knowledge we have the more responsibility we have.  

Judaism, of course, is very positive to knowledge. We want people to have knowledge.  However, there is a caveat, a warning we all were given and that is that we all must utilize knowledge - with great responsibility.  We must be accountable not to just our subjective feelings but to an objective moral code.  What happened to Adam and Eve after they sinned and ate from the tree of knowledge? What happened to them when G-d confronted them? First of all, they hid and   they argued.  And Adam said, "I heard Your voice in the garden but I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid." Adam was then asked  by G-d, "Who told you that you were naked?" Adam did not accept responsibility. He did not say, "I erred, I sinned".  Instead, he said, "It was not my fault.  It was the woman that you gave me. She gave it to me and I ate."  Then G-d said to the woman, "What is this that you did?"  The woman said, "It is not my fault.  The snake tempted me, and I ate."  The rabbis say the sin of Adam was not so much eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge but his refusal to accept responsibility for his acts.  We all sin.  We all do things we should not do.  The mark of whether or not we can live as a human being on this earth without being overcome by shame and fear and always having to hide is whether we are willing to accept responsibility for our acts.

The rabbis say that after the sin of eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil several things happened to Adam.  Among them he lost his Ziv Paneem the glow of his face; he also lost Kamaso, his stature; and finally he lost the sun, the Chama.  The rabbis ask, what does this mean?  The rabbis say that the glow of a person's face stands for creativity.  When Moshe came down from Mount Sinai with the second set of Ten Commandments his face glowed.  He had to work hard hewing out the rocks on which G-d had written the Ten Commandments.  The Ziv Panov stands for man's creativity, his ability to always see the new in life, to always realize the many possibilities that life offers, but unless a person is willing to own up to his mistakes, unless a person is willing to recognize that many times his creative urges lead him astray and that he has to adjust his experiments, his ideas, he is never going to be creative.  Without accepting responsibility for your actions you can never be creative.  The Kamoso, stature, stands for inner confidence, for the ability to have foresight, to have vision.  We stand on the shoulders of giants.  That is why we can see so far ahead.  

The generations before made great discoveries and we, because we stand on their shoulders, can see many things.  They once asked the Tostos Reed how he could argue with the great Biblical commentary, Rashi.  He said that because Rashi   was such a great Biblical commentary and he showed us so many things he could stand on his shoulders and see further.  In order for us to have foresight, vision, confidence that we can make this world what it should be and not what it is, in order to see beyond the common everyday reality we have to accept responsibility for what is and try to change it.  We cannot avoid responsibility.

Finally, the rabbis tell us that when Adam was created it was Friday, and G-d was not going to send Adam out of the Garden of Eden on Shabbos.  He, therefore, let him stay in the Garden of Eden Friday night.  When Adam saw the sun go away he became afraid. He thought the sun would never come back.  One of the problems with acting in an immoral fashion is that we alienate ourselves from others and from our source of being, from G-d.  

We are consumed with fear.  People who are not willing to take responsibility are afraid.  They are afraid people will laugh at them and not like them.  They are afraid that because they made a mistake they will lose all their standing in the community. They are consumed with fear, and if you are consumed with fear you cannot create a better world.  You cannot be a partner with G-d in creation. Yes, Judaism says that knowledge is important.  We should strive for knowledge, but we have to remember that knowledge is a great power not only for good but also for evil. In order for us to use this knowledge we must be responsible.  We must be willing to admit our errors.  We must be willing to acknowledge that there is an objective moral standard in the world to which we are all accountable.  Only in this way can knowledge be a blessing and not a curse.  We all have to accept responsibility for our acts if we are to fulfill our purpose in this world, which is to be a partner of G-d in creation, if we are to complete the work of creation which G-d started in this Torah portion.

I am reminded of the story they tell of a young boy in school who received a very bad report card.  He didn't know how to broach the subject with his father.  Finally, he had an idea.  He gave his father the report card and said, "Dad, what would you say this is, a product of environment or heredity?"  This boy, of course, was not willing   to assume responsibility.  Without assuming responsibility for our actions knowledge can be destructive instead of constructive.  Let us all hope and pray that the knowledge we have in the world today and the knowledge we will gain will only benefit mankind and not destroy it, and that we will all be able to fulfill our role as partners of G-d in creation.  Amen.