BEREISHITH 1987

We are now beginning the reading of the Torah over again. We are beginning with the creation. According to Judaism, it does not really make any difference what theory of creation you believe in as long you believe that G-d is the author of that theory of creation, that no matter how the world was created it was created according to G-d's plan. Whether you want to believe in evolution or not, or if you want to believe as an author I read recently stated that life on earth was a product of extra-terrestrial astronauts who came here and started life, it is all right, according to Judaism, as long as you feel these extra-terrestrial astronauts were fulfilling G-d's plan, that ultimately G-d is in the back of all creation, that G-d is the author of all life, and that we recognize that it is only proper to pray to G-d alone because G-d is the author of all life.

That, of course, is what this Sabbath, this 7th day, proclaims. The Shabbos proclaims that G-d is the creator and it is only proper to pray to Him, because He authored all natural law and He is in control of all the forces in the universe. We say this every Shabbos when we make kiddush. In fact, the first part of the kiddush is found in the Torah portion when we say, "And the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them," and at the end we say, "And G-d blessed the seventh day and He sanctified it because in it He rested from all His work which G-d created to do." In these words we spell out the fact that G-d is the creator and it is only to Him that we shall pray. That rabbis ask, though, why does it say, "And G-d blessed the seventh day and sanctified it?" According to Rashi, this means that G-d created the manna and that He sanctified the 7th day by making sure the manna did not fall on Shabbos, and He blessed this day by giving up a double portion of manna on Friday.  In other words, if we human beings celebrate the Sabbath we will be none the worse for it. We will still be blessed by G-d.

Other rabbis disagree with Rashi's explanation and give other explanation. The Rambam Maimonides says that actually we celebrate Shabbos for two reasons. We celebrate Shabbos to commemorate the fact that G-d created the world and also to remind us of the Exodus from Egypt.  In fact, in the kiddush we do say, "Remember the Exodus of Egypt." That is why it says He blessed and He sanctified. The Rambam Nachmonides disagrees with the Rambam and says there is really only one reason we celebrate Shabbos and that is because G-d is the creator, and although it is mentioned in the Ten Commandments in Deuteronomy about the Exodus from Egypt, this is just a case in point about how G-d is the creator, because G-d did miracles at the time of our Exodus which proves again that G-d is the creator.

G-d can work according to natural law or He can suspend natural law. After all, He is the creator. He can do anything He wants in the universe. Therefore, by suspending natural law He proved once again that He was the creator. Of course, most of the time G-d works within natural law. We now know since modern science that natural law is not the model of Newtonian physics that we thought before the 1930's, that there is plenty of room for G-d to act without seeming to act, that most scientific laws are probabilities. In the second law of thermodynamics we have no idea what the individual atom will do.  In quantum mechanics we only deal with probabilities. In fact, there is a great scientific project going on now trying to mesh quantum mechanics with Newtonian physics and to try to determine where these quantum mechanics which all hold on the subatomic level mesh and intersect with Newtonian physics. We know, of course, that in life there is a great amount of play. This is true in the scientific world as well. G-d can act in nature without seeming to act within nature. He can be anywhere in Houston on a given October anywhere from 40 to 90. We all know, though, that G-d is the ultimate creator, and that is according to Nachmonides, which Shabbos proclaims.

But Nachmonides goes further. The Rambam Nachmonides says that actually we have two holidays which celebrate the creation. One of them is Shabbos and the other is Succos, the holiday we just finished celebrating.  He said that is the reason why Succos is seven days to remind us of the seven days of creation. The 8th day is a special holiday called Shmini Atzeres which reminds us of our role, that the Jewish people are wedded to the Sabbath the 7th day, and that it reminds the Jewish people of their role in perfecting creation, that there are actually two acts of creation that occurred when G-d created the universe. G-d first created the universe, and then He initiated a process to perfect it. G-d creates in a different manner than human beings. G-d creates from nothing. When we refer to G-d creating something we use the word "Borah“, which means to create out of nothing. We human beings, though, do not "Borah", we "Atzar". We create out of substances that are already there. What we do is mold and shape things, but we are bound by the materials that we use. We cannot shape certain things out of materials which will not allow us to do it. We are bound by the plasticity, elasticity, hardness, etc. of the materials with which we use. We also really create nothing. What we do is combine things and come up with new ideas.  

I know that when I taught industrial engineering we used to have a technique called brainstorming in which new ideas were created by combining disparate things which people normally would not associate together. When you associate these ideas you come up with something which seems new, but it was not created out of nothing.  It is composed of these two previous ideas. When we create what we do it take G-d's creation, and we mold it and shape it in a different form. We have paper today. The paper comes from a tree.  It is hard to visualize that the paper we use is actually nothing more than products from a tree, but it is. In many of the homes we live in today the homes are not made actually out of wood but out of compressed sawdust, etc., that we take the world as it is, and we develop it. We see its potentialities and we are supposed to perfect it to make it better. That is our role as a junior partner of G-d in creation. We are supposed to take what has been created and make it even better. The world is 95%, 96% complete, and we are supposed to complete the job. That is why it says, "And they were finished the heaven, the earth, and all their hosts."

The rabbis ask, what does it mean "their hosts"? They interpret it to mean all the chemical laws, the potentialities. It is all there. We just have to learn to use it and perfect it. There are the hosts, the potentialities, in the heavens and the potentialities on earth, and we have to use them and develop them so we can create a better life on earth. That is what the Rambam said when he says that it mentions, "And G-d blessed the seventh day, and He sanctified it". When it says He sanctified it, that refers to Shabbos, that when we recognize that G-d created the world and because G-d created the world there are certain things we just cannot do.

There are limits to our manipulation in nature. We cannot say, "Well, we could make much greater progress if we use human experiments, let's use human experiments." But we know we cannot do that. When it comes to lying, cheating, stealing, even though it would promote our goals, we are not supposed to do them. Shabbos talks about G-d the creator, and G-d has limited our creative ability. There are certain things we cannot do. But then it says, "And G-d blessed the seventh day", and it refers to Succos because on Succos we look at the hidden potentialities of the world.

That is why we take the lulav and etrog because these are hidden potentialities. At first glance we would think that the myrtle and the willow and palm branch and even the etrog do not have any other properties except what we can see, but they have more just as the universe contains so many possibilities that are there, that are the hosts, and we have to develop them. That is what we are called upon to do.

We have two holidays which celebrate creation. One is Shabbos, which celebrates creation out of nothing and set limits to man, and the other is Succos, which tells us to see the hidden potentialities and develop them and make this a better world. Do not adopt a fatalistic attitude. Unfortunately, there are still people in the world who have a fatalistic attitude.

I am reminded of a zany story and since it is after Simchas Torah I will tell it, of an Indian reservation where everyone there had a fatalistic attitude. They lived in extreme poverty and did not do much for themselves. Finally the reservations decided they needed a doctor and sent a man away to school to learn medicine. When he came back he devoted himself to helping the reservation. His first case was a man who broke his jaw so he wired it up. Of course, this means this was the first time in history that an Indian wired ahead for a reservation.

This story, of course, is a little zany but illustrates the point that we are not supposed to be fatalistic when we look at the universe. The universe is our own backyard. When we see things that are wrong we should correct them, better them. G-d tell us, yes, there is a Shabbos. There are limits. You cannot go beyond a certain limit. You cannot do human experimentation. You cannot violate nature with atomic weapons and atomic bombs. You will destroy everything. You cannot rape your environment. There are limits. Yet, you are called upon to make this world a blessing. I have given you that blessing to make this world a blessing. Let us all hope and pray that in the coming year we will truly make this world a better and better place but always, at the same time, recognize our limits.