BEREISHITH 1990

In the Torah portion BEREISHIS  we have enunciated some of the very basic principles of Judaism:  the fact that G-d created the world for His own purposes, that He created an imperfect world and He placed man in an imperfect world to work it and to guard it.  

We also learn how Adam and Eve were originally created hermaphrodite, both male and female, and how later G-d separated Adam in two. We learn also that there are two different kinds of evil, moral evil and physical evil in the world, and that we were expelled from the Garden of Eden and put into a harsher world because of our moral failings.  We also learn that we have more than a physical dimension, that we also have a spiritual dimension, that G-d breathed into us the breath of life, which means that we are different than animals.  

The animal rightists today are all wrong.  We were the people who gave the world the concept of not causing unnecessary pain to animals. We were the ones who gave the world the idea that you had to feed your animals before you fed yourself.  However, animal life and human life are not the same. A human being is infinitely more important than an animal.  Animals were created to serve man.  Obviously, you cannot give animals unnecessary pain but if you had to choose between experimenting on animals and having young children die miserable deaths then, of course, you have to experiment on animals.  

After all, we eat animals.  Some of the animal rightists have gone to such extremes that recently I heard of cases that people were laying down in front of mosquito spraying trucks and not letting them go because how dare we think that a mosquito's life is not as important as a human life.  This, of course, is absurd.

In this Torah portion we learn about Shabbos.  We learn that "they were finished the heaven and the earth and all their hosts and G-d blessed the seventh day and He sanctified it because on it He rested from all His work which G-d created to do."  The rabbis all ask the question, what does it mean that G-d blessed it and sanctified it and also why does it say that He created it in order to "do"?  What's more, why is it that we always read this Torah portion right   right after the holiday of Succos?  The rabbis could have arranged it that we would finish reading the Torah in January or February, sometime when there are not many Jewish holiday, so we can sing and dance there and rejoice on starting the Torah over again.  

Why do we begin the Torah right after the holiday of Succos? Also, in the very first day when we learn how G-d created the world we learn that He created light.  Where did the light come from since G-d did not create the sun until the fourth day?  The rabbis answer by saying that this was a different light.  This was not the light of the sun.  This was the light which was reserved for the righteous in the world to come.  In fact, modern science, too, speaks about radiation and the Big Bang Theory, and, in fact, much of the early description in the first verses of the Book of Genesis, conform very closely to the Big Bang Theory.  

But the rabbis say that this was a light that G-d created and reserved for the righteous and He hid it in the world, and He is going to bring it out in the world to come after the Messiah comes.  But the question can then be asked, why is it that G-d created a light which He then hid?  Why didn't He just create it at the time of the Messiah? Why did He have to create it at the very beginning? We all know that, according to the Kaballah, when G-d created the world He first contracted Himself to make room for the world, and then He left little pieces of Himself in everything.  When we do deeds of kindness and good things we release these sparks of G-d, Himself, and we feel closer to G-d and to man.

In the Book of Genesis we also learn how G-d is a very poor teacher.  We learn how G-d continually tries to impress upon man the importance of leading a good life, a moral life and a decent life, and man always disappoints G-d, that G-d, for His own reasons, has created a creature which does not obey Him. Therefore, we are bidden to follow Him out of our own free will.  G-d is trying to teach us how we are to act, but it seems that we do not listen to Him, that G-d, as a teacher, is a failure. The rabbis, in answer to these questions, make a very cogent observation. They say that we have the Shabbos in order to remind us of G-d's creation. We know that in the first set of Ten Commandments, which are given in the Book of Exodus, we learn how it says there the Shabbos was given to man as a remembrance of the creation, and then we learn in the second time the Ten Commandments are enunciated in the Torah in the Book of Deuteronomy, that the Shabbos was given to us to remind us of the exodus from Egypt.  

The Ramban said that actually there is no contradiction here because when we learn about the exodus from Egypt we learn how G-d created the world, and how G-d, because He created the world, can change the laws of creation if He wants also.  He can work miracles. He will not often and we are not allowed to rely on miracles.  Even if you are the most righteous person you cannot jump off a cliff because you are still going to be hurt, and we cannot challenge G-d to create a miracle for us. G-d is constantly involved with this world.  He is not like a watchmaker who made the world and then went on vacation to Miami.  G-d demonstrated at the time of the exodus that He was the creator because the rules that He made for the work in the world He can change and bend and do anything He wants to. The Ramban also goes on to say that G-d has also created a second holiday, not just a holiday of Passover, the holiday that reminds us of the exodus to commemorate the creation, but G-d has created the holiday of Succos also as a commemoration of the creation.  That is why Succos has seven days and that is why on Succos we go out to the fields to look at G-d’s creation, and that is why we take the lulav and esrog in our hand, etc.  

Now the question we can ask on the Ramban is, why do we need to have two holidays that celebrate the creation?  The answer is because there are really two aspects of creation. G-d creates in two ways.  G-d created the world out of nothing.  Therefore,  there is a special word in Hebrew for that, Bora.  There is also another word,   Yotzar, which means you create from things that are already available but you manipulate them and combine them in different ways and you come out with different creations.  That is, of course, the quality that G-d gave us.  We cannot create out of nothing but man is a very creative animal.  That is what is means when it says man was created in the image of G-d.  He gave us the ability to create as well as the ability to speak and to choose.  

We can create.  When G-d created the world He not only created something which is static but something which can constantly grow because we continually take things and put them in different ways and create out of this world a perfection while now it is imperfect by combining the different aspects in the world and making them better.  Man can grow and the world, itself, can grow and be better.  Therefore, the holiday of exodus speaks about G-d the creator, Who created out of nothing, but the G-d of Succos, that is the G-d Who initiates a process and we go out in the fields of Succos to teach us that there is great potentiality in the world, that we can take all the different elements in the world and create greater and greater products.  After all, there was no such thing as an automobile in nature or a house or a tool.  We take different things in nature and we create them.  

We can better the world and make it a better place.  We can also destroy the world, too, by our creations, but we have the ability to create. That is what the holiday of Succos teaches us, that G-d not only made creation an act but also a process and we are His partner in the process.  We are G-d’s partner in creation, and that is what we learn about in the Torah portion. That is why it says here on the Sabbath that "G-d rested from all the work that He created to do".  

Why does it have to say that "He created to do"? It is what He created.  He is still doing it, and we are still part of the process.  We, as human beings, are continuing G-d’s work of creation.  The most important thing that we are creating is actually ourselves.  How do we create? We create also by releasing the sparks, by finding the light in everything, by bringing out the best in ourselves.  That is, of course, why G-d created the Sabbath also because we human beings live in not only a physical dimension but also a spiritual dimension.  

That is why the number seven is so holy in Judaism.  We live in six physical dimensions, north, south, east, west, up, and down, but we also live in a spiritual dimension.  The most important things in life are actually the things we cannot see.  The most important things in life are love, devotion, dedication, courage, things that you cannot see. We can see their effects but we cannot see them.  

In fact, we all know that a man can have the greatest weapons in the world but if he has no will to use them he will be defeated in war.  We learn that the Great Wall of China was the greatest offensive mechanism that was ever invented.  It was never broached, but China was conquered many times because the enemies of China bribed the gatekeepers and they let them in.  This applies to many others things in life as well.  A man can have great wealth but can be miserable if he does not have love and acceptance and friends.  We have many things in the world that exist in the physical plane but they are no good unless you also have the intangibles, unless you have love and devotion and loyalty.  We cannot see these things. We can only see the results of them.  

This Torah portion is teaching us that in order to be a partner of G-d in creation we must have more than physical things.  We must also have these intangible things, that creation was not only an act of G-d but creation is an ongoing process and we can create ourselves and make better things out of ourselves if we have the will to do the right and the good, if we have the desire to be compassionate, if we love freely our family and our parents and our children, if we are dedicated to our wives and our jobs, if we have qualities which are not seen but which we all feel, and, therefore, it is very important that these unseen lights that are in everything come out.  

They are in each of us.  We have this potential to be great people if we will only develop the unseen qualities that we all have. There are many people who do not seem to be blessed with great physical attributes but they become great leaders, musicians, sports figures, writers, and great moral people because of these unseen forces within them.  It is important for us that we develop ourselves and realize that we are a partner with G-d in creation.  

We read the Torah portion BEREISHIS right next to Succos to reconfirm that fact, to teach us all that the world has a great deal of potentiality and so do we, and we have to develop it so we can make this world a better and better place and we can make ourselves better and better people.  Let us not fail in this endeavor.  Let us bring out the hidden light that is within us and all creation so quickly we can have a wonderful world, a world of peace so the Mashiach will come.

I am reminded of the story of a drunk who was walking on the street when he met a friend.  His friend asked why both his ears were bandaged.  He said, "Well, when I was home in a half drunken stupor the phone rang and my wife had left the hot iron on, and I mistakenly picked up the iron instead of the phone."  The friend said, "Well, I can understand why one ear is bandaged but why the other ear?"  The guy answered, "Because the stupid jerk called back."

What we are called upon to do is not to get ourselves in drunken stupors but are called on to bring out the best within ourselves, the courage, the devotion, the dedication, the loyalty, the responsibility, the ability to come back from all adversity because we admit our errors, the ability to find the hidden light in everything especially ourselves so we can truly make ourselves and this world a better place.  Amen.