Parashat Bereshit

Parashat Bereshit

Tishrei 24, 5772 ~ October 24, 2011
by Neska

The following teaching on Bereshit is gratefully dedicated to Hashem for the Joy of Anya Leah Newman's 9th birthday.

Out Of Order. We read this sign and go oh! That's not working. But why it is not working is the more important fact. Something in the mechanism is out of its' working order. Steps one, two, three, five, six, and seven are all intact, but step four is missing; therefore the mechanism is not working because its' parts are out of their order.

We begin Bereshit … I am hoping this time that the Snake does not come near Chava. I am hoping that even if the Snake comes close to Chava she will not listen. I am hoping that if Chava goes ahead and eats the Fruit she will instantly regret it and not approach Adam. I am hoping the Kayin decides to bring the best of his fruit. I am hoping that Kayin does not accidentally strike out at his brother. But no. All is happening as it happens since Hashem Created. All appears to be in the order that we are familiar with.

However, there is something Out Of Order. Adam and Chava are permitted to eat of any of the fruit of the trees in the Garden – in fact, eating the fruit provides spiritual enlightment. There is, however, one tree that is “poisonous – spiritually damaging”, if eaten out of order – The Tree of Knowledge. Had they eaten of the Tree of Life first, they would have had the spiritual growth necessary to digest the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. (Chasam Sofer Commentary on Bereshit). We humans rush things....we want things NOW! We go out of order. And, in fact, in the Chasam Sofer's commentary, many of the quotations said by Hashem are spoken out of order by Adam to Chava, by the Snake to Chava, by Chava to Adam.

There is an Order in Our Existence placed for us by The Creator. It seems we have for a long time tried to take too many short cuts.

DRASHA 2

Since the month of Elul I have been seeking to find my relationship with Hashem. This has been a difficult, joyous, frustrating, tear invoking journey because I ultimately wind up feeling that I don't even know how to scratch the surface of beginning this relationship. Or that no matter what I do, I am only on the surface of this relationship. And, no matter how hard I try, I cannot believe that it matters not to Hashem what I do. I cannot believe that Hashem does not Sense each and every thing on this earth – animate and inanimate. If I am to have a relationship there has to be an Entity On The Other “End” that is responding.

AND THEN I READ CHAPTER 6 LINE 6: “…AND HASHEM HAD HEARTFELT SADNESS...” and my eyes nearly popped out of my head. I have never seen that line before or if I did, I certainly just glanced over it. But here was, for me, my answer.

I read the notes in Artscroll on this wording, along with several other comments and then I began re-reading Chassidic Masters by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, zt'L. Had I not had a cough I would have been jumping for joy.

Rabbi Kaplan has just given us the life history of the Baal Shem Tov and now we are in the part of his Ethical Will (page 26). “When I worship, my intent is not to fulfill my own needs, but to give pleasure to Him...” (page 27) “Do not pray for your needs … but when you want to pray, do so for the heaviness of the Head. For whatever you lack, the Divine Presence also lacks. This is because man is a “portion of G-d from on high”. Whatever any part lacks also exists in the Whole and the Whole feels the lack of the part. You should therefore pray for the needs of the Whole.” And this is part of Rabbi Kaplan's history of the Baal Shem, page 17.
“Man is a spark of the Divine, and any lack in man is also a lack in the Divine. One should therefore not pray merely for his own needs, but for those of the Divine Presence. If one truly believes in G-d, then there is nothing else”. Omein.

DRASHA 3

This teaching is from Rabbi Wilfred Shuchat's book The Creation According to the Midrash Rabbah

I wish to quote from the last page of his book.

Page 462: Concluding Seed Thought

The story of creation should not end with a period but with an exclamation point.

That is actually what has happened. The final words of the creation story are “which G-d has created [for man] to do.” It need not have ended that way. It could have ended “which G-d has created.” But by adding the phrase la'asot, “[in order] to”, the entire emphasis has now changed. We are now told that G-d created an incomplete world.

The key word here is la'asot. It does not say that man should complete the work, for who are we to claim that we are able to complete G-d's work. Nor does it say that man should perfect G-d's work. It says only that G-d created this world for man “to do”. But what does that mean?

In the first place, to do means to do exactly what G-d has been doing, namely, to create. But G-d is able to create ex nihilo. From nothing, while we can only create from something. It so happens that modern man has exceled in this kind of creating. The breakthroughs in science, the information revolution, the internet....this kind of creativity is only possible by gifted individuals, but all of us benefit and have a great opportunity to do many things that otherwise would have been impossible for us, had these developments not taken place.

But “to do” means much more than that. It means to make the most of our lives. G-d created this world so that man should make the most of his life…

Someone once said that a human being needs three things: something to do, someone to love, and something to hope for. All of these elements are referred to in the last line of the creation story.

La'asot, to do, is the challenge to make the most of our lives. The seventh day, Sabbath, is the festival of love....as for something to hope for, the verse says “and G-d rested from His work.” What is His work? It is to create hope for the world, to give it purpose and significance.

The prayerbook says about G-d, that in His goodness, G-d “reviews every day the work of creation.” The creation story never ends. It is ongoing, continuous for man “to do” until the end of time.