Category Archives: Bereshit

5784, AI art, Bereshit, Genesis, Kli Yakar 2, Parsha

Completing Creation (Bereshit)

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It is challenging to write words of Torah during this atrocious period. The carnage that Hamas has perpetrated is inhuman. They have shown themselves to be monsters, far removed from the humanity and the divine image that God bestowed upon mankind.

Nonetheless, perhaps some words of Torah will help shine some light and the promise of a better, safer, nobler future. So here goes…

 

Completing Creation (Bereshit)

If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe. -Carl Sagan

Adam, Eve and Creation

After various stages of creation, including the animal kingdom, the Torah tells us:

“And God saw that it was good.”

The creation of Man on the other hand, ends with the phrase:

“And God saw all that had been made, and found it *very* good.”

Rabbi Shlomo Ephraim of Prague, the Kli Yakar (1550-1619) comments on that verse in Genesis 1:31. He wonders as to the plain statement of “very good” by Man and only the plain “good” by the rest of creation. He explains that the goodness of the rest of creation was only in its potential. The potential is only brought to fruition by the presence of Man. Man has the unique ability to put all the elements of creation to productive use. Man has the unique ability to merge, to mix, to create new and even more useful combinations of what God created. Man completes creation and for that reason when Man enters the picture that is when creation becomes *very* good.

Another hint as to the connection of Man to the realization of the good of the world is the very word itself. In Hebrew, the word for Man, Adam (Alef-Dalet-Mem), has the same letters as the word used for very, Meod (Mem-Alef-Dalet). Man’s physical, intellectual and creative powers allow us to take the raw materials that God placed on this Earth for us, and use the combination to enhance our lives, our productivity, our achievements and our purpose. The proper combination of man’s own creative abilities and the building blocks that God has provided is what gives Man and the world itself the chance to develop, grow and thrive.

May we always use our human faculties and our earthly resources responsibly and for good.

Shabbat Shalom and may we have better days and good notices,

Ben-Tzion

Dedication

To our dead, our wounded, our kidnapped and all of us mourning and dealing with a horrifying reality. To our soldiers. To the volunteers. To all those displaced by the attacks. We are strong. We will persevere. We will triumph. Light will banish the darkness.

5783, Bat Ayin, Bereshit, Genesis, Parsha

Angels Can’t Repent (Bereshit)

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 We are never like angels till our passion dies. -Sir John Denham

In the beginning, God created the universe. However, according to Kabbalah, our physical universe is the last of a succession of dimensions that God created. The other dimensions are of a spiritual, ethereal nature. The process by which God created all of the dimensions was to somehow undergo a “contraction” of some aspect of Himself to make room for apparently independent, sentient, conscious entities other than Himself.

The dimensions that are “closer” to God’s less-diluted presence, the spiritual realms, feel His presence so strongly that obeying God is much less of an issue, as it would be counterintuitive to do anything against the more obvious presence of God. However, our physical realm is so far removed from God’s clear presence that it becomes quite easy to forget about God, to deny His existence and to outright do the exact opposite of what understanding His existence would prompt us to do.

The Bat Ayin on Genesis 1:1 explains that there is a correlation between spiritual proximity to God and the term we call Holiness (Kedusha). The closer one is or gets to God, the holier they become. However, there is a tradeoff of sorts. The holier one is, the more exacting God is. Thus, the angels who are ostensibly holier and closer to God have no margin of error. There is no repentance for the angels in their spiritual existence. Humans, on the other hand, are very different.

Humans, because of our spiritual distance from God, are able to sin. We are able to ignore the subtle and not so subtle indications of God’s existence. That allows us and gives us the free will to deviate from the path that God would have initially preferred we follow. However, that distance, that propensity to sin, the ability to do wrong is the very reason we can also repent.

In fact, the ability to repent is not just a benefit of being in the mortal, physical realm, but rather a feature. The built-in ability to repent signifies the underlying kindness that God avails us mortals. The spiritual realm is a more justice-oriented dimension. Lacking our physical bodies, we no longer have the opportunity to act, to do, to mend our ways. The spiritual world is the place where we receive, realize, and access the fruit of our actions in the physical world, both the good and the bad.

May we take advantage of all the opportunities in our physical world to do good, to repent for the bad and to partake in the lovingkindness that is the foundation of our material existence.

Shabbat Shalom,

Ben-Tzion

Dedication

On the marriage of Yoel and Alaina Epstein. Mazal Tov!

5782, Bereshit, Chidushei HaRim, Genesis, Parsha

Mortally Mocked (Bereshit)

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Mortally Mocked (Bereshit)

Ridicule often checks what is absurd, and fully as often smothers that which is noble. -Sir Walter Scott

God created the Garden of Eden, a divinely organized habitat where Man wanted for nothing. Adam and Eve enjoyed a blissful existence. There was only one law to maintain their pristine lives: don’t eat from the forbidden fruit. Simple. Straightforward. The punishment was also fairly easy to understand: death. Any sane, rational being would do everything in their power to stay far away from the forbidden fruit. Yet the serpent managed to convince Eve to partake of the fruit. He convinced Eve to doom herself, her husband, and all of future humanity for that matter, to millennia of pain, hardship, suffering, and mortality itself.

How did the serpent manage to overcome the natural sense and self-preservation of a human being? The Chidushei HaRim on Genesis 3:1 explains the serpent’s methodology. The serpent mocked. It is as simple and as powerful as that. He merely mocked God. By talking about God in a mocking tone, in a mocking language, he succeeded in completely disarming Eve of any defenses and inhibitions that would have kicked in for her self-preservation.

The power of mockery and ridicule is such that it can cause a person to completely ignore logic, good sense and even suppress their own survival instinct. The Chidushei HaRim highlights that mocking easily turns someone from serving God, from pursuing what is right and what is noble, and instead turns one away from God, towards what is wrong and ignoble.

Joking has its place, but when it mocks what is good, what is healthy, what is noble, and what is sacred, the ridicule can easily destroy those precious commodities and supplant them with the exact opposite.

May we guardedly reserve the dangerous weapons of mockery and ridicule for those few things that truly deserve it. One banishment from the Garden of Eden was enough.

Shabbat Shalom,

Ben-Tzion

Dedication

To the memory of Rabbi Dr. Moshe Tendler z”l.

5781, Bechor Shor, Bereshit, Genesis, Parsha

The Tree of Eternal Health (Bereshit)

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The Tree of Eternal Health (Bereshit)

The healthy, the strong individual, is the one who asks for help when he needs it. Whether he has an abscess on his knee or in his soul. -Rona Barrett

God creates the world. He creates Adam and Eve. He places them in the Garden of Eden. He commands Adam not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Thanks to the incitement of the serpent and the prompting of his wife, Eve, Adam eventually eats from the Tree. God confronts Adam, Eve and the serpent, pronounces their eternal punishments, including mortality, and banishes the human couple from the Garden, lest they eat from the Tree of Life and somehow achieve the immortality God had just pronounced that they had lost.

This raises the question as to why Adam and Eve didn’t eat from the Tree of Life in the first place. They had been warned that eating from the Tree of Knowledge carried a death sentence. Why not immediately eat from the Tree of Life after their crime and perhaps save their eternal existence?

The Bechor Shor on Genesis 3:22 explains the workings of the Tree of Life. It wasn’t that you partook of the fruit of the tree and it granted you eternal life from that moment forward. Rather, it was a tree of eternal healing. If one became sick, eating from the tree healed them. If one felt weak, the tree strengthened them. If one felt the onset of ageing, the tree would rejuvenate them. However, if one were healthy, strong, and young, it would have no effect.

Therefore, Adam and Eve must have known that in their young, strong and healthy state, eating from the Tree of Life would have no effect. That too is the reason God had to banish them from the Garden. If they would continue to live in the Garden, when they eventually did age or get sick, they would have a quick remedy within easy reach, thereby prolonging their lives forever.

Another interesting point is that the Sages state that the Tree of Life is none other than the Torah. The verse in Proverbs states that the Torah is “A Tree of Life to those who grasp it.” The Talmud expands on the healing properties of the Torah and gives a whole list of ailments that it can heal.

May we partake of our easily accessible Tree of Eternal Health, the Torah.

Shabbat Shalom,

Ben-Tzion

Dedication

To the memory of Mrs. Lucy Stelzer z”l.

5780, Bereshit, Genesis, Meshech Chochma, Parsha

Sacrificing to God (Bereshit)

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Sacrificing to God (Bereshit)

For anything worth having one must pay the price; and the price is always work, patience, love, self-sacrifice — no paper currency, no promises to pay, but the gold of real service. -John Burroughs

Cain, the first child of Adam and Eve is the first person recorded as bringing a sacrifice to God. He brings from the fruit of the land. Abel, his younger brother, follows in his brother’s footsteps but brings an animal from his flock as a sacrifice.

God accepts Abel’s sacrifice but rejects Cain’s. The question is why. What difference was there between Cain’s fruit to Abel’s animal that God should reject one and accept the other?

The Meshech Chochmah states that it had to do with each sibling’s respective efforts. To merely pluck fruit off a tree and sacrifice that to God is not truly a sacrifice. It is not a sacrifice of time, effort or resources. To sacrifice an animal that you fed and cared for is a significant sacrifice of time, effort and value.

Cain’s sacrifice was insignificant and God, therefore, rejects it. Abel’s sacrifice was significant and God accepts it. This connects to the same rationale as to why in times when sacrifices were offered there was a prohibition to offer grains or honey (date honey). Both grains and honey are unprocessed; very little human effort has gone into them. This is as opposed to bread, wine, olive oil or animals all of which require significant human work and investment and are accepted as sacrifices.

It seems that when we offer something to God, even if it’s voluntary, God wants us to make a serious effort. He doesn’t want a shallow display. It shouldn’t be just marking off a box to say “we did it,” just to get some onus off our backs. He wants us to mean it. He wants our sacrifices to be meaningful. He wants us to pour our heart and soul as well as our hands and our wallets into anything we offer to Heaven. It shouldn’t be cheap or superficial. It should be deep, valuable and meaningful. It should be an investment of thought, time and effort.

God accepts real sacrifice. He values and cherishes it. And He reciprocates in multiples of whatever we ourselves invest.

May we make correct and worthy sacrifices.

Shabbat Shalom,

Ben-Tzion

Dedication

To the memory of Ronald Joseph Sassoon z”l, who passed away on Tuesday; and in honor of his great-grandson, Eitan Aryeh Eliezer Gilat, whose Brit Mila was on Wednesday. Condolences and Mazal Tov to the entire family.

5779, Berdichever, Bereshit, Genesis, The Times of Israel

Grab the fleeting inspiration (Bereshit)

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Grab the fleeting inspiration (Bereshit)

Stung by the splendor of a sudden thought. -Robert Browning

The beginning of the Torah, the beginning of the Book of Genesis, starts with the creation of the cosmos, of our Earth, of humanity and the Garden of Eden. It tells of the generations of Man, of the successes and failures of our ancestors and lays the canvas for how we got from the Beginning, to the story of our Patriarchs and the proto-nation of Israel.

The Berdichever on Genesis 2:4 expounds regarding the phrase “And these were the “Toldot” (generations, account, progeny) of the heavens and the earth when they were created.” The Hebrew word “Toldot” comes from the root “to give birth.” The Berdichever explains the phrase from a spiritual perspective, vis-à-vis God’s relationship with us, and how that relationship is renewed or reborn on a daily basis.

He states that once a day, every day, God sends a call, an awakening, a spiritual blast of inspiration to each and every one of us. He explains that the divine inspiration is for just a moment, and then it disappears. It is fleeting. If we don’t pay attention, it is gone.

He enjoins us to grab hold of that momentary inspiration with all of our might, and in that split second perform a Mitzva, do a charitable deed or engage in Torah study. It is the most important thing we can do with that bolt of spiritual divine energy. If we don’t, we will have lost a special moment of particular grace and power.

By grabbing that inspiration, a curious effect occurs. The next day, when that moment of inspiration hits again, when that divine rebirth or reset strikes, it will do so with even greater force and duration. If we firmly take hold of that spiritual force, we can create a stronger bond with God. We’re given the opportunity, the channel, the conduit to connect with God in what has the potential to be an unbreakable bond of divine presence in our lives.

We’re given that chance to be reborn every day. We have the possibility to be reborn stronger every day. At that moment of rebirth, we have the opportunity to connect heaven and earth; to recreate the intense, ideal connection between the material and the spiritual. We just need to pay attention, be aware and then pounce on that flash of spirituality as if our life depended on it. Our eternal lives may very well depend on how well we grab those fleeting moments of inspiration.

Shabbat Shalom,

Ben-Tzion

Dedication

To our son Akiva, and the wonderful Orelle Feuer of Netanya on their upcoming marriage. Mazal Tov!

5778, Bereshit, Genesis, Paintings, Parsha, Rabbeinu Bechaye, The Times of Israel

The Creation of Hell

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The Creation of Hell

So this is hell. I’d never have believed it. You remember all we were told about the torture-chambers, the fire and brimstone, the burning marl. Old wives’ tales! There’s no need for red-hot pokers. Hell is – other people! -Jean-Paul Sartre

                                                                  Chart of Hell, Sandro Botticelli, circa 1485.

According to ancient Jewish sources, Hell was created on the second day of creation. The plain text narrates how on the second day of creation, God creates the firmament which separates between the upper waters and the lower waters. Rabbeinu Bechaye on Genesis 1:4 wonders why the second day of creation doesn’t end with the characteristic phrase “and it was good,” which other days mention. He quotes the creation of Hell as a reason; however, he adds that something else was created on that same unfortunate day: quarrelling.

The term for second in Hebrew, “Sheni,” already hints at the unlucky nature of the number two. “Sheni” is related to the word “Shinui” which means difference or change. There is something negative and even dangerous when there are unwarranted differences between things and people or even to just being the second and being compared to what came before. It sets the stage for quarrelling. Even nature itself seems to quarrel with God from the second day and onwards. None of God’s further commands to the inanimate world were correctly implemented. For example, on the third day, God commanded that the earth produce fruit trees, meaning trees whose bark would be savory and could be eaten, however, the land decided to produce only fruit-bearing trees, with inedible bark.

The concern with the number two was serious enough that even the Talmud mentions a superstition about bad luck in eating pairs of a food or drinking pairs of drinks. Nonetheless, Rabbeinu Bechaye’s main point is that whoever instigates a quarrel will be judged in Hell. There is a direct correlation between creating anguish, controversy and clashes between people, and experiencing Hell.

However, we also know that arguments for the sake of Heaven, which are handled with sensitivity, intelligence and respect, will eventually be settled well.

May we avoid unnecessary quarrels and stick to Heavenly arguments.

Chag Sameach and Shabbat Shalom,

Ben-Tzion

Dedication

To the beginning of a new year of commentary. May it lead us on peaceful ways.

5777, Bereshit, Genesis, Hirsch, Parsha, The Times of Israel

Why Creation Matters

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Why Creation Matters

All things bright and beautiful

All creatures great and small,

All things wise and wonderful,

The Lord God made them all.

-Cecil Frances Alexander

creation-2The creation of our world, of our universe, lies hidden in the mists of time. The easy, simple belief was to believe that the world was, is and always would be. That there was no creation event, that there was no Prime Mover of time and space. That is the faith of those that would deny God.

However, since the advent of the Big Bang theory, which understands that ours is not a static universe, there is scientific support for the idea of some sort of beginning in time and space. This would seem to lend credence to the concept of a Creation ex nihilo (out of nothing) by a Creator independent of space and time. Nonetheless, scientists go to great lengths to seek some primordial cause to the Big Bang that would remove God from the equation. They have yet to make any convincing cases.

Rabbi Samson Rafael Hirsch (see here for biography), on his very first comments to the Book of Genesis, explains that belief in anything else than God as the be all and end all of the entirety of creation is the basis of all idol worship until this very day. That is the reason why the Torah starts with the story of creation, that God in effect brought existence into being. That is the foundation of correct belief. If we don’t believe that God is behind it all, responsible for all, we will be lacking in our faith and consequently in our actions and in our life.

God is the Creator. The Creator of Everything. That’s important.

Shabbat Shalom,

Ben-Tzion

Dedication

To our sons Yehoshua Simcha and Yehuda Ohr on the occasion of their Bar-Mitzvah.

5776, Bereshit, Genesis, Parsha, Sfat Emet, The Times of Israel

Planetary Design

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 It’s a good thing that when God created the rainbow he didn’t consult a decorator or he would still be picking colors. -Samuel Levenson

Creation

The Torah uses very broad brush strokes to describe the creation of the universe. In just one paragraph we are told about the setting of order within chaos, light within darkness, and life within an existential vacuum. How God went about determining the laws and the infinite details of nature are largely a mystery. Why does gravity work the way it does? Why does water have the magical properties that it does? Why are we at exactly the perfect distance from the sun to maintain comfortable conditions for life? Why are animals born with the instincts that they have? Why does our planet have the form and variety that it possesses?

There is an ancient Kabbalistic belief that the Torah was actually created before the creation of the physical universe (whatever that means). The Sfat Emet on Genesis 1, in his commentary for the year 5634 (1874) expands on this concept and explains that the world was actually created based on the Torah; that the Torah in some fashion was the blueprint for the physical world and therefore, one can find something of the Torah in all of creation. Every aspect of creation will contain secrets and lessons of the Torah, which is God’s instruction manual for us.

The more one understands both Torah and creation, the more one can decode the hidden messages God left in His world and in the instruction manual. King Solomon, 3,000 years ago, already noted lessons from the animal kingdom that we can take as values: the hard work of the ant, the cleanliness of the cat and so forth. In our day and age, as we have begun to unlock some of the basic forces and sciences of our world, chemistry, physics, biology, subatomic particles, genetic engineering and so much more, shouldn’t we be a bit wiser about understanding God’s directions?

May we appreciate the divine creation that is our universe and pay closer attention to its beauty, mystery and lessons.

Shabbat Shalom,

Ben-Tzion

Dedication

To Hope. Hope for our world. We can’t let the darkness and the death and the terror bring us down. We need to hope, plan and work for a better day, despite the enemies, obstacles and challenges.

 

 

5775, Baal Haturim, Bereshit, Genesis, Parsha, The Times of Israel

Sabbath of Creation

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First posted on The Times of Israel at: http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/bereshit-sabbath-of-creation/

Baal Haturim Genesis: Bereshit

Sabbath of Creation

What is without periods of rest will not endure.  -Ovid

The Zohar, the prime tome of Kaballah provides dozens of interpretations for the very first word and phrase of the Bible. Many of the interpretations involve wordplay, numerology and other tools of the esoteric world, combined with mystic philosophy, often building on Talmudic sources.

Many of the concepts presented seek to understand why the universe was created, what are the guiding principles, how man came into being and for what purpose.

The Baal Haturim on the very first line, Genesis 1:1 quotes several of these ideas. One of them is that the world was created because of the Sabbath.

Stating that the world was created because of a certain idea or concept places that concept in a central, fundamental role in our existence. The Sabbath is fundamental. Not only was the world created because of the Sabbath, but if we were to imagine a world without a Sabbath, we could imagine a world quickly disintegrating into chaos and anarchy. A world of non-stop work. A world lacking human contact and relationships. A world where families lose their cohesion and communities fall apart. A world filled with materialism and starved of spirituality. A world where we become pleasure-seeking and fulfilling automatons, not resting to consider who we are or why we are here. To live a life unexamined.

Next week, the global Jewish community has called on all of our people to celebrate and experience one Sabbath together. There is an ancient rabbinic statement that if the entire people of Israel were to observe one Sabbath, the redemption would immediately come.

It’s that close.

Shabbat Shalom and Chag Sameach,

Ben-Tzion

Dedication

To Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein of South Africa for his inspired initiative of The Shabbos Project and for the professional implementation of this historic effort.