ר"ע תיתד תונויצל ינויערה גוחה ,םולשו זוע

"By the sweat of your brow shall you eat bread until you return to the soil, for from it you were taken. For you are dust, and to dust shall you return".
(Genesis 3:19)

Said Rebi Yehoshua ben Levi: When the Holy One, Blessed Be He, said to Adam (Gen. 3) "Thorn and sting-shrub shall it spring up for you" tears flowed from his eyes. He said to Him: "Master of the Universe, I and my donkey are to eat from the same trough?!" When He replied: "By the sweat of your brow shall you eat bread," Adam was relieved. (Bavli, Pesachim 118a)

When God gave him and the other living creatures all the grass of the fields, tears flowed from his eyes, for it is not proper that that Man should be equivalent with all other living creatures with regard to his livelihood. Therefore the Holy One said to him: "By the sweat of your brow shall you eat bread," meaning that Man will need intelligence for this activity, and every act of intelligence is achieved through effort and work, for it does not happen by itself like a phenomenon of nature which happens by itself, -- it requires intelligent effort. All this is to make Man, who is intelligent, unique, for all his food shall be produced by human endeavor, which is based on intelligence – and this is what is suitable for him.
Maharal of Prague, Netivot Olam, Book I, P.129

All the pain of a life of sadness is expressed in the word "bread" (lechem). Food is also called "prey" (teref) , because it is torn from nature; it is also called "bread", because it is achieved in a social conflict, everyone fighting everyone. (Trans. Note – The Hebrew root l'ch'm' means both bread and fighting) Were Man able to devote himself to spiritual activity, and not only to his daily bread, Man would not fight Man, and the concept of possessions would not carry so much weight. However, Man's life is dependent upon the piece of bread, he obtains it only through "pain"; therefore, once he has torn food from nature, he struggles against others to protect his possession. And there are those who fight before the tearing – lest another attain nature's resource.
Rabbi Shimshon Rafael Hirsch

ERE "BEREISHIT"

Asa Kasher

In Honor of my son Captain Yehoraz Kasher z"l

One whose soul yearns for complete understanding of the Torah should not read the Torah before it elucidates itself to him.

One whose soul yearns for through understanding of a renowned work of art, e.g., Rembrandt's "Binding of Yitzchak", should not scrutinize it before the picture explains itself. One whose soul yearns, truly and perfectly, to fully comprehend a work of art on the subject of "Akeidat Yitzhchak", must approach the painting equipped not only with knowledge of the parasha of "Akeidat Yitzhchak" depicted in the painting, but also with comprehension of the 'parasha' of the art which displays the content of the picture. The painting "Akeidat Yitzhak" is a picture, and it presents "Akeidat Yitzhak". Therefore one who comes to contemplate the painting "Akeidat Yitzhak" must first understand what is a painting and what is "Akeidat Yitzhak".

Similarly, One whose soul yearns, truly and perfectly, to thoroughly comprehend the Torah, must first understand the nature of Torah, the Holy Scriptures, and Judaism which recognizes these as its sacred texts. Understanding of Judaism is not dependent upon understanding of Torah. On the contrary, comprehension of the Torah is conditional upon understanding Judaism.

This idea is beautifully expressed in a deep and enlightening fashion in the preface to Midrash Rabbah Zutah , "Midrash Sefer Bereishit Me'eyn Ganim", composed by Rabbi Shmuel ben Rabbi Nissim of Sanoth (12th century). Rabbi Yehuda ben Shelomo Alharizi wrote of him: "Of all the world's benefactors and the universe's ministers, I have chosen the chosen of God, the noble master, our Rabbi Shmuel, for he alone understands my worth, and has illuminated my darkness, and has erected my shelter, and I am the son of his maidservant and he is my king . . . the glory of the Congregation of Tzova, the son of our Rabbi Nissim, head of the yeshiva . . . "

Rabbi Shmuel ben Rabbi Nisim of Sanoth opened his anthology of with the following (composed in the style of Pirkei D'Rabbi Eliezer):

"In the beginning, ere the world was created, the Holy One, Blessed Be He, was alone. He decided to build the world. He engraved the world, but it did not stand. To what may this be compared? To a king of flesh and blood who desired to build his palace. If he does not engrave in the earth its foundations, its exits and entrances, he does not commence building his palace.

So with the Holy One. He engraved the world, but it did not stand, until He created Teshuva – repentance.

Following this, he consulted with the Torah, which is called Tushiya – counsel – in order to create the world."

The midrash continues, but we shall stop here to discern what the author of the Midrash – between the lines of the parable and its application, is telling us about the status of the entire Torah.

At first glance, an astonishing picture! the Holy One attempts to create the world, but is unsuccessful! He "engraves the world", designs it, but the world "could not stand."
Thus, in its opening proposition, both in the allegory and in its application a sharp and bizarre description, a midrash which cries out for explication.

This picture cannot be deciphered and understood without first knowing the rules of encoding, the rules of interpretation which construct and decipher and which provide the backdrop. For the moment, two of these rules will suffice:

First of all, the picture is drawn in terms of God's point of view. Its religious significance expresses, by analogy, Judaism's religious point of view. Secondly, the picture is drawn in terms of the absence of success in creating. Its religious significance expresses, by analogy, the essential absence of the possibility of creation.

These rules facilitate understanding of innumerable midrashim, but here we shall utilize them only for an initial understanding of the midrash under consideration. The picture is composed in terms of God's point of view, revealing failure to create a world capable of existence. First we shall explain the phrase "God's point of view" with the help of "Judaism's religious point of view". Secondly, we shall decipher the phrase "absence of failure to create" with the help of "essential absence of the possibility to create." Thus, we receive -- instead of the midrash's original picture -- its religious import; From the religious viewpoint, the world, in itself, is essentially impossible. To phrase it ifferently - devoid of religious values and norms, the world has no significant existence. A third way of expressing the idea: The world in itself does not have – nor can it have – any religious significance.

The Torah, which awaits us from the word "Bereishit" on, does not come to reveal facts , not about the world, nor about Man, not about the Jewish people, nor about Eretz Yisrael. The facts alone do not have – nor can they have – religious value. The Torah comes to express the religious point of view: the values through which Man should view the world, and the norms, though which Man should act in the world.

"A king of flesh and blood", says the allegory in the midrash, cannot construct his palace "if he does not engrave in the earth its foundations, its exits and its entrances." The style brings to mind the prophet Ezekiel's Temple prophecy: "When they are ashamed of all they have done, make known to them the plan of the Temple and its layout, its exits and entrances – its entire plan, and all the laws and instructions pertaining to its entire plan. Write it down before their eyes, that they faithfully follow its entire plan and all its laws." (Ezekiel 43;11)

With the words "its exits and entrances", the author of the midrash brings into the allegory their Ezekiel context, beginning with the phrase "When they are ashamed of all they have done" -- the spirit of which we will soon meet again -- and ending with the phrase "Write it down before their eyes that they faithfully follow its entire plan and all its laws" -- the spirit of which we will eventually meet again and again, throughout the entire Torah.

The king wanted to build a palace. The palace has a blueprint. The blueprint has a foundation. Even the king cannot construct for himself a palace without a foundation upon which the plan is based, upon which the palace will stand. And what, from God's point of view, is the foundation of the plan of the world presented by the midrash? "So with the Holy One. He engraved the world, but it did not stand, until He created Teshuva – repentance. Following this, He consulted with the Torah . . . in order to create the world."

We return to decipher the picture in the midrash as we did before, and we receive an orderly, profound, and instructive ideological structure. From the religious point of view, the world stands upon Torah, and the Torah stands upon Repentance. The Torah positions the world within the religious picture. Repentance positions the Torah within the complete religious picture.

In order to comprehend the concept expressed here, it is worthwhile to remember human characteristics which make teshuva possible:

A. Intellectual ability to recognize the difference between good and bad, both conceptually and practically, from a specific viewpoint.
B. Weakness of the will, performing the evil act, even as the doer is cognizant that, from that same specific viewpoint, the act is evil.
C. The emotional ability to regret the evil act -- in the terminology of the prophet -- to be "ashamed".
D. The complex ability to intend to do good and to fully realize the good intention.

The totality of these characteristics lies where ability and weakness converge. Man, by nature, has the outstanding and amazing ability to avoid evil and to do good on the basis of straightforward awareness and resolute decision. At the same time, man's nature is marked by a weakness, outstanding and troubling, for departing from the right path and doing wrong despite the clear awareness, without resolute decision. Yet with all this, Man possesses the outstanding and wondrous ability to be ashamed of the evil and to return to the good.

The Torah assumes that Man, being Man, has a natural, unavoidable combination of ability and weakness. "There is no righteous man upon earth who does only good and never sins." There is no sinner on earth who does only wrong and is incapable of repentance. On the basis of this sober assumption regarding the nature of man, the Torah presents the religious demand to express the distinction between good and bad despite natural weakness, to depart from evil and to do good.

This is the meaning of the midrash. This is the reason for its placement at the beginning of the midrash in "Bereishit Zutah". This is the meaning of Torah.

Professor Asa Kasher is head of the Leora Shwarz-kip Chair of Professional Ethics and Practical Philosophy and also Professor of Philosophy at Tel Aviv University.

"For in the image of God did He create man."

In the matter of this image the righteous and the wicked are equal. This is a man and this is a man. (Rav Saadia Gaon, Bereishit 9:6)
But this is true only of the superior man, as he was prior to the sin. (Natziv, Haamek Davar, Breishit 1, 27)

"For you are dust, and to dust you will return."

We have already explained that this is not a punishment. On the contrary, God explained to him that He is not punishing him with death because he did not eat intentionally; death is a part of nature, "for you are dust . . and to dust you shall return." You will not be eligible for reward unless the soul is separated from the corpus, and the earth regains its earlier strength, and then will the soul return to be bound up with life, to receive its reward and to delight in the light of the face of the living God. [Compare with Rambam, Laws of Repentance, Chap.8]
(Natziv, Haamek Davar, Breishit 3:19)

"The voice of your brother's blood cries out to me from the earth."

In verses 10-12 the word adama is replaced by the word eretz with sharp contrast in meaning. Earth is betrothed to Man [Trans. Note – the name Adam, the generic term for Man, derives from adama] in order that he live upon it a life of sanctity, and therefore she is called adama. But the eretz [earth] cannot be adama for Man unless he respects the rights of his fellow man. There can be no adama for the murderer. The earth – as adama – demands that justice be meted out to the murderer.
(From Rabbi Shimshon Rafael Hirsch's commentary on Bereishit 4:10)

Yehuda Amichai z"l

About a month ago, after a prolonged illness, the poet Yehudah Amichai passed away. Much was said, written, and yet will be said about this great poet. The Speaker of the Knesset, Mr. Avraham Burg, described him as "the secular Israeli Jew closest to God." The Netziv, in his preface to commentary on the Torah "Haamek Davar", compares the language of Torah to poetry, in keeping with Chazal's midrash on "that this song be a witness," and these are his words:

We must understand how is it that all the Torah is called shirah – poetry, for it was not written in the style of poetry? (The answer is that) it does have the nature and virtue of poetry.
A. In poetry the meaning is not clear-cut as it is in prose narrative.
B. A feature of poetry is enrichment with allusions which are not ostensibly related to the subject of the poem."

Amichai's poetry is sometimes prayer, sometimes midrash, of a sensitive person who experiences man, his people, his land, and his God, and through his poetry he carried on a protracted and penetrating dialogue with all of them.

In his memory we present here two poems which offer an intriguing and original reading of "For you are dust, and to dust you will return," and an interesting midrash which depicts Cain's murder of Abel as an accident.

May his life be bound up in the bond of life.

FOR YOU ARE OF MAN, AND TO MAN YOU SHALL RETURN

OUR CONDOLENCES TO
MRS. ADA VOLK
MRS. SHULA SIMON
AND THE FAMILIES VOLK AND SIMON
ON THE DEMISE OF THE MOTHER AND SISTER
MRS. ALFREIDA MUNK, Z"L

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