WHEN GOD BEGAN TO CREATE HEAVEN AND EARTH

–        THE EARTH BEING UNFORMED AND VOID, WITH DARKNESS OVER THE SURFACE OF THE DEEP AND A WIND CAME FROM GOD SWEEPING OVER THE WATER –

GOD SAID, "LET THERE BE LIGHT"; AND THERE WAS LIGHT.

GOD SAW THAT THE LIGHT WAS GOOD, AND GOD SEPARATED THE LIGHT FROM THE DARKNESS. GOD CALLED THE LIGHT DAY, AND THE DARKNESS HE CALLED NIGHT.

AND THERE WAS EVENING AND THERE WAS MORNING, A FIRST DAY.

 

R. Brekhiyah said: Thus exposited two of the great men of the world, R. Yohanan and R. Shimon ben Lakish.

And God separated the light from the darkness - actual separation.

This may be compared to a king who had two generals - one ruled during the day and the other at night. They argued with each other, this one saying: "I reign during the day," and the other saying: "I reign during the day."

The king called for the first and said to him: "Your domain will be the day."

He called for the other and said: "The night will be your domain."

Thus And God called the light day - He told him: "Day will be your domain,"

And the darkness He called night - He told him: "Night will be your domain."

R. Yohanan said: This is what The Holy One, Blessed Be He, said to Job: Have you ever commanded the day to break, assigned the dawn its place? - This is strange!

R. Tanhuma said: I gave an explanation - Makes light and creates darkness, makes peace... - Having created it, He makes peace.

God called the light Day - R. Elazar said: The Holy One blessed be He never associates His Name with evil, but rather only with the good; it is not written here God called the light Day, and the darkness God called Night, but rather and the darkness He called Night.

(Bereishit Rabba 3:6)

 

 

Alef Bet, Beginning and Goal

Amos Bardea

The creation story begins with the letter bet: Bereishit bara Elohim and ends with the letter tav: bara Elohim la'asot. The Sages have already based mountains of midrashim and allusions upon the word bereishit and upon the letter bet with which the Torah begins. The final letters of the first three and last three words of the creation story spell out the word emet [truth], as in the first of Your utterances is emet, as the Ba'al HaTurim mentions there. The letter bet, whose shape derives from a human home, symbolizes the Creation. Heaven and earth and all that is in them constitute the universal home in which man dwells. The shape of the bet is closed from three sides and open only from its front; the universe and all it contains is the framework for man's physical and mental existence. All of his cognitive achievements are limited to his home, i.e. to natural reality. He cannot know that which lies "behind the curtain." His senses and cognitive faculties are able to grasp nature, but not that which is beyond nature. The bet is open to its forward side, which alludes to man's ability to gaze only from the point of origin and to understand existence as starting from a particular point in the temporal continuum - forward and not backwards. The Torah opens with the letter bet in order to say that the alef of elokut [Divinity] and the Tetragrammaton are beyond the bet (the starting point) and cannot be included in the rational and natural reality of man and Creation.

The introduction to Tikunei Zohar pegs the entire Torah upon the dagesh [accent] of its first letter - bet. "What is the beginning? The inner dot [accentation mark] of which it is said: All of the riches of the king's daughter are within. Dagesh may be read as acronym for Da Gezayrat Shemayah [so decreed Heaven]. The dot which accents the bet models the lynchpin of the entire cosmos, which is symbolized by the letter bet. The accent represents the spiritual content that lends meaning to natural reality. Nature has spiritual content when it is inhabited by a human who is part of nature, who always standing before the Divine decree - before that which is beyond his comprehension. Such is the essence of the dagesh (Da Gezayrat Shemayah), placed like a circle resting upon the void inside the bet, lending significance to the natural realty which the letter represents. All of the riches of the king's daughter are within adds a dimension of intimacy to the internality of the natural world, expressed through man, who stands before the decree of Heaven within natural reality which is externalized and symbolized by the letter bet.

Why was the letter alef passed over and replaced with bet? The Holy One blessed be He should begun His Torah with alef, as begins the Greek translation of the Torah prepared for King Ptolemy! "Five elders wrote the Torah in Greek for King Ptolemy; they made ten changes in it, they are: Elohim bara bereishit [God created first]... (Avot DeRabbi Natan 37). Da'at Zekenim MiBa'alei Ha'Tosafot (on Bereishit 1:1) gives this answer: "At that time the letter alef came and complained; the Holy One blessed be He repaid him at the giving of the Torah [the Ten Commandments], which begins with the alef of the word Anokhi [I am..]." Here the Ba'al HaTurim creates a parallel between the Creation and its goal, i.e., the giving of the Torah. He calculates that there are seven words in the first verse of the Torah, and it contains twenty eight letters - the same number of words and letters found in the verse which introduces the Ten Commandments in the Book of Shemot: And God spoke of all these utterances, saying.

Similarly, in the conclusion of the creation story, we read vayehi erev vayehi boker yom hashishi (Bereishit 1:31). The Sages comment, as cited by Rashi, explains that "Scripture added a "hey" on the sixth [day], at the completion of the Creation, to tell us that He stipulated with them, ["you were created] on the condition that Israel accept the Five Books of the Torah." [The numerical value of the hey is five.] (Tanhuma Bereishith 1). Another explanation for the sixth day: They [the works of creation] were all suspended until the "sixth day," referring to the sixth day of Sivan, which was prepared for the giving of the Torah (Shabbat 88a). [The hey is the definite article, alluding to the well-known sixth day, the sixth day of Sivan, when the Torah was given (ad loc.).]" (Judaica Press translation).

We learn from the above that we must distinguish the chronological beginning from the logical beginning. While Creation is the chronological beginning, it serves as a means to an end. The letter bet in the word bereishit symbolizes its secondariness. The goal of Creation, i.e., the giving of the Torah, is the logical beginning, and its primacy is alluded to by the fact that the Ten Commandments begin with the first letter of the alphabet, the alef of Anokhi hashem elokekha...[I am the Lord your God]. In this way, we can move on to the crown of Creation - Adam - whose name begins with an alef, for he is the point of Creation; he is designated to fulfill God's will. There are several differences between the creation of man and that of the rest of creation:

1. Man was created singly.

2. Man was created without kinds and species; there is no mention of every kind in reference to man, as had been mentioned in connection with things that swarm in the water, the birds, and the beasts of the land.

3. Male and female He created them (Bereishit 1:27), ...and He called their name Adam in the day they were created (Bereishit 5:2).

4. Man was created in the image of God.

5. It is written only in connection with man that first there arose the thought of creating him, while was he actually created only afterwards. Here the Torah tells us was going on "behind the curtain": and God said, let us create a man after our image, in our likeness...(Bereishit 1:26).

6. Man was not created ex nihilo, but rather from existing material: and the Lord God formed the human from the dust of the earth... (Bereishit 2:7).

7. It is not stated in connection with his creation that God saw that it was good.

Man is described as a creature existing between domains, between the higher and lower world; he stands on the earth with his head in the heavens. His divine image is peculiar in its unity; on the one hand man was created singly; like his Creator, he lacked differentiation by race or sex. On the other hand, he became a sexual being, and was charged to be fruitful and multiply like the other animals. The Holy One blessed be He consulted with His Creation, with heaven and earth and all that is in them, and said let us create a man after our image, in our likeness; in the likeness of both Creator and Creation. After his creation, man received his domain of responsibility in which His creator would not interfere, so that the goodness or badness of his having been created would be dependent upon him himself. And so the Sages explain - why was it that and God saw that it was good is not written in connection with man's creation? Because good and evil rest in his own hands. The concluding verse of the creation story alludes to man: And God saw all that He had made and behold it was very good, and it was evening and it was morning, the sixth day (Bereishit 1:31). The addition of the word very alludes to the creation of man, since the word me'od [very] and adam are composed of the same letters.

In Psalms, the divine poet says: You made him a little les than divine, and adorned him with glory and majesty (8:6). The divine image attributed to man by this verse - You made him a little less than divine - is the only lead granted to man's limited mind in his pursuit of God's essence. To the extent that man is required to serve his God, to cling to Him, to imitate Him and love Him, he must also understand Him. To the extent that man bears spiritual elements that constitute his divine image, it is only logical that he also identify those elements. Which elements of man's soul constitute his divine image - the intellectual element or the emotional element? According to the verse, And God said let us create a man after our image, in our likeness and they shall rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of heaven and the beasts and all the earth and all the creeping things that creep on the earth (Bereishit 1:26) the image of God implies the ability to control nature. This further implies that the divine image is to be identified with cognitive ability. Incidentally, if we were interested in summarizing the various approaches to Judaism that have made of it many Judaisms, we would be able to trace all of the disagreements to the questions: which element in the human soul is to be identified with Divinity, and which lends man his divine image? Such a bifurcation would distinguish between "Judaism of the mind" that includes the rationalist approaches - first and foremost, that of our master the RaMBaM; and "Judaism of emotion" that includes the worlds of Jewish mysticism and the Kabbalah. In addition, we would distinguish Rabbinical Judaism from Hassidic Judaism, between clinging to God by way of intellectual ability as expressed in Torah study as against emotional and ecstatic clinging to God achieved through prayer. This entire great world of thought is built upon the vision of man as the crown of Creation who bears the divine image, who is called upon to lend significance to the bet of bereishit.

Amos Bardea is a thinker and scientist.

 

Man, the Crown of Creation, is Complicated and varied. Was it Right to Create Him?

R. Simon said: At the hour when the Holy One blessed be He came to create man, the angels formed parties and factions. Some of them said "Do not create him!" and some of them said, "Create him!" This is why it says Loving-kindness and truth met, justice and peace touched (Psalms 85).

Loving-kindness says, "Let him be created, for he practices loving-kindness.

Truth says, "Do not create him, for he is all lies."

Justice says, "Let him be created, for he does justice."

Peace says, "Do not create him, for he is all strife."

He took truth and cast it down to earth, as it is written, and it cast truth down to earth (Daniel 8)

The ministering angels spoke before the Holy One blessed be He: Master of the worlds, why do you disgrace your seal? [alluding to the notion that truth is God's seal] Let truth rise up from the earth! As it was said, Truth shall spring from the earth (Psalms 85).

(Bereishit Rabbah 8:5)

 

Man was Created Singly

Man was created alone in the world, so that families not quarrel with each other. And if now, when man was created singly, they quarrel with each other, had he been created two at a time, how much more so!

(Tosefta, Sanhedrin 8:2)

 

Therefore man was created singly... for the sake of peace among men, so that one will not say to his fellow: My father is greater than your father.

(Mishnah, Sanhedrin 4:5)

 

Man was Created Last

Our Rabbis taught: Man was created on the eve of the Sabbath; why? So that the heretics would not say: The Holy One blessed be He had a partner in creation.

Another thing: So that if he becomes haughty, He could tell him: The mosquito preceded you in Creation.

The Serpent's Curse

The Lord God said to the serpent: "Because you have done this, you are cursed among all the animals and all the beasts of the field. You shall move on your belly and eat dust all the days of your life. (Bereishit 3:14)

Rabbi Asi and Rabbi Hoshiya said in the name of Rabbi Aha:

God told him: I made you king over domesticated animals and wild beasts, but you did not want it.

I made you to walk erect like a human, but you did not want it - on your belly you shall crawl.

I made you to eat food like humans, but you did not want it - and dirt shall you eat all the days of your life.

You wanted to kill Adam and marry Eve - and I will put enmity between you and the woman.

So - that which he wanted he did not receive, and that which was in his possession was taken from him.

And we find this also by Cain, Korah, Bilaam, Doag, Ahitofel. Gehazi, Avshalom, Adoniyahu, Uziyahu, and Haman; that which they wanted they did not receive, and that which was in their possession was taken from them.

(Bereishit Rabbah 20:5)

 

It would appear that the phrase, on your belly shall you crawl and dirt shall you eat all the days of your life may be understood as a blessing. It removes the need for toil, since food is always available - no need to search or even to raise one's head to fulfill one's basic needs!

The problem is that when there is no need to search or make an effort, or to even raise one's head - then you remain close to the ground, and do not rise above it. There is in this an abandonment of human purpose and of the searching that is necessary for any development.

(From the thought of Menahem Mendel of Kotzk)

 

 

Rabbi Meir Shimon (Max) Warschawsky, z"l

 

On the twentieth of Elul 5766, Rabbi Max Warschawsky, a supporter of the Oz VeShalom-Netivot Shalom movement, passed away in Jerusalem following a protracted illness. He spent the greater part of his life serving as the Chief Rabbi of Strasbourg and the lower Rhein section of the Alsace region. His son Michael Warschawsky,eulogized him at his funeral at the Sanhedria cemetery; that same day Strasbourg's daily newspaper ran an article under the headline "The Rabbi Who Loved Humanity."

Rabbi Warschawsky, z"l was born in Strasbourg in 1925. He began his rabbinical studies in the legendary PSIL school that had been set up by R. Avaraham Deutsch in Limouge while it was under the German occupation. In 1944 R. Warschawsky joined a unit of Jewish partisans belonging to the Jewish Scouts movement, and took an active part in all of its battles. After liberation, he completed his studies and was ordained as a rabbi in London. He served as director of Strasbourg's Jewish community's educational system and as deputy to his teacher, Chief Rabbi Avraham Deutsch until he was chosen to succeed him in 1970. He was married to Marie Metzger; they had three sons and four daughters, most of whom live in Jerusalem. Upon his retirement in 1987, the Warschawsky, made aliyah and settled in Jerusalem, where their many friends and students offered them a loving communal environment. Their home always served as a paragon of hospitality and a focus of vibrant social and communal life.

Upon his aliyah, Rabbi Warschawsky, joined the Shomrei Mishpat association, a group of rabbis that promotes human rights; he sat on its board of directors. He was an expert on the history of the Jews of Alsace and authored many monographs concerning the lives of rabbis and Jewish communal leaders of the Alsace region, as well as studies of the customs peculiar to Alsace Jewry.

May his memory be blessed.

Lucien Lazare

 

 

 

 

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