Overview, Bereishis - notes from various sources. [Sometimes there are just keywords to cue more detail from memory. R.]
1:6 beyn maim l'maim 1:21 the great sea giants, ha taninim ha g'dolim 1:26 b'tzalmeNU [?], then at 1:27 b'tzalmo, b'tzalem --- tzal, shadow, protection 2:18 [18, chai] ezer c'negdo 4:1 Kain, possession, jealous, zealous, Abel, vanity, vapor
Hashem reconsidered having made man, and had heartfelt sadness. But Noach found grace in the eyes of Hasshem.
From Aryeh Kaplan's Sepher Yetzirah - "The world was created in six days, representing the six primary directions that exist in a three-dimensional universe. The seventh day, the Sabbath, is the perfection of the physical world, and it represents the focal point of these six directions. The eighth day then represents a step above the physical, into the realm of the transcendental." Hence bris on 8th day.
Story of the snake being cursed to eat dust; so the question is, if he eats dust, he never lacks for anything, and that doesn't sound so bad. But, the Rebbe said, since he doesn't lack for anything, he never has to ask G-d for anything, and has nothing to thank G-d for, nothing to motivate him to reach for G-d. Which essentially was the condition of Adam and Eve before eating the apple.
The absurd cycle of modern economic production, a whole economy based on selling each other hamburgers and T-Shirts. We're not "people," we're "consumers." Of course there's nothing wrong with free market economics. But there has to ultimately be a point to all this - beyond just "production and consumption."
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Are we living to eat, or eating to live?!
Returning to the Garden means touching the Source of Life, the Makor Chaiim - We all yearn to connect with "That That is Beyond All Description" - yet how do we achieve that? To set the world record for the 100-meter dash? To exert power and influence by buying every gadget we can get our hands on?
Of course not.
I recently read an article about Dean Ornish, the famous doctor. The article said:
"[Ornish] is taking new pleasure in his public pursuits because his motives have changed. 'I've learned that when my work is ego-driven, it makes me lonely,' he says. 'When I approach it in a spirit of service, I'm much happier.'" (Newsweek, 3/16/98)
We must apply this to our own lives. Otherwise we are chasing a curse and we will never get back to the Garden.
Deep down in our souls, we all want to get back to the Garden. The first step is to realize that unnecessary over-involvement with materialism is a curse. Our purpose in life is to nurture our world, to work it and to protect it.
The Garden of Eden is not as much a place as it is a reality. It's an environment free of pain, disease, argument, jealousy. In Jewish terms, that is the definition of the Messianic era, a time when all of humanity will be restored to the original state of the Garden of Eden.
Rabbi Shraga Simmons
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According to the Madregat Adam, the sin of Adam and Eve was not in disobeying G-d. Rather, it was their failure to appreciate how much G-d really understands them. How could they possibly believe they could hide from G-d?
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Just as only G-d could have created the universe, it can only survive through His continuing input. Even after the structures of creation are in place, there is still no alternative energy source beside G-d to keep it all running. When a person lifts his hand, G-d must supply the energy to make it happen. When a leaf is blown by the wind, G-d must supply the energy for it. Indeed, the hand and the leaf, and even the wind itself, continue to exist only because G-d keeps supplying them constantly with the energy of being. The universe exists only for the blink of an eye at a time.
ELOHIM is the name that G-d chose for Himself in His mantle of Creator. In the story of the creation this name appears in the Torah not less than 32 times.
When He created man and gave him free will, G-d made a policy decision. After His initial acts of creation, all further inputs of Divine energy would be supplied by Him only in response to the thoughts, words and deeds of man. The amount of energy supplied to the universe by ELOHIM is totally dependent on man's actions. This makes man an active partner in creation whose contribution very much resembles G-d's.
But are the activities that are the subjects of these commandments inherently significant? Or, are they merely meaningless rituals invented by G-d so that He can reward us for faithful performance or punish us for disobedience?
Sysiphus; pointless work. Is this all that Avodath Hashem, "service of G-d," amounts to?
What can we human beings supply that G-d lacks, especially since we know that He lacks nothing by definition?
The answer lies in this concept that humans were created in the image of ELOHIM. Each commandment of the Torah that relates to an action, speech or thought, corresponds to a specific energy input required to keep the universe in being. Our actions are the very opposite of trivial. The exercise of his free will determines the quality of being in the entire universe.
In other words, the creation of the universe is really an act of communication/revelation. Without an audience that is prepared to listen, delivering speeches is the same as talking to the wall, an exercise in futility. G-d does not engage in futile acts. In His entire creation, He granted free will to man and to man alone. The only intelligent creature in the universe capable of deciding whether to listen to G-d's speeches or to walk out of the lecture room is man. This is what free will is all about. By paying attention and attempting to decipher G-d's message, man really validates the universe.
"The Lord G-d [ADONAI ELOHIM] created man out of the dust of the earth, and blew into his nose the breath of life, and man became a living spirit." (Genesis 2:7)
Onkelos - the Roman convert, - translates "living spirit" as the "speaking life force". The observable result of the Divine Breath blown into man's nose, was the acquisition by man of the power to communicate. This power obviously embraces the ability to communicate with G-d as well.
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Rabbi Noson Weisz
AishHaTorah, Jerusalem:
On the deepest level, the power of communication is itself the point of fusion between the physical universe and its spiritual counterpart. It is man's ability to communicate that makes him a G-dly creature. Although man is part of the created universe, his mission is to rise above the universe and constitute an attentive audience always reaching out to hear the Divine Voice beyond. He must than internalize the message and respond. If man fails in this task and elects to turn a deaf ear to G-d's voice, he sinks to being nothing more than one of nature's myriad phenomena, no more important or significant than the tiniest insect.
If man earns merit they tell him, "You come before the Angels" but if not, they say to him "the fly preceded you, the mosquito was created before you, the worm was there ahead of you." (Bereishis Rabbah 8:1)
Bereishis shows us that G-d invested man with infinite spiritual potential. The creative power that G-d used to will the universe into being is infinite, and it is man that harmonizes all the Divine energy in the universe, who validates the universe by turning the panoply of sound generated by the Divine speeches into the music of the spheres.