He drove the man out,

And stationed east of the garden of eden the chrubim

And the fiery ever-turning sword,

To guard the way to the tree of life (bereishit 3:24)

In Midrash Eicha (Ptichta 4) Rabbi Abba began "But they, as

a man, have transgressed the Covenant" (Hosea

6:7). This refers to Adam, the first. Said the Holy One, blessed

be He: Man, I placed him in the Garden of Eden, as is written (Bereisht 2:15) "And the Lord God took man

and placed him in the Garden of Eden", and I blessed him, as is written (Ibid., 16) And the Lord God commanded the man,

saying etc'" he transgressed my commands, as is written (Ibid. 3:11) "Did you eat from the tree

which I had commanded etc." and I sentenced him to banishment, as is

written (Ibid. 24) "He drove the man

out" and I wailed Eicha together with him, as is written (Ibid.9) "Where are you" [Translator's

note: In the absence of vocalization signs, the Hebrew alef-yud-kaf-heh, may

be read both as Ayeka – ‘where are you'

and as Eicha – a term of lamentation]. But my

children, I brought them into the Land of Israel, as is written (Yirmiyahu 2:7) "I brought you to this

country of farm land etc." and I commanded them, as is written (Bemidbar 28:2) "Command the children of

Israel and tell them etc." and they transgressed my commandments, as is

written (Daniel 9:11) "All Israel

has violated Your teaching", and I sentenced them to divorcement , as is

written (Hosea 9:15) "I will drive

them out of My House", and I sentenced them to banishment, as is written (Yirmiyahu 15:1) "Dismiss them from My

presence, and let them go forth", and I wailed over them "Alas,

lonely sits the city" (Eicha

1:1). We see that they compared what the Exalted One imposed upon them

as part of preparation for their perfection as they entered the land, to what

He had imposed upon the first human when He placed him in the Garden of Eden,

and, as is written elsewhere (Devarim 8:7), "For the Lord your God is

bringing you into a good land etc." [they compared] to a table set within

the Garden, as is written in the Parashat HaMan,

section 41, and the commandment to bring sacrifices [they compared] to the

command not to eat of the tree of knowledge, and [they compared] their

transgressing the commandments to his transgressing the commandments, and their

punishment to his punishment, as can be understood from their words, one for

one, until they returned to the primary root, as we said.

(Sefer Akeidat

Yitzchak – Shaar 87)

In the midrash (Kohellet

Rabba, Chap. 3) – "A season is set for everything, a time for

every experience etc." A time was set for the first man to

enter the Garden of Eden, as is written "And He placed him in the Garden

of Eden" and a time was set for him to leave, as is written "And he

banished the man etc."; a time was set for Noah to enter the ark, and is

written "Com into the ark" and a time was set for him to leave it, as

is said "Go out of the ark etc"; a time was set for Avraham to be given circumcision, as is written "And

you shall guard my covenant", and a time was set twice for his sons to be

circumcised, once in Egypt and once in the wilderness, as is written ‘For all

the nation who left were circumcised etc" and "a time for every

experience under heaven:; a time was set for the Torah to be given to Israel,

said R' Bibi: A time was set for that which was given above from heaven and now

it will be given beneath the heavens, and what is that? It is the Torah.

(Derashot HaMaHaRaL

– Drush al HaTorah)

How was the world created?

Ronen Ahituv

For the ascent of the soul

            of my father and teacher

            Yoske Ahituv

The above

question has seemingly engaged mankind forever. Many and varied answers have

been given, not only by non-Jewish sources but by Judaism itself. Before we

detail the different answers, some of which appear in this week's parasha, let

us consider what it is that so intrigues us about the beginning. Why do we so

long to know and recognize the starting point of our world?

It may well be

that the urge to know how the world was created flows from the human desire to

disperse the cloud of apprehension which derives from the very existence of

mystery. We assume, perhaps without sufficient basis, that knowing how the

world was created will facilitate a better understanding of its functioning

also in the present, thus lessening the danger of catastrophe.

But the

connection between creation and values of the present also works in the

opposite direction. Explanations of the Creation exploit the interest they

arouse to present the values of the present world as tied to the creation of

the world. The Genesis narratives have great educational value, and therefore

they are used and re-fashioned repeatedly in order to pass on to their learners

the ‘correct' world-view. Thus can be explained the phenomena of multiple

answers to the question of creation. In light of the above description it seems

that examination of the creation stories can teach us a lot about the outlooks

which those who supply the answers passed on to us.

Chazal determined that "Whoever looks at four things,

better that he had not come into this world" (Mishnah Chagiga 2:1). One

of the four is "What is inside?" meaning what was there before the

creation of the world. Chazal's dictum reinforces the

feelings of fear and curiosity. It turns out that dealing with the question of

the world's origin is not only fascinating, as we sense intuitively, it is also

forbidden and perilous.

That same Mishnah also seems to provide the rationale for the prohibition;

"Whosoever does not show respect for his maker, it is proper that he not

come into the world". According to the Mishnah, engaging in the question of

creation is bound up with the risk of insulting the Holy One, blessed be He. Man,

in a kind of role reversal, is called upon to protect and take pity on his god.

But again the question arises: Why and how does engaging in the question of "What

is within?" affect God's honor?

Perhaps we

should expand the explanation and claim that comprehension of the creation also

contains man's pretensions of creating a world himself, imitating his Creator.

If this be his aspiration, we can understand why human knowledge can affect the

honor of the Holy One – for it affects His exceptionality as Creator of the

World. Therefore, concurrent with the Mishnah (which disapproves

of engaging in questions of creation}, or shortly thereafter, the Sefer HaYetsira – The Book of Creation – was also written. The

Talmud says that this book enables man to create living creatures, thereby

reconstructing the process of creation. It seems that Chazal themselves, even

as they criticized inquiry into creation, they also indulged in it.

The subject of

the structure of the universe and investigation into its origins also take a

place of honor in modern astrophysics, expressing more than anything the human

yearning not only to supply intelligent answers to the questions which threaten

Man, but also to eliminate the mysteries – and with them, the divinity – from

the physical world around us, completing thereby the Nietzschean gambit of

replacing God with the human intellect. Science is not only the pure desire for

knowing, it also expresses powerful drives of human hubris, which, of course,

affects the honor of God and His presence in our world. This claim is not

dependant upon the wish and intention of this or that scientist, but is

inherent to the entire modern project that has secularized the world around us,

whether we so desire or not. As part of the tendency to secularization, modern

science seeks to explain all natural processes as self-propelled results of a

single basic situation, without the addition of divine intervention.

As we have

said, this question has many answers in our culture and elsewhere. The answers

teach us not only about the creation of the world, but above all about the

picture of the world and about the perception of Man with which the answerers

wanted to present us. In other words, we are talking about narratives with an

educational purpose, directed at implanting in their readers a specific weltanschauung.

Following is a survey only of those answers which appear in the parasha of this

week, emphasizing those insights which arise regarding the relation between the

world, Man, and God. Similar analyses could be made with regard to additional

answers, from both within our culture and from without, which I will mention

briefly at the end, including those of modern science.

The method I

will employ is based upon Rav M. Breuer's "Aspect

Approach". According to this method, the first step in approaching a Biblical

text is the search for inner contradictions, differentiation between different approaches

revealed in the text, and the discovery of the inner logic in each of them. In

the second stage, we seek the meaning of the integration of the varying approaches

in the complex text. We shall make do with defining the various approaches in

their first stages, leaving for the readers the task of creating integration

between them. In the case before us, in which we deal with the Torah itself,

the contradictions do not represent different creators, but rather different

aspects and points of view attributed all to the giver of the Torah.

1.      Bereishit, 1:1; Creation ex

nihilo

"In the

beginning, God created heaven and earth".

Commenting

on this verse, Rashi stressed the contradictions between it and the remainder

of the chapter. He attempted to resolve them, since his exegetical approach,

like other midrashic approaches, is directed at harmonization of the Biblical

text. According to the Aspect Approach, the integration of the different

approaches is not intended to arrive at a single narrative, but at a complex

message expressed through the dissimilarity between a number

of narratives, each carrying its own simple message not necessarily compatible

with the others.

Therefore,

we will try to study the creation story before us in this verse alone. The

verse encompasses the entire creation, and claims that the Holy One created the

world in a single act, as we know it. It is understood that in this depiction,

the Holy One is presented as possessor of the ultimate power. Man plays no

part; he is a marginal detail in the tremendous creation of heaven and earth.

We have no idea how the world was created, and the mystery surrounding the

questions remains in its totality.

2.     

Bereishit

1:2 et al; light, classification, and dominion  

This

narrative is known as the main description of the creation of the world, and,

without doubt, it presents very meaningful messages. The story is told from a

human point of view, and already at its beginning there is expression of the

fear of the dark and the depths – fear characteristic of human beings.

According

to the passages before us, the Holy One does not create the world, but rather

classifies and organizes the tohu va'vohu – the

welter and waste – and imposes order, discipline and security in a world that was

previously meaningless, and therefore, threatening. The Holy One functions as

an educator and savior who brings light to the world, arranges it, assigns a

name to everything, such as day, night, firmament, water, etc. This activity,

like human activity, takes place in time, and is spread over three days. Only

on the third day, after the major areas (sea, dry land, the heavens) have been

defined [in the eyes of yet-to-be-created man], does the Holy One begin to

create within these spaces the plants, the lights, the living creatures and

man. The term "and He created" appears only in the context of the

creation of the tanninim [the great sea-monsters] and the creation of Man,

but not in the context of creation of the heavens, the sea, and the earth.

God's

main work tools in this story are speech and language. We receive intimations

that understanding and knowledge of speech, shared by us and God, makes

possible dominion over the world.

With

the conclusion of the process, God rests from his task as organizer of the

world, giving it over to Man. Man is the new king of the world, and his task is to continue

his work of learning the organization and ordering of the world, through the

means of his understanding.

3.     

Bereishit 2:4, et al: The world as

a religious test

This

story, like its predecessor, involves man in the creation of the world, but, in

contrast to the earlier story, there is conflict between Man and the world

around him. Man here is not called upon to rule over the world, but to work in

it. He appears as a lonely creature, in need of a mate and partner for

conversation, seeking one in this world into which he was thrust, and he

despairs of finding one. Ultimately, the world does not solve man's problem of loneliness,

and God, in His mercy, creates from Man's rib an everlasting edifice. In this

story, in contrast to the two preceding ones, Man remains dependent upon the

Holy One even after his creation. Here begins a religious model, one in which

man is commanded to forgo some of the offerings of the world around him. Not

only does the world around Adam not supply his needs; it reveals itself to be a

stumbling-block and a trial. Indeed, Adam and Eve are quickly tempted and fall

into the depths of sin.

The

world, according to this version, can be seen as an extra-human system and, from

a moral-religious aspect, a threatening challenge. In this story, the Holy One

remains present in Man's world, setting forth moral and religious obligations.

These

three stories, representing different notions of the Holy One and the relations

between Him, Man, and the world, are but the beginning of a long line of

additional stories which I shall present here only as captions. Already in

Bereishit Rabba (Parasha 1 and Parasha 3) Chazal

present in their descriptions of the creation process the questions regarding

the relations between the Torah and the real world, between light and the Holy

One, between heaven and earth. The ancient Book of Creation presents a totally

different approach from that presented in the Torah; the world was created by

means of language. Throughout history we can find many additional narratives,

such as that of the Ari, according to which the main burden in the creation

process falls upon man, as repairer of the world, or that found in the

teachings of Rav Ashlag, who described the creation of the world as an act of

love.

The

mere thought of the tremendous wealth of varying descriptions of the creation

of the world is dizzying, indicating again that the stories do not

depict an objective reality, but reflect different outlooks, each creating the

story of creation in its own image.

Ronen

Ahituv, of Mitzpeh Netofa, is a teacher and darshan

"For in his image did god make man" – a choice

which is a challenge

Rabbi Akiva expounded: Whoever sheds blood is considered to

shall his blood be shed; for in His image did God make man."

(Bereishit Rabba, parasha 34,

14)

The 'Divine Image'

is the freedom to choose, unforced by nature, guided only by free will and

intelligence… Only this do we know,

that the freedom of choice is made possible only by a contraction of the

divinity; The Holy One, blessed be He, permits his creations to do as they

choose. He freed their actions from the [His] decree and from [His] decisions

regarding their doings. Therefore He said to Himself: "Let us create man

in our image". The meaning of this is that the Torah spoke in the

vernacular, saying, let us leave place for man's choices, that he not be

coerced in his actions or compelled in his thoughts; let him be free to choose

whether to do good or bad as his heart desires, and he will be free to act even

against his own nature and against that which is straight in the eyes of God.

(Meshech Chochma, Bereishit

1:26)

"For in the image

of God did He create man"

And in this matter of the image the righteous and the wicked are equal,

this one is a man and this one is a man.

(R' Saadya Gaon, Bereishit 9:6)

But this holds true only for the superior man,,

as he was prior to the sin (Haamek Davar, Bereishit 1:27

By

dust, and to dust shall you return.

(Genesis

3:19)

Rabbi

Yehoshua ben Levi said: 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, are I and my donkey to eat from the same trough?!" When

He replied: "By the sweat of your brow shall you eat bread,"

Adam was relieved.

(Pesahim 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, pg. 129)

…all the

pain of a life of sadness is expressed in the word "bread" (lehem).

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'h'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 S. R. Hirsch ad loc)

"For you

are dust and to dust shall you 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 intentionally

violate the command, but that death is part of nature, for you are dust…

and to dust you shall return"; you will not be eligible for reward until

the soul is separated from the body, and the power of the dust on the earth

returns to what it was, and after that the spirit can return to the Bond of

Life [compare with Laws of Repentance of Rambam, Chap. 8] to receive his reward

and take pleasure in the radiance of the countenance of the living King.

(HaNetziv, Haamek Davar, Breishit 3:19)

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