On Creation
Bereshith and Noach
My Dearest Aaron
Rabbi Moshe has afforded Mom and I the opportunity to deliver a short devar Torah as part of the ceremony. ?
to impart to you some of the lessons that we have learned from our heritage
and to give you a some concrete direction ?
We owe our lessons to our parents and teachers
Who learned from their parents
all the way from Avram Sarah Noach and Adam and Eve
As Jews we are fortunate that
we have 5768 years of accumulated wisdom
available to all of us for the taking
The Torah portions of Bereshith and Noach are a great place to start
You are very lucky to have been able to study these two magnificent torah portions
You are at a new beginning,
The World with all its parts stands before you
in the same way Adam and Eve had it before them as they sat in the garden of Eden
chatting away about what to do with this incredible miracle before them
In 2007 as you said ? how do you make it work for you ?
I have decided to start out with a focus on the word Bereshith
as the first word of your portion and of creation
suspecting that within the word there must lie some deep secrets
The word bereshith
has a myriad of enriching sounds shapes and philosophic elements
The first two letters of the Hebrew alphabet aleph and beth are both there
And the last 3 letters of the alphabet tav shin resh are all there as well
suggesting a a beginning and an end
a fullness or a COMPLETENESS to the word
and if and if you were a shakespeare or a jk rowling
you would with your god given talents
create magnificent pieces by the way you organize these letters of the alphabet
into the words and books of genius
They have, and had the same alphabet as you do
The beth of Breshith has the whole story of creation within it
The dagesh as a seed of new life
Has been housed in a 3 sided structure of the pregnant beth
with nothing but the power of creation beyond its east wall
A ceiling above
And a floor below
And an open west wall
Like the earth waiting for sunrise
Or a baby waiting to be born
Or a young man looking to his future
The west wall is a window to the empty palette to be painted
a day to be lived
or life to be created
And then the sound of the beth,
with the breath of God
a ?b? ?like the big bang bursts in
a crescendo of energy that deploys the seed as
the rush of the resh
brings the scurry of creation of
water earth animals people food sky light
and
darkness
And suddenly it is followed by the silent aleph
and unpromnouncable yud
a restful shabat
and a focus on rest and the wonder and oneness of things
And within the aleph there is yet another secret
It is made up of two yuds one above and one upside down below
Connected by a Vav (also used in Hebrew context to mean ?and? Abba VeIma)
linking heaven and earth by the hands and influences of God into a oneness
It is not good enough to only to know that God is above and God is below
It is the linking
the doing and the actions that will bring it together (?actions speak louder than words?)
So how does this help you, now that you know these facts
and that it is god that you should seek?
I have always had a struggle with the concept of faith ?
believing in something I could not see touch or smell has been a lifelong challenge to me
(and I suspect to many others )
A little revelation
Using Einstein?s suggestion as I sat pondering this dilemma
I imagined myself as a single skin cell in the sea of the billions of cells that make the body of my person .?
I realized that as this small cell
I had no concept of the grand picture
of all the other organs in the body
whom I needed and depended on for my wellbeing and survival
Beyond the other organs
As this small cell
I had absolutely no concept of the thinking person with feelings and thoughts above and around me ?
To the little cell
that person is the power they cannot see or understand
but totally dependant upon on
And who has the well being of that individual cell and all the other cells central to its essence
So if this little story helps put faith in context
you may ask
So Ok I understand faith a little better ? what is the next thing ? for me to do?
When I was in medical school one of our surgical professors said put yourself in the armchair of a 70 year old looking back at his or her life and ask yourself ?
Did I do it?
Was it worthwhile?
Was I fulfilled?
This context allows one to question and plan the path along which one may proceed
What do you have to do to become fulfilled is the question?
The ?at one? with nature as you sit among the forest
or alone in front of one of the the great seas
is a momentary glimpse of what is may be like ?
But if you sat in the forest for the the rest of your life ?
at the armchair of 70
you would not be able to say you made it
Similarly if your everyday was the ritual of Yom Kippur ?
you would not survive either and certainly would not be fulfilled
It is therefore not a single action or event that brings one to oneness
And so what do you do?
Some pursue the green back and become the richest of rich
and when they are in the armchair of 70
they start realize they are missing something
and so they start donating their wealth to participate in the building of community
Some like Marilyn Munroe or Madonna have the world at their feet
and despite this find there is something missing
If you follow all the 613 laws of Maimonides
and or the 7 Noahite laws
and or all the ten commandments
do you think you are going to make it ?
Some follow these rules to the letter and more ? and they come to 70 and something is still missing
Pirkei Avoth has always been a source of life wisdom for me ? and gave me when I was your age some philosophical tenets and practical direction and some sense of where to start on this journey to bring it all together
Al shlosha devarim omaid haolam al torah al avodah veal gmilot chasadim
I remember the day when I was taught this lesson ?
where I was sitting and who the teacher was
torah was the evolution of a persons relationship with God
al avodah ? ? the evolution of a persons relationship with himself ( how true you are to your talents and your self) veal gmiluth chasadim ? on good deeds
evolution of your relationships with your fellow human beings
As you progress through life you have to strive to make yourself as whole as possible ?
picking up and evolving all the physical emotional and spiritual parts of your being
? the torah the avodah and the gemilluth ghsadim
so that you can become whole
and contribute to the wholeness and holiness of the community
pushing all the time for the oness of yourself and the oneness of the community
I love you Aaron
MAzal Tov