Editor's Note:
Dear Friend,
Remember the first time you ever heard of the Garden of Eden in this week’s Torah portion? I’m pained to confess I more readily remember the first time I heard about Darwin.
In terms of formal education, I’ve spend a lot more time in secular classrooms than in Torah classrooms. And I remember quite clearly learning the Theory of Evolution as a child. It was fascinating.
But as an adult with quite a bit of secular studies under my belt, and a little Torah learning, I know that it was also devastating. When you teach a child that she or he is a cousin of the chimpanzee, and ultimately descends from an amoeba or a virus, this causes a devastation in the child’s soul.
Now I’m not going to explain in this brief note why I think Darwin’s theory can be put in its place by means of critical thinking. Here I just want to express how grateful I am to the Torah for teaching us that when our oldest ancestors first opened their eyes, it was not a jungle that they saw around them. It was a divine garden. A garden named Delight. Eden.
Where is Eden? It’s the place where we cultivate the soil of our Delight, “tilling it and tending it” (Genesis 2:15) with the sweatless brow of our mitzvot, making it a lovely little paradise, safely enclosed from the surrounding jungle and its restless monkey calls, in which to spend precious hours with Holy One Who put us there.
Michael Chighel,
on behalf of the Chabad.org Editorial Team
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Dancing With FeetOn Simchat Torah we dance with our feet, not with our heads.We are celebrating the Torah, and the Torah is something we study with our heads. But we dance with our feet, not with our heads.
If we would dance with our heads, each one would dance a different dance, each in a different space, some with friends but not with others, some as lonesome souls.
One head is higher, one is lower, one is here on earth, the other in the clouds or beyond, and some minds know only their own space that no one else can know.
But we dance with our feet, and all our feet are here on the same earth—none higher and none lower. So now we can all dance as one, with one heart, as a single being.
Now there is no loneliness, only joy.[Likkutei Sichot, vol. 20, page 370.]
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This Week's Features:
Your Questions What Is Derech Eretz? by Yecheskel Posnerderech eretz noun. 1. literally, “the way of the land” 2. being a respectful mentch 3. an ethical and responsible way to live 4. the common way to behave or speak 5. earning a living 5.intimacy between a husband and wife
The Hebrew term derech eretz translates literally as, “the way of the land.” Meaning either what people tend to do or what people ought to do.
In common speech, derech eretz means acting decorously and with respect, particularly towards parents, elders and teachers. This is an ancient Jewish principle, but it does not appear to be the traditional meaning of the term.
Let’s look at some specific usages of the term derech eretz in the writings of the sages.
Be Humble Like G‑d
Before G‑d created Adam, the first man, He said to the angels, “Let us create man.” Why didn't G‑d say, “I will create man,” since clearly He didn’t need assistance? Rashi, the great biblical commentator, says that He did so “to teach derech eretz and the trait of humility, that a great person should consult with and receive permission from a smaller one.”1
Don’t Put Your Eggs in One Basket
When the rabbis of the Talmud would glean financial or domestic advice from the Torah, they would often say that “the Torah is teaching us derech eretz.”
For example, when Jacob was going to meet his brother Esau after years of conflict, he was very frightened, and so he prepared his family and property for war. He divided the people with him and his flocks into two camps, saying, “If Esau comes to one camp and strikes it down, the remaining camp will escape.”2
The Midrash learns a lesson: “The Torah is teaching us derech eretz—that a person should not put all his money in one corner.”3
Working for a Living
Working for a living is often referred to as derech eretz. An example from the Mishna: “Rabbi Gamliel the son of Rabbi Judah the Prince would say, ‘Beautiful is the study of Torah with derech eretz, for the toil of them both causes sin to be forgotten.’”4
Intimacy
Physical intimacy between a husband and wife is sometimes euphemistically called derech eretz. A classic example is found in the Passover Haggadah, where it refers to the separation between the Israelite men and women in Egypt as “the separation of derech eretz.”
Human Nature
Derech eretz can also be used to refer to something that is simply human nature. The Torah says that Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death when he married Rebecca. Rashiexplains, “It is derech eretz that as long as a person’s mother is alive, he is attached to her; as soon as she dies, he finds comfort in his wife.”5
Common Parlance
We read in the Torah that Jacob told his brother Esau, “I have acquired an ox and a donkey.” It is odd that he uses the singular form when he actually had many oxen and donkeys. Rashi explains that “it is derech eretz to call many oxen ‘ox.’ Similarly, a person says to his companion at night, ‘The rooster has crowed.’ Not, ‘The roosters have crowed.’”6
A Tractate in the Talmud
Under the general rubric of derech eretz, the sages caution us against overeating,7 eating too quickly,8 or staring at someone else who is eating.9 Also, one should not talk too loudly10 or too much,11and should greet people pleasantly.12 Likewise, a person with derech eretz is careful to spend only what they can afford.13 In order to raise children with derech eretz, it’s important not to spoil them by accustoming them to having delicacies.14 In general, to have derech eretz usually means to live ethically, responsibly and with dignity, and to be considerate of others.
Derech eretz is so important that there is a minor tractate of the Talmud titled “Derech Eretz,” which is dedicated to the topic. Tractate Derech Eretz is divided into two sections. The first section, called “Large Derech Eretz,” discusses marriage, modesty, hospitality, etiquette and ethics. The second section, “Small Derech Eretz,” is a more spiritual guide and contains instruction intended primarily for Torah scholars.
A Prerequisite
The Talmud states that derech eretz is a prerequisite to Torah.15 In order to fully absorb and understand Torah one must be grounded. Having the habits of derech eretz are key to maintaining good relationships and living a stable life as a Jew.
Artwork by Sefira Ross, a freelance designer and illustrator whose original creations grace many Chabad.org pages. Residing in Seattle, Washington, her days are spent between multitasking illustrations and being a mom.
FOOTNOTES
1.Genesis 1:27.
2.Genesis 32:9.
3.Genesis Rabbah 76:2.
4.Ethics of Our Fathers 2:2.
5.Genesis 24:67.
6.Genesis 32:6.
7.Gittin 70a.
8.Derech Eretz Rabbah, chapter 6.
9.Maimonides Laws of Blessings 7:6.
10.Maimonides Laws of De’ot 5:7.
11.Chulin 89a.
12.Ethics of Our Fathers 4:15.
13.Maimonides Laws of De’ot 5:10.
14.Chulin 84a.
15.Ethics of Our Father 3:17.© Copyright 2016, all rights reserved.
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Your Questions
What Is Shabbat Bereishit? by Menachem Posner
The High Holidays are behind us. The joy of Sukkot and Simchat Torah has just passed, but there is still one more landmark before the exhilarating month of Tishrei fades. It is the first Shabbatimmediately following the holidays, known as Shabbat Bereishit (or Shabbos Bereishis in European Hebrew).Why is it thus named? Every week of the year we read another portion of the Torah. The cycle ends and begins anew on the joyous holiday of Simchat Torah, when we read the final portion of V'Zot HaBerachah and the opening lines of the first portion, Bereishit. On the following Shabbat, the full portion of Bereishit is read from the Torah.
It is said in the name of the third Chabad Rebbe (known as the Tzemach Tzedek) that the way one conducts oneself on Shabbat Bereishit sets the tone for the entire year.
Appropriately, this Shabbat is often earmarked for inspiring farbrengens and resolutions to increase in Torah study. These farbrengens have an additional function, since this Shabbat is also Shabbat Mevarchim, when we bless the upcoming month of Cheshvan.
During the Rebbe’s farbrengen on this special Shabbat, “honors” were traditionally auctioned off. Festooned in a fur shtreimel, the synagogue gabbai would lead the proceedings, and people would vie for the merit to pay for the synagogue’s lighting, kiddush wine and other expenses.
Like a caboose following a long railroad train, this Shabbat helps us gather up the spiritual energy of the past month, ensuring that we remain on track for the long haul ahead.
Rabbi Menachem Posner serves as staff editor for Chabad.org.© Copyright 2016, all rights reserved.
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Your Questions
My Wife Won't Speak to Me! by Aron Moss
Question:This is a totally hypothetical situation that would never really happen. My wife is angry at me. She thinks she told me to pick her up from the train station, and I never showed up. She waited in the rain for half an hour, couldn't find a taxi, and in the end had to call a friend because my phone was off. I am absolutely sure she did not ask me to pick her up. Now she won't speak to me until I apologize. Can I apologize when I don't believe I did anything wrong?
Answer:
I don't usually answer such far-fetched, made-up scenarios. But this time I will make an exception.
When we say, "I am sorry," we are making a statement about ourselves: I am remorseful, I regret my actions and I hope not to repeat them.
But an apology is not just about you and your feelings. It is about the person you hurt. You don't apologize just to absolve yourself from guilt, but to acknowledge that you are the cause of someone else's pain, and to take responsibility for your role in that.
This means that even if you are completely in the right and really did nothing wrong, even if the other person misinterpreted your words or actions, even if you did nothing to regret, nevertheless if someone else is hurting, you need to apologize for that.
Only G‑d knows who is right and who is wrong in your case. But we all know who is hurting.
But beware. If you say, "I am sorry for any pain you felt," your words will come across as empty. It will sound like you think she has a problem and you feel sorry for her. You need to arouse true feelings of empathy for her, and real regret for your part in what happened.
Just imagine her standing in the rain, drenched and dejected, calling your unresponsive phone and not knowing what to do. And in her mind, you caused all this. You owe her a sincere apology. Hypothetically.
Good Shabbos,
Rabbi Moss
Aron Moss is rabbi of the Nefesh Community in Sydney, Australia, and is a frequent contributor to Chabad.org.
Artwork by Sefira Ross, a freelance designer and illustrator whose original creations grace many Chabad.org pages. Residing in Seattle, Washington, her days are spent between multitasking illustrations and being a mom.© Copyright 2016, all rights reserved.
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VIDEO
How Faith Paid the Rent
A chassidic story on the power of trust in G-d by Yossy Gordon
Watch (4:27)
A chassidic story on the power of trust in G-d by Yossy Gordon
Watch (4:27)
<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript" src="http://embed.chabad.org/multimedia/mediaplayer/embedded/embed.js.asp?aid=3470188&width=auto&height=auto"></script><span style="clear:both;" class="lb" id="lbdiv">Visit <a href="http://www.chabad.org/multimedia/default_cdo/aid/591213/jewish/Video.htm">Jewish.TV</a> for more <a href="http://www.chabad.org/multimedia/default_cdo/aid/591213/jewish/Video.htm">Jewish videos</a>.</span>
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Conquer Your ClutterDo you have too much "stuff" in your life? Here's how to master your clutter without letting it master you. by Chana Weisberg
Watch (2:09)
<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript" src="http://embed.chabad.org/multimedia/mediaplayer/embedded/embed.js.asp?aid=3425490&width=auto&height=auto"></script><span style="clear:both;" class="lb" id="lbdiv">Visit <a href="http://www.chabad.org/multimedia/default_cdo/aid/591213/jewish/Video.htm">Jewish.TV</a> for more <a href="http://www.chabad.org/multimedia/default_cdo/aid/591213/jewish/Video.htm">Jewish videos</a>.</span>
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Why Did Cain Kill Abel? by Yehuda Shurpin
Murder is one of the most heinous—and oldest—crimes in the world. In the very first Torah portion, when the world is only a few days old, we read that Abel is murdered by his very own brother, Cain. Part of what makes this so shocking is that it seems to come out of nowhere. Here is the Torah’s cryptic account:Now, it came to pass at the end of days that Cain brought of the fruit of the soil an offering to the L‑rd. And Abel, he too brought of the firstborn of his flocks and of their fattest, and the L‑rd turned to Abel and to his offering. But to Cain and to his offering, He did not turn, and it annoyed Cain exceedingly, and his countenance fell. And the L‑rd said to Cain, "Why are you annoyed, and why has your countenance fallen? Is it not so that if you improve, it will be forgiven you? If you do not improve, however, at the entrance, sin is lying, and to you is its longing, but you can rule over it." And Cain spoke to Abel his brother, and it came to pass when they were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and slew him.1
In short, Abel was a shepherd and Cain was a farmer. Cain brought an offering to G‑d from the fruit of his harvest, and Abel brought from his firstborn sheep. G‑d accepted the offering of Abel, but not that of Cain. Cain was upset, and G‑d spoke to him, letting him know that sin awaited him (in the future) unless he repented. And then, all of a sudden, Cain met Abel in the field and killed him, ostensibly out of jealousy.
But there seems to be more to the story. Right before Cain killed Abel in the field, the verse says, “Cain spoke to Abel his brother”2—yet the Torah does not tell us what this final exchange of words was all about. Could they have argued over something that led to the murder of Abel? The Midrash offers us a number of explanations, each of which represents a different philosophical reason for the sibling rivalry.
Over Inheritance and Property
According to one Midrash, it all boils down to what has caused much strife in families throughout the ages, namely, the division of property and inheritance.
Seeing that they were the only two humans around, Cain and Abel decided to divide “ownership” of the world. One would take all the lands and things that grow from it, while the other would take movable objects such as animals and the like. Thus, one became a farmer and the other a shepherd. It came to pass, however, that Cain said to Abel, “The land you stand on is mine,’” while Abel retorted, “What you are wearing is mine.”’ One said: ‘“Strip”’; the other retorted: “Fly off the ground.’” It was out of this quarrel that Cain rose up and murdered Abel.3
Others say that they both split the lands and the movable objects, but they were quarreling about on whose portion the future Temple should be built.4
Over a Woman
Another explanation is that they were fighting over—what else?—a woman. According to the Midrash, both Cain and Abel were born with twin sisters, whom they married. However, Abel was actually born with two sisters, and they fought over who would marry the extra wife. Cain said he was the oldest and thus it was his right, while Abel claimed that since she was born with him, it was his right.
Over Theology
Cain, upon seeing that his offering was not accepted but his brother’s was, said to Abel, “It appears that G‑d isn’t just and shows favoritism.” Replied Abel, “Heaven forbid that it be as you say; rather, the reason why my offering was accepted was because I was better.” Cain, in turn, replied, “It appears that there is no reward and punishment for good or bad.” Said Abel, “Surely the righteous are rewarded and the wicked punished.” It was from this quarrel that Cain ended up killing Abel.5
In Conclusion
Although the Midrash explains that Cain ultimately killed Abel over either money, a woman or theology, perhaps one reason why the Torah records the incident in a cryptic manner is to teach us an important lesson. Cain may have been jealous that G‑d accepted Abel’s offering, not his, but G‑d explained to him that it was his own fault that his offering wasn’t accepted. His brother's offering did not make his offering better or worse by comparison; the onus was on Cain to better himself. Likewise, we should not be jealous of others; rather, it is up to us to better ourselves.
Rabbi Yehuda Shurpin responds to questions for Chabad.org's Ask the Rabbi service.
Artwork by Sefira Ross, a freelance designer and illustrator whose original creations grace many Chabad.org pages. Residing in Seattle, Washington, her days are spent between multitasking illustrations and being a mom.
FOOTNOTES
1.Genesis 4:3-8.
2.Genesis 4:8
3.Midrash Bereishit Rabbah 22:7; see also Midrash Tanchumah 1:9.
4.Midrash Rabbah, ibid.; see also Zohar, vol. 1, 50b.
5.Targum Yonatan on Genesis 4:8.© Copyright 2016, all rights reserved.
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Parshah
Why My Rich Friend is Poor by Elana Mizrahi
I have an old friend who, due to life’s circumstances, floats in and out of my life. She’s a special person with a great soul and a grand character, but there’s always something that seems to be holding her back from growing in life. Something that won’t let her feel or experienceShe calls me in tears happiness.She calls me in tears, and I listen to the same speech over and over again. “I’ve ruined everything,” she cries. “I’ve lost all my money,” she sobs. “I’m alone. I’m miserable.”
I brace myself because I know what will come next.
“I’ve ruined my life. What have I done? What do I have to live for? I just want to die!” She wails with drama.
I have heard the rhetoric so many times, but I still gasp in disbelief at the last sentence. I know this woman. I know that she has her pain and her sorrow. Like everybody else on this planet, she’s been through her fair share of tests. Difficulties, challenges—yes, she has them. Who doesn’t?
But over the years, I’ve seen the other side as well. I know that G‑d gave her many skills and talents. I know that G‑d gave her great material wealth. She loses money, yes, but she also makes it—in fact, much more than even she could possibly spend. She has family and people who love her, but there always seems to be the emphasis on “being alone, lacking, miserable.” She also always seems to be repeating the same mistakes over and over again.
“Why?” I ask myself. “Why is this woman always a prisoner to the past and to what she lacks?”
I listen to her, and then take a good long look at myself. How many times to I complain and cry, thinking about what I “did wrong,” what I “don’t have”? When I do this, am I happy? Am I growing? Of course not! I feel a sinking feeling of misery, isolation and negativity. When I get like this, I feel stuck.
And L‑rd G‑d commanded man, saying to him: “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Bad, you must not eat thereof; for on the day you eat of it, you shall surely die.” (Beresheit 2: 16-17)
Now the serpent was cunning beyond any beast of the field that L‑rd G‑d had made. He said to the woman: “Did perhaps, G‑d say: ‘You shall not eat of any tree of the garden.’ ” (Beresheit 3:1)
Reading these lines from the Torah, do you know what jumps out at me? The way that cunning snake attacked the woman’s very existence by making her see and focus on what she didn’t (or shouldn’t) have. G‑d gave man and woman a garden full of trees with delicious abundance. They had bounty, plenty. One tree—only one single tree—they were forbidden to eat from (because this one tree wasn’t good for them—eating from the tree, they were warned, would bring death).
And so, the serpent—the symbol of evil, the symbol of destruction—put all of its energy into luring the woman away from the good G‑d gave her and enticed her to sin with negativity.
The woman fell into the snake’s trap; she ate from the single prohibited tree, among all the permitted ones in the garden. She gave the prohibited fruit to man, and as a consequence, brought death to mankind. Pretty intense, no? She brought such destruction for getting off-track by eating a piece of fruit!
Yes, that’s what can happen when a person is focused on what went “wrong,” what “they” lost, what they “don’t” have. They can destroyShe brought such destruction by eating a piece of fruit! themselves (and others). When I feel bad about myself, it never pushes me forward. If anything, it pushes me backwards or makes me feel stuck. It wasn’t just the fruit the woman ate from the one forbidden tree; she exhibited a lack of faith and trust in G‑d as well.
King David tells us: “Turn away from evil, and do good.” (Psalms 34:14) I once read a beautiful interpretation of the saying, “Turn away from seeing yourself as evil! So that then you can do good!” Turn away from the negative thoughts of what is missing or lacking and wrong. The very act of turning away will propel you forward, and give you the strength and desire to move on, to make positive changes, to learn from your experiences—and do good.
Originally from northern California and a Stanford University graduate, Elana Mizrahi now lives in Jerusalem with her husband and children. She is a doula, massage therapist, writer, and author of Dancing Through Life, a book for Jewish women. She also teaches Jewish marriage classes for brides.
Artwork by Sefira Ross, a freelance designer and illustrator whose original creations grace many Chabad.org pages. Residing in Seattle, Washington, her days are spent between multitasking illustrations and being a mom.© Copyright 2016, all rights reserved.-------
Bereishit in DepthA condensation of the weekly Torah portion alongside select commentaries culled from the Midrash, Talmud, Chassidic masters, and the broad corpus of Jewish scholarship.
Parshat Bereishit In-Depth
Genesis 1:1-6:8
Parshah Summary
[Editor’s note: Because of the great variety and density of the events recorded in this week’s reading, the “Parshah summary” this week consists of the full text of the Parshah.]
In the beginning G‑d created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep; and the spirit of G‑d hovered above the surface of the waters. G‑d said: “Let there be light,” and there was light. G‑d saw the light, that it was good; and G‑d divided the light from the darkness. G‑d called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night; and there was evening and there was morning, one day.G‑d said: “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide water from water.” G‑d made the firmament, and divided the waters which were below the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so. G‑d called the firmament Heaven; and there was evening and there was morning, a second day.
G‑d said: “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together to one place, and let the dry land appear,” and it was so. G‑d called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters he called Seas; and G‑d saw that it was good. G‑d said: “Let the earth sprout grass, herbs yielding seed, and fruit trees yielding fruit after its kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth,” and it was so. The earth brought forth grass, herb yielding seed after its kind, and trees yielding fruit whose seed was in itself, after its kind; and G‑d saw that it was good. There was evening and there was morning, a third day.
G‑d said: “Let there be luminaries in the firmament of heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, for seasons, for days and for years. Let them be for luminaries in the firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth”; and it was so. G‑d made the two great luminaries: the great luminary to rule the day, and the small luminary to rule the night; and the stars also. G‑d set them in the firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness; and G‑d saw that it was good. There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.
G‑d said: “Let the waters swarm abundantly with moving creatures that have life, and let birds fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.” G‑d created the great sea-creatures, and every living creature that moves, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind; and G‑d saw that it was good. G‑d blessed them, saying: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let the birds multiply in the earth.” There was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.
G‑d said: “Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind, cattle, creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind,” and it was so. G‑d made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the earth after its kind; and G‑d saw that it was good.
G‑d said: “Let us make Man in Our image, after Our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the cattle, all the earth, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
G‑d created Man in His own image, in the image of G‑dHe created him; male and female He created them.
G‑d blessed them, and G‑d said to them: “Be fruitful, and multiply, fill the earth and conquer it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air and every living thing that moves on the earth.” G‑d said: “Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree on which is the fruit yielding seed; to you it shall be for food. To every beast of the earth and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for food”; and it was so.
G‑d saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good. There was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
The heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts. G‑d completed on the seventh day His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. G‑d blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it he rested from all his work which G‑d had created, to make.
These are the chronicles of the heaven and of the earthwhen they were created, in the day that G‑d made the earth and the heavens.
No plant of the field was yet on the earth, and no herb of the field had yet grown, for G‑d had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground. But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the earth.
G‑d formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
G‑d planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there He put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground G‑d made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food; the Tree of Life also in the midst of the garden, and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
A river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and branched into four streams. The name of the first is Pishon; that is the one which compasses the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. The gold of that land is good; there is bdellium and the shoham stone. The name of the second river is Gichon; it compasses the whole land of Cush. The name of the third river is Chidekel; that is the one which goes toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Perat.
G‑d took the man, and put him into the Garden of Eden to work it and to keep it.
G‑d commanded the man, saying: “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, you shall not eat of it, for on the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
G‑d said: It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helpmeet opposite him.
Out of the ground G‑d had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air and to every beast of the field; but for the man there was not found a helpmeet opposite him.
G‑d caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; He took one of his sides, and closed up the flesh in its place. G‑d built the side which He had taken from the man into a woman, and brought her to the man.
The man said: “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother, and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh.
They were both naked, the man and his wife, and they felt no shame.
Now the serpent was craftier than all the beasts of the field which G‑d had made. He said to the woman: “Has G‑d said, ‘You shall not eat of any tree of the garden’?”
The woman said to the serpent: “We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden. But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, G‑d has said, ‘You shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’”
The serpent said to the woman: “You shall not surely die. For G‑d knows that on the day you eat of it, then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.”
The woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise; she took of its fruit and ate, and gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.
The eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves loincloths. They heard the voice of G‑d walking in the garden in the breeze of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of G‑d amongst the trees of the garden.
G‑d called to the man and said to him: “Where are you?”
He said: “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.”
And He said: “Who told you that you are naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?”
The man said: “The woman, whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree and I ate.”
G‑d said to the woman: “What is this that you have done?” And the woman said: “The serpent beguiled me, and I ate.”
G‑d said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, cursed shall you be above all cattle and above every beast of the field; upon your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; it shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
Unto the woman He said: “I will greatly multiply the pain of your childbearing; in sorrow you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be to your husband, and he shall rule over you.”
And to the man he said: “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and ate from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the earth because of you; in sorrow shall you eat of it all the days of your life. Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to you, and you shall eat the herb of the field. By the sweat of your brow shall you eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it were you taken; for dust you are, and to dust shall you return.”
The man called his wife’s name Eve (Chavah), because she was the mother of all living (chai). G‑d made garments of skins for the man and for his wife, and clothed them.
Then G‑d said: “Behold, the man is become like one of us, knowing good and evil. And now, what if he puts forth his hand, and takes also of the Tree of Life, and eats and lives forever?”
So G‑d banished him from the Garden of Eden, to till the earth from which he was taken. He drove out the man; and he placed the cherubim at the east of the Garden of Eden, and the bright blade of a revolving sword, to guard the way to the Tree of Life.
The man knew Eve his wife; she conceived, and bore Cain, saying, “I have acquired a man from G‑d.” And she again bore his brother Abel. Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the earth.
In the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the earth an offering to G‑d. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat parts thereof; G‑d paid heed to Abel and to his offering. But to Cain and to his offering He paid no heed; and Cain was very angry, and his face fell.
G‑d said to Cain: “Why are you angry, and why are you crestfallen? If you do well, shall you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin crouches at the door, and to you shall be his desire; yet you may rule over him.”
Cain had words with Abel his brother; and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.
G‑d said to Cain: “Where is Abel your brother?” And he said: “I know not; am I my brother’s keeper?”
And He said: “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries to Me from the ground.
“And now, cursed are you from the earth, which has opened her mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you till the earth, it shall not henceforth yield to you her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shall you be on the earth.”
Cain said to G‑d: “Is my sin too great to forgive? Behold, You have driven me out this day from the face of the earth, and from Your face I shall be hidden; I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth, and it shall come to pass that anyone that finds me will kill me.”
G‑d said to him: “Therefore, whoever slays Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” G‑d set a mark upon Cain, lest anyone finding him should strike him. Cain went out from the presence of G‑d, and dwelt in the land of Nod, to the east of Eden.
Cain knew his wife, and she conceived, and bore Enoch; and he was building a city, and called the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch.
To Enoch was born Irad, and Irad begot Mechuyael, and Mechuyael begot Metushael, and Metushael begot Lemech.
And Lemech took for himself two wives; the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Tzillah. Adah bore Yaval; he was the father those who dwell in tents and keep herds. His brother’s name was Yuval; he was the father of those who handle the harp and the flute. And Tzillah, she also bore Tuval-Cain, forger of every sharp instrument in brass and iron; and the sister of Tuval-Cain was Naamah.
Lemech said to his wives: “Adah and Tzillah, hear my voice; wives of Lemech, hearken to my speech; for I have slain a man by wounding, a child by hurt. If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lemech seventy and sevenfold.”
Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and called his name Seth, “For G‑d has set (shath) me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.” To Seth also there was born a son, and he called his name Enosh; then men began to call upon G‑d by name.
This is the book of the chronicles of Man; in the day that G‑d created mankind, in the likeness of G‑d he made him. Male and female He created them; and He blessed them, and called their name Man, in the day when they were created.
Adam lived a hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness, after his image, and called his name Seth. The days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years; and he begot sons and daughters. All the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years; and he died.
Seth lived a hundred and five years, and begot Enosh. Seth lived after he begot Enosh eight hundred and seven years, and begot sons and daughters. All the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years; and he died.
Enosh lived ninety years, and begot Kenan. Enosh lived after he begot Kenan eight hundred and fifteen years, and begot sons and daughters. All the days of Enosh were nine hundred and five years; and he died.
Kenan lived seventy years, and begot Mahalalel. Kenan lived after he begot Mahalalel eight hundred and forty years, and begot sons and daughters. All the days of Kenan were nine hundred and ten years; and he died.
Mahalalel lived sixty-five years, and begot Jared. Mahalalel lived after he begot Jared eight hundred and thirty years, and he begot sons and daughters. All the days of Mahalalel were eight hundred and ninety-five years; and he died.
Jared lived a hundred and sixty-two years, and he begot Enoch. Jared lived after he begot Enoch eight hundred years, and begot sons and daughters. All the days of Jared were nine hundred and sixty-two years, and he died.
Enoch lived sixty-five years, and he begot Metushelach. Enoch walked with G‑d after he begot Methuselah three hundred years, and begot sons and daughters. All the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. Enoch walked with G‑d; and he was not, for G‑d took him.
Metushelach lived a hundred and eighty-seven years, and begot Lemech. Metushelach lived after he begot Lemech seven hundred and eighty-two years, and begot sons and daughters. All the days of Metushelach were nine hundred and sixty-nine years; and he died.
Lemech lived a hundred and eighty-two years, and begot a son. He called his name Noah (“comfort”), saying: “This one shall comfort us for our work and the toil of our hands, because of the earth which G‑d has cursed.” Lemech lived after he begot Noah five hundred and ninety-five years, and begot sons and daughters. All the days of Lemech were seven hundred and seventy-seven years; and he died.
Noah was five hundred years old; and Noah begot Shem, Ham and Japheth.
It came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of G‑d saw that the daughters of men were fair; and they took for themselves wives of all whom they chose.
G‑d said: My spirit shall not always strive on account of man, for that he also is flesh; and his days shall be a hundred and twenty years. There were Nefilim in the earth in those days, and also after that, when the sons of G‑d came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them; these were the mighty men of old, men of renown.
G‑d saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that all the impulse of the thoughts of his heart was only evil, all day long continually. G‑d regretted that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart. G‑d said: “I will obliterate man whom I have created from the face of the earth, man, beast, creeping things and the birds of the air; for I regret that I have made them.”
But Noah found favor in the eyes of G‑d.
From Our Sages
In the beginning G‑d created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1)
The Torah says: “I was the tool of G‑d’s artistry.” An architect who builds a palace does not do so on his own; he has scrolls and notebooks which he consults regarding how to place the rooms, where to set the doors. So it was with G‑d: He looked into the Torah and created the world.
(Midrash Rabbah)
G‑d looked into the Torah and created the world. Man looks into Torah and sustains the world.
(Zohar)
The Torah’s first word, bereishit, is an acronym for beit reishit—“two firsts” (the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet, beit, stands for the number two). This is to say that the world was created for the sake of two things called “first” (reishit)—the Torah (Proverbs 8:22)and the people of Israel (Jeremiah 2:3).
(Rashi; Midrash Rabbah)
Said Rabbi Yitzchak: The Torah ought to have started with “This month shall be to you . . .” (Exodus 12:2), which is the first mitzvah commanded to the people of Israel. Why, then, does it begin with “In the beginning [G‑d created the heavens and the earth]”? . . . So that if the nations of the world say to Israel, “You are thieves, for having conquered the lands of the seven nations,” they can reply to them: “The entire world is G‑d’s; He created it, and He grants it to whoever He desires. It was His will to give it to them, and it was His will to take it from them and give it to us.”
(Rashi, Genesis 1:1)
The above dialogue between the “nations of the world” and the “people of Israel” also takes place in the “miniature universe” within the heart of man.The Jew serves G‑d in two ways: 1) by fulfilling the divine commandments (mitzvot) of the Torah, and 2) by living his or her ordinary life—eating, sleeping, doing business, etc.—as an exercise in experiencing the divine and serving G‑d’s purpose in creation (as expressed by the ideals “All your deeds should be for the sake of Heaven” [Ethics of the Fathers 2:12] and “Know Him in all your ways” [Proverbs 3:6]).
It is regarding the second area that the Jew’s internal “nations of the world”—his worldly outlook—argues: You are thieves, for having conquered the lands of the seven nations! What business have you commandeering the “secular” areas of life? Must you turn everything into a religious issue? Serve G‑d in the ways He has explicitly told us to serve Him, and leave the rest to their rightful, worldly owners!
To answer this argument, the Torah begins not with its first mitzvah, but with the statement “In the beginning G‑d created the heavens and the earth.” The entire world is G‑d’s; He created it, the Torah is saying—not just the matzah eaten on Passover or the percentage of one’s income given to charity.
With its opening statement, the Torah is establishing that it is not merely a rulebook, a list of things to do or not to do. It is G‑d’s blueprint for creation, our guide for realizing the purpose for which everything in heaven and earth was made. Every creature, object and element; every force, phenomenon and potential; every moment of time was created by G‑d toward a purpose. Our mission in life is to conquer the lands of the seven nations and transform them into a Holy Land—a world permeated with the goodness and perfection of its Creator.
(The Lubavitcher Rebbe)
“In the beginning” refers to the beginning of time—the first, indivisible moment, before which time did not exist.
(Sforno)
Therein lies the answer to the question, posed by certain philosophers, as to why did G‑d create the world only when He did. Why not one year, a hundred years or a million years earlier, since whatever reasons He had for creation were certainly just as valid then? But time is itself part of G‑d’s creation. We cannot ask why the world was not created earlier, since there is no stretch of time that can be termed before creation.
(Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi)
Time was the first creation; thus the first mitzvah is kiddush hachodesh—the sanctification of time by setting the months and seasons of the Jewish calendar.
(The Lubavitcher Rebbe)
The Hebrew verb bara (“created”) employed by this verse specifically means the creation of something from nothing.
(Ibn Ezra; Nachmanides)
The School of Shammai says: First the heavens were created, and then the earth, as it is written, “In the beginning G‑d created the heavens and the earth.” The School of Hillel says: First the earth was created, and then the heavens, as it is written, “In the day that G‑d made the earth and the heavens” (Genesis 2:4).
Said the School of Hillel to the School of Shammai: According to your interpretation, would one build a loft before one builds the house? For it is written (Amos 9:6), “Who builds His upper chambers in the heavens, and has founded His stairway upon the earth.” Said the School of Shammai to the School of Hillel: According to your interpretation, would one make the footstool and then make the chair? For it is written (Isaiah 66:1), “So said G‑d: Heaven is My throne and the earth is My footstool.”
The sages say: Both were created together, as it is written (Isaiah 48:13), “My hand also founded the earth, and My right hand spanned the heavens; when I call to them, they stand up together.”
(Talmud, Chagigah 12a)
moreWhy does the Torah begin with a beit (i.e., the number two)? Because G‑d said: I built two palaces—one above and one below. I formed the laws of nature, and I established the life of the world to come.
(Otiyot d’Rabbi Akiva)
He lifted the revolver which lay on the table and pointed it at me, saying: “This toy does away with ‘principles.’ Fear of it has opened many a mouth—even the dumb have become talkative before it.”“You are mistaken,” I replied. “That toy impresses those who have one world and many gods. But as for us, who have but a single G‑d and believe in two worlds, the toy which you are brandishing makes no impression whatsoever.”
(From the memoirs of Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak of Lubavitch)
Said Rav Yehudah in the name of Rav: Ten things were created on the first day: heaven and earth, formlessness and void, light and darkness, wind and water, the measure of day and the measure of night.
(Talmud, Chagigah 12a)
First comes darkness, then light.
(Talmud, Shabbat 77b)
more“The spirit of G‑d hovered”—this is the spirit of Moshiach.
(Midrash Rabbah)
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G‑d said, “Let there be light!” and there was light . . . G‑d said, “Let there be a firmament” . . . G‑d said, “Let the earth sprout grass” . . . (1:3, etc.)
The world was created with ten utterances.
(Ethics of the Fathers 5:1)
It is written: “Forever, O G‑d, Your word stands firm in the heavens” (Psalms 119:89). Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov, of blessed memory, explained the verse thus: Your word which You uttered, “Let there be a firmament”—these very words and letters stand firmly forever within the firmament of heaven, and are forever clothed within the heavens to give them life and existence. . . . For if these letters were to depart even for an instant, G‑d forbid, and return to their source, all the heavens would become naught and absolute nothingness, and it would be as if they had never existed at all, exactly as before the utterance “Let there be a firmament.”And so it is with all created things, down to the most corporeal and inanimate of substances. If the letters of the “ten utterances” by which the earth was created during the six days of creation were to depart from it for but an instant, G‑d forbid, it would revert to absolute nothingness.
This same thought was expressed by the Ari (master Kabbalist Rabbi Isaac Luria) of blessed memory, when he said that even in completely inanimate matter, such as earth and stones and water, there is a soul and spiritual life-force—that is, the letters of divine “speech” clothed within it which continually grant it life and existence.
(Tanya)
The world was created with ten utterances. What does this come to teach us? Certainly, it could have been created with a single utterance. However, this is in order to make the wicked accountable for destroying a world that was created with ten utterances, and to reward the righteous for sustaining a world that was created with ten utterances.
(Ethics of the Fathers 5:1)
When Ethics says that the world “could have been created with a single utterance,” it is not just speaking of a theoretical possibility, but of an aspect of our present reality—an aspect deriving from the primordial potential (the “could”) of G‑d’s creative power.In other words, there are two dimensions to our existence:
1) Its essential being. G‑d brought all things into existence out of a prior state of absolute nothingness, so that together they should form the world He desired. This is the essence of their “somethingness”—a feature that they all share equally, their individual traits fading to insignificance before this fact. This most basic dimension of creation derives from the divine “could.”
2) The individual qualities and features of the different creations. These are the product of the “ten utterances” (corresponding to the ten sefirot which constitute the spiritual “building blocks” of creation).
Of course, G‑d could have created our world, in all its infinite detail, with a singular expression of his desire for a world. But had He done so, the only truly meaningful aspect of our existence would have been the common denominator of all reality—the fact that is exists to serve the ultimate realization of G‑d’s purpose in creation. The particulars of each existence would not possess any significance of their own. That G‑d “bothered” to create the world with ten different utterances means that the particular traits of each being are significant—not just as a means to the ultimate end, but as things of value in their own right.
(The Chassidic Masters)
The Midrash compares G‑d’s creation of the universe to the work of a human architect. When a person wishes to build something, first he fixes his purpose in his mind. Then he starts his labor.
“Let there be light” was the first statement in Creation, because “light” is the true purpose of existence: through the study of Torah and the fullfilment of mitzvot, divine radiance is revealed.
“Light” is the purpose of existence as a whole. Further, each individual is a microcosm of the world. “Light” is therefore the purpose of each Jew: that he or she transforms his or her situation and environment from darkness and negativity to light and goodness.
(The Lubavitcher Rebbe)
Click here for a Kabbalistic interpretation of the first four verses of Bereishit
Why doesn’t it say “it was good” on the second day? Because on that day divisiveness was created.
(Midrash Rabbah)
G‑d . . . divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament (1:7)
The lower waters weep: We wish to be in the presence of the King.
(Tikkunei Zohar)
A covenant was made, in the days of creation, with the “lower waters,” that they will be offered up on the altar, in the salt brought with each offering, and in the water poured upon the altar on the festival of Sukkot.
(Rashi, Leviticus 2:13)
G‑d made the two great luminaries: the great luminary to rule the day, and the small luminary to rule the night (1:16)
It says, “G‑d made the two great luminaries,” but then it says, “the great luminary and the small luminary”?Indeed, at first they were both great, but then the moon said to G‑d: Master of the Universe! Can two kings wear the same crown?
Said G‑d to her: Go diminish yourself.
Said she to Him: Master of the Universe! Because I have said a proper thing, I must diminish myself?
Said He to her: You may rule both during the day and at night.
Said she to Him: What advantage is there in that? What does a lamp accomplish at high noon?
Said He to her: The people of Israel shall calculate their dates and years by you.
Said she to Him: But the sun, too, shall have a part in that, for they shall calculate the seasons by him.
Said G‑d: The righteous shall be called by your name—Jacob the Small, Samuel the Small, David the Small.
Still G‑d saw that the moon was not appeased. So G‑d said: Offer an atonement for My sake, for My having diminished the moon. This is the significance of what Reish Lakish said: Why does the he-goat offered on Rosh Chodesh (the first of the month) differ from the others in that it is specified as “for G‑d”? G‑d is saying: This he-goat shall atone for My diminishing of the moon.
(Talmud, Chullin 60b)
moreG‑d created the first man as a two-sided creature—one face male, and one face female. He then hewed him in two and made a back for each half.
(Midrash Rabbah)
If G‑d desired mankind to be comprised of both male and female, why did He not create them that way in the first place—as He did with the other animals?Because if they were to be originally and intrinsically two, each would be trapped in the exclusivity of his or her identity. Their encounter would be a relationship at best, a war at worst. Neither would have it in them to transcend the individuality into which they were born. The two would remain two, however integrated.
But neither did G‑d desire man to be a singular being. As a single individual, man was without match, without challenge, and thus without potential for growth and creation. “It is not good that man be alone,” said the Creator; he requires a “helpmeet” and an “opposite.”
So G‑d created them one, and then split them into two. Thus man searches for woman, and woman yearns for man. Thus each has it within their power to reach within their splintered self and uncover their primordial oneness. Thus man and woman cleave to each other and become one.
(The Lubavitcher Rebbe)
more“Behold it was very good”—this is the good inclination; “and behold it was very good”—this is the inclination for evil.
“Behold it was very good”—this is good fortune; “andbehold it was very good”—this is suffering.
“Behold it was very good”—this is paradise; “andbehold it was very good”—this is hell.
“Behold it was very good”—this is the angel of life; “andbehold it was very good”—this is the angel of death.
(Midrash Rabbah)
The six days of creation embody the whole of history, for the world shall exist six thousand years (Talmud, Rosh Hashanah 31a), which is why it is said that “G‑d’s day is a thousand years” (Midrash Rabbah).
The first day of creation, which saw the creation of light, corresponds to the first millennium of history—the millennium of Adam, the light of the world, when the world was still saturated with knowledge of its Creator and was sustained by the indiscriminate benevolence of G‑d. The second day, on which the Creator distinguished between the spiritual and the physical elements of His creation, yielded a second millennium of judgment and discrimination—as reflected in the flood which wiped out a corrupt humanity and spared only the righteous Noah and his family. The third day, on which the land emerged from the sea and sprouted forth greenery and fruit-bearing trees, encapsulates the third millennium, in which Abraham began teaching the truth of the One G‑d, and the Torah was given on Mount Sinai. The fourth day, on which G‑d created the sun and the moon, the two great luminaries, the greater luminary and the lesser luminary, corresponds to the fourth millennium, during which the First Temple and the Second Temple in Jerusalem served as the divine abode from which light emanated to the entire world. The fifth day, the day of fish, birds and reptiles, represents the lawless and predatory Dark Ages of the fifth millennium. The sixth day, whose early hours saw the creation of the beasts of the land, followed by the creation of man, is our millennium—a millennium marked by strong, forceful empires, whose beastly rule will be followed by the emergence of Moshiach, the perfect man who brings to realization the divine purpose in creation and ushers in the seventh millennium—the world to come—a time of perfect peace and tranquility.
(Nachmanides)
Ten things were created on the eve of Shabbat at twilight. These are: the mouth of the earth (where it swallowed Korach); the mouth of the well (of Miriam, that provided water for the Israelites in the desert); the mouth of (Balaam’s) ass; the rainbow; the manna; (Moses’) staff; the shamir (that cut the stones of the altar in the Holy Temple); and the writing, the inscription and the tablets [of the Ten Commandments].
(Ethics of the Fathers 5:6)
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G‑d completed on the seventh day His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done (2:2)
What was the world lacking? Rest. When Shabbat came, rest came.[This is to explain the apparent contradiction between the first and second parts of this verse: Did G‑d conclude His work on or before the seventh day? Were there six or seven days of creation? The answer is that rest, too, is a creation.]
(Rashi)
“To work it”—these are the positive commandments; “and to keep it”—these are the prohibitions.
(Zohar)
moreIf he is worthy, she is a help to him; if he is not, she opposes him.
Rabbi Yosei encountered Elijah the prophet, and asked him: “It is written, ‘I will make him a helpmeet’; in what does a woman help a man?” Said he to him: “A man brings home wheat—does he chew wheat? He brings home flax—does he wear flax? Does she not then light up his eyes and set him on his feet?”
(Talmud, Yevamot 63a)
G‑d formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name (2:19)
When G‑d came to create man, He consulted with the angels. He said to them: “Let us make a man.” Said they to Him: “This man, what is his worth?” Said He to them: “His wisdom is greater than yours.”G‑d brought before them the beasts, the wild animals and the birds and asked them, “This, what is its name?” and they did not know. He then brought them before the man and asked him, “This, what is its name?” and the man said, “This is a shor (ox), this is a chamor(donkey), this is a sus (horse) and this is a gamal(camel).”
Said G‑d to him: “And you, what is your name?”
Said he: “Me it is proper to call Adam, since I was created from the earth (adamah).”
“And I, what is My name?”
“You it is proper to call A‑do‑nai (‘Lord’), for You are Master of all Your creations.”
(Midrash Rabbah)
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G‑d caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and He took one of his sides, and closed up the flesh in its place (2:21)
An unbeliever said to Rabban Gamliel: “Your G‑d is a thief, as it is written, ‘G‑d caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and He took one of his sides.’”Said the man’s daughter, “Allow me to reply.” Said she to him: “Summon me a guardsman.”
“Why do you require one?” asked her father.
“Thieves came upon us in the night, took a silver flask, and left us a golden flask.”
“If only they would come every night.”
“And was it not beneficial for Adam that a side was taken from him, and a handmaid to serve him was given him in its place?”
“What I mean to ask,” said the man, “is: why could it not have been taken in his presence?”
Said she: “Bring me a piece of raw meat.”
It was brought her; she charred it in the ashes of the hearth, handed it to him and said: “Eat of this!”
Said he to her: “It is repulsive to me.”
Said she to him: “Adam, too, if the woman had been formed in his sight, she would be repulsive to him.”
(Talmud, Sanhedrin 39a)
What was the tree from which Adam and Eve ate? Rabbi Meir says it was wheat . . . Rabbi Judah ben Ilai says it was grapes . . . Rabbi Abba of Acco says it was an ethrog (citron) . . . Rabbi Yosei says they were figs.
Rabbi Azariah and Rabbi Judah ben Rabbi Shimon said in the name of Rabbi Joshua ben Levi: G‑d forbid that we should conjecture which tree it was! G‑d did not, and will not, reveal its name . . .
(Midrash Rabbah)
The woman saw that the tree was good to eat, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise; and she took of its fruit and ate (3:6)
The fearsome things You bring upon us, You bring about by contrivance. Look: when G‑d created the world, He created the angel of death on the very first day . . . as it is written, “And darkness was upon the face of the abyss” (Genesis 1:2). Man was created only on the sixth day, and it is a plot that was contrived against him that he is the one who brought death upon the world [by eating from the Tree of Knowledge], as it is written, “For on the day that you eat from it, you shall die” (ibid. 2:17).What is this comparable to? To one who wishes to divorce his wife. On the way home, he has a bill of divorce written up. He comes home with the bill of divorce in his hand, plotting a way to give it to her. He says to her: “Pour me a cup, that I may drink.” She pours out a cup for him. As soon as he takes the cup from her hand, he says to her: “Here is your divorce.” Says she to him: “What is my crime?” Says he to her: “Leave my house, for you have poured me a lukewarm cup.” Says she to him: “You knew in advance that I would pour you a lukewarm cup—you have already written the bill of divorce and brought it with you in your hand!”
By the same token, Adam said to G‑d: “Master of the World! For two thousand years before You created Your world, the Torah was safeguarded with You . . . and in it is written, ‘This is the law: If a man should die in a tent . . .’ (Numbers 19:14). Had You not prepared death for Your creatures, would You have so written? And then You come and attach the blame to me.” Hence (Psalms 66:5): “His fearsome plot upon the children of man.”
(Midrash Tanchuma)
moreIn 1798, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi was imprisoned on charges that his teachings undermined the imperial authority of the czar. For 53 days he was held in the Peter-Paul Fortress in Petersburg.
Among the rebbe’s interrogators was a government minister who possessed broad knowledge of the Bible and of Jewish studies. On one occasion he asked the rebbe to explain the verse, “G‑d called out to the man and said to him: ‘Where are you?’” Did G‑d not know where Adam was?
Rabbi Schneur Zalman presented the classic explanation offered by the commentaries: the question “Where are you?” was merely a “conversation opener” on the part of G‑d, who did not wish to unnerve Adam by immediately confronting him with his wrongdoing.
“What Rashi says, I already know,” said the minister. “I wish to hear how the rebbe understands the verse.”
“Do you believe that the Torah is eternal?” asked the rebbe. “That its every word applies to every individual, under all conditions, at all times?”
“Yes,” replied the minister.
Rabbi Schneur Zalman was extremely gratified to hear this. The czar’s minister had affirmed a principle which lies at the basis of the teachings of Chassidism, founded by Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov—the very teachings for which he, Rabbi Schneur Zaman, was standing trial.
“‘Where are you,’” explained the rebbe, “is G‑d’s perpetual call to every man. Where are you in the world? What have you accomplished? You have been allotted a certain number of days, hours and minutes in which to fulfill your mission in life. You have lived so many years and so many days”—here Rabbi Schneur Zalman spelled out the exact age of the minister—“where are you? What have you attained?”
(Told by Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak of Lubavitch)
Kotz (“thorns”) is artichokes, while dardar (“thistles”) is cardoon.
(Midrash Rabbah)
Freedom of choice has been granted to every man: if he desires to turn to the way of good and be righteous—he has that ability; and if he desires to turn to the way of evil and be wicked—he has that ability. This is what it says in the Torah, “Behold, the man is become unique, of himself knowing good and evil,” meaning: this species, man, has become unique in the world, and there is no other species similar to him in this matter—that he, on his own, from his own mind and thought, knows good and evil and does whichever he desires, and there is none that prevents him from doing either good or evil . . .
[Maimonides follows Onkelos’ rendition of the Hebrew words k’achad mimenu—commonly translated “like one of us”—to mean “unique, of himself.”]
This concept is a fundamental principle and a pillar of the Torah and its commandments. As it is written (Deuteronomy 30:15): “See, I have set before you life and good, and death and evil” . . . For were G‑d to decree that a person be righteous or wicked, or if there were to exist something in the essence of a person’s nature which would compel him toward a specific path, a specific conviction, a specific character trait or a specific deed . . . how could G‑d command us through the prophets, “Do this” and “do not do this,” “improve your ways” and “do not follow your wickedness” . . . ? What place would the entire Torah have? And by what measure of justice would G‑d punish the wicked and reward the righteous . . . ?
(Maimonides)
Evil, and freedom of choice, existed before Adam ate from the Tree of Knowledge. But then evil was something external from the person, and the two domains were completely separate. Man’s mission in life was to “work and keep the Garden”—to cultivate the good and keep out the bad. By eating from the Tree, man gained intimate knowledge (daat) of evil, ingesting it into himself and—man being a microcosm of creation—into his world. From that point on the two realms were confused, there being no evil without good and no good without evil. The task of man became the “work of refinement” (avodat habirurim)—to distinguish and separate good from evil and evil from good.
(Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi)
In Rabbi Meir’s Torah it was found written, “garments of light.”
[In Hebrew, the word or spelled with an ayin means “skin,” while or spelled with an aleph means “light.”]
This refers to Adam’s garments, which were like a torch [shedding radiance], broad at the bottom and narrow at the top.
Isaac the Elder said: They were as smooth as a fingernail and as beautiful as a jewel.
Rabbi Yochanan said: They were like the fine linen garments which come from Bet Shean, “garments of skin” meaning those that are nearest to the skin.
Rabbi Elazar said: They were of goats’ skin.
Rabbi Joshua said: Of hares’ skin.
Rabbi Yosei bar Rabbi Chanina said: It was a garment made of skin with its wool.
Resh Lakish said: It was of Circassian wool, and these were used [later] by the firstborn.
Rabbi Samuel ben Nachman said: They were made from the wool of camels and the wool of hares, “garments of skin” meaning those which are produced from the skin.
Rabbi Levi said: The Torah teaches you here a rule of worldly wisdom: Spend according to your means on food, less than you can afford on clothing, but more than you can afford on a dwelling. Spend according to your means on food, as it is written, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat” (Genesis 2:16). Less than you can afford on clothing, as it is written, “G‑d made garments of skins for the man and for his wife, and clothed them” (i.e., simple clothes). More than you can afford on a dwelling, for they were but two, yet they dwelled in the whole world . . .
(Midrash Rabbah)
The man knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bore Cain, saying, “I have acquired a man from G‑d” (4:1)
Adam was created from the ground, and Eve from Adam; but henceforth it shall be “in Our image, after Our likeness”—neither man without woman nor woman without man, nor both of them without the Shechinah (divine presence).
(Midrash Rabbah)
And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat parts thereof; and G‑d paid heed to Abel and to his offering (4:4)
By the same token, everything that is for the sake of G‑d should be of the best and most beautiful. When one builds a house of prayer, it should be more beautiful than his own dwelling. When one feeds the hungry, he should feed him of the best and sweetest of his table. When one clothes the naked, he should clothe him with the finest of his clothes. Whenever one designates something for a holy purpose, he should sanctify the finest of his possessions, as it is written (Leviticus 3:16), “All the fat is to G‑d.”
(Maimonides)
“G‑d seeks out the victim” (Ecclesiastes 3:15). Whether a righteous person persecutes a righteous person, a wicked person persecutes a wicked person, a wicked person persecutes a righteous person, or even if a righteous person persecutes a wicked person—G‑d will always heed the victim. See: Abel was persecuted by Cain, and G‑d paid heed to Abel.
(Midrash Tanchuma)
About what did they quarrel? “Come,” said they, “let us divide the world.” Cain took the land, and Abel took the movables (the cattle). Said Cain: “The land you stand on is mine”; retorted Abel, “The clothes you are wearing are mine.” One said: “Strip!”; the other said “Fly!” Out of this quarrel, Cain rose up against his brother Abel.
Rabbi Joshua of Siknin said in Rabbi Levi’s name: Both took land and both took movables, but about what did they quarrel? One said: “The Holy Temple must be built in my area,” while the other claimed, “It must be built in mine.”
Judah ben Ami said: Their quarrel was over the first Eve. Said Rabbi Aibu: The first Eve had returned to dust. Then about what was their quarrel? Said Rabbi Huna: An additional twin was born with Abel, and each claimed her. (According to the Midrash, twin sisters were born together with Cain and Abel for them to marry—one with Cain and two with Abel.) The one claimed: “I will have her, because I am the firstborn”; while the other maintained: “She is mine, because she was born with me.”
(Midrash Rabbah)
His blood, and the blood of all his descendants. Another explanation: Cain made many wounds in him, not knowing how he might be killed.
[In the Hebrew original, the words for “blood” and “cries” are written in the plural form, so that a literal translation would read, “The voice of your brother’s bloods cry out to Me.”]
(Rashi)
Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai said: It is difficult to say this thing, and the mouth cannot utter it plainly. Think of two athletes wrestling before the king; had the king wished, he could have separated them. But he did not so desire, and one overcame the other and killed him, and the victim cries out: “Who will plead my case against the king?”
[The verse can also be read, “The voice of your brother’s blood cries against Me.”]
(Midrash Rabbah)
Said Reish Lakish: This comes to teach us that G‑d showed Adam each and every generation of history and its leaders.
(Talmud, Sanhedrin 38b)
To say that G‑d regrets something is obviously at odds with our understanding of His omniscience and omnipotence. Regret implies that one now knows something that one did not know before; that one’s earlier decision or deed was flawed or ill-informed; that one has now matured to the point that he can look back and reject a deficient past. None of this, of course, can be related to G‑d. In the words of the verse, “G‑d is not a man that He should lie, nor a son of Adam that He should regret” (Numbers 23:19).
Attributing regret to G‑d represents a further problem: if G‑d regrets the creation of something, how could that thing continue to exist for even a single instant? As the chassidic masters explain, creation is a perpetual act on the part of G‑d. When the Torah tells us that “G‑d said: ‘Let there be light!’ and there was light,” it isn’t describing a one-time event which took place on the first day of creation; it is telling us that what we experience as light is the embodiment of G‑d’s continued articulation of His desire that there be light. In every fraction of every moment of time, G‑d says, “Let there be light!” and it is this divine utterance that constitutes the essence of physical light. For no being or phenomenon can possibly exist independently of G‑d’s constant involvement in its creation.
In discussing G‑d, we inevitably use terms whose meaning is colored by the dynamics of our experience—an experience bounded by time, space and our human limitations. Our only other option would be not to speak of G‑d at all (which is not an option, since G‑d has commanded us to not only believe in His existence, but also to know and comprehend it to the extent to which we are capable). So in using these terms, we must always take care to strip them of their mortal trappings and apply only their pure, noncorporeal essence to our understanding of G‑d’s relationship to our existence.
Thus, when the Torah tells us that G‑d regrets something, it expects us to strip the term “regret” down to its bare conceptual bones, to divest it of all connotations of failing and past ignorance—indeed, of time itself—before applying it to G‑d.
Regret, to us, means that something is both desired and not desired—desired in the past, but not desired in the present. Applied to a time-transcendent G‑d, regret implies both these states simultaneously: something that is both desired and not desired, with the desire belonging to the more distant dimension of the thing (its past), and the non-desire belonging to its more apparent and immediate dimension (its present) . . .
(From the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe)
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Parshah
Haftarah Companion for Bereishit by Mendel Dubov
Background and OverviewThis part of the book of Isaiah, beginning with ch. 40, is dedicated to prophecies of hope and consolation for the Jewish people. Living at the time when the sky was beginning to gray over the Jewish people, Isaiah foresaw the exiles both of the Ten Tribes and of Judah. But seeing further than the immediate, the book of Isaiah is predominantly a book filled with strength and comfort. The Talmud actually views the entire book in this light: “Isaiah is entirely consolation.”1
As with many parts of the prophets, our haftarah speaks in quite lofty and poetic language. The commentaries differ in interpreting the specific details in the verses, but are mostly in agreement as to their general intent. In all, this segment is a conglomerate of the many recurring themes that are promulgated by our prophets.
The haftarah begins with Isaiah speaking in the name of G‑d as the creator of heaven and earth and the giver of life. (This opening verse is the obvious reason why this is read as the Haftarah for Bereishit, the account of creation.) G‑d gives ability and strength to His prophets to guide the people, which will eventually bring them redemption. Earlier prophecies of various events were all fulfilled, and G‑d will apprise his people of the events that will come their way in the future.
A day will come when honor and praise will no longer be given to false deities, only to the true G‑d. At that time, all inhabitants of the earth will recognize and praise the One who made them. So full will the world be with G‑dly consciousness that it will be as if the earth itself and the inanimate creations will be singing to their creator.
G‑d will then take revenge of those nations who did evil to the Jewish people. Until now He had painfully restrained Himself, but on that day He will “roar” in retribution. The Jews’ exiles will be ingathered, and the idolatrous nations will stand by, embarassed.
In His quest for their spiritual improvement, G‑d gives sages and prophets to His people. The Torah was also given to the people in its entire vast and magnificent scope. This to is in order to teach, give merit to, and elevate the people who are to be its guardians.
The Deaf and Blind Agent
“Who is blind but My servant, and deaf as My messenger whom I will send?” Of all the verses in the Haftarah that warrant explanation, this one seems to stand out most. Who is this blind and deaf messenger?
A number of approaches are offered by the commentaries:
Metzudat David understands this to be a continuation of the previous verse: “O deaf ones, listen; and blind ones, gaze to see!” The people had been oblivious to Torah and its commandments, as if being deaf to hearing them and blind to seeing them. But making a blanket statement about the people would be unfair. Many of them were righteous and had heeded the word of G‑d. Why were they to be included in such a statement?
It is this that Isaiah explains in the next verse. The righteous among the people were not only included in being considered “deaf and blind,” but were especially looked at as such. They were the ones who knew well and recognized the misdeeds of the generation, but had not taken a stand. They had made themselves “deaf and blind,” turning insular instead of going out and helping their brethren.
Rashi understands this verse to mean something different. A person who is blind or deaf lives a life of suffering. Whatever pain he or she had to endure on account of possible sin has already been fully realized. Such people are comparable to the most righteous of men, to whom G‑d entrusts His message to the people.
Yet another idea is suggested by Mahari Kara, an early biblical commentary. There is a Talmudic dictum which states:2 “Our rabbis taught: ‘Those who suffer insults but do not inflict them, who hear themselves reviled and do not answer back, who perform Mitzvos from love and who rejoice in chastisement, of such scripture says, ‘Those who love Him are like the sun when it goes forth in its might.’”
This is the intention behind this verse as well. It is those who make themselves “blind and deaf” to those ridiculing them who are compared to the most righteous. In particular, this is a reference to Elijah the prophet, who will be “sent” to herald Moshiach’s coming.
“G‑d desires, for the sake of its [Israel’s] righteousness, that the Torah be made great and glorious”
The closing verse of our haftarah is highly well-known, and recurs in our prayers many times. It is said each day in the morning service, and is pronounced when the Torah is lifted. It is also part of the most often quoted Mishnah of all time:
Rabbi Chananyah ben Akashya said: The Holy One, blessed be He, wished to make Israel meritorious; therefore He gave them Torah and mitzvot in abundance. As it is said: “G‑d desires, for the sake of its [Israel’s] righteousness, that the Torah be made great and glorious.”3
Throughout Talmudic literature, this verse is invoked as support and explanation for a number of ideas:
A. We often find that the Torah warns us against doing things that people would not do naturally. For example, the consumption of rodents or animal carcasses is so repulsive to a straightforward human being that it can be hardly understood why the Torah would need to warn against it. The reason why G‑d did this was to elevate even these things to the status of a Mitzvah. Now that this is so, a person receives reward, and most importantly is connected to G‑d Himself, by virtue of doing this seemingly natural act. G‑d did this out of His love to the Jewish people, giving them increased opportunity to fulfill mitzvot.4
B. The Talmud and its commentaries will often delve into a hypothetical case that is almost impossible to happen. Deep discussion and disputation will surround a case which may never in fact occur. In a similar vein, major discussion often surrounds an opinion that the law does not follow. This concept finds its source in this verse, “that the Torah be made great and glorious.” There is virtue and immense spiritual significance in the study of Torah even if it has no bearing on a practical matter.5
In his “Rules of the Talmud,” the Shaloh6 adds another dimension from the opposite angle. Each time we encounter a discussion where the only “justification” for it is “glorifying the Torah,” it should nevertheless still not be approached as irrelevant in practice. There will always be a practical application in some place for this discussion or law. It is only here that we “excuse” the discussion by invoking this concept, but as a whole, every part of Torah will be relevant in a practical way at some point.
C. In his Laws of Torah Study, Maimonides derives a halachic application from this verse:
“Should a teacher of children come and open a schoolroom next to the place where a colleague was teaching, so that other children will come to him or so that the children studying under his colleague shall come to him, his colleague may not lodge a protest against him, for the verse states: ‘G‑d desired, for the sake of His righteousness, to make the Torah great and glorious.’”7
Such a practice would usually be forbidden in any other profession. But Torah is not a physical commodity that diminishes with a competitor. On the contrary, intensifying competition in Torah learning will only motivate him to strengthen his own learning skills, thus yielding a gain for all parties.
Rabbi Mendel Dubov is the director of Chabad in Sussex County, NJ, and a member of faculty at the Rabbinical College of America in Morristown, NJ.
Artwork by Sefira Ross, a freelance designer and illustrator whose original creations grace many Chabad.org pages. Residing in Seattle, Washington, her days are spent between multitasking illustrations and being a mom.
FOOTNOTES
1.Talmud, Bava Batra 14b.
2.Talmud, Gittin 36b.
3.Talmud, Makkot 23b.
4.Rashi, ibid.
5.See Yad Malachi, Klal 91; Tanya, ch. 5.
6.Klalei Hatalmud (15), Klal Yagdil Torah V’yadir.
7.Mishneh Torah, Hil. Talmud Torah 2:7.© Copyright 2016, all rights reserved.
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Lifestyle
Purple Cabbage & Apple Salad with Lemon Tahini Dressing by Miriam SzokovskiAfter a month of Jewish holidays—and all the eating that inevitably goes along with them—I’m sure lots of us are ready for some lighter eating. This vibrant, delicious salad will leave you feeling healthy and satisfied. You can also add some chopped chicken or flaked fish over the top to make it more filling.
Purple Cabbage & Apple Salad with Lemon Tahini Dressing by Miriam SzokovskiAfter a month of Jewish holidays—and all the eating that inevitably goes along with them—I’m sure lots of us are ready for some lighter eating. This vibrant, delicious salad will leave you feeling healthy and satisfied. You can also add some chopped chicken or flaked fish over the top to make it more filling.
You’ll need purple cabbage, parsley, red apple, sunflower seeds and slivered almonds. The colors along are enough to entice the palate—look how beautiful! Toss the ingredients together and set aside while you prepare the dressing.
Make sure to wash and check the cabbage and parsley for bugs.The dressing requires tahini—the kind you find in the refrigerator section. Or, if you buy the paste, buy the seasoned one, prepare it according to the directions, and then measure out 6 tablespoons to use for the dressing and continue from there.
Mix the tahini with salt, honey, lemon juice and garlic powder. Use immediately or store in the fridge for later. It keeps well for a good 2 weeks.
Drizzle the dressing over the salad immediately before serving.
Salad Ingredients1.5 lbs. purple cabbage, shredded
¼ cup loosely packed parsley
1 red apple (I prefer Fuji or Gala), sliced
3 tbsp. roasted, salted sunflower seeds
3 tbsp. honeyed almond slivers (or whole almonds, if you can’t find the slivered ones)
Dressing Ingredients
6 tbsp. tahini*
½ tsp. kosher salt
1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1 tsp. honey
⅛ tsp. garlic powder
* Note: This dressing calls for prepared tahini—the kind you would find in the refrigerator section. Or you can make your own by mixing 3 tbsp. tahini paste with 3 tbsp. cold water.
Directions
Toss salad ingredients together.
Combine dressing ingredients in a small bowl.
Immediately before serving, drizzle dressing over salad. Mix.
What are your go-to healthy meals?Miriam Szokovski is the author of the historical novel Exiled Down Under, and a member of the Chabad.org editorial team. She shares her love of cooking, baking and food photography on Chabad.org’s food blog, Cook It Kosher.© Copyright 2016, all rights reserved.
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Lifestyle
Art: The Creation of Man and Woman by Yoram Raanan
Art: The Creation of Man and Woman by Yoram Raanan
“And the L‑rd G‑d caused a deep sleep to fall upon man, and he slept, and He took one of his sides, and He closed the flesh in its place. And the Lord G‑d built the side that He had taken from man into a woman...” (Genesis: 2: 21-2)In the first chapter of Genesis we are told, "G‑d created man in his image, in the image of G‑d He created him, male and female He created them” (Genesis 1:27). According to the Midrash, Talmud and Zohar, the original man, Adam, was first created as a "double –faced" being, made up of a male and female joined at the back. Fused together the figures in the painting reflect man as a two-sided creature with one face male, and one face female.
In the second chapter of Genesis the female is separated and formed into woman, (through a Divine surgical process). In the painting, a deep sleep descends on the man lying on the ground, as he sinks into the black realm of unconsciousness. His hair extends backwards like tendrils rooting into the earth from which he was created, while his white face turns up to receive the descending rays of life. Meanwhile the female side which once was attached to him, separates and rises from the darkness to become her own being. Her pearly face shines against a joyful sky tinged with splashes of color. After this primordial uncoupling, an everlasting yearning to reconnect remains between every man and woman as well as the hope that they can now meet each other face to face, a level of intimacy greater than unity
Yoram Raanan takes inspiration from living in Israel, where he can fully explore and express his Jewish consciousness. The light, the air, the spirit of the people and the land energize and inspire him. His paintings include modern Jewish expressionism with a wide range of subjects ranging from abstract to landscape, biblical and Judaic.© Copyright 2016, all rights reserved.
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Jewish News
150 Australian Girls Donate Their Hair to Kids With Cancer by Shmuel Loebenstein
About 150 girls at Beth Rivkah Ladies College—a Chabad school in Melbourne, Australia—grew their hair out over the course of a year so that it could be cut and made into wigs for child cancer patients. The tresses will go to Zichron Menachem, an Israeli nonprofit charity. (Photo: Chana Franck)Michal Tenenbaum was filled with anticipation, wondering how long it would take for her hair to grow.
Tenenbaum, a 12th-grader at Beth Rivkah Ladies College—a Chabad school in Melbourne, Australia—hadn’t cut her hair since November and still hadn’t reached her goal of a 10-centimeter (almost 4-inch) braid. That’s how long hair needs to be, once it is cut, before it can be used to make a wig.
Tenenbaum had made a pledge to donate her tresses to Zichron Menachem, an Israeli nonprofit charity that provides wigs to children suffering the effects of cancer. Chemotherapy treatments rob children of their hair, often adding shame and social alienation to their medical struggles. Zichron Menachem is determined to make these children “feel beautiful inside and out” by providing them with wigs that allow them to slip back unnoticed into the current of society.
Tenenbaum wasn’t alone in her quest, not by any stretch. When a few students in Beth Rivkah toyed with the idea late last year, they didn’t realize that they would ignite a school-wide campaign that ended with the thud, thud, thud of freshly-shorn plaits piling up on tables in front of a school assembly. In addition to her two sisters, Tenenbaum was joined by 150 of her peers, who supported and encouraged each other throughout the long wait for their hair to grow.
The girls giggled as the blades flashed. (Photo: Chana Franck)When the deadline arrived on Sept. 28, six pairs of barber scissors glinted in the hands of the schoolteachers on the stage, and in front of them, six empty chairs faced the assembly. A representative of Zichron Menachem thanked the girls for their contributions, explaining just how much of a difference hair makes to those who have lost so much.
And then it was time. Wave after wave of girls came to the stage, and with trepidation—but above all, pride—they took their seats as their teachers snipped the locks they were preoccupied with for so long. Bursts of applause sounded each time the blades flashed and cut, as the girls gasped and giggled.
‘Give Something of Myself’
Excuse the pun, but making sure cancer patients have wigs seems like a fringe cause. Given the medical, financial and social burdens that the disease saddles them with, shouldn’t attention be focused elsewhere?
No at all, was the impassioned answer of Michal Franck in her address at the assembly. Franck, a student at Beth Rivkah, described her experience with alopecia, an autoimmune disease that causes a person’s hair to fall out. When that started happening in fourth grade, she first began to comprehend how she took hair for granted—how much it affected her confidence and sense of femininity.
Snipping off the long, hard-earned braids. (Photo: Chana Franck)Add that to the trauma of cancer, said Franck, and the loss of hair can be shattering. To regain it in the form of a wig of hair donated by fellow Jews across the globe is to regain so much more than a former look. Franck commended her schoolmates, saying: “The fact that people here are willing to not take their hair for granted, to sacrifice something which can be so central to their personality, is beyond admirable.”
Tenenbaum downplayed Franck’s admiration of her contribution. “At first, it was difficult to get used to not having my old hair,” she said a few days after the big cut at school. “But then I realized that I had this opportunity to give something of myself, literally, that costs me nothing and that will grow back, but which will [most importantly] help kids in Israel.”
When the scissors finally fell silent, the tally for the hair to be donated stood at a staggering 148 feet. Most of that will go directly to making the wigs, and hair that fell short of the 10-centimeter target will be sold by Zichron Menachem to raise funds.
However, the teachers haven’t packed away their ad hoc barber shop just yet: Some girls have already started growing their hair out again.
(Photo: Chana Franck)
(Photo: Chana Franck)
(Photo: Chana Franck)
(Photo: Chana Franck)
(Photo: Chana Franck)© Copyright 2016, all rights reserved.
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Jewish News
Sara Esther Feigelstock, 85, Pioneer of Jewish Education in North America by Menachem Posner
Sara Esther Feigelstock (Photo: JEM/The Living Archives)Sara Esther Feigelstock, an early pioneer of Jewish education in North America, passed away Oct. 25 in Montreal. She was 85 years old.
She was born in 1932 to Alter Yehoshua and Hinda Golda Winter in the Western Pennsylvanian city of McKeesport, where she was raised in a home steeped with devotion to Torah study and Torah observance. Her father worked hard as a dry-goods peddler, a job that allowed him not to work on Sabbath and Jewish holidays. Even though the Winters were the only Jewish children on her block, they were proud of their Judaism and eager to share it with other local Jews.
“I remember my mother crying when she lit Shabbos candles and praying that all her children remain Jewish,” she recalled in a 2010 interview with JEM’s “My Encounter with the Rebbe” project. “I didn’t understand why my mother cried about that, but she was clearly aware that our environment was a breeding ground for assimilation.”
As an 11-year-old, she (together with her sister) was active in leading Mesibos Shabbos programs—Shabbat-afternoon programs for children that Chabad was then holding in many cities. She reported her activities to the sixth Chabad Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, of righteous memory. She also wrote to him that she wanted to go to New York to study in a Jewish school since there wasn’t one locally at the time.
The Rebbe wrote her back a loving and detailed letter in Yiddish with an attached English translation. In it, he asks her about her Hebrew skills and tells her to remain home, supplying specific instructions on what she should include in her Mesibos Shabbos sessions.
Shortly thereafter, he wrote a letter to a Chassid living in Chicago, exhorting him to found a Mesibos Shabbos chapter there, saying that an 11-year-old near Pittsburgh has one.
Throughout her teenage years, she and her family maintained an extremely close relationship with the Rebbe, whom she regarded as a father figure.
Before her 18th birthday, she was introduced to Rabbi Herschel Feigelstock, an Austrian refugee who was then studying and teaching in the Chabad yeshivah in Montreal. The couple married in 1949. On the day of their wedding, the Rebbe wrote them a letter. Among his many blessings, he wished them success in their efforts in the area of Jewish education.
Opened Their Home to All
Accordingly, they made their home in Montreal, where the young rabbi continued his work as a teacher and then a principal, and where Sara Esther Feigelstock began teaching as well.
The Rebbe officiates at the chuppah of Rabbi Herschel and Sara Esther Feigelstock.Throughout the decades of their long marriage, the Feigelstocks maintained a daily Torah study class, ensuring that they themselves had the inspiration and knowledge to teach others.
She was among the first teachers at both Beth Rivkah Academy and the Chaya Mushka Seminary, and helped many young women prepare for marriage.
Beyond the classroom, the Feigelstocks opened their home to their students and many others. Jews from all backgrounds would gather around their Shabbat table, where spirited singing and deep Torah thoughts complemented homemade chicken soup and kugel.
In addition to her husband, Sara Esther Feigelstock is survived by their children: Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Feigelstock, Shternie Greisman, Rivky Teitelbaum, Rabbi Avrohom Feigelstock, Chaya Medalie, Schneur Zalman Feigelstock, Sholom Ber Feigelstock, Devorah Leah Davidson and Alter Yehoshua Feigelstock; in addition to many grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She was predeceased by a son, Menachem Mendel Feigelstock, in 2008. She is also survived by siblings Yankel Winter and Chaya Gansburg.
Rabbi Shmuel Levitin recites a blessing under the chuppah at the Feigelstocks’ wedding.© Copyright 2016, all rights reserved.
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Jewish News
35th Completion of Mishneh Torah Brings Special Shabbat Joy in Sukkahs Worldwide by Chabad.org Staff
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Jewish News
35th Completion of Mishneh Torah Brings Special Shabbat Joy in Sukkahs Worldwide by Chabad.org Staff
This Shabbat people around the world will celebrate the completion of the 35th cycle of study of Maimonides' Mishneh Torah in sukkahs, like this one in Thursday's gathering, pictured above at Chabad of Ashkelon, Israel.Sukkahs around the world will receive a special infusion of Torah study and joy this Shabbat as hundreds of thousands will complete their annual study of the Mishneh Torah —Maimonides’ magnum opus, a compendium of all the laws of the Torah. Learning three chapters a day, it took these dedicated learners the better part of the past year to study the 1,000-chapter monograph.
For many, it will be the 35th time that they have completed the series since the Rebbe—Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory—first instituted the study cycle in 1984.
Maimonides’ 14-volume work is the only collection of Jewish law that spans the entirety of Jewish life, including those laws that only apply when the Temple is standing in Jerusalem, and many others that are not included in prior or subsequent codes.
For those unable to study three chapters each day, the Rebbe suggested a parallel track at a more modest pace of one chapter daily. (Those studying one chapter a day are currently one-third of the way through the 12th cycle).
For those who find that too difficult, the Rebbe instituted yet a third track. Paralleling the three-chapter-per-day regimen by learning daily about the same commandments being studied in more detail, this one explores Maimonides’ significantly shorter Sefer Hamitzvot (“Book of Commandments”), concluding all 613 mitzvahs each year.
Celebrations will take place worldwide in the coming weeks.When the Rebbe first called for the near-annual study of the Mishneh Torah, he underscored the unity achieved by the entire Jewish people studying the same subject in Torah at the same time (and the unique achievement of studying every aspect of Torah). The Rebbe’s emphasis on daily study echoed Maimonides’ own suggestion of how his work should be learned, but until the Rebbe’s innovation, most people studied the Mishneh Torah piecemeal.
Digital and Online Resources
Over the years, digital and print resources have made the Hebrew-language text readily accessible. Moznaim Publisher’s landmark translation of the entire Mishneh Torah by Rabbi Eli Touger was put online in 2009 by Chabad.org, complementing the existing Hebrew texts and audio classes. Chayenu—a weekly Torah-content magazine—carries the one-chapter-a-day Moznaim text of the week in both Hebrew and English. For many years, thousands of people have been receiving their daily Rambam via Chabad.org’s email subscription.
In 2012, Rabbi Yehoshua B. Gordon began streaming live classes following the one-chapter-a-day track on Jewish.tv. The rabbi passed away in February, but the interest in his teaching remains stronger than ever: Thousands of students worldwide join these classes daily in that online study.
Rabbi Mendel Kaplan of Montreal, Canada, recently completed a landmark online class of the daily Sefer HaMitzvot on Jewish.tv, and various translations of Sefer HaMitzvot, for both kids and adults, are easily accessible on Chabad.org.
A major step forward was the production of the “Hayom” app, where the daily Rambam, along with other components of the daily study regimen and handy information, can be easily accessed on smartphones.
Rabbi Mendel Kaplan has just completed a landmark online class of the daily Sefer HaMitzvot on Jewish.tv.Worldwide Celebrations
As every year, special siyum (completion) celebrations will take place around the world. In Israel, major public events will begin on Saturday night, the eve of Hoshanah Rabbah, at the resting place of the Rambam in Tiberias.
The annual celebration in Tiberias is in accordance with the specific instructions of the Rebbe, according to Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Aharonov, director of the Chabad Youth Organization in Israel, and are held under the auspices of Rabbi Yosef Kramer, director of Chabad of Tiberias. The program begins at 9 p.m. and includes the recitation of Psalms, the completion of the final chapter of Mishneh Torah and beginning anew with study of the first chapter, followed a festive Simchat Beit Hashoeva celebration prior to the customary Hoshanah Rabbah study program that begins after midnight.
Among the many celebrations scheduled for the weeks to come is one hosted by Lubavitch of Wisconsin on Sunday, Nov. 6, featuring a video presentation, dinner and completion ceremonies that will include presentations by area rabbis.
For more information about programs in your area, contact your local Chabad center here.
Rabbi Yehoshua B. Gordon's California study group two years ago, when the class completed the three-year track of Mishneh Torah. His teaching continues to draw tens of thousands of online students to classes on Jewish.tv.
Learning three chapters a day, it took dedicated learners the better part of a year to study the 1,000-chapter monograph.
Hundreds of thousands of Jews around the world will celebrate the completion of learning the Mishneh Torah—Maimonides’ magnum opus, a compendium of all the laws of the Torah.© Copyright 2016, all rights reserved.
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Chabad.org Magazine - Editor: Yanki Tauber
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Learning three chapters a day, it took dedicated learners the better part of a year to study the 1,000-chapter monograph.
Hundreds of thousands of Jews around the world will celebrate the completion of learning the Mishneh Torah—Maimonides’ magnum opus, a compendium of all the laws of the Torah.© Copyright 2016, all rights reserved.
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Chabad.org Magazine - Editor: Yanki Tauber
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