introduction into new weekly posts
yidden !! now that the new cycle of reading the torah begins, I will try to share a thought or concept on the parasha each week. It is important that we see how the torah is actually alive and we can not think of it as an old scripture that is outdated. It’s wisdom is timeless and each week it gifts us profound and contemporary insight into all topics of life. Some weeks I experience a resonance which is so accurate and personal to my life situation which makes it hard for me to doubt that the torah is speaking to us, to every single one of us.. we just have to seek it.
These ideas will probably always be originating in the texts and thoughts of rabbis / sages and you will surely be able to read / hear them from many other sources. I am merely sharing how I connect to the parasha and what I learned, ideas that I personally find relatable or stood out to me. I hope that with the help of g-d though this I will be able to spread torah, inspire and maybe make you learn something new!
BERESHIT – in the beginning
I would like to share a powerful idea that I learned in class. If we read in the chumash, there is one confusion right in the beginning; it says hashem finished the creation of the world on the 7th day, then it proceeds with the statement that on the 7th day he rested. How could Hashem on one hand finish doing the work on the 7th day, implying that he worked partially, while at the same time he rested the entire day? To answer this we can take a look on Sfornos commentary.
2:2 (https://www.sefaria.org.il/Sforno_on_Genesis.2.2.1?lang=en) ויכל אלוקים ביום השביעי, at the beginning of the seventh “day,” a moment which is indivisible from the time frame which follows, so that both the six previous “days” were an entity in themselves, and the seventh day was a totally self-contained entity. Our sages in Bereshit Rabbah 10,9 describe G’d as knowing the precise moment between the sixth and seventh day and describe it as “thin as a hair’s breadth.” [I believe the problem confronting the sages was the statement that G’d had completed all His work in the six days, and yet the Torah speaks of Him completing, ויכל, His work on the ”seventh” day, something that appears to be a contradiction to the former statement. Ed.]
In the very last moment of the 6th day, which is described as “thin as a hair’s breadth”, indivisible into smaller units of time, Hashem did finish the work. So why does it say that he finished the work in the 7th day?
It is supposed to show us that every moment ushers in the future; each moment is the beginning of the future and therefore already is the future. That is why this last moment of the 6th day of creation is counted as the 7th day – it may still be part of the 6th day but actually is already part of the 7th day because this last moment’s (when creation was finished) outcome and effect lies in the future which is the 7th day. This is kind of complicated to explain but I hope it is understandable.
Now that we are able to grasp what the Torah means by that contradiction let us understand what we can learn from it, apply it to our own lives.
Each moment is of immense preciousness – only the present moment has the power to influence the future, it in fact, as explained above, kind of already is the future. Every act and thought of the present will not merely lie in the past but it actually ushers in the future. We can not see the present independently from the future, they go hand in hand. This should make us realize that we must raise our awareness of our thoughts, speech and action in the NOW ! Only that way we can make a change that we want to see in the future – dwelling on the past will and can not be productive. No matter what person you were in the past or what might seem to hold you back to rise higher and evolve – it lies in the past. It is no longer part of you. You can recreate yourself any second and see a future that might be opposite from the past.
May we all see amazing changes in the future that our work in the present merits and may we be able to let go from the past, from negative emotions and visions that might still cling to us, to create a new and beautiful life !
<3 שבת שלום