Dear TBZ community:
לקום מחר בבוקר עם שיר חדש בלב
לשיר אותו בכח, לשיר אותו בכאב
לשמוע חלילים ברוח החופשית
ולהתחיל מבראשית
To wake up tomorrow morning
With a new song in our hearts
To sing it with strength,
To sing it with pain.
To hear the flutes in the free breeze
And to start - from the beginning.
The words “Ulehatchil - mibereshit” (And to start - from the beginning) are repeated in every stanza of the song (full english translation is here).
That’s what we do, we start all over - from the beginning. As the holiday season and the month of Tishrei come to an end, we begin this Shabbat to read, all over again the Torah, from the beginning, from parshat Bereshit, once more. The party is actually never over. Perhaps that is one of the most amazing things our tradition offers us: again and again the possibility to start, from the beginning.
I am excited to be back (starting a third year!) writing this weekly Shabbat N’kabla message with the purpose of sharing with you weekly words of Torah to help us prepare for the shabbat ahead.
This week’s parasha, as we know, tells us about the creation of the world and about the creation of the first human beings, Adam and Eve. It also tells us right away about the first act of violence and murder. Midrash Yalkut Shimoni (A compilation of Midrashim compiled between the 11th and 14th centuries) offers a great midrash, imagining God, getting advice from a personified Torah about the creation of humanity.
תניא אידך אמר הקב"ה לתורה נעשה אדם
אמרה לפניו: רבונו של עולם האדם הזה קצר ימים ושבע רוגז ובא לידי חטא
ואם אין ואתה מאריך אפך עמו הרי הוא כאלו לא בא לעולם
אמר לה: ועל חנם אני נקראתי ארך אפים ורב חסד
התחיל לקבץ עפרו מד' פנות העולם אדום שחור לבן ירקרק
אדום זה הדם שחור אלו הקרבים ירקרק זה הגוף
ולמה מד' פנות העולם שאם יבא מן המזרח למערב ויגיע קצן להפטר מן העולם שלא תאמר
הארץ אין עפר גופך משלי חזור למקום שנבראת
אלא כל מקום שאדם הולך משם הוא גופו ולשם הוא חוזר
Another taught: “The holy blessed one said to the Torah: ‘Let us make the human…’
She [Torah] replied, ‘This human will be short of days, full of conflict, and fall into the hands of sin.
And even if you are patient with it, it will be as if it never came into the world.’
God replied, ‘Is it for naught that I am called slow to anger and full of compassion?’ God gathered the dust [of the first human] from the four corners of the world - red, black, white and green.
Red is the blood, black is the entrails and green for the body.
Why from the four corners of the earth?
So that if one comes from the east to the west and arrives at the end of his life as they neared departing from the world, the land will not say to them,
‘The dust of your body isn't mine. Go back to where you were created.’
Rather, every place a person goes, a part of him is from there and a part of her is returning there.
This midrash offers us a few powerful teachings: God knows from the get-go that we humans will be imperfect and full of conflict and God offers God’s compassion as the first response to our own imperfections.
The midrash also imagines us created from dust from all over the earth. Saying that we don't belong to one place or to another, but our existence in this world is beyond geography. We are imperfect and we belong!
We can read these teachings from so many perspectives.
We can read it, in the light of the refugee and imigration crisis we constantly face in this world, as the midrash imagines a world where you go from east to west and you always belong.
We can also read this teaching also from an environmental point of view as a call to understand that we, each of us, belong and exist intrinsically as part of the earth. We are an essential part and our belonging to the earth is part of who we are.
Both of these teachings for me speak to cultivating humility as a creation of God. We are created imperfect and told from the beginning that God’s compassion will hold our imperfections. We are also told that we belong and that we are an intrinsic part of creation. This, of course, reminds me the well known teaching attributed to Rabbi Simcha Bunim, a nineteenth century Hasidic master:
Rabbi Simcha Bunim teaches:
Every person should have two pockets.
In one pocket should be a piece of paper saying:
"I am only dust and ashes." When one is feeling too proud, reach into
this pocket and take out this paper and read it.
In the other pocket should be a piece of paper saying:
"For my sake was the world created."
When one is feeling disheartened and lowly, reach into this pocket and take this paper out and read it.
We are each the joining of two worlds.
We are fashioned from clay, but our spirit is the breath of Adonai.
(Tales of The Hasidim Later Masters, Martin Buber, p.249-50)
As we start “m’bereshit” we have an opportunity to set intentions for ourselves for this year. I invite us to begin this new Torah cycle with this intention of holding both our imperfections and our belonging. What are the two pieces of paper you hold in your pockets? How do you plan to start anew and from the beginning, again, holding the strength and the pain and creating a new song for the year of Torah that we begin.
May this Shabbat bring renewal and blessings to all of you and your loved ones.
May we find strength, courage, and patience, and open our hearts with generosity.
May we start the journey of learning Torah together again, in depth and with joy.
May all those who are ill find healing.
May we have a joyful and restful Shabbat!
Shabbat Shalom,
