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Synagogue Sermon

October 23, 1954

The Jewish Notion of Paradise (1954)

Bereishit Shabbat General Jewish Thought
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Commentary on Em Kol Chai (1980)

When Adam calls his wife Chavvah, the reason given is that she is אם כל חי. This has proven difficult to all commentators: after all, she may be the mother of Cain, or all living humans, but not all living beings? This has occasioned a number of sophisticated answers, none of them fully satisfactory. I suggest that the word חַי and חַוָּה have alternative meanings. Whereas the root in Hebrew means "life," in Aramaic it means "speech." Thus, "to tell" in Aramaic is להחויא. Similarly, in Hebrew the root appears in the expression חֲווֹת דָּעַת, as in Job: ואזחל ואירא מחות דעי אתכם.Adam was born with intellect, but before he had Eve he had no one to talk to. The animals with whom he dealt, were not capable of conversation. When Eve was created, he was able to talk with her, and he marvelled at her speech (volubility?). He noticed that the child Cain also spoke, in contradistinction to other animals. Therefore he called her חזי׳ because she was ג5 חי f It , the mother of all conversing beings.This explains the verse — and also the common human prejudice that women are talkative ...
Bereishit

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Good G-d (1962)

The Torah’s record of the creation of the world by G-d, no matter how you may interpret it, is one of the major fundamentals of Jewish thought. Without the concept of creation, nothing else in Judaism makes much sense. It is therefore pertinent to raise one of the most persistent and universal questions that has bothered many a layman as well as some of the most serious thinkers of all times: why did G-d create the world? G-d is, after all, perfect. He does not need the world. He is complete without it. Why, then, did He bring it into existence?Furthermore, especially troublesome is the verse va-yar Elohim ki tov, and “G-d saw that it was good.” What does the Bible mean when it says ki tov, “it was good?” And what do we mean by the words va-yar Elohim, “and G-d saw?” Certainly it could not mean that G-d stepped back, like an artist who has just finished an oil painting, to admire his handiwork from the proper perspective. What then does it mean?Allow me to commend to your attention one of the most novel answers I have yet seen. It is suggested by Rabbi Jacob Zvi Meklenburg in his “Ha-ketav ve-ha-Kabbalah.” The word va-yar, he says, does not mean “and he saw,” but rather “he brought into existence.” For va-yar in ordinary Hebrew parlance may mean not only “he saw” but “he showed.” Just as the idea “to show” means to reveal something which is hidden, so creation by G-d means to bring into sight that which was previously hidden from mortal eyes. Creation by G-d means to bring an object from potential into real existence. Va-yar Elohim, “and G-d brought into existence (the world)” – and why? – because ki tov, because He is good! Not that G-d saw that the world is good, but He brought the world into existence because He, G-d, is tov, good! Whether the world is good remains at best a debatable thesis. It is the goodness of G-d, not the goodness of the world, that the Torah means to emphasize. So the verse va-yar Elohim ki tov comes to answer the question: why did G-d cre…
Bereishit Faith Torah Study Chasidim & Mitnagdim

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Looking at the World with New Eyes (1964)

At the beginning of his immortal Guide for the Perplexed (Part I, Chapter 2), Maimonides records a question that was posed to him concerning the story of Adam and Eve which we read this morning. These first two humans were given a single commandment by God: not to eat of the fruit of a certain tree. They violated that commandment. One might imagine that as a consequence they would suffer some severe punishment. Yet the major result of their transgression is va-tipakahna einei shneihem, that the eyes of the both of them were opened. Is not this an amazing story, an astounding turn of events? Does this mean that sin is to be rewarded with knowledge? Does crime pay?The answer that Maimonides gives is a profound one, and crucial to his whole philosophy. It is not an easy one to understand; the commentators on the Guide are not of one mind concerning its precise meaning. This morning, however, I wish to propose to you another answer, one suggested by a legendary and intriguing personality in the history of Hasidism, R. Yitzhak Isaac of Komarno. It is an important explanation, and one to which I think Maimonides would have given his consent.The Rabbi of Komarno tells us that man was initially endowed with two sets of eyes, i.e. two ways of viewing life, two kinds of vision. He was given the einei basar, eyes of flesh, and einei ruah, eyes of the spirit. The einei basar represent man’s physical and material outlook. They offer a direct channel to the senses. They are mere sight. The einei ruah are the eyes of the soul, man’s spiritual vision; they represent insight rather than just sight. They are what Yehudah Halevi in his Kuzari has called ha-ayin ha-niseret, the hidden eye, man’s deeper, inner vision.Before they committed their sin, Adam and Eve looked at the world and at each other only with einei ruah, with their spiritual eyes. They did not measure everything in terms of their own wants and needs and desires. They saw the best in others. They perceived nothing untow…
Bereishit General Jewish Thought