אם כל חי (1999)

/ אם כל חי (1999)

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December 27, 1999

אם כל חי (1999)

Bereishit

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בראשית (1999)

ילק"ד בראשית א' – א"ר עקיבא – בשעה שביקש הקב"ה לבראות את העולם ירדו כ"ב אותיות ועמדו לפני הקב"ה זה אומר לפניו "בי תברא את העולם" וזה אומר... בתחילה נכנס תי"ו לפניו ואומר לפניו, "רבש"ע, רצונך שתברא בי את העולם, שבי אתה עתיד ליתן את התורה לישראל ע"י משה, שנא' תורה ציוה לנו משה..." השיב הקב"ה ואמר, "לא, מפני שאני עתיד לעשות בך רושם על מצתות האנשים שנא' (יחז' ט'), "והתוית תיו". מיד יצא מלפניו בפתי נפש. [עד שלבסוף נצח האות ב']. ביחזקאל – מראה

Synagogue Sermon

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…

Synagogue Sermon

Shabbat Bereishit (1968)

The Book of Lamentations comes to an end with an anguished cry of hope, a plea for restoration: hadesh yamenu ka-keddem, "renew our days as of old." It is a cry that we repeat every Sabbath as part of our prayers. The Rabbis towards the end of Mid. Ekhah Rabati analyze that verse. They tell us that the word keddem should not be understood as a temporal reference but as a spatial one: it refers not to olden days, but to a place, namely, East of Eden. They refer this word to the verse in the first Sidra: Va-yegaresh et ha-adam, the Lord expelled Adam from the Garden of Eden, va-yashken mi1keddem le'gan eden et ha-keruvim v'et lahat herev ha-mit,hapekhet lishmor et derek etz ha-hayyim, and He placed at the east of the Garden of Eden (at keddem of gan-eden) the cherubim and the flash of the turning sword in order to guard the way to the Tree of Life.What a strange statement! We ask God to restore our days, to renew our life, as in the days of keddem — and the Rabbis say this refers to the expulsion from the Garden of Eden! One would imagine that we would ask God to renew our days as they were in Paradise, not after we were chased out of Paradise.But there lies here a great and marvelous secret which the Rabbis tried to teach us.Every man and every woman has his own private gan eden, the paradise of his dreams and his youthful ambition. For some people it is great wealth, walking into a life where he has millions at his disposal. For another man it is a great novel that he will write without sweat, a great scientific discovery without perspiration, the great legal theories or philosophical discourses that he will develop at the drop of a hat, or a life of love and popularity and fame and happiness and satisfaction.What the Rabbis try to tell us is that this kind of paradise which hangs on the gossamer threads of our imaginations and is glued together by the unreal cement of our wish-fulfillment, is something that is terribly dangerous, that if we try to enter it we simp…