Bereishet 5769
Hashem looked into the Torah and created the world. From this concept we understand that the Torah comes before everything in all circumstances. The book of Genesis is broken down into didactic stepping stones, each one focusing and teaching about a particular stage of the life cycle:
Bereishit and Noach: The birth of the baby (man and woman) Lech Lecha: He begins to walk Vayera: Man becomes a mashpia, progressing in his personality Chayeh Sarah: He matures, marries Toldot: The building up of the family nucleus Vayetzeh: Finding shiduchim for the offspring in order for the family to multiply Vayishlach: The children indeed marry- grandchildren Miketz: The aging process Vayigash: Coming closer to Hakadosh Baruch hu Vayechi: Eit Pekudah (being called to the upper worlds)
The Torah never just tell stories, indeed the full feeling and mood behind them are the platform for Divine rule. They are learning instruments. The passages dealing with blessing and bounty (like Jacob and his many flocks) teach us that wealth comes from G-d alone and not the work of our hands like most of us think. A lacking in a person’s life (like Abraham waiting for a son) is also directly from G-d in order to rectify him. A person is constantly interacting in his life, giving (hopefully), taking, making a living, being tried. Sometimes the wheel of fortune is ringing in his favor, sometimes he’s been told Wall Street is down- BUT IT”S ALL FROM HEAVEN. If a person can see the world as a place of constant renewal- not standing still, and the ball of the world constantly changing and turning over, including himself in this scheme of things, he wins. Even a child’s toys are constantly being upgraded.
When a person can internalize the awareness of change and progress, he becomes like Noach when Hashem said to him, “Tzey meyhateyva.” (leave the ark now). There are times when the world becomes caotic that you should go into the teyva ( to strengthen yourself in purification, like going to the mikveh)- but the ikkar is LEAVING the teyva, breaking old habits, upgrading to a less comfortable place in order to make something new.(like birth). This theme is constant in the entire book of Bereishit. – “Therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother’s home and cleave to his wife and they will be one flesh.”
The famous story of Yosef Hatzadik who was cut off from his father’s home and sent to Egypt where he was extremely successful despite his heartbreaking circumstances. Why was he able to explain dreams, set up an economic plan that fed the entire world, as well as forgive and nurture his brothers? Because he saw the balance of what was taken from him and what was given to him.
It is not easy to cut off a routine. We are about to enter a new time. Some of us want the safety of the ark, while others choose to walk between the raindrops. Some of us indeed are asking for change, but all of us should have chizuk in knowing it’s all in HIS hands!!! Shabbat Shalom, Leah Goldsmith
(Much of the torah’s here are from the lessons given by Reb Chaim Hakohen Shlita).
Shabbat Shalom Leah Goldsmith
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