New Beginnings – Breishit
This shiur is dedicated to the speedy recovery of the thousands of maimed and injured in the brutal Hamas attack this last Shabbat, they should have רְפוּאַת הַנֶּפֶשׁ וּרְפוּאַת הַגּוּף הַשְׁתָּא בַּעֲגָלָא וּבִזְמַן קָרִיב; to the speedy and safe return of all the hostages; לְעִלּוּי כָּל הַנְּשָׁמוֹת who were brutally slain עַל קִדּוּשׁ ה' and who died heroically עַל קִדּוּשׁ ה' defending Am Yisrael and Eretz Yisrael this week; and finally, with the tefilla to HKB"H to keep all our soldiers (including my sons) safe from harm, אָמֵן כֵּן יְהִי רָצוֹן.
שִׁבְעָה דְּבָרִים נִבְרְאוּ קֹדֶם שֶׁנִּבְרָא הָעוֹלָם וְאֵלּוּ הֵן תּוֹרָה וּתְשׁוּבָה וְגַן עֵדֶן וְגֵיהִנָּם וְכִסֵּא הַכָּבוֹד וּבֵית הַמִּקְדָּשׁ וּשְׁמוֹ שֶׁל מָשִׁיחַ. (פסחים נד, ע"א)
A common misconception is that predating בְּרֵאשִׁית, only HKB"H existed. It is true that HKB"H predates everything. He has always existed and He will always exist. However, before בְּרֵאשִׁית, before creating the world, HKB"H first created a number of other things and these are listed in the Gemara above.
Another common misconception is that HKB"H created a perfect world. This is only partially true. HKB"H created the world with the vision and potential to be perfect. However, part and parcel of the fabric of Creation is the possibility that things will go wrong. That the gift of free choice will be used unwisely, thus causing damage to and perverting the perfection HKB"H envisioned for our world. HKB"H could have created a perfect world with no room for error, by eliminating free choice. However, by so doing, this would eliminate any possibility for us to receive reward for our actions in this world, that will accrue to our merit in the world to come - which is the עִיקָּר.
Therefore, in order to ensure this ultimate vision of perfection, achieved through free choice, HKB"H, before creating the world, first set in place numerous mechanisms to facilitate the achievement of ultimate perfection, despite any mistakes or failures along the way.
Any good story has a beginning and an end. In HKB"H's "story", the end was written before the beginning. First HKB"H wrote the "happy ending", the purpose - ultimate perfection (listed in our Gemara above). Only then comes the beginning בְּרֵאשִׁית. Following the beginning is everything that happens in between.
The first creation was the Torah. The Torah is the blueprint for Creation, for this world. The Torah, חֲמִשָּׁה חֻמְשֵׁי תּוֹרָה, were written before Creation. Embedded in the psukkim of the Torah are every possible eventuality and permutation with which the story could evolve between the beginning and end points. The length of the story is not predetermined, it is dependent on the application of free choice at various junctures. At these junctures, it is possible to skip straight to the end directly, or if incorrect choices were made, the story would be prolonged, in lieu of the next juncture. However, HKB"H will not allow the world to continue to make mistaken choices ad-infinitum. He has made a cut off period, at which, despite the choices made, He will intervene and end the story happily.
On the third day of Creation, the first "glitch" occurred. During creation of the trees the earth/tree, instead of explicitly following HKB"H's directive (that the wood of the tree and the fruit would both be edible and taste the same), the earth/tree did its own חֶשְׁבּוֹנוֹת, it disobeyed the directive and manifested differently (that the fruit was edible, but not the wood of the tree). This tree was the עֵץ הַדַּעַת (Meir Panim, chap. 15). The earth/tree made a choice and it was the wrong choice. This mistake had repercussions down the line.
On the fourth day of Creation, the next glitch occurred. HKB"H created two luminaries in the sky, the sun and the moon, both with the same intensity of light. However, the moon did its own חֶשְׁבּוֹנוֹת, it made a mistaken choice and was subsequently diminished. HKB"H, prior to creating the sun and the moon, on the first day already created light and darkness, day and night. The infrastructure for free choice was already in place. If the moon had not erred, then there would only have been light, no darkness. The world would have been lit 24/7 with light, 12 hours by the sun and 12 hours by the equally intense moon. Again, this mistaken choice had repercussions down the line.
On the sixth day of Creation, the next glitch occurred, with Chava and Adam eating from the forbidden עֵץ הַדַּעַת. This mistaken choice also had repercussions down the line, which we are still experiencing to this very day.
Each mistaken choice has repercussions, not only for those who make the incorrect choice, but also for those who follow them.
The fact that these mistaken choices were prompted by good intentions is irrelevant. The only relevant "bottom line" is that they all defied HKB"H's directive.
And so on – throughout the entire Torah (and beyond).
The entire Torah, including the mistakes at each stage - the tree, the moon, Adam and Chava, the generation of Enosh, the Flood, Avraham, Yitzchak, Yaakov, the twelve sons, Egypt, Matan Torah, the sin of the egel, the meraglim, Mei Meriva, etc. etc. – it was all written before Creation. Specific parts of it were revealed, ahead of time, to some of the participants. Avraham was already told about the slavery of his great-grandchildren in Egypt in advance. Moshe was not told in advance about the sin of the egel. They were each told enough that it would not affect free choice.
At each juncture, the story could have skipped directly to the happy end. If the tree had not made the wrong choice, there would have been no forbidden tree for Adam and Chava to eat from. If Adam and Chava had not eaten from the forbidden tree, we would already be in Gan Eden, 5784 years down the road.
The ongoing process of Creation is filled with junctures, each of which has two outcomes - בְּעִתָּהּ אֲחִישֶׁנָּה. At each juncture we have the possibility to skip directly to the "happy end" using the method of אֲחִישֶׁנָּה, by making the correct choices. If, however, we make the incorrect choices, this has repercussions. We prolong the story and bring upon ourselves and our descendants unnecessary suffering. However, the process will eventually end by HKB"H's direct intervention בְּעִתָּהּ. We get to determine how much trial, tribulation and suffering we want to endure – as stated in a previous shiur – "We are the masters of the degree of our own suffering". This is relevant on a personal level, on a national level and on a universal level.
As a species and as the Chosen People, Am Yisrael, we are not doing so well, statistically speaking. The given cutoff period of בְּעִתָּהּ is 6000 years from בְּרֵאשִׁית. We are already in year 5784, only 216 years from the cutoff. In the last 5783 years we have not managed to skip to the happy end directly. Make no mistake, in each and every generation in the last 5783 years we have had the possibility to bring the Geulah and we have not succeeded yet. We have periodically succeeded for short periods of time and then regressed.
It is not possible to write a shiur this week and not address what is currently going on in Israel, following the brutal and savage Hamas attack last Shabbat, sparking a war that has the potential to spiral into a regional and even global conflict.
The shock and catastrophe are indescribable, with a daily death toll unprecedented since the Holocaust.
As the reality slowly begins to emerge, the stories are increasingly more horrific and surreal. How many lives lost and families destroyed רַחֲמָנָא לִצְּלַן. There is not a single family in Israel (and abroad) that has not been personally impacted by this or does not know someone who had been directly impacted.
Amidst the horror and the חֶשְׁבּוֹן נֶפֶשׁ that pervade, the uncertainty and insecurity of what tomorrow will bring, I would like to concentrate on a completely different aspect and focus on the light in the darkness, the positive that has emerged and will continue to emerge, from all this pain and suffering.
When people conceptualize Geulah, they think in terms of כְּהֶרֶף עַיִן, something that takes place in the wink of an eye. That we are going to wake up tomorrow morning and see Mashiach riding in on a donkey and Bayit Shlishi descending from the sky like an alien spaceship.
The reality is that, although the Geulah will end up taking place in the wink of an eye, it will be preceded by a process that unfolds gradually, intensifying as the Geulah approaches. This will be a period of clarification, a dissolution of all misconceptions and illusions and a revelation of the truth, until all that remains is the truth. Then the הֶרֶף עַיִן will occur.
For the last four years, intensifying exponentially in the last year, there has been something tantamount to a civil war going on inside Israel, with brother fighting brother, often erupting into physical violence and blind hatred of one side to the other. If anyone would have suggested the possibility a short four days ago that this chasm could be bridged, they would have been labeled an imbecile. The only way this could be accomplished is an act of G-d. Last Shabbat we experienced this act of G-d.
It was like a bolt of lightning that pulsed through the entire nation, jolting us out of our stupor. Two weeks ago, we were literally and sickeningly coming to blows over davening on Yom Kippur in Tel Aviv. Today that misguided and misconceived notion of temporary insanity is non-existent. It has been dwarfed and dissolved by the truth. No human could have accomplished that metamorphosis.
It highlights what makes Am Yisrael special, the Am Segula. It clearly demonstrates that despite the outward veneer and camouflage of the קְלִיפּוֹת of the yetzer harah, at the heart of Am Yisrael, down deep inside, is a solidarity and unbreakable bond that ultimately sublimates to the surface, for all to see.
To experience all the incredible and heartwarming acts of solidarity that are currently taking place in Am Yisrael is almost like we are already living in the Geulah. The outpouring of love for the suffering families who have lost dear ones or whose children have been taken hostage. The "mobilization" of the citizenry of Am Yisrael to collect and supply equipment and food for the soldiers. The volunteer efforts to help neighbors, communities, etc. There is nothing like this in any other nation on earth.
This highlights the difference between בְּעִתָּהּ and אֲחִישֶׁנָּה. We had a "juncture" at which we nationally had to make a choice and we could have skipped directly to the happy end, the euphoria of solidarity we are currently experiencing, without the accompanying pain and horror, if we would have taken the path of אֲחִישֶׁנָּה. Hidden in this word אֲחִישֶׁנָּה is the correct choice - אָחִי שֹׁנֶה, "my brother is different to me, but first and foremost he is אָחִי, my brother" (Meir Panim, chap. 14). If we could not arrive at that choice freely, ourselves, HKB"H had to intervene and bring us to it בְּעִתָּהּ - with בְּעִיטָה, accompanied by unspeakable trial and tribulation.
It is a horrifying, terrible lesson, but it embodies incredible hope for the future, that even hearts of stone can be melted, that when faced with a Divine revelation, Am Yisrael will return to their wellspring and their destiny as a nation and that the Geulah is not a theory but a certainty.
The second positive thing to emerge from this catastrophe, is that HKB"H has revealed to us who Amalek really are in our generation. Until now, we could only surmise and theorize, but in the last few days we have seen vivid proof with our own eyes.
When Am Yisrael left Egypt, they did not threaten Amalek. Amalek travelled אַרְבַּע מֵאוֹת פַּרְסָה, about 400km to attack Am Yisrael (ילקוט שמעוני תתקל"ח, לג). This attack was not based on military rationale, it was pure baseless hatred that prompted it. Where did Amalek attack? וַיְזַנֵּב בְּךָ כָּל הַנֶּחֱשָׁלִים אַחַרֶיךָ וְאַתָּה עָיֵף וְיָגֵעַ וְלֹא יָרֵא אֱ-לֹקִים (דברים כה, יח) They attacked the weakest link in Am Yisrael, נֶּחֱשָׁלִים from the lashon of חַלָּשִׁים.
Iran and its proxies are Amalek. Israel poses no military threat to Iran. Israel has no intention of conquering Iran and seizing its territory. Despite that, Iran, which is far away from Israel (2000km), spearheads the military aggression against Israel via its proxies Hamas and Hezbollah. If they were true "freedom fighters", the Hamas "militants" would have attacked the Israeli military, one army against another. Instead, Hamas/Amalek targeted the weakest link - youngsters at a music festival, "flower-power", gentle souls who couldn't hurt a fly, civilians in their homes, massacring and dragging out old men women and children and taking them hostage. These are not "freedom fighters", this is the modus operandi of terrorists.
Iran and its Palestinian proxies distribute malignant propaganda lies, perversions of the truth, against Israel and the Jewish people, propaganda they learned to fabricate from the inventors of propaganda - Goebbels and the nazis in WWII (who Palestinian leaders, like Haj Amin El Husseini allied with), and the Soviet USSR. The propaganda is so slick and devious, it has managed to infiltrate even "enlightened Western society" who are ignorant of the true history and those who have prior antisemitic leanings.
HKB"H has vividly shown us, down to the last detail, who our war with Amalek is in this generation.
The third and final positive thing is the reaction of the world. The barbarity and brutality of the Hamas attack was so far removed from any resembling humanity that it has disgusted the entire world, who have come out in support of Israel. Yes, the world loves Jews when we are being slaughtered, but this has been so far off the scale that it offends basic humanity. HKB"H has exposed Amalek for who they really are and dissolved all the lies and perversions they are disseminating.
The crisis is far from over and many difficult times lie ahead. However, if we view these events in the perspective of the Torah, they clearly show that we are fast approaching the Geulah, (either way, בְּעִתָּהּ or אֲחִישֶׁנָּה) – the happy end to the story, the opposite pole of בְּרֵאשִׁית.
This tragedy also signals the birth of a new beginning. A new era within Am Yisrael, a reawakening of כָּל יִשְׂרָאֵל עֲרֵבִים זֶה לָזֶה. A new sense of purpose and understanding of our destiny in the region and the world. A realization of the fallibility of our כּוֹחִי וְעֹצֶם יָדִי. A realization of the transience and insignificance of materialism in the face of survival. A new understanding that united we stand, divided we fall. The dawn of a new wave of reconciliation and a deeper, more innocent relationship with our Creator.
