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OCTOBER 29, 15, 2020 The Jewish Jewish Home Home OCTOBER 2015 || The
From the Fire
Parshas Bereishis The Blessing of Seeing Others By Rav Moshe Weinberger Adapted for publication by Binyomin Wolf
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s we once again begin the cycle of the Torah, we remember that the last letter of the Torah is the letter lamed in the pasuk (Devarim 34:12) “L’einei kol Yisroel, Before the eyes of the Jewish people,” and the first letter of the Torah is a beis, in the pasuk (Bereishis 1:1) “Bereishis bara Elokim, In the beginning of Hashem’s creation...” The letters lamed and beis spell lev, the heart. So as we beginning learning the Torah again, we pray for (Yechezkel 36:26) “V’nasati lachem lev chadash,” that Hashem will give us a new heart to understand the Torah in a new way, more deeply than we understood it last year. The Torah begins with a large beis. It is known that the sages wanted to explain why the Torah begins with a beis, the second letter of the aleph beis, and not an alef, which is the first letter. The Midrash (Yalkut Shimoni 1:2) explains, “Why [did the Torah begin with a] beis? [Because it is the first letter in the word for] blessing. And why did it not [begin] with an aleph? [Because it is the first letter in the word for] curse.” This Midrash is difficult to understand. While the word for curse may begin with an alef, there are many wonderful words that begin with an alef. Hashem created light, ohr, on the first day of creation and the pasuk says (Bereishis 1:4), “And Hashem saw that the light was good.” The letter alef is also the first letter in the word for truth, emes. Indeed, (Shabbos 55a) “the seal of the Holy One is truth.” Why then do we not want to begin the Torah with an alef simply because it is the first letter in
the word for “curse,” even though it is also the first letter in many perfectly good words as well? In order to understand the answer to this question, we must first contemplate the purpose of Creation. Many seforim, particularly those of Rav Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, explain that because Hashem lacks nothing, He created the world in order to give perfect goodness to another. The concept that there must be a giver-receiver/parent-child/husband-wife relationship is therefore an integral part of the structure of Creation. Rav Yisroel Salanter famously said that “man was not created for his own sake.” Our purpose is to be part of the framework of a giver/receiver system in which we receive from another and then we, in turn, give to those who receive from us. The Gra, the Vilna Gaon, explained that the difference between ohr and choshech, light and darkness, is that one who is shrouded in dark-
ness sees only himself, whereas one who is in the light sees and recognizes that there are others in the world. Such a person is truly illuminated. When Moshe Rebbeinu was born, Chazal say that the house was filled with light (Megillah 14a). Moshe was a Jew who was able to see everything. Chazal say about the light Hashem created on the first day of Creation (Chagiga 12a): “With the light the Holy One created on the first day, a person could look from one end of the world to the other.” This does not mean that this light gives a person some sort of super telescopic vision. Rather, it means that with the light of truly recognizing others, a person can look at another person and see every aspect of the entire world that is that other person. Our purpose is to resist the natural inclination to be drawn after darkness, to only see oneself. It is very easy to see one’s self as the beall-to-end-all of his world, which is
the opposite of the perspective of light, whereby one sees from one end of the world to the other and recognizes that he must be part of a greater giver/receiver relationship When a person receives from and gives to others, he lives in a place of light, about which the Torah says (Bereishis 1:4), “And Hashem saw that the light was good.” But if a person sees himself a lone individual who lives only for himself and not also to give to others, then the Torah says (Bereishis 2:18), “It is not good for man to be alone.” The point of life is for people to live to give to one another. At the end of the parsha, however, people began to live only for themselves and Hashem found Himself alone, so to speak, without a partner in the continuing giver/receiver relationship, as it says (Bereishis 6:5-6), “And Hashem saw that man’s evil was very great in the land and the desires of the thoughts of his heart were only evil all day ... and His [Hashem’s] heart was sad.” Chazal say (Yevamos 62b), “Any man who lives without a wife lives without joy and without blessing...” When man was no longer Hashem’s partner in the giver/receiver relationship, it was comparable to a husband without a wife, who lives without joy. Therefore, the Torah says that Hashem, as it were, felt, “And His [Hashem’s] heart was sad.” Life only has meaning, purpose, and joy if it is lived in a way of one giving to another. That is why the Torah must begin with a beis and why only the beis signifies bracha, blessing. The letter beis has the numerical value of the num-
