From Creation to Celebration

By: Hodaya Harary ('27)

ereishis is a topic of tremendous interest, perhaps more than any Parsha in the Torah. This Parsha is the beginning of a year-long cycle of Torah, which we as Jews cherish more than anything. Bereishis details the specifics of the creation of the world. It also discusses the rise of humanity, starting with Adam and Chava, the first humans to roam the earth, and the generations that follow, as well as Chava’s notorious sin with the forbidden fruit as the fall of mankind, exiling us from the serene Garden of Eden. Is it possible that Parshas Bereishis could have some subtle connections to Megillas Esther?

The first way to go about this is to find some correlation between the two storylines. At surface level, they seem very distinct. The story of Megillas Esther is about our four main characters: Achashverosh, the pompous and arrogant ruler of the time, Esther and Mordechai, the heroes of Shushan, and Haman, the man whose wicked plot threatened to kill the Jews.

In Parshas Bereishis, Perek Gimmel, Pasuk Yud Alef it says, “

ץֵ֗עָה־ןִמֲה”

meaning, “Did you eat of the tree from which I had forbidden you to eat?” At first glance, it seems that it’s just Adam and Chava being reprimanded by Hashem for their sin. However, under scrutiny, the first word of that Pasuk,” ןִמֲה” meaning, “from where,” has the same letters of the Purim story’s major villain, Haman himself. But the Torah’s words are never just chosen arbitrarily, so there must be some deeper meaning in this choice of wording. What is the connection between Adam’s sin and Haman? In order to answer this question, we must first understand the common idea behind both of these characters’ downfall, desire, which is prevalent in both these stories.

Haman had been elevated above every other servant and employee in Achashverosh’s kingdom. He was second in command to the king, but that still wasn’t enough for him. All Haman could think about was how much he wanted Mordechai to bow to him. But no matter what he did or how he threatened him, Mordechai’s back would remain straight. This obsession with the one thing he couldn’t have left Haman feeling completely empty handed, no matter his high status. His fixation with Mordechai, his desire to get him to bow, was precisely what led to his downfall.

In Adam’s case, he had been blessed with everything he could possibly imagine. He was the first man to ever exist, living in his own paradise, with Hashem there to grant his every request. And when that wasn’t enough, Hashem gave him Chava, someone of his kind to keep him from his loneliness. There was only one rule he had to keep, he couldn’t eat from the Tree of Life or the Tree of Knowledge. But Adam and Chava’s desire got the best of them, leading them down the dangerous path of temptation, the same path that led them out of Gan Eden. The Torah describes Chava’s first observation of the Tree of Knowledge in a unique way. When she sees the tree, the Pasuk says, “יִ֣כ הָּ֡שִאָֽה ארֵ֣תַו ץֵ֨עָה ֩בוט'' meaning,“And the woman saw that the tree was good” (Bereishis 3:6), which is the exact same language that Hashem uses to affirm each of his creations, saying, “ארַ֧יַו בו֑ט־יִכ…םיקלֱא'' meaning, “And G-D saw… that it was good.” When Adam and Chava were faced with desire, they suddenly had no reverence for Hashem. They made themselves the ones in control of what they wanted and how they would acquire it, because that is what desire will do. Desire fills someone with an urge strong enough to throw everything else away. That’s why it’s so powerful and so dangerous, because much like Adam and Haman, who had everything they ever dreamed of, just one step in the wrong direction had them spiraling down a road that led to their downfall.

But there is something we can all do, a small action that can do a lot to help counter this precarious emotion. With gratitude, we can erase the greed from our system, and let it help differentiate between what we have and what we need. We can all take a step to make sure that history doesn’t repeat itself again and we are not ruined as well. By placing this secret clue in Bereishis, Hashem is showing us that we all have a chance to make that change. As the cycle of Torah restarts itself, Hashem is giving us a clean slate to appreciate what’s around us, and not let such treacherous desires get in our way, like they did for Adam and Haman. Instead, we should all practice having an attitude of gratitude and combat the desires that may lead to our downfall. Adopted from Rabbi David Forman of Aleph Beta