To Begin Anew

To Begin Anew
Rabbi Ari S. Lorge

Bereshit. In the beginning.

With this one Hebrew word, a revolution blazed forth.
A story that has been told and retold more than any other came into being.
It is a story that has changed the course of the world.

There are so many rich and provocative ideas crammed into this one parshah. This story was meant to counter the common creation myths of the time with a new and bold vision for the world.

In Torah:

• Instead of humans being slaves for the gods, God teaches us we are all worthy of a day of rest.
• Instead of creation being a result of a cosmic war, creation is a result of words and ideas teaching us the power of language.
• Instead of glorifying great wars on earth that mirror the great wars of heaven, God chastises the first murderer, teaching us all that we are our brothers’ keeper.
• Instead of imagining humans as playthings of the gods, God tells us we are made in the divine image, teaching us all humans have inherent dignity.
• Instead of teaching that humans are stuck in predetermined fate, we are taught we have the power and responsibility of free will.
  

There is so much to parse and examine, so much about the creation of the world that impacts our sense of purpose and place – of why humanity is here at all, and what role we have with the lifespan we are gifted. It is easy to lose sight of one of the most iconic and important lessons of this parshah.

In order to recover that vital lesson, we have to focus. Who doesn’t want to explore God, the mysteries of creation, a sinister snake, and all the rest. But we should start asking the fundamental question about all stories. With whom are we meant to identify? Whose perspective are we meant to inhabit.

As moderns it is tempting to identify as God…as post moderns it is tempting to identify with the snake, but we are meant to see ourselves as ha-adam – the first person.

What do we learn from him?

Not a whole lot. He might be one of the most famous characters in all Western Civilization, but if you stop and think about it, we know shockingly little about his life, considering the fact that Torah tells us he lived 930 years!

That is long even for biblical standards. It is not the longest lifespan in the Torah, but it is quite close. Despite that, all 930 years fit neatly into only 5 chapters of text. To give you a sense of scale, Abraham lives 137 years, and his life fills 25 chapters. Moses only lives 120 years, and yet the events of his life fill 137 chapters of Torah. Torah spends almost no time telling us about Adam’s life.

We get a passing reference that Adam had sons and daughters and that he dies.

Everything else, all the other events of Adam’s life that you and I know, fit into a narrative that lasted less than a full day. Torah is suggesting that all we need to know about him we learn between his creation on day 6 and his subsequent expulsion from the garden of Eden either on day 6 or day 7 depending on the Jewish text you read.

With an astounding lifespan of 930 years, all we need to know about Adam, we can learn in less than 47 hours.

What should we take away? This is, after all, a story about humanity’s parent: an archetypal figure who represents common human inclinations, natures, foibles, and faculties. What is Torah trying to teach us about the essence of the human condition?

Adam ultimately teaches us an important attitude, a way of facing the world.

Elie Wiesel, noted author, Holocaust survivor, and Jewish thinker captures it best in a commentary. He wrote “Expelled from paradise, Adam…did not give in to resignation…” “he had the courage to get up and begin anew.”

“According to Jewish tradition…when God created man, God gave him a secret – and that secret was not how to begin but how to begin again.”

The first lesson Torah teaches us is that we will make mistakes. We will fail. We will disappoint. We will fall terribly short. We will fall down. We will lose. We will face terrible consequences. We will till gardens only to find the gates barred to us.

That is just life. That is the lot of each and every one of us at some point. We will build a paradise that we will lose. That may just define the human condition.

But, it is not the final word. The first human beings teach us the most vital life lesson of all. We have been gifted the incredible power of beginning again.

As long as we do not endlessly seek to return to what we lost, as long as we find fellowship with someone who will walk a new road beside us, as long as remember that God is still an ally, there is a new beginning to make over a horizon not yet explored.

In the beginning we learn how to begin again, and again, and again.