BEREISHIT / GENESIS : 3 IDEAS

Creation has a Creator

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹהִ֑ים אֵ֥ת הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וְאֵ֥ת הָאָֽרֶץ

Genesis 1:1

God opens the bible with the message that there is indeed a Creator behind creation. There is a Higher Power Who intentionally made the galaxies and all that fills them. Throughout this series we will analyze the original Hebrew and we will unlock Divine codes hidden within the text. In this case, when we take the last letter of the first 3 words, tet ת from bereishit, alef א from bara and mem ם from elohim, we can arrive at the word, emet תmא, truth. The ultimate truth is that God Created the heavens and the earth and everything in between. The human must come to recognize this truth, that there is in fact a God in this world and He created all that is within it. To believe that there is a Creator behind creation and that this world didn’t just pop out of nowhere is quite simple to prove. If I were to drop you in the middle of the desert and you begin to walk and suddenly you happen upon a beautifully designed castle, your first instinct would be that you are not alone. Someone else must be here, for this castle did not just pop into existence! Someone must have made it. When one looks at the complexity and details with which this world was made, one can’t help but accept that there must be a creative force behind it. Simply observing the human body and its capabilities reveals a Higher power that designed it. There is simply no art without its artist, no book without its author, no building without its builder and there is no created being without its Creator. To acknowledge that this intricate reality has a designer, that there is a Creative Higher Power that made all that we see is the first message God has for the human being. You were not dropped here out of nowhere. There is a God who intentionally created you and all that you see. God walks us through each day of creation to let it be known that all that ever was, is and will be has been brought into existence by Him alone. God is the sole Creator of reality and that is the ultimate truth every created being must come to realize. That all was made by design.

Between Adam and the stars – Who truly rules?

Each progressive day of creation has hierarchy over the one before it. So what was created on the second day has power over what was created on the first day. And what was created on the fourth day has power over all that was created on the days preceding it and so forth. The very last created being was Adam on the sixth day. Alas, the created being that has power over all else in the created world is the human being. Fascinatingly, on the fourth day of Creation the luminaries were made. The sun, the moon, the stars and all the planets. Judaism admits that there is planetary influence on the human being. That God endowed the stars with heavenly powers to influence each human as they see fit. That the celestial bodies are not mere physical matter but do indeed each have a unique spiritual power that has influence on the souls that inhabit planet earth. Depending on the placement of the planets at the time of one’s birth one can see what kind of influence the celestial bodies will have on the human throughout the course of its life. Depending on the placement of the planets one can go as far as to see a person’s strengths and weaknesses, when they will get married, have children, wealth, poverty, health, illness, go through rough periods, sweet periods, etc. Judaism acknowledges that God endowed power to the celestial bodies to influence humanity. The real doubt has always lied in where it leaves a person’s free will? If the planets have power over me, is my destiny really in my hands or am I just a victim to the cosmos? The days of creation reveal the truth. The planets were made on the fourth day where the human was made on the sixth. Indeed God gave man the power to overcome the influence of the cosmos. The stars do not define one’s life, God endowed the human being with the power to choose the path they walk. The alignment of your stars may predisposition you to be a certain way or have a certain life, but the ultimate decider of how you channel those gifts and weaknesses is all in your hands. Whether one uses what heaven gives them towards positive or negative will lie in their freedom of choice. And that makes all the difference.

There is no doubt the celestial bodies have heavenly influence, but when the human unlocks the light of his soul there is no power other than God that can define his path. God made the human being with the greatest influence in the created world, more than the planets, humanity defines which course the world takes and what path each individual walks.

The root of all sin : Ingratitude

Probably the most famous misunderstood story in the entire bible is of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. The way most interpret it goes as follows: God places Adam and Eve in the garden, a place that is an absolute paradise. Every possible pleasure a human could envision, God made it all just for them. He desires of them to take pleasure in this paradise but on one condition, “of all the fruit in the garden you may enjoy but the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil you must not consume”. And in comes the snake convincing Eve to eat from the forbidden fruit. Eve denies, “God commanded not to! For we shall surely die”. The snake pushes it, “You won’t die, God just knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be open and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” The snake convinced Eve that there was something God had that she didn’t and alas she caved in and brought Adam down with her. As a result they were kicked out of paradise and thrown into the real world where man has to work and woman has to bear children and the snake must roll on its belly and eat dust. But what was the real root cause of the sin? On the surface Eve ate from the forbidden fruit but what was the root of what caused her to do that? You see, Eve had everything, she was in paradise, but it still wasn’t enough for her. She wanted more. Eve suffered from a human disease called ingratitude. Had she been overwhelmed in thankfulness for her lot she wouldn’t have cared for what the snake had to offer. But her mindset was that of, “yes I am so blessed, I have so much but I could have more.” And this is the true root of all sin. The idea that I need more in order to be happy and satisfied. The idea that what God has given me is not enough. Much like Eve we are all living in our own personal paradise. We have food, water, shelter, loving relationships, clean air, freedom, a beautiful world surrounding us. And yet, it’s still not enough. We are plagued with the idea that we need to be more and have more in order to reach this feeling of fulfillment. But much like Eve, we follow the trap of the snake only to realize it was all one big lie. Eating of the fruit didn’t make her feel better about herself, only worse.

If ingratitude was the root of all sin, than gratitude must be the antidote. God gave Adam and Eve paradise for one reason alone, gratitude. God wanted them to live in gratitude. To appreciate every detail of the beautiful garden God placed them in. This is the same thing God seeks for each of us in our lives today, a grateful heart. When you live in gratitude for your lot you are quite literally rectifying the sin of Adam and Eve. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking what God gives you is not enough. The only reason Eve fell for the trap was because she wasn’t living in a grateful mindset to begin with. Had she been, she would’ve never fallen for the cunning of the snake. So too with each of us, if we are constantly living in a mindset of gratitude, we cannot fall prey to the cunning of the snake in our personal lives. Ingratitude is the tool the snake uses to get humanity to sin. Gratitude therefore becomes our single greatest secret weapon to combat the snake in our lives. While there are a multitude of ways the sages interpret this story and a plethora of lessons to derive from each one, this one resonates most with me as I hope it did for you.