Dvar Torah for Parshat Bereishis

Based on Likutey Halakhot, Hilkhot Sukah 6:11

“God took Adam to the Garden [of Eden], to cultivate it and to protect it.”
(Genesis 2:15)

“To cultivate it and protect it.” This is most curious. After all, Adam was in the Garden of Eden. Work was unnecessary because everything grew by itself. What would he have to cultivate? There were no other people in the world - from whom would he have to protect it?

The answer to both question is, of course, himself.

In kabbalistic parlance our world is called Olam HaAsiyah, the World of Action. There are two types of asiyah. One is the asiyah of mitzvot, the other the asiyah of the medameh/imagination. The former embodies God’s prescriptive wisdom for coming to know Him (Likutey MoHaran I, 30:3). The latter manifests the intellect of the imagination, which is not solely the domain of human beings - we share it with all members of the animal kingdom that eat, sleep and perform other bodily functions.

The true mark of man, the intelligence which potentially separates us from lower life forms (Rashi on Genesis 2:7), cannot be contained within a body controlled and contaminated by the lust of animal desire. There is no denying that there is much creativity in mankind’s collective consciousness. The various inventions which we use, misuse and abuse, and perhaps even enjoy, all attest to that. However, that kernel of intelligence to recognize the One Who Spoke the World into Existence, is available only to the genuine tzaddikim, those saints who are so in love with God that they have dedicated themselves to quieting the demands and cravings of the body. What are the rest of us to do?

Fortunately for mere mortals like me, God in His infinite mercy has given us the ability to have faith. The capacity to believe is one of the functions of the medameh. One who wants to perceive the emeser emes (ultimate truth) can draw upon himself faith in God. This cultivation of faith depends upon one’s willingness to recognize and acknowledge his true condition - namely, that he is far from knowing what spirituality, religion and God are all about; that, in fact, he must efface himself totally to our Patriarchs and Moshe Rabbeinu (Moses our Teacher) who were the first to succeed in totally overcoming the deafening roar of the body. One who does that can come to perfect faith which in turn leads to having kol tuv.

How does one refine his medameh so that he can have an ever-purer faith, an ever-clearer recognition of Hashem (God)? With the hand. That is, one has to fulfill the mitzvot required by the Torah and keep to the spiritual practices recommended by the tzaddikim. (Obviously, one cannot keep all the practices suggested by all the tzaddikim throughout the centuries. Nonetheless, one does need to consult and consider the works containing such suggestions to find what “fits,” what practices foster his personal growth in matters of faith and behavior.) It is impossible to believe in God or to cling to Him, without doing, without performing, actions that manifest and perpetuate belief in God. Not only that. One who fails to observe the mitzvot so jeopardizes his spiritual welfare that he may ultimately cast his faith away in its entirety. “Don’t outsmart yourself. You might destroy yourself” (Ecclesiastes 7:15).

One has to do a lot - a lot of Torah study, prayer and mitzvot. This is the crux of life. If one also merits clinging to Hashem “it is wonderful to hold on to both” (ibid. v. 17). In fact, doing what one is supposed to, and refraining from what one ought not to do, is clinging to God! How can we “cling to [God]” (Deuteronomy 10:20) Who is a “consuming fire” (ibid., 4:24)? Only by following His example: performing acts of kindness and other mitzvot, spending time in Torah study, and praying (see Sotah 14a, Berakhot 6a, Avodah Zarah 3b, Berakhot 7a).

Each of us walks around with the Torah literally in his hands. Our fingers are the 10 Commandments and our arms are the Tablets - “the Two Tablets of the Covenant in my hands” (Deuteronomy 9:15). Shortly before his death Rebbe Eliezer, the teacher of Rebbe Akiva, placed his arms on his heart and said, “Woe to my two arms that are two like rolled-up Torah scrolls.” Even though this great sage had accomplished much in his lifetime, he felt that there was so much more that he could have done - the scrolls were still unwrapped (Sanhedrin 68a). How much of our potential still lays waiting?

And so again each of us finds himself placed in his own personal “Garden of Eden” charged with the mission “to cultivate it and protect it.” May God protect us from serpents and ourselves, and help us to get it right this time around. Amen!

agutn Shabbos!
Shabbat Shalom!