Bereshis Parsha Thoughts
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A Perfect World
Throughout the early part of the Torah we find Hashem called ‘Elokim’. From Creation onward He is called ‘Hashem Elokim’. Yet when the snake and Chava spoke to each other they referred to Hashem as ‘Elokim’. What does this signify?
One suggestion is that one of the reasons that Hashem’s name changed at the end of Creation is because the complete name of Hashem (= Hashem Elokim) is only fitting for a complete Creation. So says the Medrash. (Rashi seems to indicate another approach at the beginning of the Torah) When Creation was complete Hashem’s full name was used.
Following on this, perhaps the snake was insinuating to Chava that the world is improvised; it is unfinished and incomplete. There are loopholes. True, Hashem told you not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge, but that is an improvised prohibition, designed to stop you from becoming as great as Him. Don’t worry, you can eat, and get away with it too. The snake was proposing that Hashem was still ‘Elokim’; the world was still unfinished. Chava fell for the bait, and she ate.
We smile at the ideas of the snake: they seem so childish. Yet they are still in our hearts and minds. Do we really believe that the system is foolproof and the one and only road to success is serving Hashem, or do we sometimes think that we can beat the system, have our cake and eat it too?
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Instead Of?
‘And he called him Shes, for “Hashem has granted me another child, instead of Hevel, who Cain killed”‘
Why is Shes INSTEAD of Hevel? He was his own person – why attach him to Hevel?
Before the Torah, Yibum was practiced in different ways. Yehuda had sons from his daughter-in-law as a form of Yibum (Ramban). So perhaps Adam had Shes as a form of Yibum, a replacement and reconstruction of Hevel. He was ‘in the place of Hevel, for Cain killed him’.
Another thought is that Adam was commanded to be fruitful – ‘Pru U’rvu’ – as we are. Perhaps his halachos differed from ours: we fulfill our requirement with one boy and one girl. That’s because the world is pretty full; we just need to maintain it. Replacing the father and mother with a boy and girl suffices. However back then there were no people. If they would have only a boy and a girl the world would never fill up.
Perhaps their requirement was to have two boys and two girls. Cain and Hevel each had a twin sister, says the Midrash. When they were born, Adam fulfilled his requirement. Now Hevel died. Adam needed another son, because now he had only one boy. Shes was ‘instead of Hevel, who Cain killed’.
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Feeding The Hand That Bites You
Hashem made clothes for Adam and Chava after they sinned against Him. I suppose that if they were ashamed going natural, feeling shame because they ate from the Etz Hadaas, it ought to be their problem, not Hashem’s. And yet Hashem clothed them nonetheless.
R’ Moshe Feinstein z”l once wrote out a nice approbation to a sefer. His assistant asked him ‘Are you aware that you are viciously attacked in this very book?’ He answered ‘Yes’, he was aware of that.
He quoted the Tomar Devorah who explains the middah of ‘Nos’e Avon’; a person who sins creates a destroyer, an evil spiritual entity. This being needs sustenance, and it ought to go to who created it and draw what it needs from him. This might destroy or kill the sinner. Instead, Hashem sustains the evil destroyer, feeding it and nourishing it, although it exists against Him! He ‘carries the sin’ – literally! This allows time for the sinner to repent.
So too, said R’ Moshe, we need to ‘carry the sin’, supporting and helping those who attack us. That is why he wrote him a haskamah.
Something for us to learn from there, no?
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Owning Up
Hashem asked Adam if he had eaten the forbidden fruit. Adam answered ‘The woman you gave me fed me from the fruit’ – it was her fault!
Couldn’t he just man up and admit??
Rabbi Yehuda Addas shlit”a had an interesting thought: suppose a person would accidentally blow up a school, killing thousands of innocent children. Could he possibly own up to the fact? Could he possibly live with the guilt? Nope. No decent person could. Instead, he would go into a state of denial just to keep his sanity.
Adam appreciated the awfulness of sin so greatly that he simply couldn’t own up. He would go mad as a result. So he shifted the blame. He needed to.
Adam was every inch as brave as we are. Just he was a great man, and was horrified by sin. I think this is a useful reframe for us: Sin is terrible and horrific. May we feel the seriousness of sin!
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The Midrash Tanchuma in Vayeshev explains this differently: Hashem works in sometimes roundabout ways. When Hashem told Adam that he will be punished for eating form the Etz HaDaas, Adam said ‘In your Torah You wrote “Adam ki yamus b’ohel” – you preordained that man dies: now you blame it on me?? What is this like? A man once came home and demanded a cup of hot water from his wife. When she brought it to him he said “Hey, its only warm” and promptly pulled her divorce from his pocket. She said, “True, the cup was not hot enough, but just how did you have that Get ready in your pocket!?” Obviously its all an excuse!’
Adam meant: ‘You fixed a trap for me – you put this woman here to entrap me!’
So too, says the Midrash, Man was to die from the beginning. But Hashem wanted Adam to earn the punishment, so He set him up. This way it’s justified.
(The Midrash goes on to say that Moshe was similarly never intended to enter Eretz Yisroel – his grave was created at Creation – and that we were always intended to exile to Egypt – Yosef or no Yosef. Hashem, ‘noreh Alilah’, uses an ‘alilah’, a trick, and gets things done.) Not all is as it appears, it seems….
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The Olde Fight
The Medrash describes the fight between Kayin and Hevel. It began over the division of the world. One took for himself all the movables – the chattels – and the other all the land. Mr. Land then said to Mr. Duds: ‘The place where you stand is mine’. Mr. Duds rejoined, ‘Your clothes are mine, Mr. Land, return them right now!’ Mr. Land shouted back ‘Alright, get off my land; start flying!’
The fight grew and grew, until one killed the other.
Does’t it seem silly? The world is so vast. Neither of them could use all the land nor the movables. Why split the world? Why not share it?’
We like to feel unique, to specialize and stand out in some way. A doctor specializes one field, a plumber may stand out if he is the only plumber in town. Being just a doctor, or just another plumber, has small appeal. Its unspecial.
I suppose this derives from who we really are: each a soul special and unique, with unique mission on earth. This drive is then misdirected into superficial individuality.
Kayin and Hevel lived larger than life. We may not understand them. Yet the story sounds like these forces were at play. Each could not accept being the same as his brother: another land-worker or sheep-skin-wearer. Each felt the need to be special. So they divided the world, silly as it sounds.
What are the practical applications of this? One. As we recognize our fellowman’s need to feel unique, it would be nice to help give him that feeling. Two. We are apt to do things for no constructive purpose just in order to be unique. Watch for that! If we recognize our weakness, we can protect ourselves from it.
©2013
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