FUTURE PERFECT

Parashat Bereishit

Tishrei 27, 5783 / October 21-22, 2022

Torah Reading - Genesis 1:1 - 6:8

Haftarah - Isaiah 42:5 - 43:10 (Ashkenazim); Isaiah 42:5-21 (Sephardim)

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This d'var torah is offered for a refuah shleimah for Chanah Bella bat Kreina and Devorah bat Feigel.

This d'var torah is offered in honor of Adam Snyder, becoming a bar mitzvah this Shabbat. Mazal tov to Adam and his family!

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Lunch and Learn meets Tuesdays at 12:30 PM on Zoom and Facebook Live. We're continuing to read and discuss the Midrashic collection Ein Ya'akov. 

NO Lunch and Learn on October 25 or November 8. We will meet on November 1.

On November 1, we'll be at BT Shabbat 28b - page 114 of Ein Ya'akov Volume 1 -

 "...מאי הוי עלה דתחש" - "What remains of the discussion regarding the so-called badger (Tachash)..."

Ein Ya'akov is available for on-line reading or as a downloadable PDF at: 
https://hebrewbooks.org/9630 
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Rabbi Van Leeuwen has a blog which you should read at: 
https://rebjasonblog.wordpress.com/blog/ 

Dr. Steve Pearlman writes up the "Midrashim of the Week", which you should read at: 
https://midrashsrp.wordpress.com 
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Check out our wonderful community, and get lots of info about our various programs and becoming a Member at: https://bnaihayim.org/ 
 
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FUTURE PERFECT

"And the heavens and the earth and all their hosts were finished. And by the seventh day God finished all God's work that God had done, and God rested on the seventh day from all the work that God had done. And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because on it God rested from all the work of creating that God had done." Genesis 2:1-3.

The above verses are chanted in the synagogue and at the Shabbat evening table as the lead-in to Kiddush. In their book, "Five Cities of Refuge", Rabbi Lawrence Kushner and playwright David Mamet point out that work and Shabbat observance go together – they are inseparable. Like God, we can truly bless our work only by refraining from it for a day, and then by reflecting on the work we have done.

They also point out that the chapter and verse structure of the Torah is a construct, which artificially separates Shabbat (Chapter 2) from the rest of Creation (Chapter 1). This is symbolic, they suggest, of our broken world. And it is a reason why we silently say the concluding words of Chapter 1, "and there was evening and there was morning, a sixth day", before chanting Kiddush.

I would note that the Jewish mystics have taught that a way to repair the world is through "yichidut", the Unification of God's Holy Name. One way we can “repair” Shabbat, then, might be to reunify Shabbat with the rest of the week - not by working on Shabbat, not by resting all week, but by realizing that our work, which is never done, can have meaning for us only if we take time off to contemplate that which we have not created - and understand that we play a role, however minor, in perfecting that Creation.

Rabbi Richard A. Flom
Rabbi Emeritus
Temple B’nai Hayim/Congregation Beth Meier
.אֵיזֶהוּ חָכָם? הַלוֹמֵד מִכָּל אָדָם
Who is wise? The one who learns from every person.
Ben Zoma - Pirkei Avot 4:1
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