PARSHAT BEREISHIT

 (5768)

 

EVOLUTION

 

“The two of them were naked, the man and the woman, yet they felt no shame.”

                                                                        (Genesis 2:25)

 

            Ask the average person in our congregation, and they will tell you that each of us must make a choice.  Either we choose to believe, as most scientists do, in evolution.  Or else we believe, as religion teaches, in creation.  Either we follow Darwin and accept random mutations, natural selection, and species evolving into other species as an explanation of life.  Or else we follow our religious faith, read the book of Genesis, and believe that God created separate species, each “according to its own kind.”  Most people believe you cannot have both.

            I humbly disagree.  I absolutely hold that one can accept the best scientific explanation for the origin of species and still believe that God is the Creator of life.  I believe that one can belief in both evolution and creation.  After all, Charles Darwin himself was not anti-religious; he had studied for the ministry before becoming a naturalist.  Asa Gray, an American botanist and the strongest advocate for Darwin in America, was a deeply religious Christian.  For a more contemporary view of a scientist who is also a religious believer, I recommend Francis Collins book The Language of God.

            For our purpose this week, let us suppose that evolution is true.  (It is important to remember that no scientific theory can ever be proven totally true.  What makes something a science is the ability to falsify it, as Karl Popper has taught.  Evolution may someday be falsified and a new theory put in its place.  But for the moment evolution is the accepted explanation for the explosion of life on earth.)  Evolution teaches that life is ever changing, with one species transforming into another over long periods of time.  The driving force is genetic mutations and natural selection, what some would later call “the survival of the fittest.”

            Suppose this is true.  Can it be reconciled with the Bible?  To answer that question, I love reading the story of the Garden of Eden.  A man is planted in the Garden and a woman is made from his rib.  They are permitted to eat from any tree in the Garden except one, the tree of knowledge of good and evil.  They live in the Garden “naked and unashamed.”   Who goes through life naked and unashamed?  Animals.  This is a story of an earlier phase of evolution, when we humans were still animal-like.

            The woman and the man are tempted and eat from the fruit of the tree of knowledge.  (By the way, nowhere does it say that the fruit was an apple.  It could have been any fruit; the Talmud says it was an etrog.)   Their eyes open up; they realize they are naked and find fig leaves to cover themselves.  Suddenly the man and woman are no longer animal-like.  They have reached the next stage of evolution, and become fully human.  They now have the ability to make moral choices.

            Many religious people see this story as a fall from grace.  I do not like the word “fall”; I have always read it as a rising up, reaching a new level on the evolutionary pathway.  It is a mythological telling of the link from animals to human beings.  Humans have new skills that animals lack – a larger brain, the ability to make tools, and most crucial, the ability to use language to communicate.  Humans also have new obligations – to rise above instincts and make moral choices.  Evolution led to new possibilities and new responsibilities. 

            I believe the Biblical account fits perfectly with evolution.   It tells the story of the rise of humanity to a different level of being.  Perhaps we are descendents from lower animals.  But the key issue is not, from where did we descend but rather, to where are we going.  Perhaps it took billions of years for us humans to appear on the earth.  But we are the first animals with the ability and the power to be God’s partners in the future process of evolution.  The evolutionary past was in God’s hands; the evolutionary future is in ours.

 

 

PARSHAT BEREISHIT

(5766)

 

AFTER HURRICANE WILMA

 

“It is not good for man to be alone.” (Genesis 2:18)

 

            I thought for the first time in over six years I would not send out a message this week.  For almost three days we had no power, no telephone service, and no internet.   Did people actually survive before all these conveniences?  We were lucky after Hurricane Wilma hit early Monday morning.  Our house sustained little damage, and our power came on fairly quickly.  Most important, no one was injured.  Many who are reading this had more serious damage and are still waiting for power; I pray everybody is alright.

            Again the question arises – why?   Someone told me shortly before the hurricane that I do not have to worry where I live in Coral Springs, FL.  After all, Coral Springs has no strip clubs, porn shops, or gambling casinos.  God will send His fury on other cities with more vices.  (I think he was referring to New Orleans.)   If only theology were so simple – if God zaps the bad places and saves the good places.  Since the book of Job, we humans have realized that God does not work that way.  Good people and bad people, and most of us somewhere-in-the-middle people, feel the wrath of hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, and the more personal tragedies such as cancer cells and birth defects.  A hurricane is not making moral decisions when it chooses where to land.

            So I go back to the question – where was God?  I shared an answer last year when the tsunami hit.  Actually, the Bible already provides an answer.  (see 1 Kings, chapter 19)  The prophet Elijah, fleeing for his life from the king Ahab and his wife Jezebel, ran to the mountain of the Lord.  (Sinai?)   There the Lord appeared to him.  There was a great and mighty wind, but the Lord was not in the wind.  There was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.  Then there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire.  Finally there was  a kol d’mama daka , “a still small voice.”  And the Lord was in the still small voice.

God created nature.  But God is not within nature.  Nature works according to its own laws.  Long ago a wise rabbi asked the question, if a farmer steals wheat from another farmer and plants it, should it not grow?  Shouldn't the farmer be punished for stealing the wheat.  The rabbi answered, olam keminhago nahag, “the world behaves according to its nature.”  The laws of nature happen, irrespective of our moral qualms.    

 So the world acts according to its own laws.  Nature takes its course.  Earthquakes and tornadoes, genetic mutations and cancer cells, tsunamis and of course, hurricanes do not make moral judgments about their victims.  They happen, because we live in a world of natural laws.  That is the way of the world of matter and energy, space and time, it is a world of natural laws.
            But why these particular laws?   Why did God not make different laws, laws that would be more fair? When God began to create the world, God fine tuned the laws so that human beings would emerge.  If God had made the laws a little bit different, there would be no life.  If gravity was a little weaker, matter would have diffused through the universe and there would be nothing except random hydrogen molecules.  If gravity were a little stronger the sun would have burnt itself out long before life could evolve.  In this world of matter, everything is made just right so that humans would emerge. 

The world goes according to nature's laws.  Human beings are made of carbon because that is the best chemical to build life.  However, the same forces that released carbon from rocks in the earth's crust cause hurricanes and earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunamis.  The same forces that allow genetic mutations so that life could evolve also cause birth defects and cancer cells.  The same gravitational force that allowed the stars to be formed causes disaster when an airplane falls from the sky. 

When God made the world, God looked at it and saw that it was Tov Meod, “very good.” It was very good, but not perfect.  So God created us humans to perfect God’s world.  We call it tikkun olam, the perfection of the world.  Jewish tradition tells the story of a king with two sons.  He could not decide which son was worthy to inherit his kingdom.  So he gave both sons wheat, and told them to take care of it properly and come back in thirty days to show what they have done.  The first son came and handed back the wheat, “I guarded your precious wheat carefully, no water touched it, no one stole it.  Here it is just as you handed it to me.” The second son came and handed his dad a loaf of bread.  “I have perfected your wheat.”  Guess which one inherited the kingdom.

            So here we have the beginning of an answer to the question, where was God?  According to kabbala, God contracted Him/Herself so that a world could emerge.  God fine tuned the laws of nature to allow human beings to emerge.  God has a role, a mission for us human beings.  We are to be God's partners in creation.  We are to join God in perfecting this world. 

            I had a wonderful insight in the aftermath of Wilma.  I spent time talking to neighbors whom I barely knew before the hurricane hit.  We helped each other, with everything from hurricane shutters to food, from letting people use the few working cell phones to giving each other moral support.  When the Torah taught long ago, “it is not good for man to be alone,” it was speaking of far more than marriage.  It was speaking of the most important religious truth - human beings need human beings to help them through difficult times.  Or as Barbra Streisand once sang, “People who need people are the luckiest people in the world.” 

 

 

PARSHAT BEREISHIT

(5764) 

 

WHO WILL PROVIDE?

 

"By the sweat of your brow shall you get bread to eat."

(Genesis 3:19)

 

My children are becoming young adults.  Two are in college, one is in high school.   I am trying very hard to teach them that my wife and I will not provide for them forever.  It is our responsibility to provide for them as they are growing up, we are happy to provide for them while they are in college (assuming they take their studies seriously), we may even help with some graduate school.  But eventually they must learn to sustain themselves economically.

This week's portion speaks of the human exile from the Garden of Eden.  The story is not meant to be a literal history, but rather a poetic vision of deep human truths.  The Garden represents humans in an animal-like or child-like state.  (After all, while in the Garden we were "naked and not ashamed," like animals or young children.)  All of our needs were taken care of; all we had to do was eat of the lush vegetation.  Then we ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, we grew up, and were forced out of the Garden.  No longer could we eat like mere animals.  We would have to till the soil, grow wheat, and work hard to produce bread.  Or we would have to work hard in the world for the money to buy bread.

So today; humans have a responsibility to go out into the world and earn a living.  The world does not owe us a living.  Parents have an obligation to teach their children to provide for themselves.  According to the Talmud, speaking in male language, "A father who does not teach his son a craft teaches him thievery.'   (Kiddushin 30b)    In the old days it was often assumed that the laws about being a provider only applied to men; women would depend on their husbands for provision.  Those days have longed past.  Even without the issues raised by modern feminism, the high divorce rates and the number of single moms have made it urgent that women also become providers.

I raise these issues because today more than ever, in my Rabbinic counseling, I try to help people who are struggling to provide.  Some are still dependent on their parents, often well into their thirties and beyond.  Some are dependent on government welfare.  Some cannot hold a job.  And perhaps most difficult of all, some were successful providers for many years before being downsized out of a job, leaving their families to face painful financial realities.

Many people would say that this is a government problem.  The government owes everybody minimum provision.   Certainly the government ought to provide a safety net for those unable to work.  But one could argue that the kind of welfare state found in Europe, where the government uses taxation to provide for everyone from cradle to grave, can be economically stifling.  The key issue is one of personal responsibility.  According to the Torah, by the sweat of our brow are we to bring forth bread.  We must go out into the world and work for a living.  That is a lesson my wife and I must teach our children.

How do we succeed?  Again, the world does not owe us a living.  We all must buy or sell in the marketplace.  Some of us have products to sell.  But for many of us, we have nothing to sell but our own labor, our hard work, our integrity and honesty, and our knowledge.  When people speak about their struggle to earn a living, I always ask, "What can you do to make yourself more valuable to a potential employer?  What degrees do you have or can you realistically earn?  What skills can you learn?  What responsibilities can you take on?  How can you make yourself more valuable to a potential employer?"

Too many people still want to live in the Garden of Eden.  They believe that their parents will provide, the government will provide, their spouse or their kids will provide, God will provide.  Perhaps some day we will reenter the Garden of Eden, living in a place where we are cared for without a struggle by a loving, paternal God.  Until that day, each of us must learn to be a provider.  As a parent, my job is to teach this difficult fact of life to my children as they prepare to go out into the adult world.

 

 

 

PARSHAT BEREISHIT

(5763)

 

NAKED AND NOT ASHAMED

 

"The two of them were naked, the man and his wife, and not ashamed."

(Genesis 2:35)

 

I find the image of the first man and woman, naked and not ashamed, to be one of the most powerful in the Bible.  It is rich with many different meanings, not all of them sexual.  Let me share one interpretation I use frequently in my counseling, not simply for married couples but for all relationships.

We human beings are born with a certain amount of human dignity.  Consider it like a bank account, with everybody given a set amount from the moment of birth.  Other human beings have the ability to go into our bank account and add to the human dignity.  But those same human beings have the ability to go into our bank account and take from our human dignity.

To protect our dignity, we place walls that prevent others from touching our account.  We cover ourselves up.  The more we cover up, the more we prevent people from taking dignity from our personal account.  However, those same human barriers also prevent others from adding to our account and enhancing our dignity.  If we want to cover up entirely, we can totally protect ourselves.  But we become closed off from others.  To quote the popular Simon and Garfinkle song from a generation ago, "I am a rock, I am an island.  I touch no one and no one touches me."

To keep the protective walls up is the safest way to live our lives.  But it is also the saddest way to live our lives.  Our bank account, our well of human dignity is never diminished.  Nor is it ever enhanced.  We remain untouched, other humans cannot effect us for the bad nor for the good.  Human beings were not created to be closed off from other human beings, "it is not good for man to be alone."  (Genesis 2:18)

Relationships begin when we start to lower our protective barriers.  This is true for any kind of relationship, whether at work, among neighbors, with friends, or with our family.  When we lower the walls that protect us, we become vulnerable.  We give others the ability to cause us pain.  But we also give them the ability to raise us up.  It is intriguing that when the Bible speaks about relationships, particularly in the sexual sphere, it uses the phrase "uncover his/her nakedness."  The phrase could also have a non-sexual connotation, to lower one's vulnerability, let the walls down.

The more we are willing to lower the barriers, the more we allow others to lift us up, enhance our dignity, add to our account.  It is obviously scary because we can be hurt.  The key is trust.  The greatest relationships in our lives are those where there is the most trust.  We open ourselves up to another human being, with the full trust that they will not act in a way which lowers our dignity.

Nowhere is this kind of trust more important than in a marriage.  I tell every bride and groom who meet with me that they should be "naked and not ashamed."  I do not mean that they become physically naked, but rather spiritually naked.  They need to lower the wall which separates them from one another.  They need to trust.   They need to find ways to enhance each other's dignity.  They need to constantly add to their partner's bank account.

On the other hand, in a marriage each partner knows the other's vulnerability.  Each knows precisely how to zing it to the other.  That is why trust is so important.  In fact, when I speak to our teens about marriage, I tell them the number one ingredient for a successful marriage is not love, but rather trust.

This is true for all the important relationships in our lives.  We need to stand "naked and not ashamed," vulnerable, with the walls lowered.  Only then can those closest to us deposit more in our account and enhance our dignity.

 

 

PARSHAT BEREISHIT

(5762)

 

IMAGE OF GOD

 

"God created man in His image, in the image of God He created him, male and female He created them."

(Genesis 1:27)

 

The cycle begins again.  Once again we read the opening chapters of Genesis - creation, Adam and Eve, the Garden of Eden, Cain and Abel, technological advance and moral decline, the ten generations from Adam to Noah.

There is so much in this portion worthy of comment.  What is the essence of this portion, the key point on which to focus?  I believe it is the teaching that human beings are created in the image of God.

Human beings are qualitatively different from anything else in God’s creation, different from the plant and animal kingdom.  We contain a spark of God, or more precisely, the breath of God within us.  We are intrinsically different from anything else God made in the universe.

What does this mean?  Although the Torah uses the phrase image of God, we know that God has no body.  We do not look like God.  It means that like God, we are able to make moral choices, we are able to create, we are able to be God's partners in the perfection of this world.  We humans play a special role in God's plan; some have used the phrase created co-creators.  There is a holiness in each and every human being.

The Torah makes it clear that every human contains this divine spark.  It teaches explicitly that females as well as males were created in God's image.  This is more remarkable when we consider that the Torah was given to a pagan world where women had second class status.

The Talmud also makes it clear that all humans of every race and every ethnicity are created in the image of God.  "Why did all humanity descend from one man (Adam).  So that no person shall say my father was greater than your father."  (Sanhedrin 4:5)  Black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Jew, Christian, Moslem, Hindu, atheist, straight, gay, male, and female, we all have an intrinsic holiness, we all contain the breath of God.

This is the most fundamental teaching of all the world's great religious faiths.  It is unfortunate that it took the great tragedy of September 11 to remind us of this teaching.  On that day we saw humans put their lives on the line for other humans, people they did not even know.  We saw people working to help each other, rescue survivors, give comfort to mourners, donate blood and money and supplies, do whatever they could to help one another.  It took terrorists who denied the humanity of others for us to recognize the humanity of one another.

Now time is passing, and I see the same human pettiness creeping back into our lives.  Can we recognize the holiness of the person who cuts us off on the highway?  What about the person who stands in the express line at the supermarket with eleven items in their cart?  What about the person whose cell phone rings while we are at the movies?  Or the person who received the synagogue honor on the High Holidays that we felt was coming to us?

I recently received a wonderful example by email.  A group of high school seniors were given a final exam for a course on human ethics.  The test contained only one question: "What is the name of the custodian who cleans up after you here in our school?"  Do we recognize the holiness or even the humanity of the fellow humans who make our lives function?  Every time we encounter another human, particularly one we might take for granted, we ought to say, "This person was created in the image of God."

This week I want to end with a question for your thought and consideration.  Were the terrorists who committed the September 11 atrocities also created in the image of God?  Tell me what you think.

 

 

PARSHAT BEREISHIT

(5761)

 

THE TWO TREES

 

"God caused to grow ... the Tree of Life in the midst of the garden, and the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil."

(Genesis 2:9)

 

God planted a garden in Eden.  And God planted two trees in the midst of the garden, the Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Life.  This is a very ancient myth.  Like most myths, it contains profound truths which are applicable today.

What was the purpose of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil?  The Torah teaches that before Adam and Eve ate from the tree, they were naked and not ashamed.  Who runs around naked and not ashamed?  Animals do.  And young children do.  Of course, young children eventually learn right from wrong, and grow out of this animal like state.  As for animals, someone recently commented about the new dog we brought into our household, "Congratulations, you now have another child.  Except this one will never grow up."

Animals and children are innocents.  They do not know good and evil, and they are incapable of making moral choices.  Children need to be taught right from wrong.  Animals never make moral choices.  The coyote that kills the sheep is not committing an evil act, it is simply following the inner drives hardwired into its brain. 

Before Adam and Eve ate of the fruit (it was not necessarily an apple) they were animal-like.  By eating of the fruit, they raised themselves up to a higher level of existence, with the ability to make moral choices.

Why would God plant such a tree, and then forbid Adam and Eve from eating its fruit?  Did God not want us humans to rise above animal instincts?  I suppose it is similar to a mother baking delicious cookies, leaving them on the kitchen table, and telling her children not to touch them while she is gone.  The temptation is too great.  I believe deep down, God really wanted us to eat. 

After Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge, God exiled them from the Garden of Eden.  The Torah gives a reason.  "Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil, and now, lest he put forth his hand and take also from the Tree of Life and live forever."  (Genesis 3:22)  If we ate from the Tree of Life, we would become godlike and live forever.  That was not part of God's plan.  We humans were to be partners with God, not co-equals to God.

Thus we can understand the psychological meaning of this very ancient tale.  There are three levels of cognitive existence.  The lowest level is the animal world, able to perceive the world and think, but not make moral choices.  The next level is humanity, higher than the animals through our knowledge of good and evil.  The highest level is the spiritual world, God-like because they are able to live forever.

We humans are suspended somewhere between the world of the animals and the world of God.  Like animals, we have appetites that must be satisfied.  We eat, sleep, reproduce our own kind, and eventually we die.  We cannot live forever.  Like the spiritual world, however, we are able to make moral choices and act as God's partner in creation.  We may not be gods, but we can be Godlike in our actions.

The rest of the Torah deals with a fundamental question - How can we humans raise ourselves above the animal kingdom and become as God-like as possible?  We never ate of the Tree of Life, we cannot live forever, but through our actions we can be God's partners and change the universe forever.

 

 

PARSHAT BEREISHIT

(5760)

 

FROM CHAOS TO LIGHT

 

"And the world was void and without form ... and God said, Let there be light."  (Genesis 1:2-3)

 

What is the creation story all about?  What is it trying to teach us?

The traditional translation of the first verse of the Torah is In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, And the earth was void and without form.  The words seem to indicate that in the beginning God created chaos.  The first thing God made is a turbulent universe, wild and without form. 

However, this is a mistranslation.  For those who know Hebrew or who have studied Rashi's comments, the words indicate the precise opposite.  A better translation is When God began to create the heavens and the earth, when the earth was void and without form ... God said, Let there be light.  Before God began His creation, the world was chaos.  God's first act was to bring order to this chaos.

There is a word in modern scientific terminology for chaos -  entropy.  What is entropy?  All systems eventually wear down.  Or as the poet W.B. Yeats put it, "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."  All things, rocks and mountains, humans beings, planets and suns, the universe itself, eventually wears down and dies.  Entropy is an absolute scientific law of the universe.   Chaos is the natural order of existence.  Every system falls apart, unless something outside the system infuses it with energy.  Without some outside force, the world would be void and without form.

So what was the light God created?  It was not electromagnetic radiation, there was no source for such light.  The sun was not created until the fourth day.  Perhaps the light was actually the fundamental life force of the universe, anti-entropy, the source of energy which brings order out of chaos.

Let us now retranslate the first lines of Genesis.  At the dawn of time the universe was chaotic, at maximum entropy.  And God infused this universe with a creative lifeforce strong enough to overcome entropy.  This life force brought order out of chaos, creating more and more complex lifeforms, and eventually humanity itself.

In Kansas, officials are arguing whether to teach creationism or evolution in the schools.  They believe the teaching of evolution is somehow anti-religious.  In my mind, they have it all wrong.  Evolution is the movement from less complex to more complex, from simple proteins to complex organism, from lesser to greater forms of life, from animals to humans.  Evolution is the precise opposite of entropy, it is the movement from chaos to order.  Evolution is proof of a fundamental life force in the universe.  The evolution of life, and particularly human life out of a chaotic universe is the strongest indication for the existence of a living God.