The formal end of the Holy Day Season means we have once again begun the annual cycle of reading the Torah.
This week’s portion, Bereshit, begins with the mythic story of Creation. Strikingly, according to the story, God doesn’t actually CREATE anything. Instead, through the power of Divine speech (“and God said… and it was so.”) God is described as imposing order where there was once chaos or, as Torah puts it, tohu va’vohu. According to the text of the Torah the process of creation took seven “days” yet the Sun, and therefore a 24 hour day, did not come into existence until the fourth day. In other words, rather than God starting with nothing and creating the world in a week, the Torah itself describes a creative process that began with chaos and slowly moved toward order. This process began with the appearance of simple plants and animals that, over time, became more complex, and unfolded over some extended period of time that was not a seven day week.
In short, Torah was NEVER intended to be taken literally. That does not, however, make it any less precious, sacred or central to our lives as a Jewish community. For the study of Torah is not like any other type of study.
I’m reminded of a story told by my teacher Rabbi Larry Kushner. Rabbi Kushner was doing a tour of the sanctuary with a class of preschoolers. When he was about to open the heavy doors on the ark and show the children what was inside the teacher told him they were out of time. They agreed to finish the tour a week later.
During the week between visits the children in the class couldn’t stop talking about the big doors and what was inside.
One child, the skeptic, said, “It’s a big, empty room.”
A second child, this one a future hedge fund manager, said, “I hope it is filled with gold.”
A third child, this one a realist, said, “Behind the doors is where we keep the Torah.”
A fourth child sat quietly at the back of the room.
“What do you think is behind the doors?” asked the teacher.
The child thought for a minute and then said, “I think behind the doors is a big mirror so we can see ourselves.”
That’s the essence of Torah study. It isn’t a history book and, despite what some elected officials seem to believe, it isn’t a policy guide. It is, however, a mirror to gain insights into ourselves and, in the process, our place in, and obligations to, this world.
The Torah is not “true” but it contains many “truths.”
As this new cycle of Torah study begins I want to encourage you to make study part of your routine. There is no better way to connect to our past, deepen our understanding of the present and gain insights into what we, as a sacred community, can do to be God’s partner in the ongoing act of creation.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Daniel Cohen
