JEWISH WORLD

By SHLOMO RISKIN T hat we begin our communal Torah readings once again with the Book of Genesis on the first Shabbat following the festival period from Rosh Hash- anah to Shmini Atzeret-Simchat Torah is much more than a calen- drical accident. The first chapters of Genesis serve as a resounding confirmation of the true nature of the human being and what it is that God expects of him. In his groundbreaking work Family Redeemed , my teacher and mentor Rav J.B. Soloveitchik typo- logically defines the two aspects of the human being delineated in the first two chapters of Genesis. The first is a majestic description of the creation of the universe in six days (or epochs), with the human being emerging as an integral aspect of an evolutionary process. The human may be the highest expres- sion of this process, emerging as he does near the conclusion of the sixth day after the Earth has “brought forth every kind of living creature: cattle, reptiles and wild beasts of every kind” (Gen. 1:24), but he remains “a creature” as much as they are This becomes patently clear when the Almighty declares, “Let us make the human being in our image and as our likeness” (Gen. 1:26). Nahmanides interprets this to mean that God was addressing the animals and beasts. The human being will be subject to the same physical strengths and limitations, to the same cycle of birth, develop- ment, decline and death, with the same need for nutrition, and instinct to procreate as animals do. Rav Soloveitchik dubbed this aspect of the human being Natural Man; I would suggest calling him Bestial Man. Herein lies the source for those who view man as an ani- mal, however complex, devoid of true freedom of choice to change himself or change the world. That world is based on a “survival of the fittest” and “to the victor belongs the spoils” mentality. War is an ideal because it tests the physical prowess and courage of men, weeding out the weak among them. From this perspective, morality is merely the product of little minds and even weaker bodies, a vain attempt to curb the appetites of the truly powerful. This mindset paves the way for totalitarianism, Jihadism. C hapter 2, however, tells a very different story of the genesis of man, of a world created not only by a powerful E-lohim (the Hebrew E-l means “Power”) but also a loving HaShem (YHVH) E- lohim, YHVH is the Eternal loving Lord of Israel and the world (Exo. 34:6). This chapter begins “when no shrub of the field was yet on earth and no grasses of the field had yet sprouted because there was no human being to till the earth” (Gen. 2:5), and so the loving “Hashem Elohim formed the human being from dust of the earth into whose nostrils He exhaled the soul of life.” It is as though the entire physical world waited for the human being to activate it, to com- plete and perfect it, to redeem it. The world is physical and men are physical beings, with all the strengths and the limitations that entails. But it is an eternal and spir- itual God who created the world, and it is that God who instilled part of His own spiritual being in man. How meaningful are the words of the sacred Zohar and the Ba’al Ha- Tanya: “whoever exhales, exhales from within Himself, from His innermost, essential being.” This is the creation of Celestial Man. “The loving HaShem (YHVH) E-lohim…placed (the human) in the Garden of Eden to till it ( le’abed , “to develop and perfect it”) and to preserve it ( le’shomrah , “to take responsibility for it”). The world is an imperfect creation, filled with darkness as well as light, with evil as well as good (Isa. 45:7). And the human being is a hybrid creature, part dust of the earth and part tzelem E-lohim , who will engage in a perennial struggle between the bestial and celestial within himself. But the Bible promises that “at the very portals to life, until the very opening of the grave, sin crouches, its desire ener- gized to conquer [the human], but the human will conquer sin, will overcome evil” (Gen. 4:7). And so we conclude Yom Kippur with the exultant shout that HaShem the Loving Lord YHVH is E-lohim, the God of Love is the essence, that right will triumph over might. Every human being must find within himself the God-given strength to work towards perfect- ing this world in the Kingship of the Divine ( Aleynu ); to recreate himself, to properly direct his/her children to make an improvement within his/her community and society. May we not squander this God-given opportunity to make our lives a partnership with God, to bring us and our world a bit closer to Redemption. Shlomo Riskin is chief rabbi of Efrat, Israel. Bestial Man, Celestial Man Parshat Bereshit Genesis 1:1-6:8 Man is a physical being, with all its limitations. But God instilled part of His own spiritual being in him. DVAR TORAH JEWISH WORLD • OCTOBER 16-22, 2020 7