The Creation as a Pattern for Our Lives
Parashat B’reisheet, Genesis 1:1–6:8
Rabbi Stuart Dauermann, Ahavat Zion Messianic Synagogue, Los Angeles
The first book of the Bible, B’reisheet (Genesis), lays a foundation for the rest of the Torah and the entire Bible. But beyond this literary function, we do well to recognize how this book lays a foundation for our lives as descendants of the first parents, not simply individuals, but as people born into and through families, as members of a holy people.
In all of these areas, we must not underestimate B’reisheet. It is profound, it is relevant, and it gives life to those who heed the lessons it provides.
This week’s parasha includes the first five chapters of B’reisheet and the first eight verses of chapter six, but let’s limit ourselves to examining the first two chapters and the lessons they teach us about how we might better make our way in the world. This emphasis surely reflects the intent of Moshe when he wrote Genesis, as he was teaching an entire people, accustomed only to slavery in Egypt, to inhabit a new identity and thus make their way in the world from being slaves in Egypt, through the wilderness, to fullness of freedom in the Land of Promise.
What lessons might we extract from these two chapters for our journey through life?
1. The beginning of chapter one pictures the situation God is addressing at the very beginning of things. “The earth was unformed and void, darkness was on the face of the deep.” God then begins making order out of chaos, separating light from darkness, waters from waters, with both the sky and the dry land appearing. What is the lesson for us?
For each of us, from childhood on, life challenges us to bring order out of chaos. This is a manifestation of our kinship with Adonai in whose image we are made. If we want to live a rewarding, productive life, we must accept that chaos is always pressing in on us. Our life will be freer and more rewarding to the degree that we do as Hashem did here, making order in the midst of chaos.
2. The account goes on to describe God making distinctions in the midst of creation, intending that various aspects of creation adhere to affinity with others of their own kind.
God said, “Let the earth put forth grass, seed-producing plants, and fruit trees, each yielding its own kind of seed-bearing fruit, on the earth”; and that is how it was. The earth brought forth grass, plants each yielding its own kind of seed, and trees each producing its own kind of seed-bearing fruit; and God saw that it was good.” (1:11–12 CJB)
And what does that mean for us? Just this: Much of God’s creative work involved making distinctions between this and that. We too, in our lives, must not consider all the “stuff,” the options, and the experiences of life to be an undifferentiated whole. Rather, we must learn to make distinctions, choosing this instead of that, wisely making evaluations that structure who we choose and allow ourselves to be. Making choices is inevitable, and not to choose is also to choose. As Torah will say later, “I have presented you with life and death, the blessing and the curse. Therefore, choose life, so that you will live, you and your descendants” (Deut 30:19 CJB). From beginning to end, Torah admonishes us to remember that choices are inevitable, and we must make good ones.
3. There is another lesson for us in that section of the text, and it is this: when facing disorder and chaos, we must not only introduce order and make distinctions involving choices; we must also accept that the stuff of life is not mechanical and predictable. Life includes unpredictability. Life is not restricted to mere robotic mechanical conformity. We must learn to accept life as a risky business, more than mere material things placed like ducks in a row. We must learn to tolerate unpredictability.
4. In this parasha we see that God created the earth and its inhabitants to be fruitful. We should order our lives so as to increase our productivity, usefulness, and satisfaction. We were created not simply to be, but to live fruitful lives, to fill the earth and subdue it. In Philippians 1:21–24, Paul tells the Philippians that he was anxious to depart from this life to go to be with the Messiah. He viewed this as the best of choices. Yet he decided that he would remain in this life, serving the Philippians among others, because that meant fruitful labor. Paul used the criterion of fruitfulness as a guide to his choices. As Torah teaches, and Paul confirms, so should we. We should always be asking ourselves, “What is the best thing for me to be doing now? And what am I doing so as to leave behind me the best that I am and the best that I know for the benefit of others?”
5. Notice that in the created order, man was not at first created to have dominion over other human beings. We were to have dominion over other aspects of the created order, but not over one another. The idea of dominion is intoxicating to people who are energized by being in control of all that happens around them, even control of other people and of social systems. We need to remember that Yeshua cautioned against this impulse: “You know that the rulers of the nations lord it over them, and their great ones play the tyrant over them. It shall not be this way among you. But whoever wants to be great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you shall be your slave” (Matt 20:25–27 TLV). Let us seek to be the servants of others, rather than their masters.
6. The meaning of Torah’s teaching that it is not good for man to be alone (Gen 2:18) is not exhausted by talking about marriage. A more foundational understanding that we must not ignore lies beneath this text. Even when Adam, the first man, was surrounded by a perfect creation, with meaningful work given to him by God himself, and even after Adam has been spoken of as being created in God’s image, the text insists that man was not complete without the companionship of someone else of his kind. Even the companionship of God himself could not meet this need. This is why, only upon seeing Chava, Adam says, “At last! This is bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh” (2:23).
The lesson for us is that the good life cannot be attained simply with beautiful things, and meaningful work, and even with intense religious experience knowing God himself. For life to be truly good we must cultivate relationships with other persons. Only then, can we say with Adam, “At last!”
7. Shabbat is the only day in which God did not create anything new, yet it remains for us a most life-giving day because balance and focusing on the Lord and our relationships is life-giving. We should not treat our lives like an assembly line. We were not created to be automaton drudges and production machines. We should not make ourselves nor let others make us into cogs in some wheel. As Paul the Apostle said, “You were bought at a price, so do not become slaves of other human beings” (1 Cor 7:23 CJB). By honoring and observing Shabbat we declare ourselves to no longer be slaves, but instead to being servants of God, who bids us to honor him in a balanced life.
Shabbat Shalom!