Rabbi Guy Matalon - Weekly Torah Portion: Parshat Bereishit

i was asked to teach the partial of shavua and someone told me that the parashat is i'm sorry i'm still in verizon i'm still in the beginning so i want one of the students in this class i don't want to put anybody uh on the spot asked me probably the most difficult question anybody has asked me in the last couple of years okay and i found the answer and the answer i gave him the answer but then the answer wasn't really an answer so then i count another answer and then another answer and i kept digging and digging and digging and digging and this is what i want to share with you why because you won't be able to understand the parshiot the parishes that are coming after parashat noah without understanding the basic principle that this question that i was asked so i'm going to tell you what the question is show you where the question is coming from i will give you an answer and i will show you how this helps you in understanding the parsha and then we will get a little bit into leche so that rabbi kaplan when he's back i think tomorrow will be ready to go so the question is as follows how many days does it take hashem to create the world okay this is a little too vague guys you've read this how many days does it take the kardash to create the universe because uh itself correct no no because he hashem is everything that is even the stuff that he was supposed to he was going to do on shabbos on the sixth day everything was done six days six days on day one what was created what was created on the second day and separation of the waters right the waters what happened on the third day dry land in the seas right now listen to the rashi so we learned the shot does everybody know what the word shot mean if you don't know what the word shot is please raise your hand good finally somebody's honest chat mean is the straight forward meaning of the words sometimes the shot requires us to do certain things in order to understand what the shot is the basic understanding of what we read so the chat that we just read is to say that hashem gave a commandment to the earth to sprout all sorts of vegetation right there are several kinds and the earth did so and god said good job earth i didn't lose my sense of humor over the money right right it's only at home that they don't care for it here you guys you know you get a little sample so it's okay so now we go to the next level look at what rashi says rashi says on the verse that says on the ver on the words it's pre rashi says so that god commanded the earth to do to create three things or to produce three things grasses that's it fruit-bearing trees and fruit trees three things so if you look at 11 verse 11 has three categories that's one esprit or that's two right sorry esprit and osepri that's three and if you look at verse 12 it has deches of masria one that's two so in verse 11 we have three things on verse 12 we have two things and in verse 11 and 12 it says everything was good does anybody understand what the problem is how is everything good if there was a need to you're missing something hashem commanded three things and only two things came out what went wrong did something go wrong wait a minute did something go wrong it says it was good so did something go wrong surely it was good to an extent it could have been good oh did you hear that i don't know that you actually know that you understand what you really said i don't if you knew then it means that the gates of heavens have opened for you and this man is going to be the best man for you if you really knew what you just said this was that's the result that's a kabbalah that's what kabbalah said that if you reach that already on the you know what you've been learning you know three hours boom i mean where's it gonna be at the end of month you know so now somebody repeat what he said he said it too fast for me it is as good as it could have been to an extent three things commanded two things come out rashi says the following listen to this rashi says where's my rashi come back here that he was supposed the earth was supposed to create a tree that tastes like fruit do you know what that means that if you take a bite off the branch the branch would taste like the fruit chewier though or not i mean it'd be like grape nuts you know grape not cereal i was like tree bark isn't it that's what it looks like cut that out because this is not a commercial for grape nuts that's right or they're off you have to use therap you mean speaking of a lawsuit okay the he lost and the earth did not do so god commanded the earth to do three things the earth did only two things and rashi says the earth did not do what hashem commanded but there's an issue how is that possible how is that possible surely you couldn't do what he said he himself said he would do god commanded the earth to do something and he didn't do it gabriel is that clear maybe he did do it but god wasn't happy with it god is happy how can the earth do something or not do something that god commanded it to do listen to what rashi says the earth did not do this she only did the two things but not the three things therefore when man was punished for his sin the earth was punished for this also if that answer satisfies you then i'm leaving the room that's good that's the result how is it possible that's exactly the point very good how is it possible okay good do you hear that are we saying now that the earth has free will seems like it like when you come and you dig in a hole you know collapses on you then it's the sahara of the earth one answer that was suggested that the earth has yet horror so i am going i'm trying to ridicule that position it's called reductio i'd observed him kind of it's not really not rabbi godly was here that's not what it is i know i'm using it it's not i know what type of fallacy reductio had absurd it means i didn't teach philosophy for nothing i'm really not as dumb as you think i am really not gorilla's not sure yet give me a chat okay so the answer that i gave this was the question that i was asked by one of the students in this class and i will give you the answer that i gave the answer is based on the maharal says the following one should end up the interpretation or the understanding of what rashi said that it did not do with this is to think that god that the land sinned purposefully against god why because the earth does not have a yetzer hara it's a clay it's a cup if you take a cup and you fill it up with water right and there's a hole in the bottom of the cup do you blame the cup for the hole no why not because the cup didn't make the hole he didn't make who made the hole the manufacturer so who are you mad at the manufacturer so what's the case here god made the earth the way it is no did you hear this this this fear of this this crazy idea that god made a mistake but god looked at everything i didn't make a mistake he made the earth capable of making a mistake and he didn't know that and then he commands it to do something that it can't and then when it does it and punishes it it's not that the earthquake isn't it like like i come here and i say okay guess what i'm gonna give you this text right i'm gonna bring it to you and it's in arabic judeo-arabic so you can read the letters but you have no idea what it says and i tell you now if this isn't done in 10 minutes fully translated correctly marcus marcus and i come in he's like well i i i couldn't i i'm speaking whack malcus is lashes and i give him lashes but i don't know this listen buddy i don't care this is ortho man tough enough not fair by the way that the earth was great therefore was god using his free will to create the work the earth the way that he wanted it with the inability that he wanted it to happen so then did he know that the earth has this inability yep wait so if he knows that it's not going to produce what it wants then why is he mad she said well he's not mad okay so why is he punishing it it says it was cursed where you didn't read the parsha it's in verse yud 17 chapter 3 verse 17. and the land shall be cursed and rashi says and rashi says that is because of this chapter 3 verse 17 is because of chapter 1 verse 12. did you see it did you find it yeah but that's mandy like that but the land is cursed because man caused the land to be cursed because if the earth it says a curse is the ground because of you no no but he didn't but rashi is telling you you want to argue against rashi i'm looking at the buzz it just it's explicitly says that but i'm i'm looking at it something else and that way the earth wait wait can i wait i i will i don't want to answer your question just yet okay because it's part of the final answer which we're not there yet there are two more steps for me to fill in to get to it and you will see why does this verse say because of man okay i will finish the mar the the the maharao and then i will an answer to this but rashi is learning that this because of man is goes back to what the earth did that way that is this punishment was suspended until now and because adam did this the earth says so you're going to get it because of that and you're asking like why why is it connection i'll show you why there's a connection there's another thing if you're saying the earth at that point in time was incomplete i didn't say that no there was something wrong with the other i didn't say that either well potentially i all i said was the earth did not do what i didn't say there's something wrong with the earth no but then we go back a second and we say we see that it says later in that paragraph let's make man in this image that man isn't complete nothing is complete there has to be something higher for it to be complete maybe that's that's a that sounds like a good var torah around a shabbos name it's fine very good it's nice but we are now trying to learn shot in rashi brings a certain he makes a comment in a puzzle that creates a problem for us and now we're going to try to solve it and i'm showing you that the solution has problems so that this solution won't work this solution won't work there has to be there's only one solution that fixes all of them okay that's a marshall i'm giving okay um so god wants it to happen then why would he come on three things and then that's the question so that's what the mar so can i tell you what tamara says so you could have an idea now i want to make another point why is this important for us it's important for us for a general major major concept in judaism which is maybe where alex was going towards god creates the world everything is fine why because god is omnipotent what is omnipotent means omnipotent so you have to do anything omnipotence means has absolute power omniscient is all knowing right god is omnipotent omniscient and good you can change the word good to just or to loving that i won't argue about that is god in his infinite wisdom knows to create the best and nothing impedes him from creating the best that's basic concepts that you have to accept that is the principles by which we are operating or under which we're operating probably it's better better english so if that's the case why is it that at the end of the parsha what does god want to do to the or to his creation destroy it that's what i want to understand how is it that we get from and god saw it was good creation of adam is i saw that it was very good and by the end of the parsha blink of an eye right because some people are sure do this what is it time to for this right in the blink of an eye the partial parties gone the world is boy god wants to destroy the world how did this happen and the parsha ends with a very bizarre how by building the art no that's not it that's not it at all you're being immoral wait wait wait don't give terrorism yet you know you have to so my answer this question comes from the maharao why because we see there is something that is the built-in bug in the program and this is the lesson of the um he says the earth doesn't have a yetzer har that it could could be over right disobey a commandment of hashem but the earth has an aspect of change shinui yeshla shinui it has something that is different something that is different in its essence as opposed to other things that are created and remember in this part of creation there are only two realms shamayim vegetation is the thing that comes out of the earth so you don't have so he so morale says there is something there's some sort of a bug an internal bug in alex so then he says and the sivoi is we have to understand the shamayim and work on different ways they work differently different principles are at work with regard to things that are shamayim which i would like to use the term spiritual as opposed to things that are material because its nature is lacking it constantly or always is lacking in slim it never does things perfectly that's what the morale says never does things perfectly does god know that yes so when he commanded to do something did he know that it can't do it is it it can't do it because it doesn't want to do it or because it really can't so why did hashem command the earth to do it what probably to teach but maybe he knows he's going to get two out of three can he get three teach words what to teach we live in a why did he not no this that would be not a hundred percent correct we live in the best of all possible worlds it can't be any better than this it's imperfect that's fine but you have to understand that this is the best of all possible worlds against voltaire voltaire wrote a book called candide where he makes fun of people who believe that this is the best of all possible worlds right you read candide and francais good so did i yes why are we here why does this matter no the original question on why does the earth if god commanded the earth to do something and he knows that it can't do it then why are you commanding it to do it so here the morale says which i found later in a different place not here the morale says that you will know and understand that the realm of materialism the non-spiritual realm works differently than the realm of spirituality and how did hashem want us to learn this through this command and this is something very important and how we understand god speaking when god speaks when he says something doesn't mean that it has to come about spiritually yes he says yes when god says to moshe i will destroy these people who build the the the egg did he mean it was he gonna do it yes so then why did he change his mind because the idea is that when hashem says something he's saying it to us to elicit a certain behavior he said to moshe rabin this is what i'm going to do let's see what you're going to do and she said oh no no so all you're saying is that whenever god speaks to moshe at that particular time it was just a warning if the jews didn't prove this was gonna happen no no he's saying he's saying how you're gonna react to what he's saying so here hashem gives a command but the command is not for it actually to happen he wants to show us how the world of gashmians work how does it work and he says this is how i created the universe it's built in there's a bug but the bug doesn't show itself until when this is where your question until when when does the bug show itself adam adam's sin when adam didn't sin does the bug show itself no if adam would have left the fruit alone that wouldn't mind himself that the bug would the bug show itself no the bog only shows itself when because you have to have two things you have to have the yetzel and the yetzer you have to have both of them the earth has neither which means what doesn't affect you is there but it doesn't affect you when does it affect you it affects you when two things come together freewill but you can freely choose not to say so you need to have the choice your free will is your yes that is part of the decision process the decision-making process but you need the ability to make decisions and you need to have something that pulls you to the other direction when those two when you make the wrong decision which you have the freedom to do the bug shows itself so you're not perfect that's what he says that's not that's what he is saying but okay i'm confused how does it tie into the the earth not making not fulfilling the full commandment because the commandment was a pedagogical tool by god a tool to educate us about how the material world works right why because the neshama goes into a material casing right and what gets the commandment the body against you have to do them it's fun and you're doing them it's vote with your body can you do creatures without your body no no in all my body you don't have a body there's no mitzvah but we have the choice but the earth doesn't have a choice correct all right so how do you compare that i have another question okay okay you got another question no i know but i'm doing one we're going to shift one cow at a time so let's finish with this cow yes i don't see how how it fits in if the earth doesn't have the it's has that ability of a v8s of but the bug is only going to be relevant to us when we make only relevant to us correct but we have to know that there is this bug in kashmir so he's showing us the bug through the trees sure but he says why wasn't the earth cursed now because it doesn't matter right it doesn't matter until when until adam said i have to go either right or left and where did he go left left eat the fruit or not eat the fruit and what did he decide eat the fruit so once he ate the fruit bugs out and so what do we see generation after generation for nine ten generation everything is getting worse and worse and worse so what would a smart person say to hashem destroy us no would say hashem listen with all due respect your holiness you created a world with a bug and you're right and gun head and the bug should not have had an effect but we're out and this bug is destroying humanity destroying the world it's getting worse and worse and worse you can't blame us for making these bad choices because of the bug that could be a taina we could argue that to say look you created a world with a bug we're made out of matter we are created like this we keep making the wrong choices just like the earth you can't blame us for this where's our answer no why is noc the answer now you can say your answer because noah became etadic with the bug with bad society with all the things that are around him what did noah do it's still possible not possible it's more than possible a person can be comatotic how is this static beforehand that's not what made them entitled let us all reach a level that we do whatever god commands us right that's if we are able to do that then we're flying danny you're asking questions you're just waving a lot we would have to say yes but there is one more step and here is a step another way to show why this bug really is not the problem and that's why hashem says it is good when hashem decides to bring the flood what does the flood destroy not everything does it destroy the earth no the land it doesn't destroy the land it destroys all living creatures the land itself god did not just get rid of the universe and start again why he didn't need to why because the kisaron that is in the material world is not enough to make this world imperfect what made what caused the problem was the ashkata the decisions that human beings made and that hashem says i have to destroy but not the earth the bug that's in the material world is not a problem ah rabbi i can't get out of bed i'm tired god gave me this body and i'm just exhausted i just can't get up sorry don't blame the body can't blame the gosmius for not being able to achieve what god wants us to achieve is it a challenge yes it's meant to be is it similar to when god says to adam like why why did you eat the apple and responsible what apple no i went from the tree of knowledge or whatever yeah he tried to do what uh you know every smart kid says but it was her yeah and she's like me you wait you wait till the next time you touch me me you put it on me huh and she says the snake duped me you said the earth was punished or cursed rashi will use the word for of curse but we learn that the curses are the punishment okay punishment for who for us or for the earth does does the earth really get punished i mean or is it just there's curse in the earth that ultimately affects us it affects us yeah of course yeah so the earth really it's not like the earth is like god is punishing the earth he's putting curse into the earth for us for us for our benefit for our benefit yes for our benefit it's benefit yes everything that hashem does is for our benefit of course because if we hold that god is all-knowing and all powerful and good why would he do something that is not for our benefit that doesn't make any sense right everything that he does is for us it's for our benefit so we see that the reason that hashem brings a marble a flood to drown besides the idea of cleansing right a mikveh that he essentially puts his world in the mikveh and it's not what people think it's really if you read the meforshim the way that it was caused it was a tilt of the earth's axis very interesting explanation what we see there is that hashem only gets rid of human beings and their effects not the earth because is not the problem the kisaran that exists in the in the material world is not our problem it's there for a reason to help us to bring us closer to god doesn't mean that it's always easy but it's not the problem and noah is the proof that god's world that god created was good and then what happens after noah ten generations what happens everything goes down again down again but now there is example that everybody knows that you could do it it's possible so there's no need to drown the world again and that's how we could learn when we're coming to avraham okay we'll stop here have a good lunch see you at three o'clock you