Parshat Bereishit: The Root of your Personal Reality - Rebbetzin Tziporah Heller

[Music] so the first part of the parsha takes us through the days of creation so the whole concept of God revealing to us how he created the world raises a question and the question is what are we supposed to do with this information if the answer to anything in TOR is when you say what do I do with this tufi there's no no no it's good useful entry that's no good what does it tell you that God created the world and how what does that tell you so and therefore good and if we fit into a pattern so what you see in the days of creation is that one thing gives birth so to speak to another beginning with light and energy and hang up with humans we have a pyramid and everything fits in everything has a purpose nothing is random so there are two main ideas here one is the idea of being a create a creation in a created world which means that you are at the site a hold on you are in the center of the world the world existed with the plan that pre-existed you the souls of the Jewish people pre-existed creation everything was formed in order to allow us to find our place after we'd finished the days of creation which is going to be our focus tomorrow what you find is humans have a unique place so unlike everything else other than time the purpose is described so there's no purpose described for grass for animals but for time and for humans purpose is discussed what do you think the purpose of time is give me a reasonable definition of time first it is physical like matter it's limited like matter but what is it it's not matter we measure it but what is it what is it that we measure progression okay so a time is this is like the physicists definition of time will be the process of measurable change so it's very very much connected with matter we measure time through rotations and revolution and revolutions oops okay but what it is in essence is the progression of change so it says in the Torah why we have to see change God could have created a world that's static so if you were a fish in the sea but had a human mind you wouldn't know about time you realize this there's no day there there's no night there there's nothing to measure so the reason why we have to be able to measure time it says in the text is as signs and occasions of meeting signs of what the fact that you got up today and you see the Sun and you see it's lighted at night it was dark what does that tell you it's a sign of what so I want to make my question clear or suppose you couldn't read Arabic do any of you read Arabic okay so you it's not suppose you really can't read Arabic and you're in you're in the old city you're in the shook and you see a sign over an open business okay but you don't know what it says right how would you find out what it is we could ask someone you would say Madison they would say in Antibes rally in Berea and that's and that wouldn't help you a whole lot he would go in and look and see what it is so when you look at a day what it tells you is that there's a new beginning so it's a sign it's saying here is a new beginning so that means that you're meant to have a relationship to the progression of time they're seeing renewal and difference okay so that's the idea of it being a sign it's a sign of renewal and possibility it's a place it also fits the possibility of times of meeting we just finished the High Holidays which we could only determine through the movements of the earth and the and the Sun and Moon right so the ideas that had God invested specific spiritual capacity capacities within time that we could measure and relate to so that's the purpose of time or any of you into physics no okay so I'm not going to recommend a book on the very same topic by a non Jewish physicist who doesn't believe in God okay whatever okay repress it okay what's human purpose and the reason why it's a valid question other than the Torah tells us what it is is that the vast majority of the world is mineral is that true or not yep see it's mineral okay so if you are like let's say a seashell how would you spend your day like what are you what's your purpose if you were a rock what's your purpose okay so let's before we even get to animals what would be the purpose of being a stone hmm it takes all the way up to people before that it would support vegetation right so even though vegetation is less than minerals minerals support vegetation cinetic but vegetation does more okay so if you were in dayz you're much more active than a stone what are some things that Daisy does that the stone doesn't do it grows dyes changes reproduces absorbs absorbs chlorophyll okay clear so whatever your animal is it does more than a daisy it sees it hears it could direct its own locomotion that's a fancy way of saying it moves okay it has primitive emotion right okay so does more but there's far less animal life than there is vegetation okay now humans remember you still have your favorite animal in your mind tell me five things that you could do that your every two animal can't do okay no the lion can kill you okay yeah what are some other things that you could do that let's say lion a cat okay you could speak intelligibly and abstractly and express emotion through your speech which animals don't do tell me more you could laugh and smile which animals don't do okay you could live in the future you could live in the past okay you could relate emotionally in a much more sophisticated way you're creative animals don't make computer programs okay you're aesthetically conscious you don't have to buy matching drapes to the wall color if you are adrift okay clear okay so humans have far more potential but they're far less numerous but what you see is everything supports the level above it so vegetations supports animal life mineral life supports vegetation animal life vegetation mineral life all support humans what a human support true to take every single person off the planet and move us all to Mars okay what would happen to the rest of the planet you really think so what do you think would happen take the places in the world where there are few people are no people it'll do just fine okay there greener nicer more it'll floor it okay so it leaves us with the problem with the question still water humans here for okay so the Torah tells us this so we're going to get a few pieces of information the first piece of information is that we're meant to dominate everything do you see where humans use everything and dominated next piece of information we're in God's image so our death our dominion over the world is meant to be an expression of this that we're in God's image we're supposed to use the world in way that's Noble okay next thing we're supposed to work and we're supposed to preserve so working in the sense doesn't mean making the world operative because the world is operative without us working means giving everything purpose preserving it means preserving it from who okay clear so that's basic human purpose we're meant to use the divine image within us to give purpose to the physical world okay this makes sense to you okay so now that we know what we're here for okay got through another piece of if I would say puzzling information into this picture one is by dividing the first human being into two segments male and female which did not happen in everything else everything else was created with both male and female segments in existence you don't have the female giraffe being divided and taken away from the male giraffe okay so you have the story of the creation of the first woman coming from the first man okay which is very unique and then you have God presenting the first humans with the challenge don't eat of the forbidden fruit which is very puzzling what's one of the puzzles involved in these things flesh it out you could effort everything except this one okay so pretends it was holiday Eve you take your four-year-old nephew to the to the toy store and you say could have any toy you want except this one what's going to happen next he's going to want that toy only so could you see what that's true okay now move it up from a four year olds with twenty five year old like close to your ages okay and you're told you could have anything you could have any career you want except this one what will you find yourself wanting at least two explored that one okay so the more sophisticated you are the more insulting the restriction is could you see where this is sir so what's that all about what's restriction about that's a big question another question going back to the separation of the first human into two segments male and female would be of course why and if they're the same why not just create a lot of them all at once so today we're going to go into this very superficial yet officially this will be the main course of our topic tomorrow so here are the assumptions the assumptions here is we saw as we said already humans are different than other creature creations were in God's image what's that supposed to mean since God has no physical image what's that I was surprised by the way that you let that one go is that God's image okay okay okay what do you think that means it's got to mean something what does it mean to be in God's image since God has no physical image okay so first it's using human terminology because that's the only language we speak but what does it mean good so remember we spoke about some differences between us and your favorite animal those are all reflective of our having something within us that they don't have so I want to reflect this one is speech the purpose of speech is to have your will and thoughts known to someone else in a way that's deep and connective okay we're aesthetic which means that we see balance and harmony which animals don't necessarily see which is also an aspect of the divine self on the deepest level this is why we love truth truth has to do with our love of harmony and balance I mean what a person is saying what they're doing what they're thinking well on the same page okay we're creative we could make profound connections all of this that reflects the divine image but more than anything else and I want you to hear this carefully the what reflects the divine image is that we could make choices everything else in nature does what it's programmed to do so this is why instinctively we all know that there's no such thing as an evil tiger even if a tiger was to kill the human being it may be necessary to kill the tiger to protect humans but not because it's an evil tiger okay is that so so humans aren't programmed so we were free and the only other reality that's genuinely free is God himself so a reflection of this is if a baby is born today you have no idea of who this baby will be in 50 years is that true or not okay that's not true of an elephant or a giraffe or a dog or you know you know exactly where they'll be okay so we have freedom this kind of freedom is meant to be our most significant challenge so the core of our spiritual traits is as follows bear with because this is a big idea the spiritual side of who we are the godlike side always says give be creative be connective give the physical side of us because we also have bodies and our bodies are very much like animal bodies what's the basic message of the body take so there's a time to take and a time to give and this requires great choice making and the use of enormous amount of intellectual emotional power now there are only two ways of giving to another human being which is certainly the most noble way of giving real giving and illusory giving so here's how illusory giving goes okay you're a Jewish mother okay you're in your 40s you have children for now reaching adulthood you always wanted your oldest child to be a doctor could this happen so you've told so would make it a boy or a girl what do you want your oldest child to be boy girl she says boy it'll be boy you always wanted him to be a doctor so when he was around five you bought him a little doctor kit with the stick it's plastic stethoscope and the did any good have the golden book something day and the band-aid man doctor Dan the band-aid man did you have that one so it's about Dan and how it like he puts band-aids on his teddy bears and he you know he makes them feel good and eventually he grows up to become ah I knew you'd figure this okay and in high school it was very important that he do well in what science biology chemistry and you got that across like you know you really want to succeed okay and it's conceivable that he doesn't want to be a doctor have things like this happened even to Jews what's the career that's respectable career but antithetical to medicine something the exact opposite or he wants to be an artist okay so when he was little and and you gave him the stethoscope he would take his crayons and put the stethoscope on a paper make circles okay gothis and then make like an eyes nose and mouth in the circle okay clear when you got home doctor damn the band-aid man he would say and now the teddy bear looks better okay clear what subject you interested him in in high school let's say you put him in an academic high school where they don't teach art what subject went interesting English literature because he broke a he would like poetry how do you think he would do in chemistry which is high school chemistry in my opinion like university chemistry is interesting but high school chemistry is beyond boring did any of you like high school chemistry you liked it in college at least you know what the different compounds do but when you just have to mint like memorizing the tables I found extremely boring okay but in any case he not only is bored by it he can't do it okay clear he just can't do it okay could you picture a lot of tension okay so here it is he refuses to go on to university he's either go to go to art school or he's going to get a job okay did you picture the the fighting in the house does the mother see herself as a giver or a taker she thinks she's a giver is she give her a taker she's a taker okay clear okay so the reason I'm telling you this is that being a real Giver means that you return to the needs of the other not to your own need to give so that requires if you're giving be honest that you have something that the other person needs so if you have two people and they both have all the money in the world but nothing else neither of them could give honestly to the other one okay clear so the creation of two genders which again save your questions about that about anything else about this for tomorrow the creation of two genders is so that each could give what the other one doesn't have honestly so that means from a judaic perspective the worst response to the fact that there are two genders is acting like there aren't two genders because that's the statement they're saying there's only one gender and that's called human okay which people okay you're saying I have nothing that you that I have nothing to give you so I could live for who for myself okay you have nothing that you need to receive from me that's the worst of all possible responses to there being two genders so what the differences are between the two genders are real purposeful god-given and meant to be treasured as opposed to be seen as a challenge to be overcome okay clear the people today see the gender differences as a challenge to be overcome today's world gender equality and again we'll talk more about this next time cuz I want to go back to free choice is illusory because the movement towards genuine gender equality has to do with women becoming more like men as opposed to men simultaneously becoming more like women could you see where this is sir so that's this is that means that for all sorts of reasons that we'll discuss in greater depth tomorrow women don't really believe they have something to give more demand esse severally want to receive what women can give this is a big problem from a Judaic perspective okay clear let's go back to free choice so what free choice means is that you're not wired to make choices however you are wired to some degree we're not God so what are some of the things that limit your ability to make choices that affect your life okay so we're all born to specific environments and anybody who says that the environment doesn't affect you at all isn't being so honest is that true okay we also live in specific bodies so if I were to say you know what I've had enough of teaching in navei I want to be a ballerina is this going to work this is that thought to work this is like not in fact even when I was young that wouldn't have worked when I was I remember this still my aunt who lived in Baltimore I lived in New York which to me Baltimore could have been like a whole other planet she would come in for holidays sometimes and she once gave me a black an ebony black jewelry bucks which is a child of five or six I needed desperately you understand for all my fine jewelry and it had a pop up ballerina that went around to stranger in paradise so I decided I want to be a ballerina now you know sometimes to see older people say oh well you see me now but when I was young it was so different no I was always basically like I was never graceful it was never slender I was it like I was always more just like just like I am now but younger you know what I mean so I tell my mom I want to be a ballerina I so remember this like fakey smile the ballerina how about like a doctor so you know so your body makes a lot of choices for you cakes here so remember when I got a little bit bigger I went to the library I got these Valerie know books did anything of it go through a ballerina stage so so they have the steps in the book so I made these like paper construction paper outlines of my feet and put the steps patterns on the floors I'm going it was like very elephantine de la even I realized it wasn't basically that ended but in any case so this is you're a prisoner of your environment of your body what are some other things that limit you that's not there's more ah you're stuck in the present that's a huge that's a very great limitation we're stuck in the present you don't know anything about the distant past we certainly don't know the future here's another one we're mortal so that's a limitation okay so we're not God but we have within this frame some could capacity for choices in one area the one area where we could make choices is morality so when people say you could be whatever you want to be that's not true on a physical level everybody has limitations but spiritually you could be whoever you want to be did that make sense to you someone should argue that point okay so I'm good yeah oh I say yeah you're saying the right words no say so what she's saying is you have limited choices so I want to give you an extreme example yeah I'll give her an example of this during the Soviet era one of the terrible things that we're done by the communists is when they caught people doing what they consider to be crime against crimes against the state they would send them to Siberia they also sometimes would send them to Siberia with their children and separate the children from the parents there so the only way an eight-year-old could survive in Siberia would be how how could they survive they need food every day they need a place to be how could they survive the only way they could survive is through theft because they couldn't work hard enough to make meet the quota so they wouldn't have enough food to eat from what they would bring okay clear so the children became like animals so the normal feelings that a person would have when they see a young child like let me help him they didn't have that when if a person were to wake up in the middle of the night and see a child near there near them they would reach for their knife you understand this the children were predatory so where's their freedom of choice you understand the question and the worst I mean I didn't the worst go measure worst but one of the worst one of the worst effects of this of living in that kind of regime was that people in a general sense even people who were not censor said we were you did not have children who are predators okay developed a way of thinking in which everybody is a potential enemy so the government is on the outside but who your neighbors are and even in your family you know that way so sure so one of my daughter's was once teaching in a school for the children of Russian immigrants to Israel so was helping the children adjust to a new language a new culture they liked her so they'll come to the house that made her little gifts they liked her once the principal came to the door he needed her attendance papers or something so she got up and she left her stuff on the table he said oh you got it he said Devorah you left your wallet on the table so what do you think you know what do you think she said be her it's fine like the kids aren't going to take my stuff would it be the principal what are you going to say you crazy okay okay yeah do you think they tried to take her stuff or not yes okay yes they're a culture to it okay clear that's the culture so the reason why I'm telling you this is that their freedom of choice is limited just like yours is everybody's is limited but within the framework of their environment there's still choices to make so what that would mean is something closer you know it's us in the in the central cities in America and the core all of their kids who could reach the age of 1012 without ever seeing a good man are there kids like this in the inner city could be okay a kid like this goes into the convenience store with his friends there to steal that's why they went in they didn't go in there to see like what conveniences can I purchase today okay so so as they're leaving with their stuff the guy behind the counter sees them but he's afraid to do anything could that happen that definitely could happen and as they leave the store each one of them one after the other spits at the guy behind the counter could that happen in real life it could let's say the hero of our story steals but does spit he made a choice there okay so that choice puts him in a level that believe it or not we'll called sadiq meaning it's the best choice that's open to him nobody could make all the choices but anyone could be its addict being its addict means baking the best choice that's open to you so now let's take the same scenario someone goes into the convenience store and steals but it's not this kid from the inner city it's me I go into the convenience store and I take to see something I want and I take it and I don't spit the guy behind the counter as I leave is the word from me Sadiq no okay I'm the toughest I am newly raised from the dead goes into the convenience store okay the word for him if he were to steal something would be evil okay clear so only God could judge people however and this is a big however we could judge deeds so stealing isn't a good deed but whether the person who stole is its attic Renard is something only God knows okay this is clear so the difference between what I just told you in relative morality which is all the thing nowadays in the secular world just will say stealing is bad but that doesn't mean the thief is bad we're not saying that because the thief is good that stealing therefore is a relative value okay clear okay so now that we understand free choice as being the highest level of our human capacity so the question would be what benefit is being able to make free choices give us what's it good for people will sometimes say well why is there evil in the world and the interest people can make choices because of well why if God like made people who couldn't make choices everybody would be nice everybody would be good there would no be no really evil people wouldn't that be so much better what's the problem there we would be robots and what's so bad about being a robot you could still experience pleasure you could still make human connection you don't value anything but besides that the greatest gift you can give anybody is the ability to be themselves so what God gave humans is the ability for each person to determine who they are there's no gate there's no gift that's at all comparable to that so that means that God's gift of free choices the opposite of the choices made by the mother is forcing the child to want to go to med school saying you choose and in that regard you're like me but he put a stipulation because the choice means always that there's choice a and there's choice B and one is better and one is worse give me a definition of better and worse than this in this paradigm what makes a choice good or bad again will you put in the world to what it's dominated the way that's positive that's like God any choice that shows are dominated with our Dominion of the world in a way that's limiting to the world negative to the world negative to ourselves not godlike is a bad choice that makes sense to you now for the ability for choices to be genuinely free there has to be some appeal to making good bad choices and some appeal to making good choices so I'm not going to ask you to share this but I want you to go back to this for a moment in your minds think about the worst life choice you ever made the more you recognize that you could make terrible choices the more you'll realize that at the moment you made that choice you could have made another choice as well okay could you see this that's where free choice lies you could have done it differently so the focus of free choice is when God said you could have the whole world not this fruit what fruit was this the tree of knowledge of good and evil now knowledge in this sense doesn't mean intellectual knowledge knowledge means integrating something and making it you don't make what's evil you don't integrate it don't eat it don't turn what's bad into your definition of self so God created that to give us freedom so we're going to be talking about tomorrow is the parameters of freedom in gender relationships and the consequences of making bad choices the consequences of making good choices and how the foundations of reality in the world as we know it today stem from the choices that were made in the Garden of Eden so that's what we're learning tomorrow so show up okay now before you before you I'm actually I'm I'm actually ending more or less on time which is not my habit as you know okay what no is not my habit but what I want you to think right now and I want you to talk about this before we end to class why does all of this information what does it say to you in your life right now today so the basic core information is that your creation in a created world humans have capacity to express the divine image we're meant to dominate the genders are different and that freedom of choice is a great gift even though it could lead to terrible results [Music] [Applause]