IDENTIFYING THE THEME OF PARSHAS BEREISHIS {המלצר נושא}

progress. >> Okay friends with we just had an intro to the series Hamels no and uh this will be our first attempt of identifying the no hamels no the theme of the para paras by the way if anyone out there uh has information of classic sources that identify a theme in a para I would like to know there were Um there were contemporary rabbon who tried to identify a theme. Uh one of the adm of the 20th century the admir of Kabad in many of his writings identifies the theme of the para and with Hashem's help let us try and make an attempt for paras. There is no question the main event recorded in bacius is the creation of the world ex nilah that is without a doubt. However, you cannot say the theme of paras is the creation of the world when only a small part of the para discusses the creation of the world. After the Torah records the creation of the world, it speaks about Adam and Kava and Ganed and the story of the eight had and then the story of Cayenne and Hel and then their progeny and then Hashem's desire to eradicate mankind. There are many many topics in the para. You cannot say the theme of paras is the creation of the world. And it is not easy to find one common thread. The creation of the world and the garden of Eden. Cayenne and he struggle and the murder of he running away. Seven generations later he's killed. followed by mankind veering off. What what is the common theme in birious? You could think about it for quite a while. It's not so simple to identify no say. So I will humbly offer three approaches to identifying one theme in paras. I hope you like it. Number one, I would summarize boratious with one inhales in per God made man straight and man sought many justifications. many excuses, many alibis, many crooked rationalizations. Kyel summarizes the creation as follows. God made man straight and man searched and looked and pursued. To me, that captures and summarizes parasperacious. Rashi explains, "God made man straight when he created just man. But as soon as she came into the picture, everything went haywire." Sorry to say this. I told you many times this is not a politically correct sheer. Rashi says God made man straight. When he was just man, he was straight. But vehea as soon as she came, everything became that's what Rashi says. when they became vehea the two of them together it was bad news now you'll say well that is referring to the as Rashi says made Adam from the no that's the story of Bacius God made man in his image perfect then narrates how man time and again using crooked, deceitful, dishonest uh paths to veer off the straight and the narrow. The first instance being the sin of the eight hadas where kava came up with all kinds of justifications. Well, God told me not to touch it, which he never told her, but figured God would want her not to touch it. And then the snake pushed into the tree. So figured, well, if I could touch it, I could eat it. And Raish says what Adam was thinking that Hashem only didn't want us to eat from it because he doesn't want us to get the 50th level of wisdom. They came up with a whole Tory and a whole. Well, even though God told them not to, it's okay. They could do it. Same thing with Cayenne and Heb. Why did Cayenne kill He? Cayenne came up with some kind of convoluted, disingenuous, dishonest, false rationalization that man is not really better than animal and if he killed an animal then I could kill I could kill he. It was a justification. It was man using dishonest and faulty logic to be persuaded by his base instinct. And then again look in the by the way look in the malbum what kind of what exactly was Cen's convoluted logic to kill He what was Ken's mistake and then furthermore in the times of of Eno people began saying well if God created the sun and the moon and we need to honor them well we need to really honor them and maybe they have independent power. In other words, boracious, the narratives of boracious, whether it's whether it's in whether it's man starting to worship idols in the times of these are all illustrations of vehea that although God created man straight, man pursued convoluted pathways three instances, three major times establishing a kazaka establish lishing that the reality of man is he searches for convoluted paths. So we could say that after Adam and after and after three times God said enough already. This is not an aberration. Man, there's something wrong here. There's something wrong with what? With man's program. And God said that's it. That's it. I got to wipe him out. There's one guy who remained at the original level of and that's how ends namely. So if you want to summarize the para what's the theme of the para god made man straight but man sought out convoluted paths. That's the theme of the para. That's a theme that ties together from beginning to the end of the para. Okay, that's first approach. Number two, number two. You know what paras is about? In one word, the creation of man. Say what? How does that summarize the para? Very simply. Well, man was only created on the sixth day. Yeah, but everybody knows when Hashem created man, he said Desire says God turned to the heaven, to the earth, to the firmament, to the land, to the plants, to the luminaries, to the fish, to the birds, to the animals. They all contribute in the creation of man. But now let's expand that. When I say that paras is about the creation of man, what is man? What is man's objective in this world? Who is man? So paras about the creation of man. Man is not a more sophisticated animal. When I say that bracious is about the creation of man, it's borious speaks about the creation of man and his objective. Let me explain. We come to kayen and heerim explains that the reason why the explains why why did he become a farmer and cayenne work the land. See they had a fundamental difference of the role of man in the world. He believed that man was not superior to animal fundamentally. Man only had the right to dominate animals, to use them, to work them, but not to kill them because man was not fundamentally superior. So therefore, man was not allowed to kill animals. Therefore, he did not kill an animal only to honor God. That he was allowed to do. Cayenne felt no man has no superiority to animals whatsoever. Man is not even allowed to work them. Man is not even allowed to dominate them. That's why Cayenne was a farmer. So Cayenne worked the land. Cayenne said man is greater than plant but not greater than animal. He would never be a shepherd. Cen showed the world that man, you know, you have mice and maybe more sophisticated than a mouse is a is a raccoon. And more sophisticated than a raccoon is a cow. And more than a cow is a lion and more sophisticated than a lion is a man. But they're all the same general category. Cen would never be a shepherd. He believed man was superior to animal, but not fundamentally that man has the right to take the life of an animal. So they both misrepresented what man was because man is fundamentally greater than animals. It's important for man to consume animals. When he killed the animal for Hashem, Cen said, "Wait a second. You know what he is? He's a murderer. If He could kill an animal, I could kill him." So they both had a faulty recognition and therefore projection of what man was when they were born when it doesn't say that admarish gave birth to his children in his image. He did give birth to them in his image but that message was not conveyed through his children. Not until his third son was born. It says, I'm sorry, it says he gave birth in his image. Meaning was the first man who projected what man's creation was, namely in the image of Hashem. Cayen and He both failed in projecting to the world what man's creation was. Not until the end of the para where it says do we find the goal and the pinnacle of the purpose of why man was created. So you say okay that's pretty good that takes us to the beginning of the para almost up to the end of the para when sh was born. So in other words, at that point I could say the the theme of the para is the um the projection the creation of man and projecting his purpose the creation of man and what man's purpose is however after sh was born and he was projecting that he was created in the image of Hashem that was then taken into the extreme cuz he had a sono and it says hashem rashi explains they started calling man by the name of god they started making man in a desara I would say that's not coincidental that's fundamental to what she was doing told the world you know my brothers k and he didn't recognize man's superiority I recognize man's superiority man is created in the image of God. But that also led to a mistake. They took that idea to the extreme. Man is created in the image of God. Now they're attributing divinity to man. There needs to be a balance that man is superior to animal because he's created in God's image but he's not God. So basically what safer bacius is about was the creation of man and then refining the definition of man that hashem was aiming for namely created in the image of god but not a god and that's paras the creation and establishing the objective of man in this world that is one theme in the whole para And I think that's very nice. Number three, another theme in the para. Ready? In two words, God's tolerance. From the opening puk, Hashem wanted to create the world, but midas. No, it didn't work. It's not working. Forget that. Scratch that. We have to switch plans. We have to use Hashem tells the trees, I want you to taste like fruit. No, they didn't listen. Did Hashem blow them up, send a nuclear bomb? No, he slid with it. Hashem said, I want there to be two big luminaries. No, they got into a fight. Hashem had to make them small. Hashem tells Adam and Kava, "Don't eat from the tree. The day you eat from it, you're dead." Within an hour, they ate from the tree. Hashem let them live 930 years. Cayenne murders his brother. There's a murder on the first day of creation. There's already a homicide in the Garden of Eden. The crime rate in the Garden of Eden was 30% 33% of the residents of the garden were murderers. Can you imagine? Okay. The criminal rate of that neighborhood of the Garden of Eden, two of them were federal criminals and the third one was a murderer. And yet God is patient with them. The other were supposed to die. They live pretty long lives. Cayenne, he got he got off even though he murdered his brother in cold blood. Yeah. God gave him seven gener. He saw children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, great great grandchildren. And then they began making themselves a des God said, "No, no, no. I can't tolerate this anymore." And Hashem waited 120 years. I a friend of mine Greenblat identified the theme of the para, the tolerance of Hashem. So we offered three approaches to the theme of batious. Number one, Hashem made man straight and they sought convoluted paths. Number two, the creation of man and establishing his reality and purpose. Number three, Hashem's tolerance. That's nice for an opening on braces. Three solid themes on paras. Okay, one more thing I want to tell you before we go. Reporting stopped.