Bereishis: The Wonderful Terrible World

Hi, this is Dov bar-Levsky with the parsha in five. We're in five minutes. We try to give you a little insight into the parsha to help enhance your Shabbos. This is our fourth year we're doing this. Wow. And we start over again from Bereishit, right at the beginning. First parsha. So, uh the story of the Bereishit, the Torah begins with the story of the creation of the world. And it goes through the six days of creation. And uh what Hakadosh Baruch Hu created on each day. Uh it's interesting, kids go to gan and they make little pictures of what they do on each day. So, on the fourth day, made the sun, the moon, and the stars. So, I heard this story that somebody was with Rav Moshe Shapiro when his kids were little. And on their little refrigerator was the picture that he made in gan, a picture of the sun, the moon, and the stars. So, the person said to Rav Moshe Shapiro, "Oh, I didn't know that the Rav holds you can uh make an image of the sun, the moon, and the stars." Cuz you know, those say you can't. So, Rav Moshe looked at the refrigerator and said, "No, what you learned is that Rav Moshe Shapiro doesn't know what goes on in his own house." And he took down the picture. >> [laughter] >> But uh but uh we go through all the different days. And after each day it says, uh "Vayar Elohim ki tov." "Vayehi erev vayehi voker yom it is. Yeah. And when he reaches the end of the process, at the end of the six days, perek aleph, pasuk lamed aleph, "Vayar Elohim es kol asher asa v'hinei tov me'od." It was very good. Everything was very good. Take a moment to reflect upon this. Yeah. What happened on the sixth day? He created Adam. And then he took from Adam Hava. Whether the two of them were two separate people who were attached or whether he actually built woman out of a part of man, whatever it is, he separates them into man and woman. And before the day is over, Adam and Hava break the only mitzvah that exists. Do not eat from the Etz HaDaas, from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And Hashem did now decrees death to the world. And everything is going to be destroyed, this churban of what was. And Adam and Hava are kicked out of Gan Eden. On Friday. And so that's why that first Shabbos they spend outside of Gan Eden. And in fact, the Kodesh Baruchu allowed the light of Shabbos to light for them, and that's why on Motzei Shabbos, Saturday night, as the light of Shabbos was going away, and darkness was coming, so Adam was afraid of all the things that he had created are going to come and kill him, you know, wild animals and things. And so Hashem taught him how to make fire and how to create light. And that's why in Havdalah we light a candle, and it's a a new a new Yeah. To commemorate the creation of light. But the Kodesh Baruchu set up the world in its perfection. And now the world is a churban, the world is destroyed. And Hashem looks at it and sees that it is tov me'od. It's very [clears throat] good. I heard once in Reb Moshe Shapiro that Reb Yochanan ben Zakkai, it says in Pirkei Avot, asked his five major talmidim to go out and find what is the greatest thing in the world. And Rebbe Eliezer ben Hyrcanus said, "Ayin tov." A good eye. And what's the worst thing in the world? "Ayin ra." Yeah. Apparently, Rebbe Elazar, who came back with "Lev tov," he uh Rebbe Yochanan ben Zakkai considered that was stronger. But Rebbe Eliezer ben Hyrcanus says, "Ayin tov." Um there's a disagreement whether Rebbe Eliezer ben Hyrcanus was greater than everybody or Rebbe Elazar was greater, but Rebbe Eliezer ben Hyrcanus comes up with "Ayin tov." So, says Rebbe Moshe, "What is an 'Ayin tov?'" That Hakadosh Baruchu could look at the world. Yeah. "Vayar Elokim as kol asher asah." And the world is destroyed, but Hashem sees it as "tov me'od." Hakadosh Baruchu sees it as very good. Because you can look at anything, and you can see it from two points of view. You can see the good in it, and you could see the bad in it, and that choice is up to you whether you have an "Ayin tov" or an "Ayin ra." You can look at the same thing. Yeah. There was a book, The Wonderful Terrible Day. And each scene, it shows you how it's wonderful, and another scene it shows you how it's terrible. And so, uh a person has the ability to choose how to look at this world. And so, right at the beginning of creation, as we go into the first Shabbos of the world, where Hakadosh Baruchu's original plan was not fulfilled, yet to Hakadosh Baruchu it is tov me'od. He sees very good. My friends, we live in a beautiful world filled with all kinds of problems and difficulties. It's all what you choose to look at. Reb Leizer Silver was in the DP camps after the war and he was trying to get a minyan together. And as one Jew said to him, "I would never daven again because when I was in Auschwitz, I saw someone smuggle in a siddur and he would charge people a half a day rations to use that siddur for 10 minutes. We were already on starvation rations. You took people's food away? I would never daven again." And says Reb Leizer Silver, "Why are you looking at him? Look at all the Jews who were willing to give up a half a day rations to use a siddur." It all depends what you choose to look at. Chavez.