Parsha Perspectives for Today (Bereishis, 5781) - Are Masculinity and Femininity Binary?

good morning boker tov a good vinter to everybody hope everybody had a beautiful yellow naram and a wonderful sukkas reinvigorating elevating exciting healthy and safe and it's good to be back to resume our study of the parsha and what better place to begin than the very beginning with safe herbaceous and with precious gracious so thanks for being back together with us for our partial perspectives for today on participation i want to thank our generous sponsors my dear friends becky and avi katz who sponsored in memory of becky's father david grossman lila nishmas david ben menachem monash thank you so much and this morning's class in particular as well sponsored by dr gordon and janina haas in memory of his mother rose haas russ bas yaakov as yours it was yesterday and for joel and sally flammal in honor of the 53rd wedding anniversary by their children and grandchildren should have a very happy anniversary and many many more to come okay we begin with as i said say for braces and parishes british as we go back to the beginning the story of creation and it's very significant you know the shabbos is called shabbas borisus we don't have shabbos no because this shabbos gracious represents not only the name of the parasha that we read beresius represents the beginner what we're working on what we're doing the energy the invitation and the opportunity to start again the invitation and the opportunity for new beginnings and for a and for a fresh start the most famous rashi perhaps on the torah is the opening rashi so we're on page two in the article stonehenge british in the beginning god created the heaven and the earth you know teaching our precious gracious is very very difficult many are most years we don't get to do it because of the way simcastora falls and gracious in the pasture class it often never falls boracious is huge and it's filled and packed with so much opportunity and invitation to dissect it to be elevated to apply its messages to today it's very very hard to be with something to hold back and to choose what to focus on gracious baralo came in the beginning god created or god created the very beginning the very first act of creation was in fact the beginning he created the heaven and the earth and rasheed famously says [Music] if in fact the torah is a legal book and a legal document it is our constitution and our bylaws so start with the very first mitzvah mitzvah number one out of 613 um why do we start with this whole history of the world first god created six days of creation why does the torah not start why does it not start this legal code or document with the first mitzvah and the answer is to teach a very powerful and critically important lesson that later in life later in the development of the unfolding of jewish history and destiny there will be nations of the world who will challenge jewish ownership and jewish sovereignty over our land it has happened since the very existence and the formation of the jewish people and it can and does and will continue to happen even though just yesterday there was more evidence found not that we need it tying jews to our eternal homeland going back since our very inception so rashi quotes israel it's that the reason the torah begins from creation rather than for the reverse mitzvah is to establish firmly and forever jewish ownership over the land that god created the whole world and as the creator and owner of the entire world he was entitled to allocate and gift parts of that world including the land of israel and he gave that land of israel to his children to the jewish people now there's a lot of questions you can ask number one do you think hamas and the palestinians our detractors and our adversaries are learning the opening rashi on the torah to whom is that statement is that teaching directed are our enemies and detractors who think it doesn't belong to the jewish people it belongs to us they stole it they're occupying it um so they say oh oh rashi says that enjoy never mind it's yours so to whom is this rashy directed number one but much moreover the problem is that explains the story of creation that explains and justifies the opening paragraph the opening sukim of the torah what about the rest of safe hebraicious what do i need the stories of avraham and yakov why do i need the entire safe or beratious all the stories and all the narratives and ultimately our descent into slavery in egypt what's it there for why do i need it wonders the ramban there is by way of introduction to our study of not only partial spacious but safe herbaceous then shalom explains i think very very importantly very powerfully that the land air is israel which is inherently and intrinsically sacred it's kadosh it's holy could only be given to those whose character was in harmony with torah and the land the land has character unlike every other soil and every other earth and other other portion of land everywhere else the land of israel has character it has virtue it senses the people who inhabit it and it could only be given and gifted inhabited and resided in by those whose character is in harmony with torah and with the value and virtue of the land amiso eretz israel taras israel they go together these traits are not contained in any one mitzvah of the torah indeed we don't have mitzvos to have good character traits there's not one of the taryag that says derek there's not one of the taryag that says no cast there's not one of the taryag that tells us that we have to have good medos it's not contained and yet underlying foundation of every mitzvah that the purpose the goal of the mitzvot is a platform for how to cultivate our medos to become better more refined people to be able to be the best version of ourselves to realize our very purpose and our mission of why we are here derek kadma la torah so all of safe hebraicious is to establish one-fifth of the torah is to remind us before we ever qualify to receive the torah before we arrive at the narrative of the giving of the torah we have to firmly establish torah the notion of our character traits of our medos of who we are and how we behave of the impression that we leave on the world of the way in which we interact with the rest of the world that we are here to be makadeshi we pledge and we promise in kadusa every day nika god i'm going to sanctify your name my attitude towards science and medicine my concern for keeping myself and those around me safe my responsibility and obligation to follow the laws and the rules nika i am here to sanctify your name and before i can ever get up to a story of receiving the torah before i can ever become a covenantal community and a nation charged with living torah derek kadma torah and i have an entire safe hebraicious not only to teach me that god created the world and he also gave us the land of israel we have nothing to be defensive about we have nothing to be apologetic for it is our land that has been since the creation of the world god gave it to us maybe it's not directed this teaching of rabbi yitzchak to the non-jewish nations of the world maybe we jews need to hear that in order to overcome their this hesitancy this sense of being apologetic or defensive it's our land there's nothing to apologize for yes we need diplomacy and yes we should have peace with our neighbors and yes we should invite those who are willing to live peacefully with us to be with us but there's nothing to be apologetic for so that represents the opening the creation but the rest of safe hebrations is there to remind us that it's cut military that land is special the reason god allocated it to us is not to live as some secular entity in it nor to live observing torah but lacking derek in it we need to be a model for the world the whole goal and purpose of that land was to realize the integration of amnitz israel to be a beacon of light from there to the rest of the world to be a model how to behave how to be compliant how to live safely how to sanctify hashem's name how to be able to have midos tovos the gemara zara tells us that saif abrasius is in fact called sephir hayasha what does it mean say for hayasha the book of the straight those who are on the straight narrow then it civ explains in his introduction to save her braces it's called the safer hayashar because the avos and imahos are matriarchs and patriarchs they practice even to those who are despicable to them our matriarchs and patriarchs they lived among pagans they lived among idolaters they lived along morally bankrupt and corrupt society and people but they didn't hesitate to nevertheless show them and to have midos tovos and to realize that precedes torah we who live in a much more civilized society all the more so we have a responsibility and obligation to practice and to live derek say for hayasha we need to be yashar be usher in the way we conduct ourselves and who we are and how we behave and all that precedes torah that doesn't mean to suggest that i want to be unequivocally clear that doesn't mean to suggest well as long as you're honest and have integrity and as long as you're a kind and good person then observing torah is not so important observing torah is not negotiable we are bound and obligated and there are consequences if we neglect observing torah for us is non-negotiable let me be clear but nevertheless we have to continue to know and to live and to model and to emphasize to the next generation of derek harris kadmila torah say for borashius kadmalahar sinai that all of the book of various is safer yashar how we can live as a sense of yahshuas as yoshim before we even move on to receiving the torah okay all that is by way of introduction to our wonderful book of safe voracious and now let's dive in we begin of course with the story of creation story of creation each and every week we observe shabbos and with our observance of shabbos we pay testimony we testify to hashem as the creator of the world that hashem is the creator of heaven and earth the creator of the universe perak aleph pasake he creates the first day heaven and earth what's the very first creation many mistakenly think shamayim it's the first thing mentioned first creation is shamayim heaven earth ah wrong mistake the very first creation is veracious braces the very first creation is gracious he created the beginning the very first creationist time a beginning a middle and an end god who is omnipotent immortal god who is perfect god who is infinite there is no beginning middle of an end for god all of time is simultaneously he transcends he's operating outside of time so the very first thing he created even before the physical material universe the very first creation is bara he created the beginning that's very important for us to understand that we are subject to time god is not he creates heaven on earth it's references the different states and stages of golos that we've lived in are already predicted here and god says let there be light there's light he calls the light good he distinguishes between the light in the dark he calls the light day and the dark he calls night by yerava it is evening and it is morning it is one day it's a beautiful comment of strikov who says the following says the taddic nighttime the cloak of darkness persons in a dark place a person is subject to darkness a person is cast into the darkness person is struggling and suffering and challenged all of that is described as darkness light illumination a fresh beginning stepping into the light light is described as redemption light is described as salvation how do we go from a state of erev to bokeh how do we go from living in a place of it is dark to vaihi boker to stepping into the light to experiencing redemption a better time in a better place a better reality the answer he says is when we have a day where we are united when we arrive at the yom echad when we arrive at the day that we are united that we come together that there's peace that there's harmony that we live together that's when we go from by hierarchy a state of arab of night to the heboker again not the partial shot it's beautiful and this is hinted to you in the brochure when you have peace it's shocking when we can get to that day maybe it'll be the day after the election maybe it'll be some day in the future we can set aside legitimate differences and disagreements find a way to overcome the divisiveness focus on how much which is the majority that we have in common and when we can get to a place of yom and we get to a place of being united not uniform not uniform but united when we get to the yeomah that's how we get from the va erev evening is referred to as arab it denotes irbuvia irbia is confusion man often gropes in the darkness sensing that his spiritual light has been extinguished this verse assures him that this corruption and confusion is not indefinite that aerith cannot categorize the entirety of the human personality and experience while darkness may temporarily infiltrate the individual a minute spark the bokeh remains pure and incorruptible the message presents a view that yo is a reference which day on the jewish calendar even in gullis do we not have two days two days of the beginning of success today is the beginning of pace after day is the end of pesach two days of shabbos which day is yo machad is a reference to yom kippur the message is that without yom kippur a day of renewed commitment to god the world itself would not been created there is a spark of the divine in man that is inextinguishable and through the spark mankind will ultimately accept his will by erev irbia when we are in that dark place we need to know we need to have confidence we need to have faith that we're going to yet come to a place of valleji boker we will come to a place of and it is mourning it's not if it is a question of when and what an important message for us for we who are in this deep dark state of this of this pandemic that we desperately want to end i mentioned on yantef that my young son asked me abba when is corona over as if we can look at the calendar the schedule and there's a date when we know it will be over we feel the very same way when will it be over we have to the longer we live in it the more it feels like this is a new reality which is permanent but we have to realize that even though it's a arab it's ibuvia there's chaos this confusion we're living in a world where things are upside down we don't what we thought we knew yesterday is not true today we're in a place in the state of irbuvia it's vaiherev rest assured there'll be a vayahi boker there will be a light there will be a tomorrow we will turn a corner we'll come back to seeing the light we will experience the redemption we're going back to a world of the way that we knew it tara then goes on when it talks about creation we go through all the days i wish we had time to examine explore all the days but we move on to peric all of us zion we come to what is the culmination or climax of creation which is the reason it's all there is a person should say everyone should say bishvili the whole world all the previous six days heaven and earth and everything in it were created bishvili for me if not the billions of people alive or the billions of people cumulatively through history if all that was created ever was just me bishvili not an arrogant egotistical way but in a sense of obligation responsibility bishvili for me to take responsibility for this world and to repair this world and to watch over and safeguard this world bishvili for me to fulfill my mission this whole world was created man is the pinnacle and the culmination the climax of all creation the essence of why the world is created which is why we just observed rosh hashanah corresponding with not the first day of creation but rather rosh hashanah corresponds with the sixth day of creation because that is all purpose that is the whole essence god created man in his image with salim elokim but selam following that cell on the image there's a piece of god inside us he fashioned us from the earth he collected the soil the ground the earth in order to make us a little golem but what gave us life what animated us into a dynamic vibrant alive being he breathed life into us he took a breath into himself he blew it into us and we became alive and when he put a piece of himself in us he gave us so to say his dna we became alive it's a fundamental much locus between the rishonim the bound the rambam and others whether god took a piece of himself and put it in us or his light emanated from him into us with nafcaminos did we exist since the beginning or is we finite and we came into it in other words if his light emanated into us and we're an extension of him then we are him and we've existed since he's existed which is forever or was there a moment in which he placed a piece of himself into us in which case there is a finite and point of time in which we in which we begin complicated kabbalistic above my pay grade and capability and not for now but i want to share with you is that the pasak when it relays the way in which we are created the pasta specifically does so and says that we were created both zachar and nikeva we were created in the same in the same way what does that mean torah then goes on to tell us that seemingly was extracted from adam and many mistakenly subscribed to the misconception that odd the man was created as man and then woman was extracted her rib formed from man and is the final act of creation but if you look at the passage that's not what it says what the pulsar says is an androgynous figure was created that was half man and half woman and then split in two what is the meaning of this juxtaposition of the reference to the image of hashem the creation of man as zacharu nikeva wanders the rav asked her by salvation why bet selem elokim we're in the image of god zachar nikev abraham what do you mean god is united he's hashem god is singular so what does it mean in this very same context that we are betzela melo kim we're in his image but also specifically juxtaposing so listen to what the rav says very important i think especially in our time in interpreting the phrase male and female he created them explained that when god initially creates adam he created him in a dual form see rashi here male and female in this context will be taken not only in a psych in a physiological sense but also in a spiritual metaphysical one every soul consists of a spiritual androgyny a male and female persona the combination of these elements is known in rabbinic literature as duchra of enoch which can be found in every individual dukhra refers to dynamic act of man while nukva refers to effective passive man man both influences and is influenced both giver and receiver only in the biological world as man exclusively male or female in the spiritual world every individual carries both traits and only through the development of both the dukhra and the nukva perspectives can individuals attain their full spiritual potential now there are several points that by salvation is making that he made many years ago let's see this teaching comes from so many many years ago and the rav is making several simultaneous points some of which are very politically correct and some may seemingly be politically incorrect in our time number one is that masculinity and femininity are not accidental masculinity and femininity are critical um components of the world in which we live that reborn shalom with his infinite wisdom created a world with both components and the degree to which we deny the differences of masculinity and femininity the degree to which we blur or blend the masculinity and femininity the degree to which we fail to preserve the boundaries of masculinity or femininity we are violating creation itself this world and now is not the time but it exists not only in the human realm it exists in the animal kingdom it even exists in the world of vegetation there are masculinity and femininity in the world of vegetation and every form of creation science confirms there are these traits or attributes there are these components and notions of masculinity and femininity and we are responsible to preserve them and to protect them to establish boundaries around them and to realize that the degree to which we violate impersonate pretend or blur we are doing a disservice to a world which in order to have an equilibrium and balance needs both i'm not elaborating what are masculine and feminine traits for now i'll let you decide um but we need to protect the world that has both that might be politically incorrect it's hard to believe that we there would ever be a time that that statement would be politically incorrect and yet in many places i would be shown that maybe i still will be if this gets out there the part that is political correct that's important that the rub says is while on the physical realm one has anatomy and chromosomes and they tell us who we are in the spiritual metaphysical realm gender is not binary in the spiritual metaphysical realm gender is not binary and it's not that there is a spectrum but spiritually we have components of both masculinity and femininity we have both dukhra venukva we are both giver and receiver we both influence and are influenced and here he elaborates for example when a teacher instructs the students he is the giver the male the dukhra while his students who absorb his ideas are the female the nukva at one point in the lesson however a perceptive student may ask a particularly incisive question that leads the thoughts of the teacher in new directions indeed exclaimed i've learned from my students more than from anyone else gamartinus of zion at this juncture the nuclear roles are reversed the student has planted a seed that blooms into a beautiful flower within the mind of the teacher a young student with eager eyes and an inquisitive expression becomes a dukhra while the teacher with the gray beard and the august title of harav is transformed into the nukva who is the giver and who is the receiver whose influences and who was influenced as undeveloped as one's intellect may be no one is exclusively a student and as great as a person maybe intellectually no one is exclusively a teacher right what do we call a rabbi scholar a talmud the blessing that hashem bestows on man during creation operates in both the spiritual metaphysical realm as well as the physical realm actualizing the potential of is the greatest and most exalted of blessings a person must actualize his nook for blessing to absorb spiritual wealth and beauty concurrently he must actually his dukhra blessing by using his spiritual energies to give to others the student who lacks a teacher although born with great potential cannot realize his potential as a nuka similarly sometimes a great teacher can lack students to absorb his wisdom they cannot develop his potential as a dukhra when spiritual personalities necessarily depend on the other in order to develop an elevated level of self-actualization in marriage in relationships there is the male the female there is the even anatomically the giver the receiver but spiritually and metaphysically there is a duality and a dance there's this shifting and changing role sometimes the sometimes the nukva it's not a binary spiritual metaphysical existence but it's something which can change and i thought that that was a very very fascinating particularly contemporary insight of rabbi salaveczyk on this role of masculinity femininity and why in the very same passage we contrast selem elokim created both in the image of god it's but also not coincidentally and very importantly zacharu nikeva brahm okay moving right along now we get to the seventh day and here we have a somewhat confusing commenter because the torah testifies we say this we're very familiar with this davening and kiddish god finished his work and he rested but came and he sanctified that seventh day and he made it holy and why did he do so because he rested and we emulate we imitate god we too rest from our work earlier god had said vikishua go conquer the world go out there and conquer the whole world and now god says set aside your conquest stop manipulating controlling the world be at peace and harmony with the world what i want to call your attention to what jumps out from apostolic here is when did god rest when did he complete his work you can't answer me so i'll answer for you when did god complete his work i would have thought when did god complete his work he completed it at the end of the sixth day he finished working at the end of the sixth day and the seventh day now commences begins his state of being at rest but do you notice that's not what the posix says look at the pasta carefully and remember we say this in our kiddush you should be very familiar with it when does he conclude when is he done with his work by yomashvi so the possible makes me feel a little bit better because i work on shabbos but it sounds like god worked on shabbos when did he finish working on shabbos the posix sounds an awful lot like god works on shabbos very much flying in the face of everything we thought we knew about when he finished working and when he rests so look at rashi base of adoption is clearly bothered by this question whenever rashi comments he's clearly responding to and bothered by a question so what does rashi say rashi says in the name of rabbi shimon that we man who are finite and me generic man we generic men who are finite so we struggle to be able to identify exactly the moment and point of transition from friday into shabbos exactly that moment of the sunset of shabbos beginning so we can't take any risks we take shabbos on a little bit earlier in fact we have a mitzvah mr burapaskins durai sats mahlokus rishonam called tosafeshabas we don't wait for shabbos to descend on us we welcome and greet shabbos we add on to shabbos with what we call tosafest shabbos this is the custom universally that women light candles 18 minutes before shekia before sunset tosafeshabas and you shalom even earlier than that men should be mindful to darwin minha early enough that we accept and welcome shabbos even before shabbos uh shabbos falls on us we have a mixer called sephishabas but says rashi the ribonus along the almighty who's perfect and omnipotent who sees all and knows all he's able to calculate exactly when shabbos begins so the passage is articulated as when did he stop doing work on the seventh day he means exactly punkt when the seventh day began that's when he stopped doing work not to suggest he worked on shabbos but to tell us how accurate and how calculated hashem is in contrast to us who need tosafeshabas to start a little bit earlier that's rashi's understanding that's rashi's understanding has a different understanding [Music] has a different understanding we're going to come back to rashi's second interpretation in a moment i'm our first visionary of the new year says any farmers or landscapers any gardeners here to be maverick the verb to be maverick in hebrew means to blend to make a hybrid to graft one thing on to another is to be mavrich he says the word vaivarek comes from the word to graft to blend base that tells us we've been studying this together on friday afternoons in our turn friday into heir of shabbos everyone's invited and welcome to join us 5 30 on fridays turn friday into arab shambis we've been studying several interpretations of what does it mean the gemara betsah that when shabbos begins we get on the sera we are endowed with an expanded soul a broader soul and the shaman is sarah an extra soul says you know where our extra soul comes from because all week long there's us there's god us god my interest my physical material pleasures my distractions temptations the animal in me there's god i'm struggling i'm trying i'm trying to blend i'm trying to blend but i'm struggling on the seventh day he's mavrich on the seventh day he creates havraka we're able to graft ourselves together with him we have an ashami sarah my soul is no longer competing my soul is no longer fighting my soul is no longer struggling i disconnect from this world i turn off my phone and the news and the data and the sports i turn off the politics i disconnect from this world i reconnect to what matters and god blessed and what he's blessed it with is that on that seventh day we're able to be mavrich we can graft ourselves to him we can connect in that most beautiful and profound way that's what it means rational offered a second interpretation back to rashi says rashi what does it mean that god worked on the seventh day and here's a really important and beautiful point about what was the world missing six days the omnipotent infinite perfect being created the perfect world he created a world with everything in it now he left work for us to do he invited us to be his partner in completing it but he created a world was done what was missing what was missing and the answer is he finished doing his work because what was the last act of work he had to do something he could only do on shabbos namely he introduced had to introduce the world to the concept of menuha now what is the deeper meaning of this rashi listen carefully what is manuka what is rest if you would have asked me before this rashi i would have said you know what rest is rest is the absence of work the cessation of work when you stop working you are at rest that's what i would have said rest is rest is when you stop working but you see from russia he finished his work and what was the last act of work what is the last creation god did the last act of creation is he created rest he created rest rest itself is not the absence of cessation of work rest is a creation rest is a creation he created menuha we need to think of menuha not as you know i drink a little wine and i pass that on the couch and that's manukha menuhashabas the goal the purpose of shabbos and shabbos is taclos i don't rest on shabbos so i can get back to work i work all week long so i can enjoy and celebrate and experience shabbos shabbos is manuka that is the purpose that is the goal that is the essence that's what i'm in it for that's what it's really that's what it's really all about so manuka is not the absence of work menuha is a creation indeed the last and final creation of hashem says about manuka [Music] sorry sorry just have to find this comment says rabbi soloveich means that god finished his work though the world remained incomplete when hashem created the earth from tov of oahu he did not replace the chaos entirely some of this primordial entropy was allowed to remain so that man through his own effort could strive to eliminate it amalek represents the leftover chaos identified with hate which remains behind so man himself could actively play a role in destroying it man was given the great assignment of completing creation he created but he didn't fully complete he completed but not entirely he invited us to be his partner in that completion he left some aspects of a represent that chaos immorality corruption of the world represent that chaos as we spoke about to say for hayasha we have a mission the qaddish we are here to organize that chaos we are here to be the safer hayasha to straighten that which is crooked we are here to bring down hashem's name and to bring everyone closer to him he has invited us to be his partner in that we'll come back to that in one moment from all the work that god did besides points out that for the greeks the greeks considered physical work as undignified the aristocratic class would indulge only in mental exercises engaging in symposia dialectics and philosophy to us malacha is not a necessary evil melaka work is not a concession work is a holy sacred activity we don't work because without it we have no food we work because that is the way the yeshua we conquer the world so work is not a concession and work is not a necessary evil kurdish barcode didn't have to work and yet the torah describes his creativity as work in order to teach us that when we express that creativity that's work work is not a concession work is not a necessary evil work is a holy and sacred activity that is why we are here we are here in this world to work so we mentioned that god completed creation but he invited us to be his partner and we see that elsewhere as well we have a pasuk that tells us tells us when it's described in creation going back god creates man god says let us let us create man us who's the us who's weak he must be who is infinite perfect the source of all he pre-exists anything exists before time and will exist after time to whom is he referring when he says let us create man together so there are rights that are among the apostles rights says the ramban together me and the land that's why the plastic says nasa adam is referring to the land that he had created and all of this creation where is he going to take the earth from is going to draw that earth from the ground and therefore he says let me take the earth of the ground and fashion it into the person so together we will together we will create man adam says has everything that was created before is created to serve men so god turns to all that he had already created and said new all of you everything i'm already done with nasa collectively together the existence the purpose of all of you is to join me together now let's create man together as a different interpretation listen he says um god was not talking to anyone else when he said nasa he was talking to himself now the ribosome does not have a split personality almighty does not suffer from schizophrenia but we describe hashem as having 13 attributes of love and kindness consulted with and employed all yud gimo midos all 13 complimenting attributes when he concluded let me make man that's the second interpretation of the aura he has another interpretation he says this is the use of the royal we of course all that exists the source of all it makes no sense to describe nasa let us as if talking about others but nasa says the means the royal we it's a reflection and it's an expression of humility to say to say we it's a beautiful interpretation of referesh but enough time for it all i want to get to rashi because rashi says that rashi says tara's teaching us a fundamental lesson even a great person should consult with and seek the opinion of those who are less great hashem was teaching again the same theme that we're emphasizing all morning derek and humility say for yasha derek is maybe you have a higher iq maybe you have more life experience maybe you have more wisdom but the derek is to turn to and consult with those who are less great around you now these lessons the ramban rashida or the they're all important but didn't hashem leave the door open for heretics and deniers to say you see the torah is written by more than one god it doesn't say ese i will make it says we will make dinner take an enormous risk when he suggested that the torah was written by more than one person so i want to share with you one more interpretation and that is of the zohar the zoa has a magnificent interpretation and the zohar says this was the risk he took it was worth taking do you know to whom he was talking about says he was talking to man himself the man he was about to create and he was saying he was talking to each and every one of us to you and to me and he was saying let us together make you not i'll start i'll bring you into this world i'll give you your personality and your predispositions and i'll make you pregnant with potential but you need to partner with me you need to finish what i started you need to make yourself says the zoar hashem says you're going to be different than angels angels are perfect and they're holy angels have no temptation no desire you're also going to be different than animals animals only have instinct and intuition animals only follow their impulse you are going to be somewhere in between you're going to have an animal soul a nephesh but you're also going to have a shama you're also going to have a godly soul and as such you'll have something neither animals nor angels have you'll have a little something called free will animals impulse instinct angels have no bahira because they have no challenge you human being the almighty puts his arm around us and invites us and says come join me in making you i'll start you be my partner such an important and critical lesson that we have to realize that we shouldn't be passive or fatalistic or a spectator to our own lives but to get in the game to be active to shape and to mold the reality of who we are and the lit lives that we live and the differences that we want to make not just one more question what does hashem say adam why didn't he say nivra wouldn't that be a more appropriate verb that's the verb we've already used [Music] why does it say why does it say nasa instead of nivra so the zohar says it's not a coincidence the word nasa is used to invite us to be a partner in creating what is it an allusion to when you hear the word nasa what does it immediately evoke what is it draw the answer is when we stood at the base of harsinai and we were ready to accept the challenge to better ourselves to live our best lives to fulfill our mission and why we're here we accepted the invitation of adam by pronouncing nasa venisma how are we best positioned to partner with him how do we fulfill this responsibility to make and complete ourselves we answer adam our script is written in the language of torah but we are the actors on the stage we have free will and we make choices and we determine who we are and we determine who we're going to be adam beautiful interpretations the radak rashid rambandh but i love the zohar hashem puts his arm around us and says come be with me it's an invitation adam creates us in his image let's move on to the parasha from the story of creation culminating the story of creation of man two story of the act of first murder cain and hevel parrot base pastor club gimmel we have this conflict sorry before we get to that before we get to that peripheral club gimbal i'm just deciding very little time left by um it's not good for man to be alone man alone is a taker man partnered becomes a giver lotov so hashem says he passes all the animals before god before man man says nah not for me not for me not for me gives me a name which means he understands its essence he gives them a description not for me not for me adam then god fashions the side he takes out of him but if he asks adam but even he gives women bean and you say rev even doesn't say vayimra again says god built woman from man when he divided the androgynous figure into it does not say for he created it says he built women are endowed with a bina and what's man's reaction to the surgery he just underwent where he's now cut into he's an organ donor he's more than an organ donor he's a human donor he donates half himself to create another gender the man says this time it is bone of my bone and flesh in my plush flesh this will be called woman for from man she was taken what do you mean why do we have a reference here to man speaking so listen to the love says rabbi the community can only be born through an act of communication after gazing at each other in silence and defiance the two individuals involved in a unique encounter begin to communicate with each other out of the midst of muteness the miraculous word rises and shines forth adam suddenly begins to talk he addresses himself to java and with his opening remark two fenced in and isolated human existences open up and they both extend ecstatically break through to each other the word is a paradoxical instrument of communication and contains an inner contradiction on the one hand the word is the medium of expressing agreement and concurrence of reaching mutual understanding organizing cooperative effort and uniting action on the other hand the word is also the means of manifesting distinctiveness emphasizing incongruity and underlining separateness the word brings out not only what is common into but the singularity and uniqueness of each existence it emphasizes not only common problems aspirations and concerns but also uniquely individual questions cares and anxieties that assail each person says the rav the very first connection between adam and extracted from adam and adam turns and because it is word it is communication that is the foundation of every relationship words unite us words complement us words enable us to learn or contrast with one another words are the foundation of a relationship and therefore the very first connection when adam and eve are split in two is now the raw doesn't say this but you see this is also true very sadly in the next section cayenne in heaven possibly describes when client rises to kill his brother hevel hevo's carbon is accepted and kayans is not and cayenne becomes very despondent becomes very depressed perictalid page 20 in the arts girl stonehenge says what are you so sad about why has your face fallen what are you so sad about sharing by the way wonders what is hashem asking kayan's carbon was just rejected what do you mean what are you so sad about you're sad because you just lost you lost the nba finals my heat lost the finals my yankees weren't eliminated from the playoffs what do you mean llama flu panecha isn't the answer obvious says no when hashem was asking he wants to know why are you sad are you sad because your carbon wasn't accepted or are you sad because your brother have else was why are you sad are you sad because you didn't get an aliyah you're sad because someone else got the aliyah instead what is the source of your sadness because you crave to come close and you miss the spiritual opportunity or because someone else has it says what hashem was asking him is not why are you sad but what is the driver of your sadness the fact that your car bomb was rejected or that that of your brother was accepted in any case what happens kind says to his brother there in the field rises and kills his brother what happened to the possible yomer says to his brother and they were in the field and cayenne rises and kills his brother what did he say by omar khan el havo and cain said to his brother what did he say never tells us what he said so perhaps i think you can compliment the rev's vote adam launched their relationship with vayomer adam with communication with conversation the foundation of a relationship is the ability to communicate and to have healthy communication so much of marriage counseling and so much of improving our already healthy marriages going from good to great is learning how to communicate effectively efficiently learning how to listen so vyomer adam that was the beginning of the relationship in adam and that was the end of the relationship of kain and hevel mer cayenne what did he say we never know they didn't communicate effectively he meant to say something he wanted to say something but he didn't know how he didn't have the words he didn't know how to express himself and instead he turns to violence the very first act of murder the very first act of violence the failure of communication is what undermines the future of the world it is the failure of our of our existence all right there's a lot more to talk about safe and gracious hashem's call ayaka which hashem continues to call out to us each and every generation if we don't answer the ayaka the rav says it turns into a echa we have the story of of the continuity of man's that safer but my voice is lost and we are out of time so please god we'll pick up with it next time stay happy stay healthy stay holy special behind the bema tonight tuesday night this week instead of tomorrow night our guest is ben shapiro ben shapiro with millions of followers online we're not going to talk politics we're going to go behind the bema about his life and background join us nine o'clock tonight for behind the bema have a wonderful day