About this past week's Parshah...Bereisheet

“God blessed the seventh day, and declared it to be holy.  For it was on this day that God ceased from all the work that God had created.” Genesis 2:3

This past Shabbat we began rereading the Torah from anew.  Having rolled the Torah back last Tuesday during the holiday of Simhat Torah, to its beginning in the Book of Genesis, we are now prepared to reread the same words our ancestors have read for thousands of years; however, this time we are a year older, a year wiser, and a year more experienced.

A few years ago, while visiting a science classroom, it dawned on me that the above verse taught me a life lesson, which I had never before considered.  The idea that the completion of a project has the potential to make the project “holy” is a profound concept.  When one puts in all the effort, holds nothing back, and turns a dream into reality holiness follows.

What a wonderful lesson I thought to myself as I observed this class.  To learn that as a being “created in God’s image” (Gen 1:26) we not only have the ability to think for ourselves, to process, and to reflect, but we can also “create.” And then to learn that we can create holiness, I thought about how proud I felt that these students were confronting issues with personal meaning and self-reflection that many adults never have the chance to address.

Yesterday we started reading from the beginning once again, I was reminded of the quote “the one thing you can never have twice, is a first impression.”  However, when it comes to the Torah, since we read it every year from anew, we are always being offered the chance to have a new first impression.

BUT, like the infomercials claim, “that’s not all”!  Although the purpose of this column is to share some educational insights through a Jewish lens, and since education is the ultimate driving force behind what I do, I wanted to take this column one step further.  For those of you interested in taking the conversation from abstract “Torah portion” to the concrete “family dinner table”, we offer you the following guiding questions:

• After the first five days of creation God ended the day by claiming it was “good”, but after the sixth day (the day God created people) God said it was “very good” (Gen 1:31).  What is it about people that make us “very good” in God’s eyes?
• Adam and Eve were created by God and had a special relationship with God, but even they weren’t “perfect” in God’s eyes.  When we make mistakes we learn from them.  What was a mistake that we made this week that we could do better next time?

                                                                                                              

Have a wonderful week, shavuah tov!