Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 23 Tishri, 5784

Simchat Torah!  Chag Sameach!

Today we turn back the Torah and “Begin Again.”  We start over with Genesis – Parsha Bereshit: (Genesis 1:1 – 6:18)

Today’s reading (for the First day of the week) we read the first portion, Genesis 1:1-2:3.  It is the story of Creation.

As we “Begin Again” hopefully we approach to Torah even MORE liberated than we did last year (5783) or the year before (5782).

And what I reflect on IMMEDIATELY from my commentary last year is THIS line:

And, as we’ve learned; Hashem made the CHOICE to restrain Himself and confine Himself in our world. He chose to need us. To desire us. To want us.

As we’ve been discussing unrequited love, I think the theme this year’s Torah cycle for me is around this idea and concept of returning Hashem’s love- and our own (since His spirit is inside of us).

So. If we are made in the image of Hashem (as today’s portion points out)?  It would make sense that we ended yesterday discussing a choice:

Is the promise land THIS moment. And then THIS moment. And THIS. And THIS.  Each moment we live – is the promise.  To live in a moment or to ignore a moment. To numb ourselves in a moment. To distract ourselves in a moment.  To live or die in these moments MAY BE the answer to Spiritual Freedom and Liberation.

And. It may not be.

It may ALSO be that the Promise Land ALREADY Exists.  Our Consciousness can decide – will we be OUTSIDE the promised land within? Or will we enter it within? That may be the final message of the Torah.  Basically, The Torah can lead a horse to water (the Promised Land) but the Torah cannot make us drink.  We have to CHOOSE to enter. That is it.

Or maybe it’s both/and? MAYBE THE Torah wants us to AVOID Either/Or thinking.  To see it both/and.  At THIS moment. We are both IN the Promised Land, and OUTside of it. We are IN Heaven and OUT of it. Hashem is both withIN us and OUTside of us. We don’t seem to think this way. We think it’s one or the other.  Both/AND is liberation thinking. Just my opinion.

So – creation is about choice. Hashem CHOSE to restrain Himself and confine Himself in our world.

Our consciousness has a CHOICE.  As we create our moments (or co-create them with Hashem) we can choose to restrain ourselves and confine ourselves into the moment Hashem is creating with us, OR we can try to fight what Hashem is co-creating with us.  We can block. We can resist.

We really have the choice: Play in HASHEM’S Sandbox and co-create there – or – fight to be OUTSIDE Hashem’s sandbox to create something independently.

And? Spoiler alert? We can’t. We can’t be outside Hashem’s Sandbox. That’s the rub.  No matter how much we try. We cannot run away from ourselves.  We will always find us.  Because this is all within.

And thus begins our descent into slavery. Trying to run away from Hashem’s creation and what Hashem wants to co-create with us?  THAT feels like slavery.  That is the beginning of imprisonment.  Let us remember this lesson as we “Begin Again” this Torah cycle.

I am curious to YOUR thoughts!

Here’s what I wrote regarding this portion when I first read it in 5782:

Parsha Bereshit: Genesis 1:1-6:18

Commentary From this morning’s Torah portion (First reading) in Genesis (summarized Genesis 1:1-2:3) from Rabbi Hayyim Soloveichik in the 19th-20th century:

The idea (from Rabbi Soloveichik) is that before Hashem created us, he consulted the angels – “let us make man in our image.”  More from Rabbi Soloveichik:

The angels quarreled – the angels of kindness and the angels of righteousness were in favor of man because we (humanity) would perform kind and charitable acts. However, the angels of truth and the angels of peace opposed our creation because they argued Humanity would be torn apart with lies and quarrels.

The idea is the inevitability of being torn by life when faced with a situation with an unresolvable dilemma. If we follow the path of truth, we offend our fellow human, disrupting peace. If we follow the path of peace, we are guilty of dishonesty, upsetting truth.

So what did Hashem do?

Hashem “took truth and threw it to the ground.” He “gave us the Torah here on earth, a teaching which guides us, in every area of life, in how to balance the sensitivities of truth and peace.”

My thoughts:

The issue is that truth and peace are in conflict with one another. Truth causes conflicts. Peace can obfuscate truth. But life isn’t one or the other. As humans, we are charged with daily deciding how to balance these issues MOSTLY within ourselves (how often do we convince ourselves of untruths so we can avoid inner conflicts) and then ALSO with others.

I know for a long time I have been out of balance when it comes to truth and peace. I have camped on the side of truth as much as I could. I am beginning to understand this is more out of complacency and an unwillingness to do the work every moment of every day of battling with these two concepts.

Both internally and externally.

And as we begin a new Torah cycle today, this is a great frame of reference (for me at least) in approaching the Torah!

Thank you Rabbi Soloveichik for your writings and giving me lots of thoughts this morning as I chew on the Torah!

One more bonus idea from this mornings reading.

The idea of Prayer is connected to the concept of rain. When we pray, we are not creating anything new; like the mist that rises from the earth and is collected and falls as rain, so too our prayers rise to Hashem and are collected, returning to us as blessing!