Gabrieklla Flash - Dvar Torah

Shabbat Shalom everyone.

My parasha is Bereishit, the very first parasha of the Torah. It has been an honour to study this parasha. This parasha contains so many well-known stories and great lessons.

It starts with G-d creating the world in 7 days.  

Day 1: G-d said, ‘Let there be light!’ And there was light.  

Day 2: G-d separated the sky and the waters.

On Day 3, G-d separated the water from the land and put plants and trees on the land. 

On Day 4, G-d made the sun, the moon and the stars.

On Day 5, G-d made the birds in the sky and the sea creatures.

Then on Day 6, G-d made all the land animals and important to our story, humans were created. According to the parasha, Adam was created first and then G-d gave him a help mate, Eve. These first humans were made in the image of G-d, betzelem Elohim. (On a side note, when I was studying this text, it did seem to be that this was where patriarchy started, right from the beginning. But that's a discussion for another day.)

And on the 7^th Day, G-d created Shabbat and rested!

The parasha goes on to tell the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, their children, Cain and Abel (and I thought that I had sibling issues with Jesse and then I met these two!). And the parasha goes on to list all the generations until we come to the beginning of the story of Noah.

But for now, I want to get back to the Garden of Eden and the main characters: Eve and Adam. So, Adam and Eve were living in the Garden and G-d told them, ‘You may take and eat from every tree in the garden, except from the Tree of Knowledge.’ That all seemed to be fine and Adam named all the animals and they were all happily living in the Garden. Then the snake came along and - spoiler alert – things took a bit of a turn! The snake convinced Eve to eat from the Tree of Knowledge. Eve disobeyed G-d’s instruction, and she ate the fruit. 

We learn many things from this story. One thing we learn is that our actions have consequences. One small little taste of a piece of fruit has big consequences! The snake, Eve and Adam all get punished for their actions.

The snake was punished by having to crawl on its belly and to be feared by humans who will try and kill it. Eve was punished by having to experience pain in pregnancy and childbirth. And Adam was punished by having to work to produce food and that humans would not be immortal anymore.

What would’ve happened if Eve had not listened to the snake? To start off, we wouldn’t fear snakes. And maybe we would all have snakes as pets instead of dogs and cats! Importantly, there would be no pain in childbirth. People would live forever. There would be no death. Humans wouldn’t have to work for food. Everything would be abundant and provided for us. The world would be an entirely different place from the one we live in today.

But Eve did eat the fruit and when G-d found out, there were consequences.  

And just like Adam, Eve and the snake all our actions have consequences too. 

Was Eve right to disobey and eat the fruit? Was she wrong? We all have some good inclination, Yetzer haTov and some bad inclination, Yetzer haRa in us. So, I guess this is all about the good and evil within us and the choices we make in the world.

We don’t live in the Garden of Eden anymore. In our world, not everybody has enough food, there is pain and there is death.  But we can choose what we do with our lives and think about the consequences of our actions. People can do what they want to do, good or evil. We all have free will. But we need to think about what our actions will do to other people and how our choices will affect other people’s lives and the impact our actions have on our planet.

Maybe it comes back to my study text: 

'It is not your duty to finish the work, but neither are you free to neglect it'

Becoming a Jewish adult means taking on more responsibility and being responsible for my actions. When G-d asked Adam why he ate the fruit, Adam said that Eve gave him the fruit. When G-d asked Eve what she had done, she blamed the snake for tricking her into eating the fruit. Maybe Eve did encourage Adam to eat the fruit, and maybe the snake did trick Eve into eating the fruit. But is that an excuse? Everyone has free will and everyone has both good and bad inclinations. We live in a world of social media and peer pressure and there are lots of opinions telling us to do lots of things. I need to think about my choices, and I need to think about the consequences of my choices. I should be doing something to make the world a better place. I should be making choices with my words and my actions that help to fix the world and the people in it.  

For me, being a Jewish adult is going to shul and being part of my community, following my family’s traditions, like hosting and caring for family members, celebrating Jewish holidays and like my Zeda Ben, to always greet the world and people with a smile on your face. I’m excited to start taking these on as a responsible Jewish adult.

Thank you very much, Good Shabbos.