spirit
FOUND
torah portion
To Serve Is
To Follow
at Hillel Day School
For all current 4 and 5 year olds
Storytime
Tinkering
Snack
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enjoy an engaging and innovative adventure with a
parent, grandparent, nanny or other special caregiver
Space is limited - RSVP by October 26
with name(s) of your child(ren) and adult(s) and which session
you wish to attend to:
Melanie Weber, 248-539-1490 or mweber@hillelday.org
jn
248-539-1490
248-539-1490
248-539-1490
248-539-1490
248-539-1490
1958-2018
October 12 • 2017
Parshat Bereshit:
Genesis 1:1-6:8;
Isaiah 42:5-43:10.
Thursday, November 2, 2017
10:00 a.m.-11:00 a.m.
or 1:30 p.m.-2:30 p.m.
40
his parshat is the most funda-
mental. In it we find: creation,
the first man and woman, the
first sin, the first repentance, the
first murder, the first degeneration
of society and much more. But per-
haps the most perplexing event in it
is the original sin.
God put Adam and Eve in the
Garden of Eden and gave
that until today continues
them everything they could
to challenge us. The truth is
possibly need (great weather,
that when a person thinks
abundant delicious food,
like that, he is using his ego
no enemies, no sickness,
and believing that he knows
etc.) God spoke to them, an
better than God. God said
incredible experience, and
you’ll be at your best doing
requested only one thing
X, but I say I can do better
of them: Don’t eat from the
by doing Y. That’s wrong
Rabbi Leiby
fruit of one tree. Yet, before
because God does know
Burnham
their first day was over, they
best; He created us, and we
disobeyed God. Why? How
are at our best when we fol-
can we understand this orig-
low what He asks of us.
inal error, which impacted
The challenge of Adam
the world more fundamentally than
and Eve is still our challenge today.
any other single action in history,
We try to tell ourselves that God
bringing mortality to mankind?
didn’t really mean that we should
One way to understand Adam and do what he asked of us in the Torah;
Eve’s mistake is to realize that they
or that if He would see the modern
thought they knew a better way to
world, He would certainly cancel a
serve God, even though God indicat- number of the “outdated” mitzvot
ed otherwise. Adam and Eve felt that (as if God couldn’t see the future).
We feel like we can decipher what
to serve God simply by not eating
He really wants of us, even if it is dif-
a single species of fruit, in a place
ferent from what He told us.
where God’s presence was palpable,
The truth is that if we want to
was no big deal. They were capable
of sacrificing so much more for God. serve God and not ourselves, we
have to trust that He knows best;
They were willing and able to serve
and realize that the best way to
God in a world shrouded in dark-
serve Him is to follow what He asks,
ness, where it would be much more
not what we think He should have
difficult to see God and appreciate
asked. If we do that, we will be able
the importance of serving Him.
to reverse the effects of the primor-
Adam and Eve knew that if they
dial sin and bring the world back to
ate from the fruit, it would be like
the utopia it was before sin arrived
turning off a celestial light switch,
on the scene. •
and God’s presence in the world
would become much more hid-
Leiby Burnham is director of outreach for
den through sin’s entrance into
the Weiss Family Partners in Torah at the
the world. They were certain that
Southfield-based Yeshiva Beth Yehudah.
they could still serve God in such a
difficult world; they would be the
CONVERSATIONS
knights in shining armor, riding
Do you feel that God knows what’s
through the darkness holding up the
best for you? What are some
banner of godliness. Confident that
mitzvahs you struggle with? How
it would result in a far greater glori-
do you typically resolve a dilemma
fication of God, Adam and Eve ate
where a Jewish tradition diverges
the forbidden fruit.
from your worldview?
But this was a colossal error, one