T

he most current 
parshot, Tazria and 
Metzora, begin with 
a discussion of the laws of 
childbirth and a bris, key 
milestones of 
life, and the 
laws regarding 
purity and 
impurity, what 
we call tum’ah 
and taharah, of 
people. 
 Rashi raises 
a question about the order of 
the Chumash: in the previous 
portion, Shemini, the Torah 
details the laws of purity 
and impurity with regard to 
animals. Current portions 
deals with the laws of purity 
and impurity with regard to 
people. It would seem that 
the appropriate order should 
have been to deal with the 
laws of human beings first 
and then the laws of animals, 

as human beings are more 
important; why, then, does 
the Torah deal with the laws 
of animals before the laws of 
human beings?
To answer the question, 
Rashi quotes from the 
Midrash which says that 
God modeled this structure 
on the order in which He 
created the world. In the 
same way that when He 
created the world, He created 
animals before human 
beings, so, too, in the Torah 
He dealt with the laws of the 
animals before the laws of 
human beings.
The question, then, is 
compounded; why did God 
create animals before human 
beings in the first place?

FOUR REASONS
The Talmud in Sanhedrin 
38a gives four reasons why 
God created animals before 

human beings. 
 • First, so that the heretics 
would not say that there was 
a partner in Creation with 
God. Had God created Adam 
and Eve at the beginning 
of the six days of Creation, 
the heretics and the deniers 
of God’s existence would 
say that God did not create 
the world — Adam and Eve 
actually did it, or at least 
helped Him out. Therefore, 
Adam and Eve had to be 
created at the end, to take 
away the argument from the 
heretics and the deniers.
We see from here how 
important it is to refute 
heresy and those who deny 
the truth. We see as well that 
people will deny even God’s 
creation of the world. People 
will deny many things — for 
example, the Holocaust, 
God’s existence or the Jews’ 
right to the Land of Israel. 

Basic facts of history and 
rational inquiry are denied 
by people, and we must go 
to the trouble to refute the 
heresy and stand up for what 
we believe, just as God did 
by structuring the order of 
Creation in such a way.
• The second reason that 
human beings were created 
last is because God wanted to 
teach people humility; even 
the mosquito was created 
before humankind. Lest we 
think we are so great, even a 
mosquito was created before 
us.
One of our commentators, 
the Ktav Sofer, explains 
further that when people sin 
and are detached from God, 
they are saying their body is 
what defines them. Human 
beings are comprised of two 
parts, body and soul. We can 
view ourselves as a body, 
which just happens to have a 

SPIRIT

Why Human Beings 
Were Created Last

A WORD OF TORAH

Rabbi 
Warren 
Goldstein

40 | APRIL 7 • 2022 

