New Beginnings

Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are but a distant memory and the dancing on the most joyous day of the year, Simchas Torah, can still be felt in the sore feet. In short order the feet will recover and the days of celebration will also be but a distant memory.

It’s now or never! Ok, maybe not never, but it’s easiest now to capitalize on the energy of the season and translate it into solid action. It’s the action that determines whether the feelings were real or just passing inspirations.

In this week’s Torah portion, the first of the Parshiyot, Bereishis, the Torah says, Now no tree of the field was yet on the earth, neither did any herb of the field yet grow, because the Lord God had not brought rain upon the earth, and there was no man to work the soil.

Rashi, tell us that this is a simple but profound equation. If you work backwards in the verse, the verse is saying, that since there was no Man to work the soil, so therefore that had been no rain. And since there was no rain there were not trees or herbs.

In simple words, the entire world was created for us, you and I, human beings to settle the world. In spiritual terms settling the world means making it a G-dly place and a goodly place.

It’s all there for the taking, if we make the effort to do our part.

This message is profound as it is simple in this first Torah portion of the year that we read. Take that High Holiday inspiration and take action. When we do the rain comes down, the trees and herbs grow and provide us with all that we need to make this world what G-d intended it to be; a beautiful Garden of Eden. 

Good Shabbos!