When God began to create the heaven and the earth... God said, "Let there be light"... "Let there be an expanse in the midst of the water"... "Let the earth sprout vegetation"... "Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate day from night"... "Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures"... "Let the earth bring forth every kind of living creature"... "See, I give you every seedbearing plant that is upon the earth".... And God saw all that God had made and found it very good. (Genesis 1:1-31)
This scene is still a shocking surprise to most of those who get caught up in it. They continue to talk about it as a "once-in-a-lifetime experience."
At the famed Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens in usually serene San Marino, California, over 70,000 visitors waited in line for more than three hours in the scorching sun from Sunday, August 1, through Wednesday, August 4, to view the rare two-day blooming of the amorphophallus titanum. This was one of the largest crowds ever recorded in the seventy-one-year history of the library.
Why the swarm of visitors?
Botanical buffs know that while the titanum is relatively common in its native Sumatra, it has bloomed only eleven times in the United States. Regarded as the largest flower in the world, it has also been called the corpse flower because of the rancid scent it emits to attract flies and dung beetles for the purpose of pollination. The plant stands nearly six feet tall, its bloom a cluster of tiny bright colorful flowers with a purplish, towering spear, called a spadix. The flowers die within two days of blooming. Upon their death, the spadix sends forth its noxious, pungent stink.
Imagine the scene: Thousands of people were battling traffic snarls, looking endlessly for parking places, and walking miles to purchase their $8.50 admission ticket in order to wait up to three hours to pass by the largest and most putrid plant in the world. "It's about being a part of something," Rosie Rodriguez told a reporter, "something positive."
Is that why the Torah begins with ma-aseh b'resheet, the "creation of the cosmos and our world," and not with the history of the Jewish people? Is being astonished by creation, even the creation of a "stinking" plant, essential for human existence? Is this the reason Jewish tradition prescribes that we begin our morning and evening prayers each day with the theme of creation? (Yotzer Or, "Creator of Light," in the morning and Ma-ariv Aravim, "Whose Word Brings on the Evening," in the afternoon) Is it all about "being a part of something — something positive?"
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-1972) penetrates the gauze that is so often wrapped around our senses. "There is no faith at first sight," he observes. "Faith is preceded by awe, by acts of amazement at things that we apprehend but cannot comprehend. We must learn how to see 'the miracles that are daily with us': we must learn how to live in awe, in order to attain the insights of faith." (God in Search of Man, 1955, p.153)
The first words of the Torah plunge us into a universe saturated with God and bid us: Look around. Engage your senses. Imitate God. Take in the wonder of it all!
"And God saw all that God had made and found it very good." Stinking plant and sweet rose? Yes. Life and death? Yes. Joys and sorrows? Yes. Defeats and successes? Yes. Suffering and healing? Yes. We begin the Torah with B'resheet because we need to learn how to see the way God sees and to find all of creation very astonishing and "very good."
At the time of this writing in 1999, Harvey J. Fields was the senior rabbi of Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Los Angeles, CA. Rabbi Fields is the author of A Torah Commentary for Our Times, UAHC Press, 1994.
During my days as a rabbinical student, I spent some time working as a Jewish chaplain at a large Los Angeles hospital. On Friday afternoons, it was my responsibility to see that each Jewish patient received a small set of electrical Shabbat candles.
I remember being repeatedly amazed by the impact of this simple task. In room after room, I witnessed wondrous transformations as I plugged in the lights. Breathing became less labored; pained expressions gave way to peaceful looks. Sometimes the relief induced by the candles was only momentary, but it was still clearly discernible.
I asked my mentor at the hospital, Rabbi Levi Meier, about this phenomenon. He responded by pointing out something that I had not previously noticed in this week's parashah.
On the first day of creation, God said, "Let there be light" (Genesis 1:1-5), and light appeared to banish darkness. I had always thought of that light as the light of the sun, but Rabbi Meier reminded me that the sun, moon, and stars weren't formed until the fourth day of creation. (Genesis 1:14-19) He then left me to ponder what kind of light was actually created on that first day.
The rabbis of the midrash offer a clue. One story tells of Rabbi Samuel bar Nachman, whose mastery of rabbinic legend was widely acknowledged. A colleague challenged his expertise by asking, "How was light created?" He replied, "God was wrapped in a special robe, and the brilliance of God's beauty shone from one end of the world to the other." (Genesis Rabbah 3:4)
Indeed, the light created on the first day was no ordinary light: It was God's light — the radiant light of life itself. It was the light that gave birth to all that followed. And it is the light that shines in and upon each one of us still, if only we can feel it and bask in it.
The candles that illuminated those hospital rooms brought a little bit of God's light into the depths of the darkness. They rekindled the light of life that had begun to dim inside suffering souls. Certainly, we all encounter such moments during which it is hard to see the light. But, as Rabbi Fields teaches us, our challenge is to see the world through the window of wonder -- to search vigorously for God's light of life that surrounds us, to harness the rays that reach into us, and to use them by joining with God in furthering the work of creation.
On the first day, God created life. And ever since, it has been our task to make that light grow brighter. Let there be life!
For Further Study
Ancient Secrets , Rabbi Levi Meier, New York: Villard, 1996.
At the time of this writing in 1999, Kenneth M. Chasen was the assistant rabbi at Westchester Reform Temple in Scarsdale, NY.
B’reishit, Genesis 1:1-6:8
The Torah: A Modern Commentary, pp. 18-55; Revised Edition, pp. 17-50;
The Torah: A Women's Commentary, pp. 3-34
