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Dear TBZ Community,
This week we begin again. From the beginning. We open the Torah once again, entering the cycle of stories that shape our narratives as human beings and as Jews. It is Parshat Bereshit, and we read about the creation of the world, the creation of human beings, and, almost as soon as human beings are created, our first tragedy. A tragedy that grows out of jealousy, insecurity, and fear: one brother kills the other.
The story of the creation of the first human being is told in an interesting way. Before God creates humanity, God says:
נַעֲשֶׂה אָדָם בְּצַלְמֵנוּ כִּדְמוּתֵנוּ
Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness (Genesis 1:26).
Why the plural? Why does God say, “Let us make,” rather than “Let me make”?
The midrash (rabbinic commentary) offers an answer: God is not creating alone, God is speaking with the angels. The angels, in this telling, are participants in the creation of humanity. But they are not all convinced that human beings should be created at all.
Rabbi Simon teaches:
אָמַר רַבִּי סִימוֹן, בְּשָׁעָה שֶׁבָּא הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא לִבְרֹאת אֶת אָדָם הָרִאשׁוֹן, נַעֲשׂוּ מַלְאֲכֵי הַשָּׁרֵת כִּתִּים כִּתִּים, וַחֲבוּרוֹת חֲבוּרוֹת, מֵהֶם אוֹמְרִים אַל יִבָּרֵא, וּמֵהֶם אוֹמְרִים יִבָּרֵא
When the Holy One came to create Adam, the ministering angels divided into factions and groups. Some said, “Let him not be created,” and some said, “Let him be created (Bereshit Rabbah 8:5).”
And the midrash gives voice to four angels, each named by a different attribute, each seeing something different in us.
חֶסֶד – Kindness says: Let humanity be created, because human beings will perform acts of kindness.
אֱמֶת – Truth says: Let humanity not be created, because human beings will be full of lies.
צֶדֶק – Righteousness says: Let humanity be created, because human beings will do acts of righteousness.
שָׁלוֹם – Peace says: Let humanity not be created, because human beings will be full of conflict.
The angels, in other words, know us before we even exist. They know what we are capable of. They know our capacity for kindness and our capacity for deception, our capacity for justice and our capacity for violence and conflict. And they are not sure that creating us is a good idea.
Now, while the angels are still arguing with one another, still debating whether humanity should exist, God creates the human being. And God says to the angels:
מָה אַתֶּם מִדַּיְּנִין? כְּבָר נַעֲשָׂה אָדָם
“Why are you arguing? Adam has already been created (Bereshit Rabbah 8:5).”
God does not wait until the angels can agree about whether human beings are worth creating. God does not wait until there is proof that we will choose kindness, truth, righteousness, and peace. God creates us in all our complexity, with all of our possibilities, and entrusts the world to us.
And it does not take us very long to prove the angels right: By the very next story, Cain kills his brother Abel.
The Torah tells us that Cain and Abel each bring an offering to God. God looks favorably upon Abel and his offering, but not upon Cain and his offering. And the Torah tells us:
וַיִּחַר לְקַיִן מְאֹד, וַיִּפְּלוּ פָּנָיו
Cain became very angry, and his face fell (Genesis 4:5).
God speaks to Cain, warning him about what is growing inside him, about the possibility of sin and the need to master it. But Cain does not overcome his anger. Instead, he goes out into the field with his brother.
וַיָּקָם קַיִן אֶל הֶבֶל אָחִיו וַיַּהַרְגֵהוּ
And Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him (Genesis 4:8).
And then God asks Cain:
?אֵי הֶבֶל אָחִיךָ
“Where is Abel your brother? (Genesis 4:9)”
And Cain answers:
?לֹא יָדַעְתִּי. הֲשֹׁמֵר אָחִי אָנֹכִי
“I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper? (Genesis 4:9)”
The fact that he has to ask the question is perhaps what the angels were fearing. The angels were afraid that human beings would not understand that this question should not even be asked. That we are our brothers’ keepers. That we are responsible for one another.
Our lives are bound up with one another. The way we treat one another matters. We are called to become the kind of human beings who can choose kindness over cruelty, righteousness over injustice, and peace over violence.
The angels were not wrong. There is violence, hatred, jealousy, fear, and the terrible human capacity to dehumanize another person.
But the midrash insists that this is not the whole story.
There is also chesed – kindness. There is emet – truth. There is tzedek – righteousness. There is shalom – peace. There is the possibility that truth can spring from the earth. There is the possibility that human beings can choose differently.
As we begin the Torah again, we are brought back to the very beginning. Back to creation. Back to the question of what it means to be human. Back to the angels who wondered whether human beings should exist at all. Back to God’s decision to create us anyway. And back to Cain standing before God, trying to avoid responsibility for his brother.
If God was willing to create us even knowing everything that we would do, perhaps our task is to live up to that trust. To become, in our own small and imperfect ways, the human beings the angels hoped we could be. To practice kindness. To allow truth to grow from the earth. To pursue righteousness. To seek peace.
And perhaps most importantly, to remember that the question “Am I my brother’s keeper?” is not rhetorical. It is a question that is asked of each one of us, again and again, at the very beginning of our story.
As we begin again this Shabbat, may we answer it with our lives.
May we be worthy of the trust God placed in humanity when God created us.
May we become the best human beings we can be.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rav Claudia