Living with a Bereishit Mindset

 

I love the book of Bereishit.  It provides more than “just” the story of creation.  It provides a foundation for one’s entire approach to Jewish living.  It is engaging, full of life and color, and contains the stories that tell us who we are, while, at the same time, raising questions with which we must grapple.  How old is the universe?  Did that story really happen that way?  It is in encountering the text and in addressing – even if not answering – these questions where we forge the foundation of our faith and identity.

  

Bereishit is a guide to developing a “Yiddishe Kup,” a Jewish approach to life.

Rashi famously quotes the Midrash that the opening verse of Bereishit can be understood as teaching us: “God created the world for the sake of the Torah.”  What does this mean?  Torah is more than a source of knowledge.  Torah provides us with our worldview.  It is the source of the “Yiddishe Kup." 

As Jews in the modern world, our lives are shaped by what goes on around us.  At the same time, Bereishit is a reminder that we must try to filter that world through the prism of Torah. 

Easier said than done.

Nevertheless, when we say the berachot over the Torah acknowledging God choosing us to receive the Torah and calling this gift a source of eternal life, we are admitting that Torah is meant to shape our entire worldview.

Rabbi Norman Lamm, in a sermon nearly 50 years ago, told a story of discussing how Jews react to anti-Semitism with his uncle.  Rabbi Lamm had an American worldview, and his uncle was European born but also had a more modern outlook.  Rabbi Lamm was curious as to the psychology of a Jew who lived most of his life in the shtetl without exposure to more modern ideas.  How would that insular experience shape the reaction to anti-Semitism?

Rabbi Lamm’s uncle described how when he was a child in Europe walking with his grandfather, Rabbi Lamm’s great-grandfather, they were accosted by a young Polish peasant who hurled at them every foul-mouthed anti-Semitic insult often heard from both Polish peasants and intellectuals.  Rabbi Lamm’s uncle, having been exposed to the modern world, was shaken.  Yet he noticed that the older man simply continued walking as if nothing at all had ever happened.  He was impassive, unruffled, unconcerned.

The uncle said to his grandfather, “How can you just continue? Aren't you bothered by all this?”  Rabbi Lamm’s great-grandfather replied:

What are you talking about?  How can I possibly be concerned by the likes of him?  Don’t you understand?  I am a man who has Torah!  One who has Torah is never concerned by the ranting and the raving of some semi-ignorant lunatic.  The slings and arrows of that kind of fortune can never hurt him. 

I think of this story when trying to understand the sometimes radically divergent views taken by different parts of the Jewish community to the issues of the day.  Might one response be more Jewish?  Which side is that?  On the one hand, some reactions seem more traditional.  On the other hand, the times and circumstances may call for a different approach.  On the other hand…We’ve run out of hands!

The truth is, of course, complicated.  It is possible for divergent approaches to both emerge out of a Torah worldview.  Regardless of one's ultimate opinion, Jews should interpret the world around us through a uniquely Torah-informed perspective.

Golda Meir had many interactions with Secretary of State Henry Kissinger during and after the Yom Kippur War.  The Prime Minister marshaled many reasons for assisting Israel - the country’s geo-strategic importance, its promotion of democracy, its attitude toward the Soviet Union, but she also appealed to Kissinger’s identity as a Jew.

Unimpressed, Kissinger responded, “I would like to inform you that I’m first an American citizen, second Secretary of State, and third a Jew.”

To which Meir replied, “In Israel, we read from right to left.”

As Jews, Torah provides us with information, inspiration, and guidance on how to live our lives.  It also provides us with something more.  One might call it pride or maybe it defies categorization.  As we face a changed world that seems to spin out of control with many issues dividing us, it behooves us to grab onto one thing which never changes: Torah.