The book of Genesis, the first of the five books of the Torah, chronicles the
lives of the founding fathers and mothers of humanity in general and of the
Jewish nation in particular: Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob;
Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah; Joseph and his brothers. More than history,
their lives are templates of our own, in which we find the precedents for our
every challenge and experience.
The book of Genesis consists of twelve sections ("Parshahs"), the last
of which, Vayechi, is this week's Torah reading. The twelve sections of
Genesis are: Bereishit, Noach, Lech-Lecha, Vayeira, Chayei
Sarah, Toldot, Vayeitzei, Vayishlach, Vayeishev,
Mikeitz, Vayigash, and Vayechi.
Our sages tell us that the name of a thing is the articulation of its
essence. Each of these twelve names embodies an entire Torah section,
encapsulating the common theme and quintessential import of the section's many
narratives. So if we take these twelve names and read them in succession as a
sort of shorthand or code, we get a synoptic account of the human story: the
purpose of our creation, the soul's transformation from a wholly spiritual
entity to a physical human being, the manner in which we develop our self and
environment, and the ultimate realization of our mission in life.
The twelve-word version of the human story reads like this:
Bereishit -- Purpose
Noach -- Tranquility
Lech Lecha -- Journey
Vayeira -- Vision
Chayei Sarah -- Invigoration
Toldot -- Production
Vayeitzei -- Excursion
Vayishlach -- Delegation
Vayeishev -- Integration
Mikeitz -- End
Vayigash -- Union
Vayechi -- Life
Purpose
If there is one basic question that all "isms" and value systems
must address, it is this: does the world exist for its own sake, or for the sake
of some other, greater aim? Is there an axiomatic purpose upon which our
existence turns, or is our existence its own axiom?
Bereishit is the Torah's opening word and the name of its first section.
The word means "in the beginning," and it commences the Torah's
narrative of the world's creation: "In the beginning G-d created the
heavens and the earth...". But in addition to its literal meaning,1 bereishit
expresses the axiom that G-d created the world to serve a purpose. Our sages
note that the word bereishit begins with the letter bet, the second
letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The story of creation, the Torah is saying, does
not begin with G-d's creation of the world; there is something that precedes it
and upon which it is predicated.
Bereishit is also an acronym of the words bet reishit ("two
firsts") -- a reference to the two primary components of the purpose of
creation, both of which are called reishit: the Torah (called reishit
in Proverbs 8:22) and the people of Israel (Jeremiah 2:3). The Torah is the
guidebook that outlines how this purpose is to be fulfilled, and the people of
Israel are the principal actors in its realization.
Tranquillity
Having established that creation has a purpose, we now proceed to the name of
the second Torah section, Noach, which conveys what this purpose is: to
transform a chaotic existence into a harmonious world.
"G-d desired a dwelling in the lowly realms." In these words our
sages (Midrash Tanchuma, Naso 16; Tanya ch. 36) describe G-d's motive for the
creation of the world. The "lowly realms" is our physical world -- a
world whose coarseness and diversity belie the sublimity and singularity of its
divine source. G-d desired that this lowly realm be transformed into a
"dwelling" for Him -- a place that is receptive to His presence, a
place in which He is "at home"; that this diverse and strife-torn
environment be transformed into a tranquil world, a world at peace with itself
and its Creator. In the words of our sages, "The Torah was given in order
to make peace in the world" (Talmud, Gittin 59b; Mishneh Torah, Laws of
Chanukah, 4:14).
Noach (Noah) -- the name means "tranquility" -- achieved this
on a microcosmic level when he created an island of tranquility amidst the
raging waters of the Flood: a floating island which contained specimens of every
animal, bird and plant, and in which, for 365 days, the lion lived in peace with
the lamb. Of course, Noach's messianic world was temporary and embraced only a
tiny corner of creation; the divine desire is that we transform the entire world
into a "Noah's ark" of tranquil perfection.
Noach also means "satisfaction" -- a reference to the fact that
this purpose has significance only because it satisfies the divine desire for
"a dwelling in the lowly realms." The creation of a tranquil world
cannot be an end in itself -- had the world not been created, there would have
been no strifeful entity upon which tranquility need be imposed. The endeavor of
making the world a home for G-d is meaningful only because G-d desires
it.2
Journey, Vision and Invigoration
The created existence is purposeful, the purpose being the satisfaction of
the divine desire for a tranquil home on earth. To fulfill this purpose, the
human soul is dispatched to the physical world, imbued with a vision of the
purpose, and granted the ability to integrate this vision into all components of
its psyche and character.
Lech-Lecha ("Go, you"), the third section of Genesis, derives
its name from its opening verse, "And G-d said to Abram: 'Go, you, from
your land, from your birthplace and from your father's house, to the land that I
will show you." This, say the Chassidic masters, is the command issued to
every soul before it enters this world: depart from your lofty origins, from
your state of oneness with G-d, to journey to an unknown, alien place. Descend
from your spiritual birthplace to enter a physical body and world, for this is
"the land that I will show you" -- the arena in which your mission in
life will be fulfilled.
The soul, however, does not go alone. It is fortified with a vision (Vayeira
-- "And He revealed Himself," from Vayeira's opening verse
"And He (G-d) revealed Himself to Abraham") of the divine truth, a
vision that will be its guiding light in its effort to make the world a place
that is hospitable to the divine presence.
But a vision alone is not enough. Unless the vision saturates the soul,
permeating its every nook and cranny, it will be little more than an abstract
theory or a "religious belief," with limited effect upon the person's
day-to-day life. If our vision of G-d is to serve as the focus of our lives, it
must become the object of our will, the vista of our mind and the yearning of
our heart.
This is the message implicit in the name of the next Torah section, Chayei-Sarah
("The Life of Sarah"). The fifth section of Genesis begins with the
verse, "And the life of Sarah was one hundred years, twenty years, and
seven years." In the language of Kabbalah, the number "one
hundred" represents the faculty of will, "twenty" connotes the
intellect, and "seven" refers to the emotions; the Torah is telling us
that all aspects of Sarah's psyche and personality were invigorated by her
soul's vision of G-d.
Production, Self-Extension and Delegation
We know why we're here, and that we have been supplied with the vision and
spiritual resources to carry it out. Now it's time to get to work.
The word Toldot -- the name of the sixth section of Genesis -- means
"progeny" and "products." "The toldot of the
righteous," say our sages, "are their good deeds." The bricks out
of which the earthly "dwelling for G-d" is constructed are the mitzvot,
the deeds which transform a physical resource into an object of the divine
will.3
Sanctifying one's own life and surroundings through the performance of
mitzvot is not enough: one must also extend oneself (Vayeitzei --
"And he went out") to places and people that lie outside one's
immediate environment. The Torah section of Vayeitzei relates how Jacob
left the holy environment of his father's home and the study houses of Shem and
Eber, where he had spent the first half of his life in "the tents of
Torah," to journey to pagan Charan and the manipulative Laban, where he had
to contend with a hostile and materialistic world for twenty toilsome years. But
it was here that Jacob attained the peak of his personal growth and where he
founded the nation of Israel.
Vayishlach ("and he sent," from that Parshah's opening verse,
"And Jacob sent angel-messengers to his brother Esau") connotes the
next step in our efforts to make the world a home for G-d. What are we to do
when we have extended ourselves to the utmost of our capacity? When we have
reached out to those individuals and places that are at the very extremity of
our communication skills and our ability to impact the world? We should then
extend our reach even further by delegating and empowering others as our agents.
Our influence upon others should not be limited to affecting their lives, but
also to transforming them into teachers and developers who will in turn affect
people and places that we ourselves could never reach.
In Torah law, this concept is known as the principle of shelichut. In
the words of the Talmud, "A person's shaliach (agent) is like
himself," and the shaliach's actions and accomplishments are
attributed to the one who empowered him to act in his stead.
Integration
When a thief is breaking into your home, goes the Chassidic saying, there are
basically two things you can do. You can holler, "Thief! Thief!" and
drive the thief away; or you can capture the thief and teach him an honest
profession.
On the more elementary level, we can make the world a more G-dly place by
chasing the thief away. We can stimulate the positive in ourselves so that it
overpowers our own negative instincts, and work to similarly bring out the good
in others; we can seek to impose a divine harmony upon a basically divisive and
belligerent world.
But like the banished thief, the world has not really changed. A better,
holier, more peaceful world has been imposed upon it, but underneath this new
order, the "old" world remains. It has been vanquished, not
transformed; suppressed, not elevated.
After a person has gone through the "production,"
"excursion" and "delegation" phases of his mission in life,
the next step is to integrate these gains into the fabric of reality.
Vayeishev ("And he settled down in tranquility," from Vayeishev's
first verse "And Jacob settled down in tranquility in the land of his
father's dwelling") is the "settling in" of our G-dly deeds to
become the permanent, intrinsic state of our world.
End, Union, Life
The completion of the "integration" phase marks "the end"
(Mikeitz, the name of the tenth section of Genesis) -- the realization of
the end-goal of creation. The divine home is now complete; the world has become
a harmonious abode for its Creator.
The "end" itself has three stages, as successively deeper
dimensions of the world's divine harmony come to light. In the first stage, the
world is a perfect "vessel" or vehicle for G-d. A further stage
reveals its union (Vayigash -- "And he approached" -- the name
of the eleventh section) with its divine source: not only is the world
completely receptive to its Creator, but it is revealed to be one with the
divine reality, an expression of G-d's all-embracing truth.
The highest expression of creation's fulfillment is the eternal life (Vayechi
-- "And he lived") that is the hallmark of the final phase of the
Messianic Age. Death is a most natural phenomenon in the world in which we live
today -- an imperative of the finite and temporal nature of the physical. But
the physical was not always mortal. The world, as G-d created it, had the
capacity for eternal life -- death came only with the first sin of man, with the
first breach between G-d and His creation. In a world that is one with G-d, a
world that is in complete harmony with its source, there is nothing to disrupt
the flow of vitality from the Creator to creation.
The Torah section of Vayechi describes Jacob's demise: his parting
words to his children, his passing, and his funeral. Yet the section's name --
the one word that conveys its essence -- means "And [Jacob] lived." Vayechi
expresses the axiom that, in truth, "Our father Jacob did not die."
Jacob's life is immutable, because it is a life in the ultimate sense of the
word: life as an exercise of harmony with the divine.
Bereishit to Vayechi, the Parshah names of Genesis chronicle the
most basic truths of our existence: that life is purposeful, its purpose being
to satisfy the divine desire for a home on earth; that the soul descends to
earth furnished with a vision of G-d and the capacity to integrate this vision
into its self and character; that man must sanctify his life with acts of
goodness, extend himself beyond his "natural" environment, further
extend himself by delegating of his powers to others, and labor to not only
command but also transform reality; that our efforts will invariably result in a
world united with its G-d; that life -- pure and eternal -- is the ultimate
expression of the divine in man.
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