Rabbi Gordon - Bereishit: 1st Portion

I have listened to Rabbi Gordon for years. I appreciate his teaching and devotion. Reply

Great education tool 👍 Reply

Maybe yes, maybe no I'll answer for R' Gordon (if I'mnot being too forward): it certainly is not a question of a heretic. Who knows about the worlds before us or after us. It's beyond man's understanding. You can always ask, but don't always expect an answer - since none of us know. Reply

Angels Please forgive this immature question from a square-one student (me); I will ask it hoping it is not considered to be the question of a heretic: In speaking of Angels associated with Creation: could these Angels (to whom G-d referred) possibly have been the Holy Souls Departed from another world (previous to ours) that, perhaps, had their own Holy Scriptures, etc.? Or by the teaching of the Torah, are we "it" and there are no others? Reply

creation evening and morning 1st day, does evening begin at dusk and morning begin at first light and last until dusk, am really new to this.
thank you Reply

What do you mean by 10 soul powers of Man? Did you say that these are like the attributes of G-d?
Thank you,
P.S. Your comment about the one entitiy man/woman creature, is that something all Jewish people agree with and believe? Or is that a Kabbala point of view? Reply

We now know through astrophysics that of course the sun is much larger than the moon. But from earth's perspective, they are just about exactly the same size. Why is this rather amazing coincidence not stressed?

They already are the same size. And it's hard for me to imagine how, even when Moschiach comes, the moon and sun would become the same size. It would throw off so many relationships in the solar system. If we believe the sun is the largest, as Rashi apparently does even though he was before Galileo, then he is accepting a fair amount of science. So how can he think all that machinery will stop working and transition to something else, in a survivable way, and even one that follows God's physical laws?

Easiest to say that, if "earth is the center of the universe", then we use earth's perspective and the sun and moon are already the same size. Reply

Sun v. Moon Maybe the Jews have come to be representative of the moon as opposed to the sun because though the sun is physically larger, the moon is a firmament, a piece of land, while the sun is not solid. Maybe God wants the Jews to give the law to the rest world as something to stand on, as opposed to those not following the Law who might (hopefully figuratively) sink into the molten sun & it's heat, left with nothing to stand on, only worldliness to be consumed by. Reply

Ve'Et I liked the commentary on the reason for the addition of "Ve'et" which word is made of the first and last letters in the aleph-bet.

I always related to the sun as a blueprint of God and the moon as a blueprint of the Messiah. One cannot look upon the sun without going blind, but one is able to see the other great light in the sky which is actually the light from the sun, which the moon is sharing with us, so we still can enjoy it's witness in the sky. In fact, I'm not the only one, who can actually see a smiling-caring face on the moons surface. Just as a father would smile to his child who just woke up in the ICU and told his daddy he loves him. Just thought I'd share that :-) Reply

Rebellious Trees? I'm enjoying this series very much! Thank you for making it available.

I must ask...surely you aren't literally saying that the trees were to taste like their fruit which accounts for the earth being cursed (& that in olam haba trees will taste like their fruit), are you?

Bereshit 3 says it was man's rebellion that caused the earth to be cursed, not rebellious trees. "'Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying: Thou shalt not eat of it; cursed is the ground for thy sake; "

Nature doesn't have a free will. It must do everything G-d instructs it to do (Yov, Mishlei...). Trees do differ in "kind" & each tree does in fact produce after it's own "kind" of tree, just as plants to. They weren't instructed to taste like the fruit they produced any more than a tomato plant was to taste like a tomato. Logic says that would spell instant disaster as the tree or plant itself would be eaten & become extinct, no? Reply

Sun and Moon This was a tender point for me. I have not thought of the moon representative of me and the Sun representative of G-d. This representation is something for me to ponder deeply. Thank you. Reply

Mitzvoh You talked about how the beginning of the Torah contains no law until the first ordered one upon Moses leading his people out of Egypt. I was just wondering your thoughts on why the Rabbi's did not interpret God's resting after the 6 days of creation, from which the Shabbat practice comes, as an Issuing of "law" from Him.
(Sorry if this is a foolish question. As you can tell, I am not Jewish.) Reply

You spoke of seven attributres, but you used a hebrew words which I did not understand, please tell me what the seven attributes are.
Thank you, Reply

Oh how lovely to see my beloved teacher in his sukkah. Thank you Chabad.org for your service to the klal. Reply

Rabbi Yehoshua Ben Gordon of the Most Blessed Memory!! AAA+++ Reply

Thank you Your teaching is such a beautiful gift for every one. Reply

It is a pleasure and special minutes to listen to your daily Torah study class. It offers inspiration and strength. Thank you Reply

On line classes Dear Rabbi Gordon. Thank you so very much for all your teachings. You are such a good man. I converted to Judaism about 4 years ago and like a sponge I want to soak in as much as possible. I only just found you on line and am delighted at being able to learn as much as I can. Through the video archives I am able to start at the begging of the portion and continue on. You are a blessing in disguise of a Rabbi.
Thank you so much Reply