Shalom Friends;
Our Parshat HaShevua, Breish’t is sponsored by Binyamin and Barbara Lemkin and family of Ramat Beit Shemesh who dedicate this vort for for the speedy aliyah of Jonathan Pollard to Eretz Yisrael, for mass aliyah by American Jews and to the Jewish heroes who sacrifice themselves for the cause of Torah and Eretz Yisrael. To the Lemkin family, many thanks for your sponsorship and your continued kindnesses.
You can celebrate a Simcha — a birth, a Bar/Bat Mitzvah, a Chassuna or other Simcha event in your life, or commemorate a Yahrtzeit of a loved one, or for whatever other reason by sponsoring a Parshat HaShevua.
Please forward to your relatives and friends and encourage them to sponsor a Parshat HaShevua. And please be in contact with me with any questions, or for further details.
Best Regards,
Moshe Burt
olehchadash@yahoo.com
skype: mark.burt3
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The Torah cycle renews itself yet again with Parshat Breish’t 5779. In a departure from previous years, this vort on Parshat Breish’t deals with distinguishing between text written in Torah (P’shat), and Midrashim (Drash) — concepts and interpretations of the text by Rabbanim and Scholars through the generations.
Rabbi Shmuel Goldin writes in the introduction in his sefer “Unlocking The Torah Text” (page xviii):
…P’shat refers to the straightforward explanation of the text, while Drash refers to rabbinic commentary serving as a vehicle for the transmission of lessons and ideas beyond the literal narrative. Proper understanding of P’shat reveals deep, unexpected meaning within the text itself, while the lessons conveyed through Drash provide an all-important glimpse into… values and concepts in Rabbinic thought.
When we ignore the P’shat and instead offer Drash as the literal interpretation of the text, we end up understanding neither of these interpretive realms. This phenomenon is not only unfortunate, in these times of intellectual searching, potentially dangerous.
Rabbi Goldin then provides, by way of a class he taught at Yeshiva University, what seems to be a classic case of incorrectly understanding Drash as literal interpretation of text (ibid, pages xviii- xxi):
…The following [Torah text], describing Hashem’s actions on the fourth day of creation: “And Hashem made the two great luminaries, the greater luminary to dominate the day and the lesser luminary to dominate the night…” (Sefer Breish’t, Perek 1, posuk 16 as rendered to English by Rabbi Shmuel Goldin in the introduction in his sefer “Unlocking The Torah Text”)
[He] asked the class: “The phrase ‘And Hashem made the two great luminaries’ seems not only superfluous but incorrect. Why would the text first refer to the sun and the moon as if they were of comparable size and only afterwards distinguish between the greater luminary and the lesser luminary?
…Hands shot up.
“Rabbi, the answer is simple: Hashem originally created the sun and the moon the same size (thus, the textual reference to ‘the two great luminaries’). The moon, however, complained that it would be impossible for two luminaries of equal size to coexist. To punish the moon for its jealousy, Hashem diminished the moon’s size.
[The] students, many of whom had day school backgrounds, were accurately quoting a well-known Midrash cited in… Talmud. (Talmud Bavli Chullin 60b) They had… learned this… years earlier in grade school, as explanation for the text.
[R’ Goldin challenged]… “Do you really think that the Torah is informing us that the moon can talk? Is belief in a talking moon essential to the faith system of the Orthodox Jew?
[The] students were dumbstruck. They had never before been forced to question their own acceptance of the Midrash as the literal interpretation of the text. Nor had anyone, for that matter, ever offered them an alternative explanation for the passage. Now, challenged to revisit their understanding of the text as adults, the found themselves… searching for answers.
When we enter the realm of Midrash, …the key question is not “Is the Midrash literally true?” but, rather, “What are the Rabbis trying to teach us?” In this case, for example, the Rabbis use the text to symbolically convey the dangers of jealousy as well as other, deeper messages cryptically couched in parable form.
“What then,” [Rav Goldin asked] “is the P’shat explanation for the apparent redundancy in the text? What does the passage literally mean?”
As a possible answer, [Rav Goldin] cited a remarkable fact noted by Professor Nathan Aviezer of Bar-Ilan University. From the perspective of man, the apparent sizes of the sun and the moon are exactly the same. This equality in apparent size becomes evident during a solar eclipse when the moon, from our standpoint, totally covers the sun. (Nathan Aviezer, “In the Beginning: Biblical Creation and Science”)
On a literal level, the text… first underscores the remarkable precision of Hashem’s creation. [He] places in the heavens “two great luminaries,” two celestial spheres of dramatically different size, so precisely, that from the earth they are viewed as equal. Once this miraculous physical reality has been referenced in the text, Torah then goes on to explain that in terms of illumination, one of these spheres is the “greater luminary” and the other is the “lesser luminary.” ….Originally presented with the Midrashic explanation of the text as the only alternative, [the students] found no purpose in continued inquiry into the narrative.
To avoid these pitfalls we… have to approach the text with “new eyes.”
Traditional Torah study is based upon a fundamental belief in the Divine authorship of the text. Hashem’s will can only be reflected in the text if the text itself is “Hashem’s word.” That does not mean that we are not supposed to question. In fact, the opposite is true. Without question and challenge, Hashem’s Word and… Will remain distant and unclear, Torah remains a closed book.
We hope and pray for ultimate Ge’ula Shlaima, where our lives may no longer be finite. But in our current finite state, what we do here on earth is critical, for when we are no longer here, our Mitzvot, our kindnesses that we do, because they are needed, whether for family or for the Kehal — they live on, attached to the collective memory of the do’er by his/her friends, family, the Kehal and beyond.
May we, the B’nei Yisrael be zocha that our brethren — the refugee families from Gush Katif be permanently settled and be made totally whole — be totally restituted for all that was stolen from them and that the twice expelled families of Amona be restored to their rebuilt homes, at government expense; both due to alt-leftist-agendized, supreme court legalized Yassamnik gunpoint. May our dear brother Jonathan Pollard be liberated and truly free — only upon his return home to Israel, and that the MIAs be liberated alive and returned to us in ways befitting Al Kiddush Hashem, as should the remains of the two chayalim from the Gaza War of four years ago. May we have the courage and strength to stand up and physically prevent the possibility of Chas V’Challila any future eviction of Jews from their homes and prevent Chas V’Challila the handing of Jewish land over to anyone, let alone to enemies sworn to Israel’s and Judaism’s destruction and eradication. May we fulfill Hashem’s blueprint of B’nai Yisrael as a Unique people — an Am Segula, not to be reckoned with as with “the nations” and may we be zocha to see the Moshiach, the Ge’ula Shlaima, as Dov Shurin sings; “Ki Karov Yom Hashem Al’Kol HaGoyim”, the Ultimate Redemption, bimhayrah b’yamainu — speedily, in our time”, — Achshav, Chik Chuk, Miyad, Etmol!!!
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Moshe Burt is an Oleh, writer and commentator on news and events in Eretz Yisrael. He is the founder and director of The Sefer Torah Recycling Network and lives in Ramat Beit Shemesh.
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