A thought on Parshas Breishes
"...yom sheni..."
"...the second day..." (1:8)
This year I will be studying the commentary of Rabbeinu Bachya. Living in Spain during the end of the thirteenth century, Rabbeinu Bachya ben Asher (often mispronounced as Rabbeinu B'chai'yuh) was a disciple of the great Rabbeinu Shlomo ben Aderet, who we refer to as the Rashba, the luminary rishon of Sefardic Jewry during that era. He is not the same Rabbeinu Bachya who authored Chovos HaLevavos, Duties of the Heart. His commentary to the Chumash was first published in 1492. He approaches the parsha by presenting the essential meanings, augmented by Chazal's wisdom on the verse, embellished by depth understanding based on Kabbala and often followed by ethical inferences.
Rabbeinu Bachya tells us that the number two, sheni, is a reference to shinui or change. Before there was a universe, there was One. Creation began with emanations of one-ness. This concept changed the moment there was change in the universe: the sun and the moon were ready to function, the waters were divided and land arose from the depths, the heavens were formatted into cosmic planes, dimensionality and time were possible.
The power of sheni - division and change and transformation and difference - energized and empowered all subsequent change in the world, including machlokes - difference of opinion and division among peoples. Even the time concept captured in the word for year, shanna, asserts this. Time is clocked by the passage of the earth around the sun, and by the rotation of the earth as the moon spins in orbit, and those two heavenly bodies, the sun and the moon, represent the concept of two equals difference. Two great objects in the sky serve different functions at different times.
This is the way the physical world is meant to be. There are differences, there are separations and changes which are necessary. There is nonetheless a harmony within creation except when humanity confronts difference. In our struggle to make sense of our own internal two-ness (not the capital of Tunisia of course, but my effort to distinguish One-ness, which is only possible Above, from the mortal limitation of requiring plurality), we end up struggling with the intellect, the heart, the soul, the conscious, the unconscious, the self versus the other... and we feel the strain within ourselves known as conflict. When we encounter forces which vie and compete for energy and attention, we experience our ambivalence and the range of positive and negative senses and thoughts which lead to strife and tension within ourselves and between each other.
Of course, the Divine plan includes the goal of conflict resolution and interdependence. But so many people fail to value that goal and plurality is equated with divisiveness. This is why the recurrent phrase ki tov - "and it was good", does not show up on the second day. We fail so much of the time to see our way through differences.
Wishing you a good Shabbos, for a change. D Fox
"...the second day..." (1:8)
This year I will be studying the commentary of Rabbeinu Bachya. Living in Spain during the end of the thirteenth century, Rabbeinu Bachya ben Asher (often mispronounced as Rabbeinu B'chai'yuh) was a disciple of the great Rabbeinu Shlomo ben Aderet, who we refer to as the Rashba, the luminary rishon of Sefardic Jewry during that era. He is not the same Rabbeinu Bachya who authored Chovos HaLevavos, Duties of the Heart. His commentary to the Chumash was first published in 1492. He approaches the parsha by presenting the essential meanings, augmented by Chazal's wisdom on the verse, embellished by depth understanding based on Kabbala and often followed by ethical inferences.
Rabbeinu Bachya tells us that the number two, sheni, is a reference to shinui or change. Before there was a universe, there was One. Creation began with emanations of one-ness. This concept changed the moment there was change in the universe: the sun and the moon were ready to function, the waters were divided and land arose from the depths, the heavens were formatted into cosmic planes, dimensionality and time were possible.
The power of sheni - division and change and transformation and difference - energized and empowered all subsequent change in the world, including machlokes - difference of opinion and division among peoples. Even the time concept captured in the word for year, shanna, asserts this. Time is clocked by the passage of the earth around the sun, and by the rotation of the earth as the moon spins in orbit, and those two heavenly bodies, the sun and the moon, represent the concept of two equals difference. Two great objects in the sky serve different functions at different times.
This is the way the physical world is meant to be. There are differences, there are separations and changes which are necessary. There is nonetheless a harmony within creation except when humanity confronts difference. In our struggle to make sense of our own internal two-ness (not the capital of Tunisia of course, but my effort to distinguish One-ness, which is only possible Above, from the mortal limitation of requiring plurality), we end up struggling with the intellect, the heart, the soul, the conscious, the unconscious, the self versus the other... and we feel the strain within ourselves known as conflict. When we encounter forces which vie and compete for energy and attention, we experience our ambivalence and the range of positive and negative senses and thoughts which lead to strife and tension within ourselves and between each other.
Of course, the Divine plan includes the goal of conflict resolution and interdependence. But so many people fail to value that goal and plurality is equated with divisiveness. This is why the recurrent phrase ki tov - "and it was good", does not show up on the second day. We fail so much of the time to see our way through differences.
Wishing you a good Shabbos, for a change. D Fox
posted by Rabbi Dr. Fox at 8:12 AM
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