Torah – Bereshit: A Primordial Light
Have you ever gazed longingly at the sky on a star filled night, pondering the immensity of the universe? It’s an incredibly awe inspiring experience. Growing up, one of my favorite places to go was to the planetarium in Minneapolis, but it was shut down a number of years ago. A few months ago, I had the incredible opportunity to visit the Hayden Planetarium in New York. One thought that struck me was the brevity and smallness of human life in the universe. The light we see emitted from stars in the night sky can be light from BILLIONS of years ago, only just now reaching earth to be gazed upon. It reminded me of a Hannah Szenes quote: “There are stars whose light is visible on earth though they have long been extinct. Likewise, there are people whose brilliance continues to light the world, though they are no longer among the living. This light is particularly bright when the night is dark. They light the way for mankind.” We sit in shul today reading a text thousands of years old, that has spawned the world’s main religions and has been an inspiration for dozens of generations of Jews. And it all started with bereshit, a beginning in which light was created and separated from the darkness. It’s this light that we still feel and experience today in every interaction with our tradition. Today, as you ponder the awesomeness of the universe, ask yourself, how has my tradition been a guiding light for me? In what moments have I experienced this awesome light? And how am I going to amplify and enhance this light for the next generations?
Tefillah – Yotzer Or
In the beginning, the earth was unformed and void, with darkness over the surface of the deep. The Creator said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. The Creator saw that the light was good, and separated the darkness from the light. In the beginning, the Creator created light, and separated the existing darkness.
In our morning prayers, however, immediately after the Barchu, we say the blessing yotzer or u’vorei choshech, oseh shalom u’voreh et hakol, Blessed are you who fashioned the light and created darkness, who makes peace and creates everything. If you look carefully, the tefillot flip the verb used to describe the creation of light, stressing that everything, even darkness, comes from the Creator. The blessing of yotzer or actually comes from Isiah 45:7, which stresses this point even more: “I form light and create darkness, I make peace and create evil-I the Lord do all these things…Shame on him who argues with his Maker, you are nothing but a pot made of earth! Shall the clay say to the potter, “What are you doing? Your work has no handles?…” (Isaiah 45:7-9). It goes on to stress that we humans are nothing but, to quote Reb Simcha Bunim, “ash and dust”. And this awareness of our own limitations and mortality is vitally important. Reb Simcha Bunim would teach that a person’s intellect leads them to an awe of their Creator, and this awe leads to humility. It’s only through humility that one can encounter God, for humility leads a person to find the Truth within. In our morning prayers, we have just cultivated a sense of awe of the Creator through the Psalms. The Yotzer Or brachah then reminds us to humble ourselves, so that we can approach the Creator with our full selves in the Amidah.
