Weekly Torah Portion

The concluding verse of creation reads: “God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it for on it He rested from His work which God created to make” (Genesis 2:3). There is a question regarding the meaning of the last word “to make,” as it appears to be redundant. Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh explains that Chassidut understands this word to mean “to rectify,” that man was given the ongoing task to be a partner with God in rectifying the world. In this sense the last word implies an ongoing process of creation, not something that was definitively finished at one particular point.

Being a partner with God is emphasized by the sages and it is a mainstream world view within Judaism. Yet when we think about this it is truly an amazing and awesome way to relate to the world and man’s place in it, as well as his relation with the Creator.

The Arizal explains that this world is called the world of rectification as it is comprised of the broken vessels of the previous world which broke in the cataclysmic “breaking of the vessels,” when the primordial light was too strong and shattered the initially immature vessels of creation. Man’s mission is to repair the vessels and to redeem the light trapped within them.

This highly symbolic yet acutely accurate description of reality is alluded to in the last word of creation and is encompassed in Isaiah’s description of Israel’s mission in the world: to be a light unto the nations. To do this we need to look for points of light hidden within the gross material garments of this world and to elevate, redeem and heal them and thus reveal the spiritual and divine energy in all things.

In this portion we are taught that God created man in “the image of God” (Genesis 1:27). We discussed above how man’s ability to speak mirrors Divine speech through which the world was (and still is) created. Another understanding of man being in the “image of God” entails free choice and the moral and ethical sense to distinguish between good and evil. This is deduced from the verse which states that after Adam and Eve chose to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, God banishes them from the Garden of Evil: “Behold man has become like One among us, knowing good and evil, and now lest he stretch out his hand and take also from the Tree of Life and eat and live forever” (Genesis 3:22).

Another perspective in which to understand man being in the image of God is found in the process of creation itself. All that existed before creation was the undifferentiated oneness and unity of God. The very act of creation implies multiplicity, something now exists, as it were, other than God. This is symbolized in the first letter of the Torah being a beit, whose numerical equivalent is two. In fact the first letter of the Torah is written large in order to emphasize the full impact of one becoming, as it were, two.

The cardinal expression of Jewish belief is; “Hear O Israel, God is God, God is one” (Deuteronomy 6:4). The belief in the unity of God extends to understanding that in essence everything is connected, everything is unified and part of God’s essential oneness. Man’s ultimate state of consciousness is reached when seeing that all plurality is really just a manifestation of God’s oneness. Thus we see that creation and its purpose operates according to a spiritual equation: One becomes two in order to become One.

The creation of the first human being follows this very same equation: “And God created Adam in his image, in the image of God He created him [Adam]; male and female He created them” (Genesis 1:27). From this verse the sages learned that Adam was created as an androgynous being (Bereishit Rabbah 8:1). Later God informs Adam that it is not good for man to be alone and that He would make a helper for him. He then separates a side of Adam and forms woman. The very next verse states: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and cling to his wife and they shall become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24). Man and woman become one through martial union as well as one through a child born of that union.

Here again we see in the creation of man the very same formula of one becoming two in order to become one. For this reason marriage in Judaism is accorded such importance as it allows man and woman to realize their full potential of being in the image of God by replicating the very process and creative dynamic through with God created the world.

After placing Adam in the Garden of Eden the Torah relates that God brought all the different animals before Adam to see what he would call them: “and whatever Adam called each creature, that was its name” (Genesis 2:19). Adam, according to Kabbalah and Chassidut, looked at the fundamental nature of each being and identified the Hebrew letters that best personified that quintessential essence. This in fact is the secret of all Hebrew words. The very essence and Divine life force animating any particular entity is constructed from the Hebrew letters that form its name.

The numerical value of the Hebrew words for “that was its name,” hu shemo, in the above verse equals (358), Mashiach, the Messiah. Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach would often use the expression “seeing with Mashiach eyes” when wanting to express how we need to see beyond the superficial appearances of this world and instead see the very inner essence of reality. The Arizal taught that the three letters of the name Adam are an acronym for three personalities: Adam, David, Mashiach. The Mashiach will recognize and teach others to perceive as well the very essence of reality as Adam did when naming the animals.

The word “its name,” shemo, equals (346), the same as the word ratzon “will.” The essence of each and every facet of reality is intrinsically connected to the Divine will animating it. Herein lays a profound idea relating to man: realizing the essence of who we are is dependent on perceiving God’s purpose and will when creating us. Each person comes to this world with a general purpose relating to the fundamental reasons for creation, as well as a particular purpose unique to each individual. We come to “own” our name, to realize our full potential and essence, when we fulfill both the general and specific purpose of our creation. When doing so our name is transformed from not merely what we are called but who we truly are.