Introduction/Bereishis 5770

Welcome to The Flaming Chassid: Divrei Torah from Jew Jersey!

This blog is essentially going to be a weekly D'var Torah on whatever parsha we are up to. I wanted to start this blog for the start of the new parsha cycle, but I didn't get to it before last Shabbos; so, I am going to retroactively post for this last Shabbos.

In between, there may be posts with interesting stories or whatnot, but they are merely additional things that I may post if they come up. The main goal of this blog is to give some sort of insight into the parsha of the week. There are many of these blogs, and they all have their own angles. To be honest, I'm not exactly sure what my "angle" is. I am going to try to discuss things that aren't discussed by everyone else, but that is what everyone tries to do. אם ירצה השם, I'll be successful in giving you even a tiny bit of information that you didn't have before.

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בארשית - תש''ע

Chapter 3 of בארשית begins with the following three words: והנחש היה ערום ("Now the serpent was cunning"). Reading this, I found myself interested in the word ערום. Of all the words that the Torah could have used to mean cunning or clever, why did it use ערום? There must be a specific reason for דווקה using that word.

The possuk continues מכל חית השדה, אשר עשה הי אלקים ("more than any beast of the field which the L-RD G-d had made"). It says that the נחש was the most cunning beast of the earth. In fact, the use of the word ערום indicates that the נחש was as cunning as man--perhaps even more so. The gematria of ערום is the same as וייצר. This word is used when G-d forms the creatures of the earth and when He forms Man; however, it is only used in that form--with two yuds--when describing the creation of Man.

Rashi tells us that the word is spelled ויצר in reference to the beasts because they only have one life represented by the one yud--the life in this world given to them by G-d. But, the word is spelled וייצר in reference to Man because we are created with two lives (two yuds): one in this world given to us by G-d, and the one in the World to Come that we are charged with insuring by keeping the mitzvos.

The נחש was cunning because he knew that though Man had two lives, being a beast of the field, he only had the life in this world. He did not like that, and so he wanted to cause אדם and חוה to lose their portions in the World to Come. This is further illustrated by the definition of the word ערום. While it is translated by the נחש to mean cunning, it also means naked. In fact, once the נחש causes them to sin, it says that אדם and חוה realized they were עירמם--naked. Rashi tells us that this does not mean that they realized they had no clothes, for they would have known that before eating of the עץ הדעת טוב ורע--the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil; rather, it meant that they realized they had been given one mitzvah to follow, and they blew it--they now had no way to serve G-d and insure their portions in the World to Come.

The נחש was always ערום because he was created to serve G-d by serving Man--he never had a portion in the World to Come. When אדם and חוה became עירמם, they also lost their portions in the World to Come. Their mitzvah was a one-shot deal--once they transgressed it, there was no making teshuvah and trying again. Once you eat from the Tree, you cannot subsequently not eat from the Tree, for you've already done it!

But, אדם and חוה are described as עירמם rather than ערום for a reason, and not just grammar. The word עירמם has the same gematria as שני--second. While the נחש succeeded in causing them to sin, he failed to realize that G-d wants to give Man a portion in the World to Come and will always give Man a second chance. After they ate from the Tree, G-d came to אדם and asked him, מי הגיד לך, כי עירם אתה; המן-העץ, אשר צויתיך לבלתי אכל-ממנו--אכלת--Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree which I commanded you not to eat? Being an omniscient being, G-d knew what happened--He knew what אדם had done and did not need to ask; rather, He asked because He wanted to give אדם the chance to take responsibility for his actions and make amends.

But what did he do? He put the blame on his wife. Because of this, G-d decreed his expulsion from the Garden; however, when G-d asked אדם what he wanted to name his wife, he did the right thing. He named her חוה because she is the mother of all life. Through her actions, she brought death into the world by causing them to be expelled from the Garden; yet, Adam recognized the beauty in her soul and named her appropriately. Because of this, G-d אדם favorably and decreed that every year, He would judge his children favorably.

We start the year with בארשית and the story of the נחש to remind us that G-d does not severe our relationship--only we can choose to have no relationship with Him. If we want to have a relationship with our Creator, He will meet us halfway--all we have to do is make the effort.