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From the Rabbi:
There's never enough time to properly learn Parshat Bereishit. Every year, we're so busy with the holidays, Sukkot, Hoshanah Rabbah, Shmini Steret and Simchat Torah that who has the time to really sit and learn Bereishit with adequate depth. And really, let's say you spent the week of Sukkot sitting in the sukah learning Bereishit, would that really be sufficient? One get's the sense that no amount of time would really be enough to suffiently plumb the mysteries of Creation, the Eden story, Kain and Abel and the downfall of mankind to the point that Hashem regretted the whole thing and was ready to scrap Humanity in the flood. Who can fathom all that, especially in a week. So it seems the Anshei Knesset HaGedolah who set up the holiday and parsha reading cycles were intent on having Bereishit remain mysterious.
This sentiment is further reinforced by the statement in the Mishna (Chagigah 2:1) אֵין דּוֹרְשִׁין... בְמַעֲשֵׂה בְרֵאשִׁית בִּשְׁנַיִם. One may not teach Ma'aseh Bereishit to two students. The simple meaning is that delving into the secrets of creation is not something we ought to do in public. Clearly Chazal were aware that there are deep secrets hidden in the Torah's opening chapters that need interpretation. However, those secrets and interpretations should remain secret. And you know what happens when you a tell a secret to two people? It's not a secret anymore.
This Mishnah has long been sighted as Chazal's essential aversion to public discourse around Kabbalah. One teacher to one student, ok, but the inner workings of creation are not meant to be something we share in casual space. Sefardim and Chassidim are generally far less squeamish around Kabbalah, and as a Chossid myself, you've seen that I tend to be more enthusiastic about inviting everyone in to that conversation. You may have heard that 'one shouldn't learn Kabbalah unless you're 40+ and married. Yet, by and large, the people who say that don't learn Kabbalah at that point either. There are certain Chassidim, most notably the lineage of Komarno who advocate that Kabbalah be taught as a spiritual first language, going so far as to say that if you don't teach your son's Zohar by the time they're bar mitzvah, they'll never really get it. My Father Z"L took that into account and made sure to teach me the Zohar on my Parsha as part of my initiation into Jewish adulthood. I could name the ten sefirot before I could recite the Ten Commandments. There are no doubt some who would point to me as exhibit A of precisely why you SHOULDN'T learn Kabbalah, but for better or worse, Kabbalah is a big part of my primary spiritual language.
Therefore, let me suggest a reading of that same Mishna which turns the whole thing on it's head. Rather than prohibiting the teaching of Kabbalah, it might be MANDATING that we understand the Torah in non-dual understanding. אֵין דּוֹרְשִׁין... בְמַעֲשֵׂה בְרֵאשִׁית בִּשְׁנַיִם. Let's translate that instead of speaking about the number of students as speaking of the interpretive framework. We don't teach the Work of Creation as Dualism.
You know that basic understanding in which the world is created ex-nehilo, out of nothing and therefore is somehow a bifurcation of existence into Creator and creation? Yeah, let's not do that. The notion that God created the world(s) outside of himself isn't necessarily so. In fact, the very notion that creation implies duality may be heretical. Rather, the entire point of the opening line of the Torah could be that the act of creation was entirely within God's Unity. בראשית - In his Unity. In this way, ברא doesn't imply creation out of nothing so much as enfolding of self into the appearance of duality. Like Origami in which one single sheet of paper is enfolded to take on the form of a boat, a crane or any other of myriad shapes. It remains a single paper, yet appears to be something far more complex.
Everyday we say the blessing of "Baruch She'Amar V'haya HaOlam" Blessed is HE who spoke and the world was. But could we not also translate it as 'Blessed is He who spoke and BECAME the world'? In this understanding, we, the Earth and all of creation are never so separate from God, only a masterful enfolding of Divine Selfhood which may perhaps conceal the identity of Creation with Creator, but that's merely a matter of awareness... And to remedy that lack of awareness, Hashem told us "In the Beginning" that that's what he did. But only if you read the mishna. Go figure!
Shabbat Shalom,
Reb Shlomo
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