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Thought for the Day: Birth of the World and Day of Judgement

We started our journey to frumkeit by easing in, so to speak, to Shabbos and kashurs.  For kashrus, we bought only kosher meat, read labels for anything else, and only ate fish or vegetarian in restaurants.  For Shabbos, we lit candles, made kiddush, and only drove to and from temple and/or synagogue.  In other words, we didn't keep shabbos or kosher, but we were sincere.  Proof that we were sincere?  HaShem give us a gentle nudge (if you call being told "you aren't Jewish and the only way to proceed is to start keeping Shabbos, kashrus, and taharas ha'mishpacha according to orthodox practice starting today", gentle) to keep shabbos and kosher.

There was an interesting change that occurred over the first three months or so.  Shabbos (before the change) during the summer had been a very, very long day; summer reruns are a bore and the cartoons are all in the morning!  By the end of those first month, though, Shabbos went from long and boring to, "Whoa!  How did we ever live without this!?!"  There was a price, however; Fridays became a busy and sometimes stressful day -- especially Friday afternoons.  Certainly the benefits outweigh the cost, but there is a cost.

It turns out that this busy and stressful Friday's goes back to sheishe y'mei b'reishis.  Here (as brought by the Avudraham) is HaShem's first Friday:
6:00AM
Contemplate making man.
7:00AM
Consult with the angels.
8:00AM
Gather the dust.
9:00AM
Knead into useable parts.
10:00AM
Knit everything together.  (There's lots of little bits... arteries to capillaries to veins; bronchial tubes to alvioli.  I mean, He's HaShem and everything, but that's a lot of little and complicated parts!)
11:00AM
Complete "golem" -- humaniod creature with no soul.  (Think IRS agent.)
Chatzos
Toss neshama in.  (The word is "zoreik" -- I don't make this stuff up!)
1:00PM
Bring man to gan eden.
2:00PM
Explain the rules.  NB: Don't eat from that one tree!
3:00PM
Man eats from the tree. (And he wasn't even a teenager yet!)
4:00PM
Judge man.
5:00PM
HaShem acquitted the man.
The Avudraham brings this up to explain what we mean by "hayom haras olam" -- today the world was born, because that Friday was Rosh HaShanah.  Why do we care?  Because that first Friday set the tone.  Yes, we sinned; yes we need to be judged; but, yes, we will be acquitted.  All we have to do is own up to our mistakes and turn back to HaShem; our Creator, our Father, our King.
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