Skip to main content

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.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Thought for the Day: Pizza, Uncrustables, and Stuff -- What Bracha?

Many years ago (in fact, more than two decades ago), I called R' Fuerst from my desk at work as I sat down to lunch.  I had a piece of (quite delicious) homemade pizza for lunch.  I nearly always eat at my desk as I am working (or writing TftD...), so my lunch at work cannot in any way be considered as sitting down to a formal meal; aka קביעת סעודה.  That being the case, I wasn't sure whether to wash, say ha'motzi, and bentch; or was the pizza downgraded to a m'zonos.  He told if it was a snack, then it's m'zonos; if a meal the ha'motzi.  Which what I have always done since then.  I recently found out how/why that works. The Shulchan Aruch, 168:17 discusses פשטיד''א, which is describes as a baked dough with meat or fish or cheese.  In other words: pizza.  Note: while the dough doesn't not need to be baked together with the meat/fish/cheese, it is  required that they dough was baked with the intention of making this concoction. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Thought for the Day: Yetzer HaRa -- Spiritual Force of Tuma vs Physical Ta'avos

In any project planning, there are two basic approaches: top down and bottom up.  Top down starts with describing what you want done at the highest level that seems reasonable.  You then break that down into a list of things that are smaller in scope (they only accomplish part of the job) and are therefore easier to actually accomplish.  That process can is then repeated with each sub-project.  Each iteration produces a new set of smaller projects.  For any of the projects, the level above provides the "why" for the project of interest, and the projects below provide the "how" for the current project.  Bottom up starts, as it's name suggests, from the lowest level -- here is stuff I know I can do, and proceeds by asking "what can I do by putting this stuff together?" For example, I have a project to slake my thirst.  Top down would start by a requirement to get a cool drink into a container from which I can drink.  That breaks down into: (1) fin...
Post a Comment
Read more

Thought for the Day: Why Halacha Has "b'di'avad"

There was this Jew who knew every "b'di'avad" (aka, "Biddy Eved", the old spinster librarian) in the book.  When ever he was called on something, his reply was invariably, "biddy eved, it's fine".  When he finally left this world and was welcomed to Olam Haba, he was shown to a little, damp closet with a bare 40W bulb hanging from the ceiling.  He couldn't believe his eyes and said in astonishment, "This is Olam Haba!?!"  "Yes, Reb Biddy Eved,  for you this is Olam Haba." b'di'avad gets used like that; f you don't feel like doing something the best way, do it the next (or less) best way.  But Chazal tell us that "kol ha'omer HaShem vatran, m'vater al chayav" -- anyone who thinks HaShem gives partial credit is fooling himself to death (free translation.  Ok, really, really free translation; but its still true).  HaShem created us and this entire reality for one and only one purpose: for use...
Post a Comment
Read more