This Shabbat we study the Parshah Bereishit, meaning “In the beginning” (Genesis 1:1). The story of G-d’s creation of the world in six days is told in this parshah. G-d ceases work on the seventh day, and sanctifies it as a day of rest.  Adam and Eve are placed in the Garden of Eden and commanded not to eat from the “Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil”.  The serpent persuades Eve to violate the command, and she shares the forbidden fruit with her husband. Because of their sin, it is decreed that man will experience death, returning to the soil from which he was formed, and that all gain will come only through struggle and hardship. Man is banished from the Garden. Eve gives birth to two sons, Cain and Abel. Cain quarrels with Abel and murders him, and becomes a rootless wanderer. A third son, Seth, is born to Adam; Seth’s eighth-generation descendant, Noah, is the only righteous man in a corrupt world.

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Chabad.org

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Hoshana Rabbah – October 23, 2024 

The seventh day of Sukkot is called "Hoshana Rabbah" and is considered the final day of the divine "judgment" in which the fate of the new year is determined. A festive meal is eaten in the Sukkah. We dip the bread in honey (as we did in each festive meal since Rosh Hashanah) for the last time. Today is also the last occasion on which we recite the special blessing for eating in the sukkah, since the biblical commandment to dwell in the sukkah is only for seven days (though it is the practice of many communities -- and such is the Chabad custom -- that, outside of the Land of Israel, we eat in the sukkah also on the 8th day, Shemini Atzeret).

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Simchat Torah: October 23-25, 2024

Following Sukkot, we come to the happy holiday of Shemini Atzeret/Simchat Torah. In the diaspora, the first day is known by its biblical name, Shemini Atzeret. We still dwell in the sukkah, but without a blessing. Yizkor, the memorial for the departed, is also said on this day. The second day is known as Simchat Torah, during which we complete and immediately begin the annual Torah reading cycle. This joyous milestone is marked with dancing, traditionally following seven circuits known as hakafot, as the Torah scrolls are held aloft. Both days are celebrated by nightly candle lighting, festive meals at both night and day, and desisting from work. In Israel, the entire holiday is compacted into one heady 24-hour period.

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Chabad.org

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Adam trudged past the gates of Eden, his head low, his feet heavy with the pain of remorse.

Suddenly he stopped. Then he spun around and exclaimed, “You had this planned! You put that fruit there knowing I would choose to eat from it! This is a plot! But tell me: Why?”

There was no reply. But we have found an answer.

Without failure, we can never truly reach into the depths of our souls. Only once we have fallen can we return and reach higher and higher without end. Beyond Eden.

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Rabbi Tzvi Freeman

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When we act as if Moshiach were here already, we effect that the “as if” will become a fact of reality with the actual redemption and its bliss.

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The ultimate goal of the world’s creation, the Messianic era, is firmly established in the very origin of the world: “last in deed, but first in thought.” The very beginning of the Torah indicates the final purpose towards which all our aspirations must be devoted. This alone, already, infuses us with the ability to attain that goal.

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From an article by Rabbi J. Immanuel Schochet

The Midrash relates that Adam and Eve wept beside the corpse of Abel, unsure what to do with the body because this was their first encounter with death. The Midrash continues: they saw a bird (araiv in the Hebrew) burying a dead bird in the ground. Adam and Eve decided to do the same and buried Abel in the earth. On the surface, this Midrash explains how they found a solution to the technical question of how to dispose of the corpse. On a deeper level, however, this Midrash contains profound insight into the human condition.

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Adam and Eve were at a loss, not only about what to do with Abel’s body, but they had a much deeper question: how to respond to absolute evil? How could they continue to live after witnessing the depravity of which humanity was capable?

True, they too had sinned. They too had been condemned to natural death. They too were not perfect. But they could never have imagined that a human being could act so brutally, that one human being could or would afflict an unnatural death upon another human being. They could not imagine that a person could act in a way that was the polar opposite of what G-d had intended.

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G-d therefore sent the bird to teach Adam and Eve how to respond to absolute evil. According to the Sages, the araiv is terribly cruel toward its young, abandoning its offspring at birth. Adam and Eve witnessed this same bird engaging in the truest form of kindness. The Sages explain that burial is referred to in the Torah as “loving kindness and truth,” because when doing kindness with a living person the doer can always expect a favor in return. Not so with burial. When we are kind to the dead, we do not expect anything in return. Thus, the kindness is absolute. The kindness is true kindness.

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Adam and Eve looked at the araiv and understood. They received the wisdom on how to react. They now understood that the response to absolute evil is absolute kindness. True, evil must be stopped and contained, but the remedy to absolute depravity within humanity is absolute love and compassion. They were comforted.  

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They were comforted, because they now understood that the profundity of evil that the human is capable of is matched only by the profound kindness within the human spirit. They understood that the same human heart capable of boundless hate is likewise capable of boundless love.

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We, too, must take this message to heart. We look around the world and see intense cruelty. We know that we must respond with intense kindness. Like Adam and Eve, we understand that this earth is a complicated place, that humanity is capable of extremes. Like Adam and Eve, we respond to negativity with a greater commitment to absolute kindness. When we face unspeakable cruelty, we take a step toward extreme kindness, bringing us closer and closer to G-d’s vision of a perfect world. A peaceful world. A world that experiences the tranquility of the seventh day. The tranquility of Shabbat.

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From an article by Rabbi Menachem Feldman

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