Jacob Duarte Spiel - October 9, 2004
Good morning and hello! I hope you have all enjoyed the service so far. I assume that you all know of the creation story? Then you should also know that there is way too much material in those few pages to cover in one Dvar Torah. So instead of spending many hours speaking about all the interpretations and hidden meanings in each and every word; I will focus on 2 main issues in the following paragraph:
And God said, "Na'aseh adam b'tzalmaynu", 'Let us make man in Our image, after Our likeness. They shall rule over the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the whole earth, and every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.' So God created man in His image, in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them. God blessed them and God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it.'
The first ISSUE I'd like to point out is how God refers to Godself in the plural, as in "let us make man in Our image, our likeness'. This verse was surprising to me in that I was taught that 'God is One' but here God is referring to Godself in the plural. The use of the plural in this verse also puzzled ancient scholars and commentators.
The Midrash says that God is referring not only to Godself but also to the angels who were present during creation. Another theory is that God is using the royal 'We.' This is the way royalty refers to itself. For instance a queen might say, 'We've decided to raise taxes' when she's the only person in the room.
I thought about the plural phrases of this pasuk and came to this conclusion: I think that God, at this point in time, has conflicting views about the creation of man. Perhaps God foresaw that man would, one day, rebel against God, which Adam and Eve did almost immediately, exercising their free will. It is the conflict in God's "mind" that is reflected in the word "our." God thinks aloud and comes to a solution, which is to create a God- fearing people.
God did not refer to the plural when creating the animals or plants. I think this shows that the creation of man was more thought-out than the creation of animals and plants.
The second ISSUE I want to discuss is how the Torah says man was created to rule the earth. God tells Adam and Eve to 'be fruitful and multiply' as God did with the other animals of creation but God also adds 'fill the earth and subdue it.' God is specifically telling Adam and Eve to 'take over the world.' In my mind this relates to owning a fish or another pet. Sure, you own it, you paid for it, but that means that you have a responsibility to care for and nurture it. I think that man is meant to respect the earth and protect it.
I also noticed that, unlike the animals, man was created differently. For instance, man's body was created from the dust of the earth, which God blew life into. What I think this means is that Adam's mind and soul were created in heaven and sent to earth. Another interesting thing is how the word neshama means both 'breath' and 'life' in Hebrew. This implies that God's breath has the property of life a.k.a. the Breath of Life.
Rabbis have, for a very long time, written and thought about the points and issues in the book of Genesis. I have written down some of their impressions.
The 16th century Spanish commentator Abravanel believes that the phrase 'and he blessed them' implies that God endowed them with a general all-encompassing blessing. After blessing them, God said to them imperatively: 'Be fruitful and multiply' as if to say: 'although I created you in My image, do not be so engrossed in the spiritual and intellect that you neglect the physical and thus destroy the world; my desire is that you populate the world, not destroy it.' If this sounds confusing don't worry. It is. It basically means that, while it's important to learn and teach the Torah to satisfy our spiritual appetites, it's also important to, [ahem], preserve the human race.
The final ISSUE I want to touch on is the fact that man was created last during creation. Radak, Rabbi David Kimchi, states that: 'It was a sign of man's honour and elevated status that he was created last to make known that all mortal creatures were created for his sake and he was made the lord of all of them.'
A modern Jewish historian Simon Dubnow elaborates on the same theme: 'Man was the crown of creation, a little lower than the angels, possessor of an immortal soul, capable of an intelligent acknowledgment of mans creator and ruling the world by dint of his wisdom. Let us make man, God said. In other words, after I have created all the foregoing for the sake of man, to supply his needs and enjoyment, let the master enter his palace.'
I think that God created man to be a 'caretaker' or 'guardian' of the earth and all the living creatures. God created man to do this because of his superior intelligence and free will. God thought that man would be able to use his intelligence to realize that, if we ignore the animals and plants they will die out. But with all of the acid rain and pollution these days it's hard to tell if we're aware of what we're doing at all.
Now that I'm Bar-Mitzvah, I realize that I have a responsibility to preserve, as well as protect, the planet. I now understand that we shouldn't leave our messes for future generations to clean up and assume that they'll have the answers.
So, in conclusion, do your duty to protect the planet and all living things. I certainly intend to.
Shabbat shalom.