Hello, my name is Etan Mark. I moved to Miami 5 years ago from New York. Many of you may not know that I grew up Orthodox and attended a yeshiva. As a child and teenager, I never got anything out of Judaism personally or spiritually. Not too surprisingly, I went through an atheism phase, which made the Passover seders at my mom's house interesting. Finally, after meeting my wife Brielle and becoming involved in the Temple Beth Sholom community, I began seeing and appreciating things about Judaism that I never thought about before -- especially relating to my family and thinking about the kind of person and father I want to be. To that end, I think it is appropriate to discuss second chances which is not only consistent with this time of year, but is prevalent in this week's Torah portion.
This week's Torah portion is Beresheis. This portion discusses the creation of the world and the story of Adam and Eve. As you might imagine, there's a few commentaries out there discussing these stories. What I find to be an interesting theme in the parsha this week is the concept of second chances. After God created the world, he said "and it was very good."Isn't this superfluous? Is there anything else we can expect? One explanation is that God says it is very good to distinguish it from previous attempts at creating a world, which were not successful attempts. I wonder if there is a lesson that God himself engaged in this process of trial and error, and it is something that we should learn from. In the story of Adam and Eve and the forbidden fruit, God tells Adam that if he eats the fruit, he will die, but we know that didn't happen. God gives Adam and Eve another chance, and does not kill them.
Rosh HaShana provides us that annual opportunity to try to self-improve and for another chance. Already though, many of us have probably forgotten what our commitment to that improvement was a few weeks ago. Maybe this week's Torah portion is a reminder that we are constantly given opportunities to try to be the parent or husband or friend or lawyer we want to be. Maybe it doesn't have to be a once a year introspection, but maybe it's the birth of a child, or the illness of a family member or the purchase of an iPad. A few months ago, Jonathan Safran Foer came to TBS to discuss his new book, Eating Animals, which is about his journey to vegetarianism. He says in his book that when his wife had a child, for him it was an opportunity to start being the person that he always wanted to be, and the kind of role model he wants to be. It was liberating for him to be given a completely fresh start and to shed what he thought was the hypocrisy that he exhibited every day by sensing that he should be a vegetarian but not implementing it. When his child was born, he seized an opportunity. For many of us that fresh start is Yom Kippur, but maybe we need to keep our eyes open always look for the opportunity for that fresh start, the opportunity to self-improve, and know that it is never too late to be the person you want to be.
No comments:
Post a Comment