(Breishit 1:1-6:8)

(Haftara: Isaiah 42:5-43:10)

1. [Breishit 1:4,10] “…and God saw that it was good…” On almost all the things that God created, it says, “and God saw that it was good”. Isn’t goodness a moral term? Why are the elements of Creation considered “good”?

2. [2:19] “…and whatever the man called the animal, that was its name”. Why did the man name the animals instead of God naming the animals?

3. [3:1] “And they were both naked, and they were not embarrassed.” [3:10] “…and I was afraid because I am naked.”   Why was the nakedness of Adam and Chava so natural before their sin, and why were they so self-conscious after their sin?

4. [3:2,3] “From the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God said don’t eat from it…” Chava does not seem to differentiate between the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. She also mistakenly says that God also commanded them not to touch the tree. She seems to lack mental clarity. How does Chava’s confused state of mind affect our understanding of this whole story?

5. [5:29] (Noach) “…he will comfort us.” Rashi, our main commentator, tells us that Noach was a comfort to the world because he invented the plough. People could now farm the land. However, we are told earlier [4:21, 22] that musical instruments and tools were already invented. How can it be that musical instruments had already been invented, but the plough, the most basic of all tools, had not yet been invented?

Commentary

One should learn every matter of Torah with joy…because even the smallest spiritual matter completes the whole tree of life, and because of that fact, everything becomes a “large” matter.

–R. Avraham Y. H. Kuk, 1865-1935, Lithuania and Israel.

This study page is dedicated to the memory of Sarah Bella bat Yitzchak Kummer, Chaim Yosef Yechiel ben Eliyahu Kummer and Eliyahu and Margaret Kummer