Sermon: Parashat Bereishit – Let’s Try Again

Written by Rabbi Nicola Feuchtwang — 26 October 2024

In my time as a consultant paediatrician, I must have done many hundreds of child development clinic sessions. Needless to say, some were more memorable than others. I want to tell you about one little boy, referred because his behaviour was so challenging at home (although apparently not so bad at nursery). My usual strategy in that clinic was to try & talk to the parent or carer at the same time as playing with and observing the child using a limited set of toys and other items. That proved impossible on this occasion, because although he started playing, the little boy quickly lost his temper, shouting and throwing the wooden bricks at his mother and at me. So I joined him on the floor, but my gentle suggestions had no effect. He would have just one go at each toy, before getting angry, and giving up.

I then tried a much more vigorous style, grabbing the toys myself, deliberately using them wrongly, and then loudly saying: “OH NO – That didn’t work, let’s try another something else….!” before demonstrating an alternative approach.

To his mother’s and my amazement – it worked! He was intrigued, and started copying me.

It was as if, until that moment, it had never occurred to him that he could have another go if something wasn’t perfect at the first attempt.

I couldn’t help thinking about that little boy last Shabbat afternoon, when in his Dvar Torah at our service of rededication of our building, Rabbi Josh spoke about the midrash that this world we know may not have been God’s first creative endeavour – that according to some traditions, there had been 974 previous worlds, each built and then rejected.

I found myself wondering:  Should that notion be a cause for despondency, that surely this world too is temporary and doomed?  A reason for humility because we just don’t know? – Or a reason to make the most every opportunity to learn from our mistakes and failures, and have another go?

Because after all, as Mylo taught us this morning, our tradition declares that humankind is created ‘in the Divine Image’ – and since that cannot possibly mean a physical resemblance to a God who has no physical form, them surely it must mean that we aspire to godliness by emulating that God? And if even God may have needed more than one attempt to achieve the intended creation, it must be OK for us to try again when things don’t work out right first time.

We tend to know the first 3 chapters of Genesis best, but it’s worth reading on.  Chapter 5 seems at first sight to be just a genealogy, a list of ‘so-and-so lived for X years, and was the father of so-and-so…’, but there is more to it than that.

When Adam had lived 130 years, he begot a son in his likeness after his image, and he named him Seth.

…and Seth begot Enosh…[1]

‘In his likeness’ – bidmuto ketsalmo – the same words as are used of God’s creation of the first human. So the first human is acting in the image of God, by giving rise to another human who is like himself!  Yet Torah doesn’t say that about the births of Adam and Eve’s first children, Cain & Abel.  And it is this Seth, whose offspring is referred to as ‘Enosh’ – one of the other words we now use to denote humankind.  The commentators have a bit of a field day:  does this mean that there may even have been previous editions of humanity which were not in the divine image??

There is a passage in Tractate Sotah of the Babylonian Talmud which is a further reflection on what it means to be created ‘in the Image…’

Rabbi Ḥama son of Rabbi Ḥanina said: What is the meaning of the scriptural verse: “You are to follow [lit. walk after] your Eternal God…”  Is it actually possible for a person to follow the Divine Presence? Has it not already been stated: “For your Eternal God is a devouring fire…  [and one cannot approach fire.] the meaning is that one should follow the attributes of the Holy Blessed One.

Just as God clothes the naked, as it is written: “God made garments of skin for the human and his wife..”   so should you too clothe the naked.

 [Just as] the Holy Blessed One visited the sick, as it is written: “God appeared unto [Abraham] by the terebinths of Mamre..”  so should you visit the sick. [Just as] the Holy Blessed One consoled mourners, as it is written: “After the death of Abraham, God blessed his son Isaac..”  so should you console mourners.

 [Just as] the Holy Blessed One buried the dead, as it is written: ‘..and God buried [Moses] in the valley…’  so should you too bury the dead.[2]

In other words, to these rabbis in the Talmud, humans best live up to the ideal of being god-like when we prioritise the needs of community.

A few years ago, an American journalist embarked on a series of interviews with rabbis, asking them questions about God. My attention was drawn to the response by the social activist Rabbi Rachel Timoner, commenting on the last verse Mylo read this morning:

Then Adonai formed the human of the dust of the earth. God blew into its nostrils the breath of life, and the human became a living being.[3]

Her question, which as she puts it, is maybe “the most interesting question that we never ask” — is “What does God believe about us?” – and her verdict:  God thinks we’re always capable of doing better. No sin or misstep disqualifies us from grace or blessing.

God never gives up on us or our ability to be good and do good.[4]

It feels important to reflect on this as we ‘start again’ with Bereishit, returning to the same passages of Torah which we read year after year, and yet each time, having the obligation to look at them with fresh eyes and find new meanings. During those  final hours of Yom Kippur (was it really just 2 weeks ago?!), we felt that sense of urgency, of running out of time, of doors closing – and yet some traditions say that we have until the end of Sukkot to complete our repentance….and then here we are, just a few days later, and we have another chance to start again.

Bereishit, beginning again, having another go. And by doing so, perhaps fulfilling our destiny of being God-like even more than we realise.

Shabbat Shalom.

 

[1] Genesis 5: 3,6

[2] bSotah 14a (my translation)

[3] Genesis 2:7

[4] https://forward.com/life/453266/what-does-god-believe-about-us/