Parashat Bereishit - spirituality and religion (5 min read)

 רפואה מן התורה

 Healing from the Torah

In Parashat Bereishit, from Genesis 1:1-6:8, we begin our Torah reading cycle all over again for the year. The nuggets or wisdom and learning that will lead to our growth and betterment begin in a parasha that can be understood to about unified and broken dualities.
  

The Mystics teach that the first verse is all we need to know, thus בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹהִ֑ים אֵ֥ת הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וְאֵ֥ת הָאָֽרֶץ, “In the beginning of God created the heavens and the earth.”  What it tells us is that creator and creation were unified, there was no separation even though there was distinction. We read from the start about separation and distinction; day and night, the upper and lower world, dry land and water, various types of plants, land animals and sea animals, animals and people, God and mankind, and even man and woman.  But even with man and woman, tradition teaches us that the human beings were created as androgynous and only later were separated into man and woman; an important poiunt to note as we engage the story of Adam and Eve.  But the bigger picture is this; although they were separate they we unified with no sense of difference even if their purposes were not the same.  This is unified dualities.

Yet, in the world we have good and evil, sad and happiness, positive sand negative, heaven and earth, and yes spirituality and religion, something we will return to in just a moment. Unlike the unified dualities above, these dualities exist in on-going conflict with each other. Take Adam and Eve, they lived in their world of Eden both naked and unafraid.  However, when their eyes were opened to a challenge that threatened their sense of existence, they saw their nakedness and became fearful; their unified duality became a broken one.  Likewise beforehand, in the same way that creator and creation were unified and distinct, so too was Adam and his wife, Eve  Conversely, the dissolution of that unity between Adam and Eve became emblematic of the separation between the creator and the creation.  That type of separateness is perhaps the reason why Adam and Eve were removed from the garden, meaning that it had more to do with their inability to embrace a unity with the Eternal as opposed to just a sin itself.

  

Therefore, in the same way the High Holidays come yearly to look at the past year with a hope for improvement in the next, we have a lifetime to prepare for eternity and that connection to the Eternal. Expanding that thought we look at the teaching of Rav Philip Berg was said that if Adam and Eve partook of the Tree of Life they would have a permanent unbroken connection with God, and their goal of human perfection would have been reached with no further spiritual work to do.  The idea is that that type of connection between the creator and the creation has to be repaired, which is why it takes a lifetime.  It is your choice if that rings true of not, but it offers us some insights on this idea of unified and broken dualities.

What then about the dualities of spirituality and religion?  It can be argued that in the narrowest of meanings spirituality is about a person’s inward existentialist relationship to the sense of “other,” whereas religion is an organized creedal system of deeds, values, ethics, laws, etc.  Today as most of us are aware, perhaps for yourself or another, spirituality and religion are separated and have become a broken duality.  Again looking at Adam, and his sense of being a part of the whole of creation in Eden, it was tied into his personal existentialism, or spirituality.  The sun had a job as did the rain that came from above since both participated in the growth of the garden.  Likewise, Adam had a job, thus the sun provided light, the rain provided water and Adam provided the care.  Adam saw his role as part of the whole, separate indeed, but unified in purpose.  But when Adam broke with that chain of being unified and distinct, given the first law that asked him to refrain from eating the fruit of just one tree, a broken duality that followed led to the removal from Eden, and hos broken existential spirituality.  The law we can see as religion, but it had the purpose to keep Adam upon the path of his spiritual existence since his free-will needed guidance and direction.  Let me suggest that Adam can be an example of a relationship between spirituality and religion that has become a broken duality and needs to be repaired.

Religion is the clothes of our spirits, hence our sense of “other” is dressed up in the garments of practice and tradition.  Religion does not make us spiritual but takes what is spiritual and gives it a face, order and guidance. Religion has been regulated to “organized religion” and its value has been lost to that definition.  Certainly it is man-made, so yeah it is imperfect and mistakes will be made, but that in no way takes away from its purpose and reward.  Existentially, as Jews, we are also connected to a history, family ties and values, and to whatever degree, from none to full observance, from humanistic to Orthodox Judaism, we Jews have a religion.  We have a history and a faith that is about clothing our spirits if we chose to walk on its path.

The unified duality of spirituality and religion has great benefit, the broken duality of spirituality and religion compromises our sense of “other” and larger meaning.  Being regulated and guided is a part of life; laws on the road, rules at work, even right and wrong in personal relationship’s, so why not in the relationship between that creator and creation or with guiding principles and human behavior – especially if it is about the repair of broken dualities for ours and the world’s restoration?

בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹהִ֑ים אֵ֥ת הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וְאֵ֥ת הָאָֽרֶץ, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, reestablishing that perfect sense of existential unity and therefore inward oneness, and hopefully, personal contentment. .