Here we go Again - another opportunity before us!

Here we are, back at the start of our Torah reading once again.  A Story, which always comes to mind when we reach full circle and begin the journey in Bereshit (Genesis), is about a King who elects his court jester to replace him because he has no family to do so.  After the jester ascended his role as king a cabinet member of the new king’s court quickly recognizes that every day around 2:00PM the king descended into the basement of the palace and went into a particular room only to close the door behind him; this would last an hour before the king would go back upstairs to his throne.

One day, when the new king went downstairs into the basement he entered the room as usual but left the door open just a crack, enough for his cabinet member to peer in, and was he surprised to say the least.  The king had removed his royal cloths and replaced them with his old jester outfit. The king, dressed as the jester, would stand in front of a mirror where he would dance, sing and laugh, but also he would cry, sit quietly and act almost childlike.  When the king had finished and began putting his royal cloths back on, his cabinet member made his way back upstairs so the king would not notice.

One day the cabinet member mustered up enough nerve to question the king about his daily but strange habit.  The king looks at him and lowers his head with a big sigh only to say … “you see when I became king I realized what that meant and I did not want to lose who I was.  I need to recall my humanity and personality, not to mention my need to care for others and support them for who they are.  So every day I go down into that room and put on my old cloths to remember who I am and where I came from; I become a jester to recall and relive my humble beginnings so I can serve my community as the best king as possible."  So when we begin Torah again this is what we are doing: we stand in front of the mirror of our humanity once more to engage in another year of growth.

The very first story in the Torah, after the initial what is called the creation narrative, is about Adam, Eve and their family.  It’s not a pretty story of pomp and circumstance or wealth and processions, but it’s about normal people who are flawed and have to navigate the brokenness of life.   Great, I mean really, the first story of the bible asks us to look at flowed humanity and a broken world!  So as the story goes, one that must of us know regardless of our religious tradition, Adam is urged by Eve his wife to eat the fruit from one particular tree, we tend to call that fruit an apple, which they were not supposed to consume although they could have everything else.  As a result, their eyes are open and all of sudden they see each other’s nakedness and our ashamed, pure life is now dirty, and each sees the others flaws and are so embarrassed they cannot even stand before God to be transparent as they once were.

The famous line, God walks through the garden, comes to Adam and says “Where are you?” Sfrono, the 16^th century Rabbi, says this, “Why do you not show yourselves openly as before?” not just per their location but their human transparency? Ah, so another way of understanding that question, “Where are you”  is not about geographical location but prevailing mindset, so I read that question as; “where are you now that you see different than before, how are you now, how will you react to what happened,” it is much bigger than just where are you location wise!  The story goes onto tell us that Adam and Eve’s actions got them kicked out of the garden, but what actions?  Yes the text says they were banished from the garden for what they did, but what did they do?  But this is not just Adam and Eve, but all Israel, as it says in the Midrash, Genesis Rabbah 19:1. Here, all Israel would go into exile for transgressing God’s commandments as well. But is that it, we make an error and we are kicked out?

I want to suggest that what got Adam and Eve, as well as all Israel kicked out so to speak, was not what they did but what they did next.  How different the world of the bible would look if Adam and Eve simply owned what they did instead of blaming others (Adam blamed Eve and Eve blamed the serpent).  I think they lost their place in the garden because they refused to take responsibility for what they did, and how can denial and rightness live in the same place?  Think about that for as moment.

We too are flawed and live in a broken world – just look around - but what we learn from this parasha is not about what we do in the moment but what we do next?   How much different would our lives be if we owned something and took responsibility for our actions?  How much different would life be if others who did to us owned something and took responsibility for their actions?   That is the first thing we learn in Torah, the nature of humanity responsibility, accountability and need for humility. When we look into the mirror of our return this is one of  the first reflections we see.  Shabbat Shalom and safe travels. 

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Adam