In the beginning.
Powerful opening words.
In the beginning.
So certain,
So positive,
So open to possibility.
In the beginning.
Powerful opening words.
I wish I had
A writer, like the Torah’s,
Who, with so few words,
Conveys so many thoughts,
So many ideas,
So much history,
And future.
In three small words.
It should come as no surprise
To learn
That these three words in English
Are but one word in Hebrew.
One complicated,
Important,
Powerful word.
Bereishit:
Beginning with a bet.
The second Hebrew letter.
The first one with sound.
The beginning of blessing, brachah,
A powerful opening word.
It will come as no surprise
To learn
That whether in English
Or Hebrew,
The opening of our story -
The story of humanity,
The story of life,
The story of meaning -
That opening phrase,
One word or three,
Has been hotly debated.
What does it mean?
How do we translate it?
What is the root?
Why doesn’t it fit
with the next word or phrase?
Why does it stand out?
Why does it start with a bet?
The questions go on
Infinite,
Eternal,
Like the One Who Spoke
And Creation Came to Be.
Robed in light,[1]
In the beginning.
In the beginning.
Powerful opening words.
Tonight is the beginning,
A new year,
A new Book of Life,
Opportunity to renew,
To revise,
To repent.
Tonight is the beginning.
Tonight we start again.
It’s not about forgetting the past,
it’s about embracing
the potential for creation.
The pages are not written.
The book is not published.
We fill in our story,
we fill the pages,
with actions,
with intentions,
with missed opportunities.
Our deeds,
Good and bad,
Fill the pages,
Write the words
Of the book of our life
The beginning is powerful.
Not just the words -
thoughts of a distant past
known only to Eternity.
No, the moment,
This moment,
is powerful:
Full of potential,
Of possibility,
Of Divine impulse,
Requiring only our recognition
Of what we’ve got,
Of the chance we have
To create anew,
To start again.
An empty page
Staring at us.
The beginning is powerful
Because of what it is not.
It is not what comes after.
It has not yet
Achieved the shine,
Or the tarnish,
Of the unwritten next.
Tonight, let this beginning
Challenge us,
Encourage us,
To emulate The Beginning.
To find within us
That spark
Of creative force,
Of Divine speech,
Of Divine mimicry;
The Spark of opportunity
To create something good -
Something very good, even,
In the year ahead.
We all have it,
That light within us -
The Eternal force.
It surrounds us,
Permeates us,
Connects us to possibility.
We all have it:
The divine spark
That begins things,
That starts them anew.
Before creation, only God.
Before space
And breath,
Before matter and form
Only God.
Unending,
Ein Sof
Infinite. Until
God Contracts
Inhales deeply, Eternally,
To make space,
For creation,
For possibility,
For The Beginning.
God began creation
In the midst of chaos,
Primordial confusion,
Dark and deep.
And from that
Wild and waste:
A voice
Hovering like a wind
Proclaiming
"Vayhi Or!
Let there be light!"
And there was.
God begins with light.
God fills that space
That once was God
With light.
God sends God’s light into the void.
Vayhi or!
Let there be light!
And that light
Burst forth
In the beginning -
Unchallenged,
Un-containable,
Shattering even the vessels
Which God had set in place,
Leaving divine sparks behind.
The shattered vessels
Descending to creation
Waiting for repair: for tikkun.
But those vessels,
Described enigmatically
Centuries ago
By rabbis on a mountain
Overlooking the sea
Listening for Divine pronouncements,
Are not the
Most powerful containers
Of God’s divine creative force
Of God’s eternal light.
For we are vessels
Of that light
In existence since God spoke:
Eternally brilliant.
We are vessels carrying those spark with us.
When we let them shine,
When we channel the divine within us,
When we lead with light,
As God began with light,
We perfect creation
Just a little bit.
When we lead with light.
We lead with light
When we lead with our best selves,
When we approach with kindness,
With love for our neighbor
Not cynicism or judgment.
We lead with light
When we allow our better angels
To guide our steps and our speech.
We lead with light
When we incline toward the good
Turning away from evil.
We lead with light
When we recognize
that though we have been gifted
this glorious awesome gift,
we are still imperfect beings.
We lead with light when,
Like God,
We make space
for others different than us.
We lead with light when
We demand truth
From ourselves and our leaders.
We lead with light when
We demand reciprocal kindness.
We lead with light when
We are spurned to action
On behalf of those with less
Than we have,
Than they need.
We lead with light when
We teach our children
The values we hold dear:
Charity, Compassion, Love, Tradition, Acceptance.
We lead with light when
We keep our word
And follow through.
We lead with light when
We overcome pettiness, anger, vengeance, and resentment.
We lead with light when
We forgive
As God forgives.
Easier said than done
To be sure,
But tonight is a beginning.
And it can be the beginning
Of leading with light,
If only we commit
To emulating God
in the way we approach
our lives, our relationships,
And our community,
All so desperately in need
Of light.
We need light.
If may feel especially so today,
To banish the darkness
That can surround us.
We need to kindle light
No matter the circumstance
So that our eyes become
Not accustomed to darkness[2]
But expecting light,
Adjusted for the glare.
Expecting light
Requires projecting light.
As God sends light
So too does God expect it.
Unlock fetters of wickedness
untie the cords of the yoke
Let the oppressed go free
break off every yoke.
share your bread with the hungry
take the wretched poor into your home
When you see the naked, clothe him,
And ignore not your own kin.
The Prophet Isaiah
Calls out to the people.
Then shall your light burst through like the dawn
And your healing spring up quickly;
Your Vindicator shall march before you,
The Presence of the Eternal shall be your rear guard.
Then, when you call, the Eternal will answer;
When you cry, God will respond: Here I am.
If you banish the yoke from your midst,
The menacing hand, and evil speech,
And you offer your compassion to the hungry
And satisfy the famished creature
Then shall your light shine in darkness,
And your gloom shall be like noonday.[3]
The darkness around us,
The prophet reminds us,
Is up to us to enlighten.
When we walk with God,
When we act with righteousness,
When we love our neighbors,
When we care for the downtrodden,
When we value protecting Creation,
When we seek to help rather than hinder,
When we partner with God...
Then our light shines forth
Overcoming the darkness
Emanating that first light of Creation
The light of The Beginning,
In existence forever,
Waiting for us to set it forth.
That is our role.
That is our job:
To lead with light.
To make every decision
With light at the forefront
Of our hearts,
Of our souls,
Of our hands,
Of our tongues.
Now, it was not always
That the light was hidden.
It was not always
That we were responsible
For banishing the darkness.
Our tradition teaches:
Rabbi Elazar taught:
The light that the Holy One created
on the first day
was visible
from one end of the earth
to the other.
But when the Holy One
observed the generation
of the Flood,
the corruptness of their deeds
and how cursed their deeds were,
God removed a portion
of the Divine light and
hid it away.
As it is written:
"Their light is withheld from the wicked, And the
upraised arm is broken." [Job 38:15][4]
The darkness
That can seem all encompassing
It is not new.
It is not unique to our times.
There is division.
There is discord.
There is a flouting
Of the truths we know.
There is idolatry.
There is apathy.
There is mendacity.
There is xenophobia.
There is baseless hatred.
Darkness, to be sure.
It is up to us
To overcome the darkness.
And God knows!
God left us the light
In the shards,
In the sparks
Within us.
God made us the vessels.
After all, God knows what we are capable of.
Rabbi Elazar continues:
And for whom was [the light of creation] hidden?
For righteous people
who would come along in the future,
as it is written:
"And God saw that the light was good ['טוֹב']" [Genesis 1:4] –
"good" must refer to the righteous,
as it is written:
"Say to the righteous that all will be good ['טוֹב']" [Isaiah 3:10][5]
God knows
We have it in us
To do what needs to be done:
To lead with light
To bear God’s message
Of righteousness
And justice.
And when we do this…
When we reveal the light within,
Even for a moment,
Even just a glimmer,
It is as if
We bring God joy.
Rabbi Elazar concludes:
And even now,
whenever God pauses
to contemplate
the concealed light
God rejoices
as it is written:
"The light of the righteous brings joy."
[Proverbs 13:9][6]
Today is a beginning
Today, let us hear the call
To be bearers of God’s light
To become what we were created to be
In God’s image,
Partnering with God
In the ongoing work of creation.
Ensuring that the never-ending light
Continues to shine
Brilliantly
As it has done since
God made space
For us.
A story from the Zohar,
The Book of Light
Rabbi Isaac said,
"The light created by God
in the act of Creation
flared from one end of the universe
to the other
and was hidden away,
reserved for the righteous
in the world that is coming,
as it is written:
'Light is sown for the righteous.' (Psalm 97:11)
Then the worlds will be fragrant,
and all will be one.
But until the world that is coming arrives,
it is stored and hidden away."
Rabbi Judah responded,
"If the light were completely hidden,
the world would not exist
for even a moment!
Rather it is hidden
and sown like a seed
that gives birth
to seeds and fruit.
Thereby the world is sustained.
Every single day
a ray of that light
shines into the world,
keeping everything alive;
with that ray
God feeds the world.
And everywhere that Torah is studied at night
one thread-thin ray appears
from that hidden light
and flows down
upon those absorbed in her.
Since the first day,
the light has never been fully revealed,
but it is vital to the world,
renewing each day
the act of Creation."[7]
If it is true that
Everywhere that Torah is studied at night
One thread-thin ray appears,
How much more light is emitted
When the Torah is not just studied,
But lived?
When the clarion call
To care for the vulnerable,
To respect tradition,
To pursue Justice and Righteousness,
Commands us to lead with light?
Well, then we sow seeds of light
That give birth to seeds and fruit;
We demonstrate God’s presence
In our actions…
When we lead with light.
Embedded in that beginning,
In that first word,
The word that begins it all,
In the middle of Bereishit:
Resh – Alef – Shin,
Rosh,
Calling out to us this night
Rosh HaShanah,
The head of the year,
The beginning of things.
An opportunity for us to
Consider
How we will spend
This next year
How the pages of the year ahead
Will be written.
We have before us the choice
Between curse and blessing
Between darkness and the light of God.
What could become
Of our unwritten next?
If we commit on this night
To making this a year
Of leading with light.
Shanah Tovah
