Bereisheet: I Changed My Mind

This week, we start the Torah reading cycle all over again. With the pandemic continuing to plague our world and with an ominous election approaching in just a few more weeks, I think new beginnings are really on EVERYONE'S minds. How do we start over? Where do we begin? How do we know what lies ahead, and when we realize we have absolutely NO WAY of knowing what lies ahead, how do we learn to prepare and plan... yet ultimately accept what's coming? The Torah (unsurprisingly) doesn't offer answers, but it DOES offer a manual, a code book, a guide. It is a reference work that can help you think about your own choices, your conclusions, and how to adjust them as facts change. The Torah is saying: "You need to be flexible enough to incorporate change into everything you do."

How does the Torah show us this? Well, from the very Beginning, it portrays God as demonstrating these characteristics. Sometimes God overtly states, "I regret that decision," while other times the text subtly presents shifts in God's thinking and attitude, and lets you discover for yourself that God is, indeed, saying, "I Changed My Mind." Let me give you an example: The Book of Genesis begins with TWO different Creation stories. It's possible they're the same story, just summarized and then fleshed out, and that's certainly what some commentators suggest... but you have to do a fair bit of mental gymnastics to square the two. I'm not going to spend more time on the existence of consecutive origin stories, but if you want to read more about it, you can click here and read what I wrote in 2019. For my purposes here, what I want to highlight is how God has one plan for how humans will interact with the rest of nature... and then God pulls back from it.

In Genesis, chapter one, God gives humans free reign: "God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground." (28) The two central verbs here are "Lirdot" and "Lichvosh," meaning reign over, subdue, subjugate, dominate, and even tyrannize, believe it or not. "YOU are in charge, here are the keys to the house, go nuts." Very quickly, God learns what a massive mistake that is. We have tremendous capacity for good and compassion, for sure... but we also wreak immense havoc on our surroundings, and we can be horrifically selfish and callous. By chapter two, God has realized we cannot be trusted with that much power. When we get to the second Creation story, and God commands Adam regarding the Garden, God now states: "God placed Adam in the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and guard it." (15) These are VERY different verbs!

God has reworded the instruction, now tasking humans to "La'Avod" and "Lishmor," to work/till/tend/cultivate, and to protect/keep/watch over/take care of/guard our charge. What a striking change! And again, my larger point here isn't even about our environmental responsibilities to the earth (though that is vital as well), but rather about being able and willing to learn, incorporate new information, and adjust. The Torah is saying, if God can change God's Mind, surely we can do the same. If we realize we're not taking something seriously enough, or not as aware of someone else's oppression, or if we discover we've hurt someone else very badly; we have to learn to be contrite. Can we be humble enough to pull back and say "I was wrong"? New beginnings are always hard... but I think they're even harder if/when we don't want to learn anything new, or change any aspect of our behavior. So as we prepare to restart the Torah, AND vote (please vote!!), AND pray more fervently for a vaccine, let's also work on ourselves, and our own ability to change direction and stay in the discomfort of humility. It might not be easy, but it's a very good place to start...

CC images in this blog post, courtesy of:
1. pixabay
2. Martin Rulsch on Wikimedia Commons
3. Mark Moz on Flickr
4. needpix.com