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Harav Hagaon Yaakov Moshe Katz Shlita

The Beis of Bereishis: Keys for Life

Parshas Bereishis

Harav Hagaon Yaakov Moshe Katz Shlita

The first word in the Torah, bereishis, starts with the letter beis, and the Midrash offers several reasons for this. One reason is that the letter beis alludes to the idea that although the Torah discusses the creation of Olam Hazeh, in truth there is another realm of creation: Olam Haba. The beis of bereishis indicates this duality, conveying that there’s a purpose in the creation of this world, which is to act as a corridor to the next world. So within the creation of Olam Hazeh itself there is an allusion to a second world, that of Olam Haba.

In this vein, the Mesillas Yesharim begins with the famous words:

יסוד החסידות ושרש העבודה התמימה הוא שיתברר ויתאמת אצל האדם מה חובתו בעולמו ולמה צריך שישים מבטו ומגמתו בכל אשר הוא עמל כל ימי חייו. והנה מה שהורונו חכמינו זכרונם לברכה הוא, שהאדם לא נברא אלא להתענג על ה’ וליהנות מזיו שכינתו.

What is the purpose of creation? What is a person here in this world for? To attain Olam Haba, as alluded to in the beis of bereishis.

The Chofetz Chaim adds that when a person creates something, he doesn’t do so with no purpose, so when Hashem created the world — a tremendous world with so much in it — He surely had a tachlis for it. Our avodah is to think a little bit — why did Hashem create me and the whole world? The answer lies in the beis of Bereishis: so that we can reach Olam Haba, through the mitzvos we do, so we can enjoy the pleasure of the Shechinah’s radiance.

Beis is for Brachah

The Midrash Rabbah offers a different reason why the Torah begins with beis: beis is the first letter of the word brachah. This teaches us that Torah brings brachah; the essence of Torah is brachah, and Torah brings all the brachos, in this world and the next. The Torah starts with beis, for brachah, and ends with Vezos habrachah as well. That’s why we start Torah Shebe’al Peh with brachos. Right after reciting Birchos HaTorah in the morning, we say the pesukim of יְבָרֶכְךָ ה’ וְיִשְׁמְרֶךָ, which conveys that Torah brings brachah. The first kapitel in Tehillim conveys this message as well, as the Gemara in Avodah Zarah teaches that when a person learns Torah and keeps the Torah, his dealings prosper and he becomes a successful person.

Accordingly, the beis at the beginning of the Torah teaches us that Torah and mitzvos are what bring true happiness and blessing to a person’s life.

The Wiles of the Yetzer Hara

Later in Parashas Bereishis, we see the opposite as well. When the yetzer hara incites Chava to do the first-ever cheit, he tells her that if she and Adam eat from the Eitz Hadaas, לֹא מוֹת תְּמֻתוּן — you won’t die. In other words, he was expressing that it’s not bad for you to do aveiros; on the contrary, it will be very good for you, and you’ll gain from it: וִהְיִיתֶם כֵּאלֹקִים. That’s the power of the yetzer hara.

The Vilna Gaon, in Aderes Eliyahu (3: 4 and 13) notes that we see from here how the yetzer hara causes people to stumble and transgress. First, he assures a person,לֹא מוֹת תְּמֻתוּן — if you’re not learning Torah and keeping mitzvos, nothing bad will happen to you. Then he adds, וִהְיִיתֶם כֵּאלֹקִים — if you do an aveirah you’ll benefit.

The Ohr Hachaim explains that the yetzer hara told Chava that everything else in the garden was not comparable to the fruit of the Eitz Hadaas: “Everything else you eat, it’s as though you’re not eating — לֹא תֹאכְלוּ מִכֹּל עֵץ הַגָּן — but if you eat from the Eitz Hadaas, wow, you’ll have such unimaginable pleasure.”

That’s the power of the yetzer hara: he makes the aveirah taste sweet and geshmak, מַיִם גְּנוּבִים יִמְתָּקוּ. But the truth is what Yosef told the wife of Potifar, when she tried to make him transgress: “You’re married already, there’s not really such a big difference.”

The avodah of breaking the yetzer hara involves putting things in the proper perspective and realizing, as the Gaon teaches, that any pleasure that transgressors enjoy, Hashem gives in different, permitted ways to those who refrain from transgression. Not only does a person not gain from doing aveiros, then, he actually gains much more by not doing aveiros. Yet the yetzer hara tries to convince us of the opposite, that we won’t lose from doing an aveirah, and we’ll actually gain. He fools us by telling us that aveiros will benefit us.

Why does the yetzer hara do this? The Gemara (Bava Basra 16) says it’s because the yetzer hara has three jobs: he’s the yetzer hara, the Satan and the Malach Hamaves. First, he seeks to make people sin, then he prosecutes them in Shamayim and lobbies for them to be punished, and finally, as the Malach Hamaves, he imposes the punishment.

The number one thing to realize is that the yetzer hara is the big enemy — he’s trying to fool you. Knowing this can help us overcome the yetzer hara, because we’ll recognize that the aveirah is one big bluff. When the yetzer hara tries to make you feel that “Wow, you have to have this, it’s going to be so great if you have it and you’re not going to lose anything, you’ll just gain” — you’ll know that he’s trying to fool you. Understanding that he’s your enemy, who’s out to kill you, will help you not listen to him.

Furthermore, the yetzer hara is actually nourished from the kedushah of a person. Just as the snake incited Chava to sin because he wanted to marry her, the yetzer hara comes, and, al pi sod, draws upon the kedushas ha’adam when he causes him to sin, sapping away that kedushah and taking it for himself.

When the yetzer hara tries to get you to sin, then, he is trying to trick you and take your kedushah for himself. He’s like someone who’s trying to convince you to do something because he wants to steal from you. Are you going to listen to him? Are you going to fall into his trap?

The avodah of a person is to realize that Torah is beis — that learning Torah and keeping the mitzvos are the real good in this world and bring a person genuine happiness. The yetzer hara is trying to sell you that aveiros are sweet and geshmak and that you don’t lose anything from not learning and not keeping mitzvos.

Cost-Benefit Analysis

In the Viduy of Yom Kippur we say: ולא שוה לנו, and that’s the main recognition necessary for tehsuvah, because a person sins only because he thinks it will bring him some benefit. But on Yom Kippur we recognize — and this is really the avodah of the whole year — that transgressing is just not worth it. The yetzer hara blows everything out of proportion and makes us feel that we must have this, and without it we’re missing out in life, but really it’s one big bluff, and we can do very well without it.

The Ohr Hachaim derives this idea from the passuk: וַיֵּדְעוּ כִּי עֵירֻמִּם הֵם. The Gemara (Sotah 3) teaches that a person sins only because he doesn’t think straight: אין אדם עובר עבירה אא”כ נכנס בו רוח שטות. That’s the power of the yetzer hara. After the cheit, however, the person looks back and wonders, was it really worth it? What a shame — he lost so much because of the sin: וַיֵּדְעוּ כִּי עֵירֻמִּם הֵם, he’s stripped of so much good.

This message is conveyed, as well, by the Mesillas Yesharim, in Shaar Hazehirus, when he encourages us: בואו ונחשב חשבונו של עולם. The main way we overcome the yetzer hara is by constantly reminding ourselves — it’s not enough to just learn it once — that Torah is brachah, that keeping the mitzvos is happiness, and that doing aveiros is terrible and bitter: רע ומר עזבו את ה’. Lashon hara is terrible — it makes you suffer. We need to tell ourselves how much we suffer from lashon hara. Nebach, we hear of so many people losing their parnassah, losing their jobs, getting sick — it’s terrible. Cheit is bad. Torah and mitzvos are brachah and happiness. That’s what helps us be misgaber.

The Beis Halevi cites the Zohar’s explanation of why the Eitz Hadaas is called עֵץ הַדַּעַת טוֹב וָרָע: it’s because the yetzer hara has the power to take what’s really good — Torah — and make you think that it’s bad — oh, it’s so hard for me, I’m uncomfortable, it’s not me, I’m too tired to do it…. But when it comes to the evil in this world, he presents it as something that’s geshmak: ooh, this is you, you can relate to this, this excites you, now we’re talking! That’s עֵץ הַדַּעַת טוֹב וָרָע — it makes what’s really good look like bad, and what’s really bad look like good. The avodah of a person, then, is to constantly strengthen himself in this area.

Will You Resemble Hashem?

Later in the parashah, regarding the creation of Adam, we learn that Hashem made a person b’tzelem Elokim. It’s so important to constantly remind ourselves who we are and what kochos we have, beautiful kochos to resemble Hakadosh Baruch Hu.. The Alter of Kelm said about his rebbi, R’ Yisroel Salanter, that if the people who espoused the theory of evolution would have seen R’ Yisroel Salanter they never would have claimed that people descend from monkeys.

Regarding the passuk: וַיִּפַּח בְּאַפָּיו נִשְׁמַת חַיִּים, the Ramban says: מאן דנפח מדליה נפח. We possess a chelek Eloka mimaal, and we are capable of rising to great heights, through Torah and mitzvos. Besides the reward and good we receive in Olam Haba, Torah and mitzvos bring us to such great heights. We all have those people that we look up to and think, wow, what a mentsch! That’s what Torah and mitzvos do to a person — they uplift us, allowing us to reach our purpose as human beings and access the heights we all have inside of us, to be a tzelem Elokim, and not, chas v’shalom, the other way.

The Ohr Hachaim, at the end of the parashah, says that the avodah of a person is to raise the guf and use it for ruchniyus, turning it into a tzelem Elokim. But because the Dor Hamabul sinned with znus, that lowered them, making them deserving of the description בְּשַׁגַּם הוּא בָשָׂר. When  a person’s eyes are constantly connected to ervah it lowers him, turning him into one shtick basar, and even the neshamah goes away from him.

Who are you? What are you? Are you a shtick neshamah and your body is a vessel for the neshamah, or the other way around?

This is the height that every Yid has. Don’t lose it! It’s worthwhile to guard your tzelem Elokim, and through that we’ll be zocheh to all the brachos.

Hashem should help that we should be zocheh to a year full of Torah and mitzvos — and, automatically, happiness and brachah.

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