October 14, 2023: Parashat Torah Portion Beresheet
This week’s Parashah Torah Portion Beresheet is taken from Genesis 1:1-6: -8. Join Dr. Jeffery Myers, as he drives home the fact that each of us need to take responsibility for our actions, in stead of blaming everything and everyone else! We are to take on the leadership roll of becoming active and NOT passive!
Follow along in the AUDIO PODCAST, by clicking on the play button below, and reading along with the notes, as you listen to today's Parashah Torah Portion:
Lion of Judah Speaks: Parashah Torah Portion Beresheet - Genesis 1:1-6: -8
Elohim created man and woman, Adam and Chava, but they would soon fail and eat from a tree that was forbidden to them. They had a choice, they could either be obedient or disobedient, they could either eat from the Tree of Life that was permissible or eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil that was forbidden. Sad to say, they chose the latter. Because of this act of treason, they had to be expelled from the perfect garden that Elohim had created. It was the place of His Presence!
It was an act of mercy that Elohim exiled the couple from the garden because to remain means if they would have eaten from the Tree of Life they would forever remain in their fallen state and would have been consigned to an immortal existence in rebellion against Elohim. Adam and Chava were not created immortal, yet immortality hung within their grasp. So, if after disobedience, they ate from the Tree of Life they would have remained unredeemed and unredeemable for all eternity. They would live an eternal life of endless death but Elohim loved them too much to let that happen! So as an act of mercy…Elohim exiled them!
We are in exile, exiled from paradise and the Presence of Elohim. We were created for the Garden of Delight. The passion and frustration of us is that we have tasted of the fruit of the Garden, and we long for more!
Adam lived 900 years after his exile, all that time, he knew what he was missing. There was a longing in his heart, as well as ours, for the place of Elohim, a desire we can’t quite put our finger on. We thirst for water we have never tasted! We long for fruit we have never eaten! We hunger and thirst for the Presence of Elohim. That’s why we come to Kehillah. That’s why we are always seeking to fill the empty places in our lives. That’s why addictions like alcohol, drugs, and sensual indulgences arise. We are longing for Eden, Elohim!
We have to take responsibility and stop blaming everyone and everything! We have to take the leadership! In these early chapters of Genesis, it focuses on two stories; Adam and Chava and Cain and Abel.
First Adam and Chava…we know they sinned and they were embarrassed and ashamed, so they hid, only to discover you can’t hide from Elohim (Gen. 3:9-12). When confronted with their disobedience, they both insist it wasn’t their fault. Adam blames the woman and Chava blames the serpent. The result was they were both punished and exiled from Eden. They both denied personal responsibility…” It wasn’t their fault.” This sounds like us today…never taking our own responsibility in any situation!
The 2nd story seems to be about sibling rivalry which leads to murder (Gen. 4:8-10). Cain doesn’t deny personal responsibility! He does not say, “It was not me” or “It was not my fault.” However, he denies moral responsibility! In effect he asks why he should be concerned with the welfare of anyone but himself. Why should we NOT do what we want and have the power to do so? “If there is no morality in nature than I am responsible for myself”, that is the voice of Cain then and throughout the ages!
These two stories are an account of humankind, of a failure, first personal then moral, to take responsibility. It is to this problem that leadership is the solution. A leader is one who takes responsibility! Leadership is born when we become active not passive. When we don’t wait for someone else to act because perhaps there is no one else! When bad things happen; some avert their eyes, some wait for others to act, some blame others for failing to act, and some simply complain. But there are those who say, “If something is wrong let me be among the first to put it right” …they are leaders! They will make a difference in their lifetime! They are the ones that make a better world. Many great religions and civilizations are based on acceptance. Biblical Judaism remains the great religion of protest.
The heroes of faith did not accept; they protested! In fact, Abraham, Moses and Jeremiah were willing to confront Elohim, Himself. So, our relationship with Adonai is a call to human responsibility! The highest achievement is to become Elohim’s partner in the work of creation! When Adam and Chava sinned, Elohim called out, “Where are you?” This call was not directed only to the first humans…it is an echo to every generation!
Elohim gave us freedom but with freedom comes responsibility. Elohim teaches us what we ought to do but He does not do it for us! Elohim most of the time does not intervene in history, He acts through us, not to us! His is the voice that tells us, as He told Cain before he committed the crime, “you can rule over it” (Gen. :4:6-7). We can resist the evil within us as well as the evil that surrounds us.
The responsible life is the life that responds! The Hebrew word for responsibility is, “achrayut” it comes from the word “acher”, meaning an “other.” Our great “OTHER” is Elohim Himself, calling us to use the freedom He gave us, to make the world, that is more like the world ought to be. But which voice will we hear and listen to? Will we listen to ours or to Elohim calling us back to the Tree of Life? There is a way back to Eden!
It is the WAY past the flaming sword and between the Cherubin. The Torah calls this the “Way of the Tree of Life.”
If we are to return to the garden and taste of immortality, we must have someone make the WAY for us. When Yeshua died, He made a WAY back to the Father…Messiah is the veil that gives access (Matt. 27:50-51). He has made the WAY through the curtain, into the garden, to the Holy of Holies, and the Tree of Life!
Hebrew 10:19-20 says, “We have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Yeshua by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh! The Son of Man (the son of Adam) the 2nd Adam was obedient and made the WAY back to the Garden to again eat at the Tree of Life!
Shabbat Shalom,
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Have a blessed Sabbath as you yield to the Will of Elohim. Give Him all your praise and worship. Come before Him with a sacrifice of praise and allow Him to transform your life. We are now in a new season…rise up and let us be obedient unto Him. Surrender your life and see what He will do!
Shalom Aleichem