Community Torah Corner: Special Poem
Rabbi Julie Roth
Congregation Shomrei Emunah
Montclair, NJ
Parshat Bereshit
Parshat Bereshit
If this is Beresheit
The new beginning
Israel at War
Devastating images of murder and kidnapping
Then I would rather not begin again
If only I could turn back to before
Before the prayer for rain
Before we finished Deuteronomy
Before my heart was broken
I would turn back, and not start the Torah anew.
Twice the Torah teaches:
Humans were created in the image of God.
Once when humans were first created,[1]
And once next week after the flood[2]
After the violence of Hamas[3]
After God attempted to start over
Because the first time
God did not tell Adam and Eve
They did not know they were created b’tzelem
And they didn’t teach Cain and Abel
And our human capacity for murder
Was there from the beginning.
In this moment
It’s hard for me to see the trees and the birds
So hard to see past human capacity for violence.
Past the Hamas that filled the world
Past the destruction of the flood
To a new beginning
But the second time
After the flood
God told them in so many words.
God told Noah and his descendants,
You were created in the image of God -
With the hope that this knowledge
Would be remembered.
With the hope that his knowledge
Would end unspeakable violence.
Rabbi Akiva teaches[4]:
Beloved is a person for
Every human being was created
In the image of God
Even more beloved is a person
Who knows --
What it means to be created
In the image of God.
There’s another origin story
Involving a ribcage
And an extra rib
We need our ribcages
To protect our hearts
And anyone with the capacity
To offer an extra rib to
Protect the heart of another
Is also a human being
As we were intended when created
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