Shabbat Gathering: Bereshit

Gud Shabbos Khaveyrim, as is our custom, we will gather tonight at 5.45p ct to welcome Shabbat. These are the coordinates:

Zoom
Meeting ID: 883 8469 4181
Password: 822665
Phone: +1 312 626 6799

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Here we go.

The book group I belong to has started reading To Dwell Within Them: Neo-Hasidic Reflections on the Weekly Torah Reading by Arthur Green. We’ll be reading this until the next High Holy Days. It has one chapter per Parsha. This week we read the chapter on Bereshit (Genesis 1:1 - 6:8).

Rabbi Green makes the case that Hashem created everything, including good AND evil and cites Isaiah to make his case.

Humans are created in the image of God, the One who “creates light and forms darkness, makes peace and creates evil.” (Isaiah 45:7). A true monotheist must believe that evil, too, has its root in God. As God’s image, we must contain it as well. There, the Torah holds back in notable silence.

That verse from Isaiah is part of the text of our Yotzer Ohr prayer from our siddur. The line is altered into this:

Blessed are you, Lord our God, King of the universe, who forms light and creates darkness, who makes peace and creates all things... Blessed are you, Lord, who forms light.

I was raised to believe in an omnibenevolent divine, but the further I study and read, I’m not so sure. I’ll keep studying and reading and, should I become enlightened, you’ll be the first to know.

And may it be for all of us a blessing.

See you tonight!
Mit vareme grusn,
(With warm regards,)

All my love,
brian.

PS

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