After college graduation, I spent 2 years working in the “reengineering” department at a major university in Boston. At that time, “reengineering” was the in vogue business term that encompassed the corporate arenas of organizational development, change management, and the like. As is the case in most commercial endeavors involving large-scale transformation, we brought in a lot of outside consultants to provide an objective opinion on what our next steps should be. These consultants wielded a great deal of power in our change efforts, and as I watched them work over several years, I noticed a pattern: Consultants can log a lot of billable hours simply by unifying all of the processes that are currently separate and by dividing all of the groups which currently function as one unit. If it’s together, separate it. If it’s apart, bring it together. The university administration loved to hop on this bandwagon, and we spent 2 solid years combining here and splitting there. Breaking up here while merging there.
A quick reading of this week’s parasha, Bereshit, would indicate that God’s Divine partners in creation may have given similar advice to that of our modern-day consultants. On the first day, God creates light, sees that it is good, and then immediately divides it from the darkness. On the second day God beholds the vast expanse of waters and declares that they must be divided into those above and those below. On day three, God collects all of the waters that remain on the surface of the earth and gathers them together so as to separate them from the dry land. On the fourth day, God creates stars, the sun, and the moon in the heavens to divide between the day and the night, between the seasons, and between the years. On the fifth day, God creates the creatures of the earth and is quick to differentiate between those who will fly above the earth and those whose domain is in the sea. On day six, God creates the human. Because the verses about God removing Adam’s rib to create Eve do not appear until a full chapter later, a quick reading of the story might imply that only Adam was created on the sixth day and that Eve does not appear until later. According to our sources[i], however, Adam and Eve were created as one human with two faces, and later God simply divides them into two individuals. Finally, on the seventh day, God makes the ultimate separation, dividing the Shabbat day from the rest of the workweek and thus creating what Abraham Joshua Heschel describes as a holy palace in time.
It is clear that making separation is a significant component of the Divine creation process. Almost counter intuitively, gathering together seems a necessary step as well. God had to gather together the waters of the earth in order to separate them from the land. Similarly, God gathered together dust from the four corners of the earth in order to create the single human, which would later be divided. Why collect dust from all ends of the earth, and why create one single human when the animals were created in pairs of male and female?
It would seem that God foresaw the likelihood that, once divided, humans would almost surely battle over land, lineage, and even preference in the eyes of the Divine. By creating a human out of earth from around the globe, no one nation can lay sole claim to descent from Adam Harishon, the first human. Similarly, because there was only one human to begin with, we must all wrestle with the fact, regardless of our current divisions, that we are all related in the massive family tree that is humanity.
We stand at a crossroads between unification and division, particularly here in Eretz Yisrael. In my short time living here, I have experienced a nation that embodies both of these principles in all walks of life: Some neighborhoods culturally mixed, and others deeply divided. Some holy sites for the people of the world, and others for the people of one faith alone. Some arguments born out of highly specific religious convictions, and others made out of the basic moral principles by which all humans should live. The land of Israel is currently united in name, but profoundly divided in theology and ideology. Will the disparate populations be able to live with one another in peace under one flag, or will we make marked division into two separate states, one Jewish, one Palestinian? Of course, as is true in God’s process of creation, as we strive to fashion a healthier atmosphere for day-to-day living in Israel, we should remember that separation and unification can go on simultaneously towards a common end. Water must be collected together in order to separate it from land. Although we may come to make a political and geographic division, creating two states where there is now one, are there ways in which the two factions can simultaneously unite to further strive towards our end goal of peace? Furthermore, if a separate nation is the direction in which our government consultants wish to take us, what model do we have for partnership in making this separation?
In Bereshit, when God eventually decides to separate the first human into two, God declares, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper for him.” The Hebrew words translated as ‘helper for him’ are ezer kenegdo. Ezer is a helper, but kenegdo literally means “opposite him,” or “against him.” This, of course, is somewhat contradictory. What does it mean to have a helper that stands against you? Rashi resolves the inconsistency in this way: “If he is worthy then [she is] a helpmate, if he is not worthy then [she is] opposite him, to fight him.” What does it mean to be worthy? Each partner needs to be responsible, honest, supportive, and giving. In this way, the person across the negotiating table can become a helpmate. If we do not strive to behave in these ways, both sides will forever be opposites, eternally poised to fight one another.
Making divisions for the purposes of categorization seems as old as the world itself. The desire to be with those of one’s own race or religion, with those who think or behave like us, is a normal part of human nature. However, as we begin our Torah-reading cycle anew, we must not lose sight of the fact that all of our current national and religious divisions are a postscript to our original creation. Before there were seas and lands over which to battle, before there were peoples divided, we were all one, an extension of the Divine One.
Whatever course of action our political consultants may take – increased unity or increased separation – may we find the strength to see the “other” as partner and to be their helpmate as they need be ours. Ken Yehi Ratzon Od Pa’am…May it once again be God’s will.
Todd Markley
is a Rabbinical Student at The Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of
Religion
This d’var
Torah was written for the website of the Israel
Religious Action Center