Parashat Breishit in Kitah Dalet/Heh

When Adam and Eve were placed in the Garden, Hashem said לעבדה ולשומרה”” to work and to guard it.  So what does this phrase mean? 

 

For a further understanding we read a Midrash from the Talmud that explained that Hashem created the world for us and we must take care of it (work it) and not ruin it (to guard it) because if we ruin it, no one will come behind us and fix it.  (It sounded like an ancient call for mandatory recycling—this explanation of the Torah was written nearly 2000 years ago!)

 

After that we read a story about a man who was trying to understand what it means to repair the world (tikun olam תיקון עולם) He took a map and cut it up and asked his son to put the world back together.  The boy finished the job in record time and his father was surprised by his speed.  The boy explained that when his father was cutting up the map, he noticed that there was a person on the back side of the paper.  He fixed the person and this put the map back together.  So from this we learned that while repairing the entire world might be a daunting task, if each one of us takes care of our own bit of the world then together we can take care of it all.

 

If they can tell you part of the above and it makes sense, then that would be fabulous for this week so please be encouraging when they share this with you.  Remember it is their first one and once they get into the swing of it, they will be able to be more creative and will be able to lead a more detailed discussion with the family.

 

Happy Torah learning from our fabulous scholars.

Morah Yiska, Morah Donna, Rabbi Weiss, and Morah Hannah