LOOKING FOR LIGHT

By Rabbi Nissim Lagziel

A Joke to Begin with…

Late one night, local villagers found Hershele, bent over in a dark corner under a streetlight, intensely looking for something…

“Hershele,” they asked, “What are you doing here?”

“What does it look like I’m doing?” Hershele declared definitively. “I’m searching!”

“What are you searching for?” they asked.

“20 Rubles I lost” he answered.

“Where did you lose it?” they inquired.

 “At home,” he replied.

“Hershele, have you gone mad? If you lost the money at home…why don’t you look for it there?”

“Fools, my house is dark, and besides, the light is better here!”

***

This week, we start Chumash again from the very beginning. We will learn about what happened in the world during the first millennium of its existence, and it all appears in one single Torah portion – Parshas Bereishis. The parsha teaches us the story of the Creation, Adam and Chava, the sin of the Tree of Knowledge and its repercussions (the expulsion from Gan Eden), and Kayin’s murder of his brother Hevel. The resulting chain of events led to the point that G-d loathed the world He had created and the time came… “to start everything again from the beginning!”

However, things weren’t always so “bad.” The story of the Creation at the beginning of this week’s parsha gives us an inner look at another world, one of goodness and perfection, a world that is fun to live in, a world as G-d wanted and wants. At the start of the Creation, the Torah tell us: “And the earth was unformed and void, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of G-d hovered over the surface of the waters.”

“The Spirit of G-d” the Midrash explains, “refers to the spirit of Melech HaMoshiach” (Bereishis Rabba 2:4).

The Midrash (ibid.) explains that the words “unformed”, “void”, “darkness”, and “over the surface of the deep” symbolize the four exiles the Jewish People have endured and endure (Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Edom), and the eternal response to them is “the Spirit of G-d” – the future revelation of Melech HaMoshiach – the ultimate Redeemer. While this all sounds very nice, and it’s quite uplifting to think about the fact that there is (a little) light at the end of the tunnel, why does the Torah have to allude to this here and now? Is it necessary, already at the moment of the Creation, to talk about darkness and exile? For example, couldn’t all this wait until the Flood or the birth of Eisav?

Regarding the next pasuk in Torah, we can also ask a similar question. “And G-d said, ‘Let there be light’, and there was light” (Bereishis 1:3). This utterance of G-d was the first of the Ten Divine Utterances through which the world was created. The pasuk teaches us that before anything else, before the sun and the moon, the seas and the continents, man and woman, G-d created…light!

Yet, as everyone understands, there’s no importance to the existence itself. All of its value comes from created beings using and benefiting from it. If such is the case, then why did G-d create light before all of the other creations? What advantage, what purpose, and what objective would this creation achieve at that time?

The question grows manifold when we look for a moment at the sayings of our Sages, of blessed memory, regarding that “magical light.” It is stated in the Gemara (Chagiga 12a), Bereishis Rabba, et al. that with the creation of the light, G-d saw the depraved actions of the coming generations. Therefore, He decided somberly that…the light must be concealed – even before there was anyone to use it! So why did Hashem create the light for nothing?

Chassidus, the light of Torah, opens a window of G-dly radiance on every subject.

We are all familiar with the well-known words of the liturgical poet: “Last in creation, first in thought.” A calculating and logical person decides on a certain goal, even before he starts to accomplish it. First of all, he has to clarify and establish the objective, and only when the objective is as clear as day can he bring it to fruition through creative action. Man is as his G-d, and Hashem created the world in the same way. G-d established the goal at the start of the process of the Creation. Once that was done, He began to carry it out.

However, what was “first in [G-d’s] thought”? What is the purpose of this world? The purpose of this world is “light”, the objective of the Creation is “the light of Moshiach” – the True and Complete Redemption.

The light is the initial and ultimate objective of the entire Creation. The purpose and fulfillment for creating the world and man were for his (man’s) avoda to brighten the darkness of the world (olam, derived from the word helem, concealment) and transform it into the light of Redemption. Therefore, the light was created on the first day, and even before the creation of anything else, there was the spirit of Melech HaMoshiach “hovering over the surface of the waters.” This is a public declaration of readiness, a clear and definitive proclamation, a determined and essential introduction informing everyone that the overall purpose of the Creation in all its aspects, benefits, and drawbacks is “Let there be light” – bringing the days of Moshiach! (See Rabbeinu Bachaye’s commentary on Bereishis 1:2.)

Thus, if the purpose of the Creation is the light, then why did G-d conceal it – even before we had a chance to touch it?

The precise wording of the Midrash reveals the answer. G-d didn’t take or return the light to a state of being unformed and void, He concealed it! “Concealment” means that the thing exists, but is merely hidden. While the concealed light is still here, together with us, it is simply not revealed. “The light of Moshiach” is an integral part of the world; Moshiach is here with us! Here now in the exile, in the “darkness”, in the “unformed and void”, the eternal light of the soul of the Redeemer is concealed for him. Yet, the “light” did not go, Moshiach did not run away, it is just hidden and concealed, giving us strength to reveal him through the positive activities we do on his behalf.

And where did G-d conceal the light? From where do we draw the strength and motivation to continue and reveal the Alef (Alufo Shel Olam) into the Gola and bring the Geula?

Our Sages, of blessed memory, state that G-d concealed the light in the Torah! The revelation of the light of the Redemption is through our avoda now in Torah study (and fulfilling the mitzvos). Every increase, even if only for a brief moment, in Torah study (primarily on Moshiach and the Redemption) possesses the strength to “draw” light into the world and eventually bring the Redemption!

To Conclude with a Story

We will conclude with two (similar) stories about the “light concealed within Torah”. The first one was told by the Rebbe at the farbrengen of Erev Rosh Hashanah 5733. A man came to the Ba’al Shem Tov and asked him about his son, then located several hundred miles away. The Ba’al Shem Tov replied that he could see him – literally at that moment – in the city of Breslau!

On another occasion, a Jew came to ask the Ba’al Shem Tov about his missing oxen, the source of his parnassa. The Ba’al Shem Tov opened a volume of the Zohar and told the man where his oxen were. The man’s brother asked what the connection was between studying Zohar and finding lost oxen. The Ba’al Shem Tov replied that when the pasuk states that the light G-d created on the first day was good, our Sages say that the light was good for concealment, since through this light, man could see from one end of the earth to the other. Afterwards, G-d hid the light for the tzaddikim throughout the generations. And where did G-d hide the light? He hid it in the Torah – and anyone who has the merit to find the hidden light in the Torah can see the whole world from one end to the other. ■

Good Shabbos!

Based on Likkutei Sichos, Vol. 10, first sicha, Parshas Bereishis, and the farbrengen from Shabbos Parshas Toldos 5752.