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Celebrating Creation

By Rabbi David Eidensohn

Celebrating Creation leads us to the Creator. “Lift up your eyes on high and see Who created these.”[1] Maimonides tells us that it is by witnessing and studying the marvels of Creation that we begin to acquire awe of God, Who created such a marvelous universe.[2]

But when we, puny mortals, gaze at the heavens, or when we study the systems of the body and nature and are awed, we may feel small. This is wrong. The true message of the Creation after we absorb its wonders is to appreciate ourselves.

 The Talmud says, “Each person must say, ‘for my sake the world was created.’” Creation tells us not only that God created the world, but that one person is the purpose of Creation. God worked six days and put one person in the world. Thus, all of the wonders of Creation are for people and people are higher than the cosmic systems.

Of course, when we see the heavens we are aware of our limited abilities and small size and energies compared to the mighty forces in nature. King David said “When I see Your heavens, Your handiwork, the moon and the stars that you established: What is man that You should remember him, and the son of man that you should notice him?” This expression of modesty and humility is not negative. David follows it by saying, “And You made him but a bit smaller than the heavenly creatures; and You crowned him with honor and glory.” Moses went to heaven and all of Israel heard the Heavenly Voice at Sinai giving the Commandments. This glory is far beyond that of heavenly orbs. We are the purpose of those orbs, indeed, of all Creation.

Thus, there are several steps to understanding. When we see the sun, moon and stars and are amazed at the Creation. We begin to contemplate the greatness of God, the Creator. Thinking of the Creator, in turn, leads to the celebration of Creation. Creation is not just an amazing system of rocks and energy. Creation is an act of God and a Divine doing.

Celebrating Creation leads us to celebrate ourselves.

Celebrating Creation means that we understand that sin can destroy Creation, and that good deeds can improve and sustain it.

We must rejoice with Creation. We must celebrate our challenge and our role as the End Product of Creation. We sustain Creation by obeying God.

We have merited G-d’s great love that we cannot understand, and we rejoice and celebrate this.

Our lives rise or fall based upon whether our personal self-value and appreciation is high or low.

The Sabbath is the time when God rested. It is a time to celebrate Creation. It is a time to celebrate ourselves.

Noahides as well as Jews must celebrate Creation, and what better time than the Sabbath? Some opinions in the Talmud hold that a person who profanes the Sabbath has denied Creation. Therefore, Noahides as well as Jews must celebrate the Sabbath.

There are several opinions in the Talmud about this. Although Israel's classic codifications of the have all decided that Noahides may work on the Sabbath, the fact that some of the Sages of the Talmud insisted that Noahides should rest, at least partially, on the Sabbath, tells us something. Even if Noahides may work on the Sabbath, they should celebrate Creation.

Jews teach their children on the Passover about the Exodus from Egypt. This is the founding force, one of the primal causes, of Israel’s relating to God. Noahides should teach their children about the Sabbath, because celebrating the Creation is a founding force or primal cause of Noahides relating to God.

What a wonderful thing it is for one's own family, for others', and for larger and larger groups of Noahides to come together on the Sabbath to celebrate Creation.

Noahides are not Jews, and do not have all the obligations nor the restrictions of the Jews. Therefore, Noahides do not celebrate the Creation and the Sabbath in the manner of Israel - at least, not in the exact same manner. Nevertheless, every human being, as God's unique creation, should praise God and celebrate the Creation.

Jews celebrate the Sabbath by reciting the Kiddush ["holiness"], including the Biblical paragraph about God resting on the seventh day:

“And the heavens and earth were finished, and all of their host. And God completed, on the seventh day, the work that He did. And He rested on the seventh day from all of the work that He had done. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it. For on it He rested from all of His work that God created to function.”

Noahides can recite this paragraph as well, as Jews do, on a celebratory glass of wine, if they find this meaningful. But Noahides should not say the second paragraph of the Kiddush, in the Jewish prayerbook, which has a Jewish theme - a them directly pertinent to the Jewish people alone. That's because Jews rest on the Sabbath, as part of the essence of their celebration of the day, according to God's decree in the Torah, but the absolute rest of Sabbath is not fundamental nor absolutely necessary to Noahides' commemoration and celebration of this great and holy day.

There is thus a Jewish and a Noahide way of celebrating Creation. It is one Creation. There is one God. But there are two ways to celebrate.

Our challenge is to encourage and increase the population of non-Jews on this earth who celebrate the sabbath. They are pioneers of the spirit, the vanguard of the great mass of humanity that will emark on the same path.

From a Jewish point of view, only when Jews have inspired others, Noahides, to take their rightful place at the table, does Creation achieve its purpose. This is why the Talmud says that Israel was created to go into exile. The exile was to inspire the gentiles.

This is the purpose of Creation.

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[1] Isaiah 40:26

[2] Maimonides in the Mishneh Torah, Yesodei HaTorah I:6, indicates that seeing the material fruits of Creation and observing the heavens brings one to know the Creator and fulfill the first of the Ten Commandments, the belief in God. In Guide to the Perplexed, 2:19, he elaborates on this theme, quoting many of the Hebrew prophets.

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This is an edited article. First Covenant style fully spells out the word that the writer, following the hyper-respectful Orthodox convention, spells as G-d.

 

Rabbi Eidensohn is a disciple of the the greatest Lithuanian Talmud scholars leaders of the past generation: Rabbi Aharon Kotler, Rabbi Moshe Feinstein and Rabbi Yaacov Kaminetski. His kabbala mentor was Rabbi Dr. Shmuel Toledano.

Rabbi Eidensohn appears regularly on radio shows as a guest-expert on family and marital issues. He has declared this, our First Covenant website, and our Covenant Connection newsletter "terrific."

Rabbi Eidensohn has ten websites, has written eight books, and has made hundreds of tapes. See www.rabbidavideidensohn.com

 

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