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Bereishit (2025)

Parsha Bereishit

Dvar Torah
This week we begin a new cycle of Torah reading with Bereishit — the timeless stories of creation. When God creates humanity in His image, He places Adam in the Garden of Eden “to work it and to guard it.”

Rav Aharon Lichtenstein taught that the Torah here reveals a profound truth: work is not a necessary evil or even a neutral activity, but an essential part of human existence. “To place the human imprint on nature is part of God’s mandate…it is part of our responsibility, part of our task.” Through our work, we develop our character, contribute to society, and emulate God Himself, who modeled the value of creative labor in forming the world.

We can suggest that it follows that our professional lives are not spiritually neutral. They are a form of Avodat Hashem — divine service. When we enter the workplace, we are fulfilling a dimension of what God expects of us as His creations. Yet this also means that the workplace carries moral and spiritual responsibility, calling on us to ensure that our work reflects the ways of Hashem.

Biography – Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein (1933–2015)
It would be remiss not to briefly biograph Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein — a towering figure of our generation. Born in France, Rav Aharon narrowly escaped Nazi Europe as a child and grew up in the United States. He became a close disciple of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik and was well-versed in secular studies as well, going on to earn a doctorate in English literature from Harvard University.

In 1971, he made Aliyah to Israel to serve alongside Rabbi Yehuda Amital as dean (Rosh Yeshiva) of Yeshivat Har Etzion — a position he held until his passing in 2015.

Rav Aharon was renowned for his vast scholarship in Talmud and all areas of rabbinic studies, as well as for his deeply humanistic approach to Jewish philosophy. His personal discipline was legendary — even maintaining an intensive twelve-hour daily Torah study regimen while pursuing his doctorate at Harvard.

Rav Aharon was also a very “normal” Gadol. He loved baseball (especially the New York Yankees) and to the casual observer would not appear to be of the stature he possessed. A rare combination of intellectual brilliance, humility, and moral integrity, Rav Aharon Lichtenstein inspired thousands of students and left a lasting imprint on the Jewish world.

The idea cited above is taken from the volume “By His Light – Character and Values in the Service of God” with the article “To Cultivate and to Guard” available here

Shabbat in/out times
Yerushalayim 17:28/18:40
Tel-Aviv 17:44/18:02  
Budapest 17:34/18:37
Prague 17:48/18:54
NYC 18:54/18:51
Denver 17:59/18:56
More Shabbat times here



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