REEL PROJECTION
In this week’s Parsha, Yisro, HaShem gives us His Torah. Let us take a moment to appreciate this gift and what it means to us. The Midrash teaches us that before creating the world, HaShem first created the Torah and then ‘He gazed in the Torah and created the world.’ The use of the word gaze seems to be more than simply looking at the Torah. What was the function of His gazing at the Torah and how does that create the world? Rabbi Akiva Tatz draws a parallel from old fashioned movies to explain this Midrash.
Let us use the old fashioned movie reels to better understand this Midrash. Movie reels contain very long plastic strips upon which hundreds of thousands of pictures are embedded. Each picture continues the next moment of movement from the picture before it. The projector projects a strong beam of light through the strip and creates an image on the screen in the front of the room. As the film strip passes in front of the projector the image on the screen moves.
Let us return to the Midrash with this image in mind. “HaShem gazes at the Torah and created the world”. The Midrash is teaching us the mechanism by which the world was created. Initially, HaShem wrote the Torah and then He gazed at the Torah thereby creating the world. Hashem’s gaze projected creation. As He gazed at the Torah the world was created. Hence the world is a reflection of the Torah.
The world is in a constant state of creation. The act of creation with which HaShem used to create the world 5,779 years ago is still in motion. HaShem continues to gaze at the Torah thereby giving the world existence. It naturally follows that if there would be no Torah study for any moment of time the world would cease to exist.
We can already appreciate the gift that He gave us. But it goes further. When HaShem gave us His Torah, He actually made it ours. He subjected His Torah to the understanding of our Sages. This hand-off to our Sages is so profound that if there is a dispute in understanding what the Torah is teaching we follow the majority of the Sages even if the Heavenly Voice sides with the minority opinion! The Torah is ours! We are the ones who define the Torah.
With the gift of Torah, HaShem actually put the destiny of the world in our hands.
May we be worthy stewards deserving of this great responsibility and bring our world to her final destiny.
Have a wonderful Shabbos.
Paysach Diskind