[Excerpted from Planting Seeds of the Divine: Torah Commentaries to Cultivate Your Spiritual Practice, The Jewish Publication Society]
Bereishit: The Need to Connect With Others
And God created humankind in the divine image, creating it in the image of God — creating them male and female. … The Eternal God said, “It is not good for the Human to be alone.”
Genesis 1:27, 2:18
Where We Are
The six days of Creation bring us to the formation of the human being. Every physical entity — from light to animals — precedes this moment.
The formation of the world comes to completion on the seventh day with the introduction of Shabbat, the appointed day of rest.
At First Glance
God creates the human being in the singular, but all other creations (e.g., schools of fish, blades of grass, granules of sand) in the plural. Why?
In the Mishnah, the Rabbis discuss why the human being was created in the singular:
It was for these reasons that the human being was created as one person: (1) Scripture teaches that anyone who destroys a life is considered to have destroyed an entire world; and anyone who saves a life is considered to have saved an entire world. (2) And also to promote peace among the creations, so that no person would say to their friend, “My ancestors are greater than yours.” (3) And also, to express the grandeur of the Holy One blessed be He: For a human being strikes many coins from the same mold, and all the coins are alike. But the King, the King of Kings, the Holy One blessed be He, strikes every person from the mold of the First Person, and yet no person is quite like the other. Therefore, every person must say, bishveli nivrah ha’olam — “For my sake the world was created.”[1]
On the above teaching that each person is obligated to say that “for my sake the world was created,” Rashi (Shlomo Yitzhaki, 11th century, France) comments: “That is to say that I am as important as an entire world, and therefore I would not diminish the world through sin; rather, I will enhance the world through good deeds.”[2]
And yet, might this teaching foster arrogance and a sense of inflated self-importance? There must be another way to understand this.
There is more than enough room for each of the world’s inhabitants to follow a unique calling and customized path.
A Deeper Dive
By unpacking the letters of the word bishveli, the Ba’al Shem Tov (Israel ben Eliezer, 18th century, Ukraine) teaches that it does not only mean “for my sake,” but also can be read as b’shvil sheli, “in my path.”[3] In other words, the human being had to be created in the singular to highlight that each one of us has our own unique path. Hence, as the Mishnah teaches, each of us is obligated to say, “For in my path, the world was created.”
With a mix of relief and gratitude, I view this as the Creator’s expression of a world that leaves no one out. There is more than enough room for each of the world’s inhabitants to follow a unique calling and customized path.
This may be the ultimate proclamation of the all-inclusive space that many of us desire. God’s world contains space for every human being. God’s world does not exclude anyone.
Several generations after the Baʽal Shem Tov, Reb Simcha Bunim of Pryscha (18th to 19th centuries, Poland) expands this idea through a comment on the following Mishnah: “Rebbe said, ‘What is the derech — “path” — of integrity that a person should choose for oneself? Whatever brings beauty to the doer and invites beauty from the world around them.’ ”[4]
“That is to say,” Reb Simcha Bunim comments,
that the soul of each individual has its own style in the service of God, in the performance of Torah and commandments, which he should not change [due to societal expectation]. Therefore, he should not take a path that is not special or unique to him, even though he greatly admires the way of service of another individual; he must hold fast to his path. And that is the proof that his path is true. And this is the sense of the above Mishnah that he has a path for himself that is correct for him by which he holds. Nevertheless, he can praise and admire the path of his fellow.[5]
Rav Kook (Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook, 19th to 20th centuries, Jerusalem) suggests that “everyone should greatly cherish one’s own unique path.”[6] Elsewhere he points out that:
True shalom — peace — is impossible without appreciating the value of pluralism intrinsic to shalom. The various pieces of peace come from a variety of approaches and methods that make it clear how much each one has a place that complements another. Even those methods that appear superfluous or contradictory possess an element of truth that contributes to the mosaic of shalom.”[7]
Returning to Reb Simcha Bunim: “Thus, for a person to embark on a path of truthfulness requires not only the analytical demand for self-awareness, but the spiritual acumen to recognize that there is a spark of the Divine within each person.”[8]
It is only when you pursue the path that is your ideal path — the path that the Divine calls you to embark on, the path that brings inner joy — that you are able to share your inner joy with others who are on their unique paths as well.
While these teachings may help diminish the above concern that focusing on one’s own uniqueness may lead to arrogance and an inflated sense of self, other concerns may arise. For one, even if a person intellectually agrees that it is good to cultivate an awareness of the Divine Spark in other people, might that person ultimately choose to focus solely on cultivating oneself instead?
In Genesis 2:18, we learn: “It is not good for a person to be alone.” In light of the previous verse, we might ask: Why is this so? Why is it not good for a person to be alone, especially since this is how God created each of us? Aside from the utilitarian biological, economic and psychological reasons, we might contemplate the answer to this through a spiritual lens.
Biblical scholar and linguist Nechama Leibowitz (20th century, Israel) observes that not only is it not good for an individual human being to be alone; it is also not good for all of humankind. An essential word in this verse, he’yot, is usually translated as “to be”; hence, “It is not good for a person to be alone,” but, she says, “to be” is not the most precise translation. He’yot is more accurately translated as “existence” — and as such, the teaching is better understood as “It is not good for existence for a person to be alone.”
From this, a teaching often attributed to Leibowitz explains that God created each of us as an individual with the inherent need to be in relationship with another, to connect with another and to share with another.[9] This simultaneously benefits both the individual and all of humankind.
In bringing these two verses together, where each one complements the other, we may come to realize that each of us is created to explore, discover, encounter, honor and express our unique inner selves by walking our unique path. Each of our lives possesses inherent value with its own God-bestowed life journey. And this very sense of our individual unique self becomes the most precious gift we can offer another human being.
In fact, through a spiritual lens, the purpose of all of Creation was, and continues, to bring and reveal relationship, closeness, and connection — with oneself, with God, with other human beings, and with all of God’s creations. Each time one enters into a relationship with another, one is actually advancing Creation to its next stage, by bringing healing and purpose to the world as a cocreator with our one Creator.
The Practice
- Begin with breath awareness.
- Then, reflect on the text.
- Move to quieting down your mind.
These three steps are explained in detail in the introduction.
- Visualize what your ideal path in life would look like. Consider your options. What are your thoughts? What feelings awaken for you?
Seeing it as a physical path, visualize yourself as a curious hiker. You’ve received the opportunity to explore any landscape of your choice. What would be your dream scenario? What would awaken your passion? What do you believe is worth your dedication? Climbing up a challenging, winding mountain trail in a thick, wooded forest? Walking far along a quiet beach hearing the crashing waves as they meet the shore? Or … ?
As you begin to venture out on your chosen path, how do you imagine you will feel? How would you like to feel? And as you meet fellow travelers moving along their own paths, envision that at any intersecting point, the sense of connection enhances your own joy — as if the two of you are excited to share your stories of your individual path with each other. This intersecting, encountering, and sharing with each other brings you closer to each other. And you then realize that it was only because you were on the path that is your ideal path, the path that the Divine calls you to embark on, the path that brings inner joy and that you are able to share your inner joy with others who are on their unique paths as well.
Reflect on this, examining it as a curious observer. What are you thinking? How are you feeling?
How does it feel not to connect — and then to connect?
[1] Mishnah Sanhedrin 4:5.
[2] Rashi on Babylonian Talmud Sanhedrin 37a.
[3] Rosen, Quest for Authenticity, 140n11.
[4] Mishnah Avot 2:1.
[5] Rosen, Quest for Authenticity, 140–41.
[6] Kook, Pinkas Yerushalayim, entry 4.
[7] Kook, Olat Ra’ayah, vol. 1, 330–31.
[8] Rosen, Quest for Authenticity, 137.
[9] Although this sentiment is often said to originate with Nechama Leibovitz, no specific source was located.
