How ripe Bereshit is.
Simple but powerful messages.
Gd creates. Gd punishes. Gd saves. Failure to obey has a price. Humans can overcome and survive tragedies. Humans can and will kill each other. One day in seven is set aside to honor the one who created us.
But there is for me, no more powerful statement in all of Bereshit than this:
Even after the pain and torture of having one son murder another, Chava was willing to have the faith to have another child.
That simple statement of faith means more to me than almost any other I know of. It is a lesson for all of us.
Now, the student in me wonders if the redactor/author of that particular piece of, in shaping that story, thought about that intentionally. (yes, there are lots of other practical and philosophical reasons why Adam and Chava had to have another son...but that's not the hat I'm wearing now.) Well, since I know in my heart who the ultimate redactor/author was, I'm sure of it.
May the One who gave Chava the courage and faith to bear Seth, give to all of us that same courage and faith.
Shabbat Shalom,
Adrian
© 2000 by Adrian A. Durlester
Some other musings on this parasha:
Bereshit 5766-Kol D'mei
Akhikha
Bereshit 5765 (5760)-Failing to Understand-A Learning
Experience
Bereshit 5764-Gd's Regrets
Bereshit 5763--Striving to be Human
Bereshit 5762--The Essential Ingredient
Bereshit 5760-Failing to Understand