D’var Torah – October 25

Shabbat Shalom!

I hope this finds you all well.

Passion, it is said, can be a good thing- it is a source and well-spring of creativity and a driver of innovation. On the other hand, passion can exacerbate our worst inclinations and emotions, from jealousy and anger to lust and greed.

In this week’s parsha of Beresheit, we see the harmful, negative side of passion on full display, from Adam and Eve’s eating of the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden to Cain’s murder of Abel.

We know many of the cast of characters in this week’s portion- Adam, Eve, the serpent, Cain, Abel, and Noah.

But there is someone who gets very little attention- the Cherubim who God stations at the eastern entrance at the Garden of Eden to protect the Tree of Life after He expels Adam and Eve.[1]

It is said that the Cherubim, these supernatural beings, were “devoid of human feelings” and were created for singular purposes such as buttressing and protecting the places of the Divine.[2]

The Cherubim are lucky perhaps. They have no anger, no jealousy, no sadness, no impulse controls, and no other detractors that keep them from their mission and purpose. Feelings never dominate their actions. However, one can not but feel sorry for them. As the expression goes, “It is better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all.”

This brings us to a critical juncture. Considering all of this, how do we find that middle path prevent us from going down the dark road of insidious passion that drove Adam and Eve to eat the apple from the Tree of Knowledge and Cain to viciously butcher his own brother, while also not resorting to a way of life filled only by pure, unfiltered, blind task and purpose, objectivity, rationality, regulation, or logic?

Perhaps it is this: we must first learn to recognize and understand our emotions, biases, and feelings, and thoughts. Second, we must learn to make them work for us rather than us working for them by inculcating them with objectivity.

There is no crime in having feelings or emotions. The downfall is allowing them to dictate our actions. Our goal should therefore be a middle ground that is neither purely emotional or entirely guided by “cold, hard” facts. In the field of psychological field of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), this synthesis, this approach is called “The Wise Mind.”[3] Our ancients would have agreed, as it is written in Proverbs, “He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.”[4]

Bizrat HaShem, just as some of our most beloved objects – the Havdalah candle and Challah –  are based on the intertwining of strands to create something whole, so too may we likewise be guided by an equal intertwining of emotion, feeling, fact, and objectivity to become more complete, wholistic people.

Wishing you a Good Shabbos and a great weekend.  

Bivrakha,

From the desk of Rabbi Aaron Stucker-Rozovsky

Beth El Congregation | 520 Fairmont Ave, Winchester, VA 22601

(540) 667-1889 (office)