EXODUS XVIII:1-XX:23

CREATION CONTINUES

Several years ago, the United States managed to land a robot on the surface of Mars, which, after a few days, began to glide on the surface of the planet. The mission of the rover sent by NASA was to search for traces of life on the red planet. Meanwhile, the full-color photographs are dazzling and testify to the development of today’s technology, which allows data to be transmitted millions of miles away. The success of this feat probably spurred President George W. Bush’s announcement of future U.S. plans to send a human mission to the Moon again, and to Mars a few years later.

When we look up at the heavens, the planets don’t seem so distant because now we can get closer to them, and even step on their surface. However, we must not forget that the universe is in a state of constant explosion. In fact, the galaxy to which our solar system belongs is so large that new terms had to be created to describe the distances between the stars that make it up: the term is “light years”, which is based on the speed of 300,000 kilometers per second with which light travels. ́

Who created this vast universe? Science offers several hypotheses, but none is entirely satisfactory. Certainty seems to be an impossibility to explain the birth or eternal existence of the universe. Even the word “eternal,” which is related to the notion of time, turns out to be a problem for physicists, who assume that time is an integral part of the universe and that it makes no sense to talk about “before” the universe had emerged.

For the man of faith, the answer is clear: God created the universe and everything in it, and that is the fundamental theme of the first book of the Torah, Bereshit. The act of creation is depicted in all majesty and a detailed description of the elements that were created on each of the 6 days of creation. 

The second book of the Torah, Shemot, is so named because it is the first word significantly different from the first verse of the text, following the rabbinic tradition that states that the letter “vav” of the first word “ve’ele” implies that there is a relationship between our text and the earlier text, with which the book of Bereshit ends which recounts the death of the patriarch Yaakov. Perhaps we should think of this “vav,” which is a conjunction, as the link that binds the two books:  Shemotand Bereshit, so that Shemot is a continuation of Bereshit, whose basic theme is creation. While Bereshit first refers to the cosmic creation and then continues with the history of the human species, focusing on the origins of the Hebrew people through the lives of the patriarchs, Shemot concentrates on the making of the Hebrew people as a nation and their selection to convey God’s message according to the instruction they received at Mount Sinai.

In reviewing the description of creation in Bereshit, we notice that man constitutes the last element of creation, a kind of last-minute appendage, or perhaps, because he is the last element, the human being constitutes the basic purpose of all creation. According to an ancient tradition, there is an alternate way of designating the five books of the Torah, and in it, Shemot is called the “Second Book,” while the other books retain their proper names. According to this nomenclature, Shemot is an extension of the first book Bereshit. 

For the physicist, the universe consists of particles and energy that are related through a mathematical formulation that Einstein described. Every advance in mathematics and refinement of telescopes allows for the discovery of more elementary particles and theories that defy the imagination: gravity and antigravity, matter and antimatter, space and “black holes.”

For the man of faith, the act of creation must be seen through a moral axis and an ethical lens. This is why, perhaps, we read that when God appears through a burning bush, He answers Moshe’s (Moses) question about His identity: Ehyeh asherEhyeh, “I will be who I will be,” which implies that God is “being,” He is the source of all existence: He is the God who created all that exists, and without Him nothing has existence. 

But then God goes on to say that He is the God of the patriarchs of Avraham (Abraham), Yitschak (Isaac) and Yaakov (Jacob). On the one hand, the cosmos owes its existence to God, but, on the other hand, this God of the universe cares about man, even about the destiny of everyone. Perhaps the culmination of the process of creation is the episode of the revelation on Mount Sinai, which is the theme of our biblical chapters, and the erection of the Mishkan (Tabernacle) as a symbol of God’s continuing presence in the heart of the Hebrew people and, therefore, in the history of humanity.

It is the “Law” with its moral content, “thou shalt not kill” and “thou shalt not steal”, “thou shalt not commit adultery” and “thou shalt not bear false witness”, “honor Shabbat” (seventh day of the week) and “honor thy parents”, among others, are the elements that facilitate human coexistence and point to the purpose of creation. One reason for the creation of the universe: the implementation of the Brit, the covenant between God and man that allows the moral evolution of the human being to come closer and closer to the essence of the Divine.

MITZVAH: ORDINANCE OF THE TORAH IN THIS PARSHA

CONTAINS 3 POSITIVE MITSVOT AND 14 PROHIBITIONS

25. Exodus 20:2 Believing in the Existence of God.

26. Exodus 20:3 Do not believe in any god other than God.

27. Exodus 20:4 Do not make graven images or images (of gods).

28. Exodus 20:5 Do not bow down or serve these images.

29. Exodus 20:5 Do not worship an idol according to the way it is customary to worship it (or worship it in any other way).

30. Exodus 20:7 Do not swear in vain (pronouncing the Name of the Lord).

31. Exodus 20:8 Verbally keep Shabbat holy.

32. Exodus 20:10 Do no work on Shabbat.

33. Exodus 20:12 Honoring Father and Mother.

34. Exodus 20:13 Do not murder an innocent person.

35. Exodus 20:14 Do not commit adultery.

36. Exodus 20:15 Do not kidnap a Jew.

37. Exodus 20:16 Do not bear false witness.

38. Exodus 20:17 Do not covet what belongs to another.

39. Exodus 20:23 Do not make sculptures in human form, even as ornament.

40. Exodus 20:25 Do not build an altar with hewn stones.

41. Exodus 20:26 Do not go up to the altar by steps (but by a ramp).