Daily Chidush: Learn The Purpose of Life From Adam

0:01Elohim yikarim, shavua tov, shavua mevorach. We are about to begin the Five Books of Moses all over again. Tomorrow morning, b'ezrat Hashem, we're going to read Parashat Bereishit and learn the story that we've already learned, baruch Hashem, many, many times. The beautiful part about the Torah, and the best proof that it's divine, as we've said many times, is that each time you read each parasha, you'll find new insights, new chiddushim, new lessons, that are not only relevant to general life, that could change anyone's life at any time, but actually, if you look deep enough, you can find things and secrets within it that are relevant to your life at the very moment that you're actually reading that parasha. Parashat Bereshit begins with, Bereishit bara Elohim et haShamayim ve'et ha'aretz, ve'ha'aretz hayta tohu vavohu, ve'choshech al-pnei tehom, ve'ruach Elohim merachefet al-pnei ha'mayim. Vayomer Elohim y'hi or, vayehi or,

1:09In the beginning of God's creating the heavens and the earth, when the earth was astonishingly empty, with darkness upon the surface of the deep, and a Divine Presence hovered upon the surface of the waters, God said, "Let there be light." And there was light. God saw that the light was good, and God separated between the light and the darkness. God called the light "day," and the darkness He called "night." And there was evening, and there was morning, one day. And so we continue with each day of the first six days of creation. Hashem adds more things and creates more things to His world. And then on the sixth day, He creates man. And God separated between the light and the darkness. God called to the light day, and to the darkness He called night. And there was evening, and there was morning, one day. And so we continue with each day of the first six days of creation. Hashem adds more things and creates more things in His world. And then, on the sixth day, He creates man. then on the seventh day He stops creating, which in essence means He created the Shabbat, one day that's different from the rest of the week. This gives man the ability to feel like God felt, if you will, when He stopped creating, giving a Jew the ability to have such a holy feeling by also no longer creating.

2:35But Rashi asks a very interesting question about the first verse, about the first parasha. And he cites Rav Yitzchak, who says, why is the Torah, that's a book of laws and a book of the purpose of life, beginning with the history of the universe? Why doesn't it start with mitzvot? Hashem created, you know, in the beginning, Hashem created the Torah. Or perhaps created the first mitzvah of the new moon, which we don't find out about until Sefer Shemot, the book of Exodus, chapter 12, verse 2. That's the first mitzvah. Why don't we hear about the Torah, the whole purpose of life? Because according to Chazal, according to our Sages, according to our Torah, Hashem created the Torah 974 generations before He created the world, writing it with black fire on white fire. After creating the Torah, He looked at the Torah and thereby created the world, meaning He used the Torah as the blueprint for creating the world. He saw that He wrote in the Torah there's a mitzvah of eating kosher, therefore He created kosher animals. He saw in the Torah that there's a mitzvah of eating kosher fish, and thereby He created kosher fish, and so on and on. Each and every single mitzvah that He wrote in the Torah, He used as the purpose behind His creation.

3:46saw that He wrote in the Torah that there's a mitzvah of eating kosher, therefore He created kosher animals. He saw in the Torah that there's a mitzvah of eating kosher fish and thereby He created kosher fish, and so on and on. Each and every single mitzvah that He wrote in the Torah, He used that as the purpose behind His creation. on earth itself. So if we obviously know that the purpose of the world is the Torah, then why didn't Hashem say, Bereishit bara Elokim et haTorah? Bereishit, Hashem created, in the beginning, Hashem created the Torah. Why didn't He say that? Because just like everything else that's involved in the Torah, Hashem said in the book of Devarim, chapter 4, if you look for me, you will find me. you look for Me with all of your heart and all of your soul, meaning that if you want the truth, you have to look for it. It's not always going to be handed to you on a silver platter; you have to work for it a little bit. Using modern technology, which the Sages did not need to use because their wisdom was far beyond even our understanding of wisdom

5:04Modern technology has allowed us to find hidden secrets within the Torah, and we see that Hashem did actually put the Torah, not only in Parashat Bereishit, but actually within the first five verses. By using Torah codes, which are different mathematical equations, of finding different words within the Torah, where you look for a certain word, and then Find that word where there is an even mathematical skip between each letter. You see that there is obviously a design beyond the plain design. So to look for the word Torah, we see that the first letter, the first word of the parasha Bereishit ends with the letter Taf, which also happens to be the first letter of the word Torah. And then if you skip 50 letters, you get to the word Tehom, and you find the Vav, the second letter of the word Torah. And you skip another 50 letters and you see Vayereh. which means seize, Hashem saw. And you see the Reish, the third letter of the word Torah, and then 50 more letters, and you see the word God again, Elohim, and you see the Heh in it, which is the last letter of the word Torah. Now this is very nice, 50-letter skips to find the word Torah in the first several verses of the Torah, but why is this important? Why is it important? And why do we know it's by design? Because first and foremost, we have to think about when do we get the Torah?

6:32We celebrate Passover as a celebration of leaving Egypt. But then, 50 days later, seven weeks plus one day, we celebrate Shavuot. Shavuot is the holiday on which we received the Torah. Meaning, we received the Torah exactly 50 days after we left Egypt. So, Hashem is telling us, right in Parashat Bereishit, remember this number 50 is very, very important because you're going to get the Torah. A few thousand years later, approximately two thousand four hundred forty-eight years later, you're going to receive the Torah fifty days after the slavery ends in Egypt. And if that wasn't enough, the word Torah is also within the first five verses. The first five verses obviously represent the Five Books of Moses. But here we see that already in the beginning, Hashem created the world with Torah in His mind, with Torah as the intention of the world, but He's already telling us that in order for us to earn this Torah, we must have self-sacrifice. Because initially, we see that Hashem's name that He uses is Elokim.

7:43which is actually the attribute of justice. Meaning, Hashem originally created the world only as an attribute of justice, that if someone would perform a mitzvah, they would get rewarded on the spot, but if someone committed a sin, they would get punished on the spot. No gray area, no teshuva, nothing. You did a mitzvah, you get rewarded, you did an aveirah, you get punished on the spot. And this we see that He only used this name for the entire first chapter, for the entire creation of everything until He got to chapter 2, which starts discussing the creation of man, the story of Adam, the story of Adam and Chava. We see that during the entire first chapter of the Torah, Hashem had original intentions to create a world only full of justice, but He saw that mankind will not survive without the ability to do teshuvah, will not survive without the ability to make a sin and then make up for it. So as soon as we start hearing about Adam, in chapter 2, verse 4, we see that Hashem starts using His other name, the Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh. to just create a world only full of justice, but He saw that mankind would not survive without the ability to do teshuva, without the ability to sin and then make amends. So as soon as we start hearing about Adam, in chapter 2, verse 4, we see that Hashem starts using His other name, the Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh.

9:09It says in chapter 2, verse 4, "These are the products of heaven and earth created on the day that Hashem God made earth and heaven." So here we see that Hashem, actually after creating man and starting to tell us the story of Adam and Chava, uses both of His names because now He has the creation—the purpose of creation being the Torah. But now, in order for the Torah to fulfill its purpose, it needs somebody to follow it. So He created man, but He knows that man cannot abide by the Torah 100%. He's going to fall from time to time, so He gave him the ability to do teshuvah. Therefore, we have this verse, and He mentions both of His names. One of His names is... uses both of His names because now He has the creation, the purpose of creation being the Torah. But now, in order for the Torah to fulfill its purpose, it needs somebody to follow it. So He created man, but He knows that man cannot abide by the Torah 100%. He's going to fall from time to time, so He gave him the ability to do teshuva. Therefore, He has this verse, and He mentions both of His names. One of His names is... representing the attribute of justice, while the other name represents the attribute of mercy. So here we already see that Hashem made certain changes for the purpose of man. But despite all of this, man obviously inevitably failed. Within the first, you know, hours of creation, he already failed, and

10:36N'Zor HaKadosh says that really the reason why Adam ate from the tree, aside from the plain story that we know, that the snake, the serpent, convinced Chava, his wife, to do it, the real reason why Adam actually sinned was because he wanted to eat from the tree of knowledge in order to find out where the tree of life was. Because we see in the parasha that that when it talks about the Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Life here in chapter two, verse nine, "And Hashem, God, caused to sprout from the ground every tree that was pleasing to the sight and good for food, and also the Tree of Life in the midst of the garden, and the Tree of Knowledge of good and bad." So we see here that There are two trees. Hashem later on tells man, "Don't eat from the Tree of Knowledge." He doesn't say, "Don't eat from the Tree of Life." Why? Because here it says, the Tree of Life is in the midst of the garden, meaning it's betoch hagan. It's in the middle of the garden. No one knows where it is. He's never going to find it.

11:55But we already know that he found the Tree of Knowledge. How do we know he found the Tree of Knowledge? Because he ate from it, so obviously he knows where it is. So Chazal tells us the reason why he agreed to eat from the Tree of Knowledge was so that he could find out where the Tree of Life is. And why does he want to eat from the Tree of Life? To live forever. Why does he need to live forever? He says because he wanted to worship Hashem and fulfill His will forever and never have an ending. Always fulfill the will of Hashem. unfortunately, this was a big mistake because this is not what Hashem wanted. Hashem told him, "I gave you an instruction set; you must follow My instruction set exactly as I wrote it, exactly as I told you. I told you, don't eat from the tree. You can't start doing accounting for Me. You can't start creating new laws, thinking that you're smarter than Hashem." So, when he did it, he got punished very severely. After they all get punished, you have Adam, Chava, and the serpent all get punished. You see something very, very interesting. You see that when Hashem asks Adam, "Why did you do it?" Adam doesn't say, "I'm sorry." He says, "It's the wife you gave me. It's her fault." And Chazal say, if he would have just said, "I'm sorry" and

13:21Hashem would have forgiven him and not thrown him out of the garden. But because he didn't do teshuva, after Hashem gave him the opportunity to do it, because He had the attribute of mercy used here, Adam didn't take advantage of it, didn't say "I'm sorry," didn't admit guilt. So thereby Hashem moved on to the wife, to Chava, asked her, "Why did you do it?" And she said, "Oh, it's the snake, it's the serpent's fault." But to the serpent... He didn't ask him, "Why did you do it?" He immediately cursed him, saying, in Chapter 3, verse 14, "Accursed are you beyond all the cattle and beyond all beasts of the field." And he continues with the curse and he tells him, "Oh, you're cursed forever." So Chazal asks, why didn't he also ask him, "Why did you do it?" Why didn't you give him an opportunity?

14:22because in reality, the serpent actually had a valid answer. What was his valid answer? He was the Satan. He was the Malach HaMavet. He was the Yetzer Hara. His answer would have been, Hashem, I did it because that's why You created me, in order to tempt man to sin. But what was the real reason why the serpent got punished and cursed if he was already created for this purpose? It was because of the way he did it. By saying to Chava earlier and saying, "Look, Hashem doesn't want you to touch the tree. He doesn't want you to be like Him." He started saying this was the first sin in creation by the serpent. That's what he got accursed for. But then we see the secret of life here from the curse. From the curse that Adam gets, we actually find the purpose of life. After Hashem punishes them, He tells man that you're going to have to work very, very hard for the rest of your life because you did what you did.

15:27Adam gets, we actually find the purpose of life. After Hashem punishes them, He tells them, He tells man that you're going to have to work very, very hard for the rest of your life because you did what you did. now, if we think about it, if we look at verse 19 in chapter 3: "By the sweat of your brow shall you eat bread until you return to the ground from which you were taken, for you are dust, and to dust shall you return."

16:29So obviously, we already know that the purpose of life is the Torah. It's not to co-work. It's not to work on Wall Street. It's not to go work in some garage. It's not to make millions. It's not to, you know, barely make ends meet every month despite working hard. It's not being a gardener. So obviously, what is Hashem telling us? You're here to work and break a sweat. That's it. But that's not the purpose of life. So what is He saying here? If you look... the actual words it says until you return also is the root of the word to return to Hashem. You're going to have to break a sweat and work hard until you do teshuva, until you come back to Me. Because I created you for this purpose. And I knew that if I only created you with Midat HaDin, with the attribute of justice, you're not going to survive. So I added the attribute of mercy. But that doesn't mean that just because I have mercy, you can just walk all over me, Chas V'Shalom, and just do whatever you want, like the Christians think.

17:40because you believe in some idiot that died, then they could do whatever they want. No such thing. Hashem says you're going to have to work hard, my friend. You're going to have to do mitzvot. You're going to have to keep Shabbat. You're going to have to keep kosher. You're going to have to maintain family purity. You're going to have to buy, you're going to have to fast on Yom Kippur and several other times during the year. You're going to have to learn Torah day and night, a certain amount of time in the morning and a certain amount of time at night. You're going to have to be modest at all times, whether you're a man or a woman. You're going to have to deal with antisemitism. You're going to have to deal with fulfilling your purpose, which is Kiddush Hashem, sanctifying Hashem's name, even when it's not popular. You're going to have to work hard for this, my friend. It's not going to come free. But if you do, then you'll come back to Gan Eden. To give you an understanding of what it means and who actually knew what it meant. One of the holy people of just this past generation, Rabbi Yitzchak Zilber, has an extraordinary book that he wrote before he died called To Remain a Jew. It was a bestseller in Russian, then a bestseller in Hebrew, and also now they have it as a bestseller in English. It's an extraordinary book. One of my students, Hashem blessed him, and Albert from California bought it for me as a present, and it's mamash addictive. While you're reading this biography, you realize how much you need to do for that. Now in Russia...

18:53has an extraordinary book that he wrote before he died called "To Remain a Jew." It was a bestseller in Russian, then a bestseller in Hebrew, and also now it is a bestseller in English. It's an extraordinary book. One of my students, Hashem blessed him, Albert from California, bought it for me as a present, and it's mamash addictive. While you're reading this biography, you realize how much you need to do to that... Now, in Russia Communist Russia wasn't easy to be a Jew. In fact, it was dangerous to be a Jew. Keeping Shabbat was outlawed. Keeping Torah was outlawed. If you did those things, they could kill you on the spot. Rabbi Zilber went to jail, and those jails were not like the Taj Mahal jails they have in the United States, white-collar jails. And those jails... They had to work like slaves. It was like the Holocaust. People wouldn't make it out. Rabbi Zilber knew that there was no way he was going to allow himself and his neshama to violate Shabbat. So, knowing that he must work and everyone else works seven days a week, he had to find a way to do some work where he doesn't have to work on the seventh day.

20:16So one of his friends that's been in jail already for some time told him, "Listen, there's only one job that you can do which will give you freedom." He said, "What job is that?" He says, "Listen, all of the other jobs you have to work as a team. You have to work with people. Which means if you don't show up to the team on Shabbat, they're all going to beat you up, they're going to tell the guards on you, they're going to kill you. So it's not going to happen. The only way that you can actually have freedom is if you work by yourself. But there's only one job you can do by yourself. It's really for five people, but you could actually do it by yourself if you work extra hard." He goes, "What's the job?" "To carry the water from the river all the way back to the camp. They had no plumbing in Kazan." And he said, "Okay, fine. This is what I'm going to do. I'm going to do all the work day and night." You can do it by yourself; it's really for five people, but you could actually do it by yourself if you work extra hard. He goes, "What's the job?" "To carry the water from the river all the way back to the camp. They had no plumbing in Kazan." And he said, "Okay, fine. This is what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna do all the work day and night." Six days a week, I start my day at five o'clock in the morning and finish at 7:30 at night, non-stop. Carrying huge buckets of water each direction would take one hour of carrying this heavy, heavy water each way. In that way, he was able to keep Shabbat because on the seventh day he didn't have much work to do, so whatever needed to be done, he could get somebody to do the job. He was able to keep Shabbat in jail, and...

21:34this wasn't enough for Rabbi Zilber because Rabbi Zilber knew Hashem didn't bring him to the world just to keep Shabbat. He didn't bring him to the world just to do one mitzvah; He brought him to the world to do every mitzvah. And unless you absolutely cannot do it, you must exert all effort to do it in today's world. Somebody lives a mile away from the Bet Knesset, they feel like they're allowed to drive because, oh, chas v'shalom, they walk 15-20 minutes. They call themselves Anusim. Nonsense. This Rabbi Zilber story will show you what an Anus is in reality. Rabbi Zilber knew that one of the major commandments in the Torah that connects you to Hashem, that is the only way you can become happy, it's the only way you can become successful, it's the only way you can get to the next world. and the only way you could even know of the mitzvot and fulfill them is by learning Torah every day. But he says, how could I learn Torah if I'm carrying manual labor that's supposed to be for five people by myself? How could I do it? I start at 5 o'clock in the morning, I finish at 7:30 at night. I mean, it's hours and hours, 14 hours, 14 and a half hours a day of manual labor. By the time I get home, I can barely look, you know, see. So he says, so I decided...

22:55I'm gonna run instead of walking from the river to the camp and from the camp to the river. I'm gonna run in both directions, and after I ran, I realized that instead of it taking me an hour, it took me 45 minutes. I was able to save 15 minutes, but those 15 minutes the guards didn't know because the guards expected it to take me one hour. So, for those 15 minutes, I was able to hide and read one of the pages of Gemara that I snuck into the jail, one of the pages of the Mishnayot that I snuck into the jail and had on me at all times, read one of the books that I was able to sneak in. Just to read the book was a death sentence, but I would run in every direction just to save those 15 holy minutes. And for all the time that I was in jail... and read one of the pages of Gemara that I snuck into the jail, one of the pages of the Mishnayot that I snuck into the jail and had on me at all times. Reading one of the books that I was able to sneak in—just to read the book was a death sentence. But I would run in every direction just to save those 15 holy minutes for all the time that I was in jail. Each day I would work these 14 and a half hours, but saving 15 minutes in each direction gave me three to three and a half hours of holy Torah. And even though I've learned all of the things that I brought into jail already before I went to jail, and I learned all of them after I came out of jail, the level of understanding and connection that I had to them, while learning them in jail, stayed with me forever, but it was at a completely different level. Because of the self-sacrifice,

24:21while learning them in jail, stayed with me forever, but it was at a completely different level. Because of the self-sacrifice, Because he self-sacrificed and fulfilled what we learn here from Adam of why we came to the world. By the sweat of your brow, you shall eat. By the sweat of your brow, you shall do teshuva and return to Hashem. The self-sacrifice that he did just to learn Torah. It was the most valuable Torah that he had in his entire life, and he was one of Gedolei Yisrael. So when one of the average people in the world says, "Ah, my best Torah was when I was a certain age," okay, you're an average person, it could be last week your best Torah. But when one of Gedolei Yisrael, one of the giants of the generation, says, "Those few years I was in jail, that was the best Torah I ever learned," then you understand the value of Mesirut Nefesh. We learn it from Adam HaRishon. We learn it from Hashem Yitbarach. And we learn it because that, my friends, is the purpose of life. Work hard. And with the help of Hashem, you get back to Hashem. You get to the next world. That's eternal goodness. Shabbat Shalom. Shabbat Mevorach.