Partners with God in Creation

Jewish people as partner with God in ongoing creation and repair of the world

בראשית רבה י״א:ו׳
מַה שֶּׁנִּבְרָא בְּשֵׁשֶׁת יְמֵי בְרֵאשִׁית צְרִיכִין עֲשִׂיָה, כְּגוֹן הַחַרְדָּל צָרִיךְ לְמִתּוּק. הַתּוּרְמוּסִים צָרִיךְ לְמִתּוּק. הַחִטִּין צְרִיכִין לְהִטָּחֵן. אֲפִלּוּ אָדָם צָרִיךְ תִּקּוּן.

Bereishit Rabbah 11:6
[R. Hoshaya said, in response to a philosopher who asked him why, if circumcision is so precious to God, he was not born circumcised]: Anything created in the first six days, needs further actions, for example mustard seeds need sweetening, peas needs sweetening, wheat needs grinding, even humans need fixing.

תלמוד בבלי, שבת י׳ א:יהוה
כל דיין שדן דין אמת לאמיתו אפילו שעה אחת - מעלה עליו הכתוב כאילו נעשה שותף להקדוש ברוך הוא במעשה בראשית.

Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 10a:5
Every judge who judges with complete fairness, even for a single hour, tradition gives that judge credit as though they had become a partner to the Holy Blessed One in the creation. [AJWS translation]

בראשית ב׳:ג׳

(ג) וַיְבָ֤רֶךְ אֱלֹהִים֙ אֶת־י֣וֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִ֔י וַיְקַדֵּ֖שׁ אֹת֑וֹ כִּ֣י ב֤וֹ שָׁבַת֙ מִכׇּל־מְלַאכְתּ֔וֹ אֲשֶׁר־בָּרָ֥א אֱלֹהִ֖ים לַעֲשֽׂוֹת׃ {פ}

Genesis 2:3

(3) And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy—having ceased on it from all the work of creation that God had done (lit: "to do").

רמבן, בראשית ב:ג
ודע, כי נכלל עוד במלת "לעשות" כי ששת ימי בראשית הם כל ימות עולם

Ramban, Genesis.2.3
And know that there is more encompassed in the words “to do,” for the six days of creation are akin to the days of the existence of the world. [AJWS translation]

Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, "Halakhic Man". trans. by Lawrence Kaplan. (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1983), p. 101

The peak of religious ethical perfection to which Judaism aspires is man as creator. When God created the world, He provided an opportunity for the work of His hands — man — to participate in His creation. The Creator, as it were, impaired reality in order that mortal man could repair its flaws and perfect it. God gave the Book of Creation — that repository of the mysteries of creation — to man, not simply for the sake of theoretical study but in order that man might continue the act of creation. [Lawrence Kaplan translation]

Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, "Halakhic Man." trans. by Lawrence Kaplan. (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1983), pp. 105-106

Man, the creature, is commanded to become a partner with the Creator in the renewal of the cosmos; complete and ultimate creation — this is the deepest desire of the Jewish people. The Scriptural text “And the heaven and the earth were finished, and all the host of them” (Bereshit 2:1) — the Targum, the Aramaic translation of the Pentateuch, translates va-yekhulu, “were finished,” as ve-ishtakhlelu, “were perfected” — is both a profound expression of the soul of the people and the most fervent desire of the man of God. This lofty, ontological idea illumines the path of the eternal people. When a Jew on the Sabbath eve recites [this passage as part of] the Kiddush, the sanctification over the wine, he testifies not only to the existence of a Creator but also to man’s obligation to become a partner with the Almighty in the continuation and perfection of His creation. Just as the Almighty constantly refined and improved the realm of existence during the six days of creation, so must man complete that creation and transform the domain of chaos and void into a perfect and beautiful reality. [Lawrence Kaplan translation for AJWS]

מדרש שמואל ד:א
מעשה ברבי ישמעאל ורבי עקיבה שהיו מהלכין בחוצות ירושלים והיה עמהן אדם אחד, פגע בהם אדם חולה, אמר להן רבותי אמרו לי במה אתרפא, אמרו לו קח לך כך וכך עד שתתרפא, אמר להן אותו האיש שהיה עמהן מי הכה אותו בחולי, אמרו לו הקדוש ברוך הוא, אמר להן ואתם הכנסתם עצמכם בדבר שאינו שלכם, הוא הכה ואתם מרפאין, אמרו לו מה מלאכתך, אמר להן עובד אדמה אני והרי המגל בידי, אמרו לו מי ברא את האדמה, מי ברא את הכרם, אמר להם הקדוש ברוך הוא, אמרו לו ואתה מכניס עצמך בדבר שאינו שלך, הוא ברא אותו ואת אוכל פריין שלו, אמר להן אין אתם רואין המגל בידי אלולי שאני יוצא וחורשו ומכסתו ומזבלו ומנכשו לא העלה מאומה, אמרו לו שוטה שבעולם ממלאכתך לא שמעת מה שכתוב אנוש כחציר ימיו, כשם שהעץ אם אינו נזבל ומתנכש ונחרש אינו עולה, ואם עלה ולא שתה מים (ולא נזבל) אינו חי והוא מת, כך הגוף הוא העץ, הזבל הוא הסם, איש אדמה הוא הרופא.

Midrash Samuel 4:1
Once Rabbi Ishmael and Rabbi Akiva were strolling in the streets of Jerusalem along with another man. They met a sick person who said to them, “Masters, can you tell me how I can be healed?” They said to him, "Take such-and-such until you felt better." The man strolling with the two rabbis turned to them and said, “Who made this man sick?” “The Holy Blessed One,” they replied. “And you presume to interfere in an area that is not yours?” the man remarked. “God has afflicted and you heal?” “What is your occupation?” they asked the man. “I’m a tiller of the soil,” he answered, “as you can see from the sickle I carry.” “Who created the land and who created the vineyard?” “The Holy Blessed One.” And they said, “And you dare to move into an area that is not yours? God created these and you eat their fruit?” He said to them, “Don’t you see the sickle in my hand?” the man asked. “If I did not go out and plow the field, water it, fertilize it, weed it, no food would grow!” Fool,” the rabbis said, “have you not heard that the days of people are like a harvest. Just as a tree that is not fertilized and weeded and pruned does not grow, and if it grows and does not drink (or take fertilizer) it does not live and dies, so to the body is a tree—the medicine is the fertilizer and the doctor is the farmer.” [AJWS translation]

From Howard Schwartz, "How the Ari Created a Myth and Transformed Judaism"Tikkun, March 11, 2011 (http://www.tikkun.org/nextgen/how-the-ari-created-a-myth-and-transformed-judaism)

For many modern Jews, the term tikkun olam (repairing the world) has become a code-phrase synonymous with social and environmental action. It is linked to a call for healing the ills of the world. Indeed, tikkun olam has become the defining purpose of much of modern Jewish life. What many of those who use this term do not know is that this idea is rooted in the last great myth infused into Jewish tradition, a cosmological myth created in the sixteenth century by the great Jewish mystic, Rabbi Isaac Luria of Safed, known as the Ari (1534-1572). Here the term “myth” refers to a people’s sacred stories about origins, deities, ancestors and heroes.

The Myth of the Shattering of the Vessels

How is it that a concept rooted in medieval Jewish mysticism has so endeared itself to contemporary Jews? In order to understand this unlikely development, let us first consider the myth itself, known as “The Shattering of the Vessels” (shevirat ha-kelim).
At the beginning of time, God’s presence filled the universe. When God decided to bring this world into being, to make room for creation, God first drew in a breath, contracting God's Self. From that contraction darkness was created. And when God said, “Let there be light” (Gen. 1:3), the light that came into being filled the darkness, and ten holy vessels came forth, each filled with primordial light.

In this way God sent forth those ten vessels, like a fleet of ships, each carrying its cargo of light. Had they all arrived intact, the world would have been perfect. But the vessels were too fragile to contain such a powerful, divine light. They broke open, split asunder, and all the holy sparks were scattered like sand, like seeds, like stars. Those sparks fell everywhere, but more fell on the Holy Land than anywhere else.

That is why we were created — to gather the sparks, no matter where they are hidden. God created the world so that the descendents of Jacob could raise up the holy sparks. That is why there have been so many exiles — to release the holy sparks from the servitude of captivity. In this way the Jewish people will sift all the holy sparks from the four corners of the earth.

And when enough holy sparks have been gathered, the broken vessels will be restored, and tikkun olam, the repair of the world, awaited so long, will finally be complete. Therefore it should be the aim of everyone to raise these sparks from wherever they are imprisoned and to elevate them to holiness by the power of their soul.

Covenantal Responsibility (Rabbi Bair)
The main idea here is the ongoing work of Creation as the responsibility of every Jew to pursue in partnership with God. Both every Jewish ritual act, such as reciting the Kiddush on Friday nights and every ethical and justice-seeking act is not only good, but is at the core of what it means to be in relationship with God and to fulfill the Jewish people's covenant with God. In fact, there is not clear separation between ritual and ethical behavior within the framework of Jewish obligation. The world is not created; we are creating it. In this way, tikkun olam can be seen as more than just improving the world, but the very reason for human existence: Ours is a sacred responsibility to continue God's work of Creation, as the world God created is inherently broken and incomplete.

Rabbi Ethan Bair

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