Letting there be light in the new year

Aspirational thinking about the first lines of the Torah as we enter 5784.

Photo by Nechama Lock on Unsplash

Six year ago, I was sitting behind the mechitzah, the partition separating men and women in an orthodox synagogue, listening to the rhythmic thump, thump, thump of the Torah scroll being rolled back to the opening lines: 

:בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹהִ֑ים אֵ֥ת הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וְאֵ֥ת הָאָֽרֶץ

:וְהָאָ֗רֶץ הָֽיְתָ֥ה תֹ֨הוּ֙ וָבֹ֔הוּ וְח֖שֶׁךְ עַל־פְּנֵ֣י תְה֑וֹם וְר֣וּחַ אֱלֹהִ֔ים מְרַחֶ֖פֶת עַל־פְּנֵ֥י הַמָּֽיִם

:וַיֹּ֥אמֶר אֱלֹהִ֖ים יְהִי־א֑וֹר וַֽיְהִי־אֽוֹר

:וַיַּ֧רְא אֱלֹהִ֛ים אֶת־הָא֖וֹר כִּי־ט֑וֹב וַיַּבְדֵּ֣ל אֱלֹהִ֔ים בֵּ֥ין הָא֖וֹר וּבֵ֥ין הַחֽשֶׁךְ

In the beginning of Gd’s creation of the heavens and the earth. 

Now the earth was astonishingly empty, and darkness was on the face of the deep, and the spirit of Gd was hovering over the face of the water. 

And Gd said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 

And Gd saw the light that it was good, and Gd separated between light and darkness. 

We begin each year from when there was nothing; from the first moment that there was something more than darkness in the world, and as we move through the year, the story we tell becomes increasingly more complex; more fraught with difficulty and contention. But for now, we will start again at the beginning where in the opening lines of Genesis, the first book of the Torah, we learn that the response to darkness and emptiness is light, and that light is good. 

Rabbinic commentary explains the last line of this opening passage, that the light was good and that it was separated from darkness, to mean that in times of confusion, dark and light create a boundary to guide us forward. 

This evening, we will begin the year 5784. We will roll the Torah back to these opening words. The first thing that the Torah asks us to think about at the start of each year is the difference between light and darkness. 

Unlike the beginning of the world, we are not going into this year from nothing. After these few days of pause to come together as a community and welcome the new year, we will return to all of the stress, struggle, and confusion that exists in our lives; we will return to realities that involve darkness, be it moments, days, or much more. Much like the books of the Torah, our stories are likely to get more complex over the coming year.

Very often in the Torah, in order for a revelation or path forward to be shown to an individual, they are required to undergo some sort of ordeal - be that swallowed by a whale or commanded to do something very difficult. That is not the case with light. Gd says, “let there be light,” and the light appears. The boundary between clarity and confusion just exists if we allow ourselves to see it.

In recent years, this boundary has frequently been challenged. We have been overwhelmed by competing narratives, and stepping back to look at the larger picture and find the clarity that must be somewhere has become increasingly difficult. But we cannot forget that in most cases it does exist.

Over the course of the next year it is undoubtedly true that there will be confusing and difficult moments, both for ourselves personally and for our world generally. It is incredibly easy to become so subsumed by the struggles we are facing in the moment that we lose our sense of clarity - our grasp on the light. But a way of reading this verse of the Torah, the way I am choosing to read it this year, is to remember that when everything feels dark and confusing, we can step back, take a breath, and allow ourselves to see the light and the way forward. This does not mean that the path out from struggle and confusion will always or ever be an easy one, but that we can find it if we choose to step back and allow ourselves to see it. 

L’Shana Tovah!