Bereisheet 5766
Destination Shabbat
Rabbi Jerry H. Seidler

 This year we will study the fifth aliyah of the weekly torah portion. Temple Sinai has reconstructed the traditional annual or triennial torah reading into a seven year lectionary cycle. We will get right down to it by looking at the fifth aliyah for Parashat Bereisheet, a text which from the start poses a challenge of meaning:

Genesis 4:19-26

19. Lamekh took for himself two wives; the name of one was Adah, and the name of the other was Tzillah.

20. Adah bore Yaval, the progenitor of those who live in tents amidst livestock.

21. His brother’s name was Yuval, the progenitor of all who play the harp and pipe.

22. Tzillah also bore Tuval-Kayin, forger of every sharp instrument in bronze and iron; and the sister of Tuval-Kayin was Na'amah.

23. Lamekh said to his wives, Adah and Tzillah, "Hear my voice, you wives of Lamekh, listen to what I have to say, for I have slain a man for wounding me, a young man for hurting me.

24. If Kayin shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamekh seventy and sevenfold."

25. Adam was again intimate with his wife. She bore a son, and called his name Set, for God, she said, has appointed me another seed instead of Chavel, whom Kayin slew.

26. To Set was also born a son whom he named Enosh. Then, human beings began to call upon the YHVH by name.

I confess it takes a lot to go beyond this rather literal commingling of what purports to be two genealogies. The first, the one with Lamekh, is the terminus of the Adam-Kayin genealogical text, which ends with the surprising mention by name of a daughter to a second wife. The other would seem to commence the text dealing with the line of Adam-Set, Kayin's replacement brother. Is this aliyah, then, nothing more than a bridge of these two genealogies?

If we meditate a moment on the meta-structure of the parashah, we may glean something of worth with which to analyze our aliyah. Parashat Bereisheet begins with the seven-day creation story, segues into the Garden of Eden and Kayin and Chavel stories, and ends with the genealogies leading to Noach. The opening story culminates with Shabbat, the seventh day, a day of rest and rejuvenation. The next two are about struggling to be in the world, both of which end in a form of exile, punishment and estrangement. The last section does not follow a story line, but traces a lineage to Noach. The parashah ends by introducing us to Noach.

Our parashah can be imaginatively divided into two sections: a short one ending expressly with Shabbat (the seventh day of rest), and a second, convoluted, amalgam ending with a man (whose name means rest). The beginning of Torah is apparently trying to teach us something about rest.

It is fair to ask at this juncture what the fifth aliyah could possibly have to do with rest, the spiritual notion of structuring time cyclically so that a person might periodically refrain from work and seek refreshment of soul (Shabbat). The hint for us lies in the very conjoining of the genealogies. Our aliyah begins with the end of the Adam-Kayin genealogy, with the woman, Na'amah, whose name means pleasantness. It stops with Enosh, the third generation of the Adam-Set line. Without belaboring the matter, it ought to be clear that this aliyah was not arbitrarily constructed. For, if we count out seven generations after Enosh (Noach) and seven generations before Na'amah (Adam), we affirm the religious power of outwardly non-provocative biblical texts. Enosh and Adam are essentially synonyms for human being. Na'amah and Noach are flip sides of the same coin that rabbis have used for centuries to describe Shabbat: a time of pleasantness and rest. It is this very aliyah, then, that holds the parashah together as one text unit which teaches that Shabbat, every seventh day as a work-free space-time zone, is central to the well being of humanity.

I call upon all who know the Shabbat to be a delight to bring at least one other person in to the fold of developing a regular Shabbat practice. Now, just as ever-before, Shabbat is a gift for the soul, the weekly encounter that will keep Jews Jewish and Judaism vibrant. Shabbat Shalom.

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Rabbi Jerry Seidler is rabbi of Temple Sinai in Amherst, NY.