?The Story of Creation – Complete or Incomplete

A study sheet or daf limmud includes the source text that is being studied and a set of suggested questions or ideas for discussion. A typical daf limmud from the Midreshet collection will also include pertinent background information and helpful explanations to .further enrich the learning experience

(Genesis 2:1-3 (Translation by Everett Fox from: The Five Books of Moses
Thus were finished the heavens and the earth, and with all of their array. God had finished, on the seventh day, his work that he had made, and then he ceased, on the seventh day, from all his work that he had made. God gave the seventh day his blessing, and he hallowed it, for on it he ceased from all his work, that by creating, God had made.

הסברים

• "that by creating, God had made" –
  literally: which God created to make

Genesis (Bereshit) Rabba 11:6
Everything created during the six days of creation requires additional work: mustard needs sweetening, wheat needs grinding, even human beings still require tikkun.

מושגים

• Genesis Rabba - The earliest aggadic midrash written in Eretz Yisrael; combines biblical interpretation with material from public sermons of the Amoraic period. Was compiled following modifications made over several generations

Dan Pagis, In the Block of Marble, Translation by Debbie Golan
In the Block of Marble, by Dan Pagis
In the block of marble waits the statue
The good pitcher is still embraced in clay
The tune wanders and seeks
Its flute among the rushes

,The home's hewn stone is still captive in the rock
.In the dark of winters the bread is hidden
But the hand, trusting and failing
Returns to its creations and rules sovereign

הסברים

• A statue, a jug, a tune, a foundation stone, bread – all are creations that still require an artist's hand to transform them into what they ultimately become. These objects appear to exist as an idea even before attaining their physical form. They are a kind of soul waiting to be born

מושגים

• Dan Pagis - (Bukovina, Romania, 1930 – Israel, 1986) – Israeli poet and professor of Hebrew literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Escaped a Ukraine concentration camp in 1944; made aliyah in 1946. In his book 'Gilgul' wrote about his experiences during the war.

Midrash Tanhuma Tazria 5
The wicked Turnus Rufus asked Rabbi Akiva: Whose deeds are better God's or human beings'?
Rabbi Akiva replied: Human beings!
Turnus Rufus asked: Behold heaven and earth! Can a human being create such as these?
Rabbi Akiva replied: Don't talk to me about things which are beyond a mortal creation's ability and that we have no control of; rather ask about things that are found in humans.
Turnus Rufus asked him: Why are you circumcised?
Rabbi Akiva replied: I knew you were going to ask me that, therefore I pre-empted you and said that humans' deeds are more pleasing than God's.
Rabbi Akiva brought him sheaves of wheat and fresh-baked rolls, and said: These are God's works and these are humans' are not these better than the sheaves?
Rabbi Akiva brought him raw flax and clothes from Bet She'an (known throughout the ancient world for their fine, delicate fabric and exquisite workmanship) and said: These are God's works and these are humans' are not these better than the flax?
Turnus Rufus replied to him: If God desires circumcision, why doesn't the baby leave the womb already circumcised?
Rabbi Akiva answered: And why is he also born still attached to the umbilical cord doesn't the mother cut the cord? And why isn't the baby born circumcised? Because God gave Israel the Torah in order to shape them through fulfillment of the mitzvot.

מושגים

• Rabbi Akiva - Despite beginning his studies at the age of 40, became one of the most striking and influential figures of the period. Among the leaders of the Bar Kokhba Revolt, he was put to death by the Romans.
• Midrash Tanhuma - A collection of aggadic midrash attributed to Rabbi Tanhuma Bar Abba, a 4th century CE Amora of Eretz Yisrael. Based on Tannaic and Amoraic midrashim and the Jerusalem Talmud, its compilation date is unclear, probably no earlier than the 9th century CE. Was first printed in the 16th century.
• Turnus Rufus the Wicked - Purportedly the ruler of Judea during the Bar Kokhba Revolt (132-5 CE - and was unable to suppress it. His philosophical discussions with Rabbi Akiva, recorded in the Talmud and midrashic literature, took place either in Eretz Yisrael or Rome.