Bereishit: Let There Be Light

Description

The story of our life’s struggles and achievements reflects the manner in which God created the world, as the Book of Genesis testifies: “In the beginning… the earth was without form and empty, and darkness covered the face of the abyss…”

One of the greatest of recent scientific breakthroughs is the discovery that “dark energy” or “dark matter” is the stuff that makes up the overwhelming majority of our universe. Fascinatingly, this confirms what every mystic, and for that matter, every Torah reader, always knew – the universe is first and foremost a dark place.

What science may not yet know is the purpose of this dark universe. But we find it in Genesis, which follows the description of a dark world with God’s pronouncement: “Let there be light.”

Even though it’s a dark world, God has given us power to illuminate it – which is why His first act of creation was to create a new light. But to access it – for ourselves, for our children, and for everyone we come in contact with – we need to attach ourselves above, so to speak, so as not to fall below. This means connecting with and committing to follow divine guidelines of morality and ethics that illuminate the shadows of existence.