5786 - "Shabbos Bereishis affects the entire year": Why isn't "that it was good" written on the second day? A wonderful explanation from Rabbi Yosef Chaim Zonnenfeld, the Rav of Jerusalem. Presented by the Rabbi…

00:02 Speaker 1 We’re on the eve of Shabbos Bereishis. Shabbos Bereishis is something special. There’s a saying from the Tzemach Tzedek: the way a Jew sets himself up on Shabbos Bereishis is the way the whole year goes. In general, all the holidays of Tishrei have an effect on the entire year, and Shabbos Bereishis does too. So Shabbos Bereishis isn’t just the Shabbos when we read Parshas Bereishis. It’s a Shabbos that affects the whole year. If a person sets himself up properly on Shabbos Bereishis—in Torah study, in observing mitzvos, and in being joyful—that’s how the whole year goes. So we need to honor this Shabbos very much. It’s Shabbos Bereishis. We also hold a special farbrengen on Shabbos Bereishis. We read—

01:04 Speaker 2 And it’s always Shabbos Mevorchim, too.

01:06 Speaker 1 It’s Shabbos Mevorchim, too. Right, we don’t have... In Parshas Bereishis, we read that light was created on the first day. Then, on the second day, the firmament was created. But on the second day it says, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it separate water from water.” Yes, the firmament was created in the midst of the waters, and it separates water from water. There are the upper waters and the lower waters. “And G-d made the firmament and separated the waters beneath the firmament from the waters above the firmament, and it was so.” It doesn’t say, “And G-d saw that it was good.” On the first day, when He created light, it says that it was good. On all the other days it says, “And G-d saw that it was good,” but on the second day it doesn’t. Why? Because there’s a separation here, which opens the door to division and dispute. You can’t say “And G-d saw that it was good” about that. When there’s dispute and division, you can’t call it good. That’s why it doesn’t say “And G-d saw that it was good” on the second day. Later, on the third day, it says “it was good” twice.

02:35 Speaker 3 There, on the second day.

02:37 Speaker 1 But the question is: if separation is something negative, because it opens the door to dispute and you can’t call it good, what does it say on the first day? On the first day it says, “And G-d saw the light, that it was good. And G-d separated the light from the darkness. And G-d called the light day, and the darkness He called night.” And then it says, “And G-d saw—And G-d saw the light, that it was good.” In other words, the first day also has a separation: “He separated the light from the darkness.” And yet it says there, “And G-d saw that it was good.” So why does it say “good” there? There’s a separation here and a separation there. About one we say you can’t call it good; on the first day there’s also a separation, yet it says, “And G-d saw that it was good.” Why? The rabbi of Jerusalem, Rabbi Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld, explained this. In his time, the Zionist movement wanted to take control of the chareidi community as well. They established the Rabbinate, an official rabbinate, and there was a struggle over it. The community wanted to remain separate, not under an authority that would tell them exactly how to conduct themselves. There was a struggle over that—over being a community of their own, the Eidah Chareidis of Jerusalem. It was a very great struggle. So he said that there’s a difference between one kind of separation and another. The separation on the first day was between light and darkness. There, separation is positive; it’s necessary. That’s how it has to be. Why? Because light and darkness are opposites. Light and darkness cannot exist together. They cannot function together. There has to be a separation between light—

04:35 Speaker 4 Between light and darkness.

04:36 Speaker 1 Light represents good. Darkness represents evil. Light and darkness don’t go together. There, it has to be “And G-d separated the light from the darkness,” and that is good, because that’s how it has to be. But the second day is different. On the second day, we’re talking about water. Hakadosh Boruch Hu created the firmament in the midst of the waters, “and separated the waters above the firmament from the waters beneath the firmament.” When you take one thing, one body, one creation that is seemingly the same throughout, and you make a separation within it, that’s negative. It opens the door to dispute later on. It’s negative. In other words, there are two kinds of separation. There’s a separation within one thing, and that separation is negative. You understand? Within one thing. But there’s also a separation between light and darkness. They cannot be joined; there, separation was necessary. So on the first day, when it was between light and darkness, it says, “And G-d separated,” because light and darkness must be separated. But on the second day, it’s talking about water—one creation. To make a separation there, you can’t say, “And G-d saw that it was good.” Now, he brought this as support for his position, because he advocated separation. We want to remain a community as the people of the old Yishuv in Jerusalem have conducted themselves all these years, without any deviation, just as we have until now. That’s what he fought for. So he brought this support from the Torah for the idea of separation—a positive separation, one that must exist. May it be Hashem’s will that, with His help, we set ourselves up on Shabbos Bereishis and start the year on the right foot. May Hakadosh Boruch Hu grant us many, many

06:25 Speaker 1 miracles, with Hashem’s help, and may all the Jewish people have a healthy winter.