From the Rabbi’s Desk

Rabbi Manes Kogan

Bereshit

100th Anniversary

October 12, 2001

There is no person here who is not familiar with our Torah portion, Bereshit, the first of the portions of the Torah. Moreover, I am sure you know by heart at least the first verses that open our portion:

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1:1), or a more traditional translation that follows RaSHI:

"In the beginning of God's creating the heavens and the earth, when the earth was astonishingly empty, with darkness upon the surface of the deep, and the Divine Presence hovered upon the surface of the waters, God said, "Let there be light," and there was light" (Genesis 1:1-3)

I am sure that all of you are also familiar with the second chapter of the book of Genesis, in which the Torah tells us that God formed the man of dust from the ground and made Eve out of Adam’s rib.

All of you have heard of the third chapter of the book of Genesis, the one that tells us about Adam and Eve’s sin, by eating from the forbidden fruit and of the fourth chapter about Cain and Abel, the first fratricide in the history of human kind.

Every child knows Chapter 6 of the book of Genesis, the beginning of our next portion, the story of Noah and the ark.

However, I can almost assure you that none-of you can tell me the last chapter of our Torah portion, chapter five of the book of Genesis.

The fifth chapter of the book of Genesis, a chapter that is not taught in Religious School or in Hebrew School, not even in Rabbinical School, is about genealogy. The main reason for the lack of publicity of this chapter is that it is boring and apparently lacks inspiration.

The chapter has 32 verses of which I will quote for you only a few:

"When Adam had lived one hundred and thirty years, he begot in his likeness and his image, and he named him Seth. Seth lived one hundred and five years and begot Enosh: Enosh lived ninety years, and begot Kenan. Kenan lived seventy years, and begot Mahalalel. Mahalalel lived sixty-five years, and begot Jared. Jared lived one hundred and sixty-two years, and begot Enoch. Enoch lived sixty-five years, and begot Methuselah. Methuselah lived one hundred and eighty-seven years, and begot Lamech. Lamech lived one hundred and eighty-two years, and begot a son. And he called his name Noah saying, "This one will bring us rest from our work". When Noah was five hundred years old, Noah begot Shem, Ham, and Japheth"(from Genesis chapter 5)

For the reader who is accustomed to finding words of insight and wisdom in the pages of the Torah, this long list of names and years presents a real challenge. After all, who really cares about who the father of Lamech was, or how many years Mahalel lived? Or who begot whom? I am sure you already forgot most -if not all- of the names I read a minute ago.

We know about other challenging passages in the Jewish Bible, even entire books, like the book of Leviticus or Chronicles, or chapters in the book of Numbers and Joshua. However, we don’t expect to find such an anticlimax in the beginning of the book of Genesis, only a few verses after the creation of the world and the first steps of the human race on earth.

Why does the Torah include here the list of generations between Adam and Noah? Why does the Torah share a similar list at the end of our next Torah portion, corresponding to the ten generations between Noah and Abraham? What is the logic behind a boring list of names that we won’t remember anyway?

Since our Holy Torah does not have superfluous words, much less entire chapters, we should be able to find a good reason for such inclusion.

I would like to suggest that the Torah, by including these apparently meaningless lists of names, wants to teach us an important lesson.

I believe that the Torah wants to teach us that history, the history of humanity and the particular history of the Jewish people, is made not only by great personalities or by important figures, but also by anonymous ones.

Everybody remembers Noah and the Flood, and Moses and the Exodus. Everybody knows about Miriam and the basket in the Nile, and about Esther and the story of Purim. But the great biblical heroes didn’t make their great contribution out of a void. Others brought them onto the scene, others paved the road for them.

The Torah knows that some events are more significant than others, that some people play a more important role in history than others. However, the Torah also wants us to remember that history can not take place without the daily events and without the anonymous contributors.

By including the boring fifth chapter at the end of our sublime Torah portion, the Torah gently reminds us that the gift of uniqueness that the first man and the first woman received, is also our gift. Every generation and every person within a generation has the potential and the ability to contribute to the bigger picture called history.

Today at Beth Israel we celebrate our first 100 years, and we experience joy, pride and thankfulness when we appreciate the achievements of our beloved congregation during its first century of life.

Our Torah portion invites us –however- not to forget that we are nothing more, but nothing less that one piece of the puzzle.

This day belongs not only to us, but also to those who came before us. This day belongs also to those yet to come. It belongs to those who were born in Roanoke and to those who came from other places. It belongs to those who have been members of Beth Israel for the last 80 years, and it belongs also to those who joined our congregation during the last month. It also belongs to those who enriched us with their presence in the past and left Beth Israel, or Roanoke to pursue other ways.

We pause and thank today those who gave to our congregation of their time, of their wealth and of their insight. We appreciate the wisdom of our senior members and enjoy the noise and energy of our toddlers.

We appreciate the contribution of those who were part of the big moments of Beth Israel and also of those who were part of the small moments of Beth Israel.

We just learned that each word in the Torah has its reason, even if some of these words seem meaningless to us. We also believe that each moment of the last 100 years of Beth Israel and each person who was part of one of these moments, has a place in the history of our congregation.

The words of Genesis we will read in a few minutes remind us that a cycle just ended and a new one is ready to begin.

May this great celebration commemorating the first 100 years of Beth Israel, be the Genesis of the next prosperous 100 years.

Lechayim!