(Leviticus 1:1)
Adar 29, 5778/March 16, 2018
When we fall in love with someone and desire to spend the rest of eternity with them, we need to create a space for them in our lives, a physical, emotional and spiritual space, and invite them in. To stay. Forever. This is the basic story line which describes G-d's relationship with man, beginning with "In the beginning... " in which G-d created time and space so that He could share that space with His creation, and with Man, the crown jewel of His creation. G-d created a special space, called it the Garden of Eden, and put Man in it, but Man, it appears, was not quite ready for this relationship, and opted to strike out on his own, independent of G-d. The rest, we know, was a painful history, of starts and stops, misunderstandings, misreadings and missteps. G-d was pushed aside and discarded, and cataclysmic flood and devastating destructions were the result. Both partners in this stillborn relationship were in pain. And then Avraham appeared, and, at long last, reciprocated, on man's behalf, G-d's primordial gesture to Man, and opened up his world, (our world), to G-d, creating a space in his heart and soul, in his life and in the lives of his associates and passers by and in his family and his progeny. Man and G-d are, for the first time, looking directly into one another's eyes, as Avraham stated on Mount Moriah, when he declared, "HaShem will see, as it is said to this day: On the mountain, HaShem will be seen." (Genesis 22:14) A courtship has begun.
