Bereishit: The Origins of "Good"

In the beginning of my year of study at the Pardes Institute of Religion, my Chumash teacher Rav Meir gave a cute antecdote about studying Bereishit, the book of Genesis. There was once a young atheist who decided that he would go into retreat and study the book of Genesis. After a year of doing so he came out and he said, "Wow, do you know how deep this stuff is?" to which Rav Meir just laughed. A few weeks ago, while attending a young adult torah study group, the Rabbi there decided to skip over the first parsha of Bereishit, on the grounds that it was so deep he wouldn't know where to begin. Bereishit, especially its first parsha focusing on the creation of the world, is a complex text filled with historical, mystical and philosophical themes. Its a text that has gained a lot of attention, even those that are not experienced with biblical study often still know these creation stories, and thousands of texts have been written as commentaries and midrash based upon this text. Just last night my younger brother was describing for me the lore behind a table top RPG, the World of Darkness, in which much of the vampiric lore was based in Bereishit. Now, I am no legendary commentator such as Rashi, or a professor of philosophy such as Leon R. Kass who wrote the excellent agnostic philosophical commentary, "The Beginnings of Wisdom", yet I hope that I can join the many who have written on Bereishit by offering my own interpretation to the creation story.

Last year, perhaps to the ire of Rav Meir, I became enthralled by something seemingly unimportant within the first chapter of the Tanach. Upon the completion of several of Hashem's miraculous creations the text states that "Elokiim saw that it was tov (good).". I found this to be concerning, for as we see throughout the creation Hashem is not only creating but in many ways defining, characterized by Hashem's usage of speech as the tool of creation. Yet, Hashem does not "call it tov (good)" or in any way define it as tov. The creation is not tov because Hashem decided it was tov, rather it is intrinsically tov. What does this mean? At first when I read this I found myself struggling with a major theological issue, good is seemingly separate from Hashem and that not even Hashem defines what is good. I don't necessarily believe that anymore, but instead have found two different views that I have not quite decided upon which I personally believe.

I learned years ago in a biblical theology course that the term tov could mean "complete", rather than the more common translation of good. Therefore, instead we have "Elokiim saw that it was complete.". We could go pshat and end it there, just say that it means that particular act of creation was complete, though at the end of the story of creation a different term vay'icooloo (please forgive my transliteration) is used to mean complete as in finished. Instead, we can see this as fitting the Platonic philosophy of perfect forms. (Correct me if I'm wrong, I'm no master of Greek philosophy) In this philosophy there are material forms and perfect forms. The perfect form acts as a sort of metaphysical blueprint for the material form. A table as we see it, is more than likely flawed, but it is based off the idea of a table which is the perfect form. So, in the story of creation when Hashem refers to something as tov, we can take the interpretation that the idea or the perfect form already existed, as a plan of Hashem's, and the material form of what was created was flawless in it's execution. We can take a stance that humans, whom are not seen as tov, having free will and therefore able to change their material form drastically every second of their existence can not be placed automatically into the category of tov.

Another interpretation, one that I personally feel more drawn to, is that Hashem created the concept of good before creating the world in order to teach that moral good is separate from the natural world. This creates an argument for absolute morality. There is a good and a not good, and regardless of how the world changes, or what the world throws at us, good does not change being that good predates even the creation of the natural world. It counters beliefs in natural morality, that we believe what we believe is right due to natural needs bred into us through evolution. Society may define good as having a beautiful home and healthy kids, society may define good as being being a charismatic leader climbing the top of a corporate ladder or having plenty of friends, or society might define good as being educated and an avid reader. Yet, these "goods" are not good in the absolute definition of good. These "goods" change, according to the desires of society, perhaps through cultural pressure, or perhaps even through natural pressure. While these "goods" might be important for living a happy life in today's world, these are not the good of tov as described in the creation story. Tov, or true good, is absolute, unchangeable. If we truly want to be good, or tov, we must acknowledge that there exists an absolute good that has been defined by Hashem. We need to withstand the pressures that attempt to force us to reinterpret good, so that we can pursue not what we believe is "good", but what Hashem knows is good. We do not have to reject these other "goods", but we do need to consciously acknowledge them as being a completely different kind of "good" than tov. As for what the absolute good is, I do not believe that any of us can know it for sure, it stands beyond the physical world and logic. Yet, if you believe as I do, Hashem gave us the Torah with the exact purpose of teaching us how to be good. If we seek truth through the Torah, perhaps we can learn some of it, enough to put us on a path to good.