Don't Waste Your Breath To Save Your Face When You Have Done Your Best (Robert Hunter & Jerry Garcia - "Built to Last")

As the Jewish Holidays drew on Tuesday night, my son and I settled in to watch our beloved Yankees play the Houston Astros in a one game playoff.  Not that I held out much hope as I knew that my team was deeply flawed. Certainly I hoped that they would win, but I knew that their flaws were going to be too much to overcome a pitcher whom they faced twice during the regular season and had not scored a run. I hoped the Yankee pitcher would be terrific and that they would breakthrough for one run.  As my son and I watched, we collectively exhaled in relief as the Yankee pitcher got through the first inning without allowing a run. But in the second inning the Houston player hit a towering home run.  A couple of innings later another Houston player hit a home run. We knew that the season was over, there was no way our team could overcome a two run deficit against the Houston pitcher. As we watched the replay of each home run, I was intrigued by the location of the pitch. Home plate is 17 inches across. When the Yankee pitcher gave up the two home runs; he missed his target by an inch or two  so that a pitch that was supposed to be in on the outside part of the plate didn’t quite break enough and arrived at a point about 15 1/5 inches across the plate instead of the desired 17 inches. Then the bat made contact with the ball right on the “sweet spot” of the bat. If the hitter struck the ball a ¼ inch on top of the ball, then it is just a ground ball. If the bat made contact ¼ inch under the ball then it is a fly ball, but not a home run.  The difference between a well located pitch and poorly located pitch is less than 2 inches.  The difference between contact points of the bat to the ball is perhaps a half an inch. The old sports adage is true, “it is a game of inches”. 

This morning we begin the Torah from the very beginning in Parsha Breishit. We are all familiar with the narrative of this Parsha. The first chapter focuses upon the narrative of creation from God’s perspective. The second chapter focuses upon the narrative of creation from a humankind perspective. The third chapter focuses upon Adam and Chava’s disobedience of God, their obedience to the serpent their partaking of the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge and the resulting consequences. The Fourth chapter focuses upon the family’s growth, sibling rivalry as well as fratricide. The fifth chapter focuses upon ten generations of the family’s genealogy beginning with Adam and Chava and concluding with Noach and his sons. In the sixth chapter, God expresses disappointment with mankind’s behavior and God expresses disappointment in his creation. Emcha Et Ha’Adam Asher Barati  Mei’al Pnai Ha’Adamah – I will blot out mankind whom I have created from the face of the ground (Gen. 6:7).

As we read through Breishit, we learn that names are important and they have meaning. Adam, the first man, is given that name because he comes from Adama – the ground – a reference to the 2^nd chapter of the Creation story. Chava (Eve in English) is given her name because after she is a source of life Chaya. Cain receives his name because Kaniti Ish et Adoshem- I have acquired a man with Hashem. Cain suggest the idea of acquisition.  However there is no reason offered for Adam and Chava’s second son Abel (Haval).  In Hebrew the literal meaning of Haval is “breath” or “vapor”.  So when you blow onto your glasses immediately before wiping them clean, that breath is Haval. If you didn’t wipe it away, it would just disappear into thin air. Indeed, Haval is a very fragile, temporary wisp of thing. Yet Haval is evidence of life, and the fact that God breathe life into Adam, suggests that the distance between life and death, the fragility of life is truly Haval- a thin breath. Sadly, we know what happens to Abel; his brother Cain (the acquirer) will murder Abel as he wants to acquire God’s blessing.  The distinction between Abel and Cain between the the Yetzer Hatov (the Good Inclination) and the Yetzer HaRah (the Evil Inclination)  is literally like the vapor from ones’ breath; yet within that breath we have the ability to see that very subtle demarcation between both inclination.  

    Peace,
                    Rav Yitz