Parshas Bereshis

This week’s Torah portion, Parshas Bereishis, walks us through the creation of the world, step by step. Light, sky, oceans, land, plants, sun and moon, fish, birds, animals, and finally, at the very end of the sixth day, man. Humanity comes last.

The Midrash (Bereishis Rabbah 8:1) says something striking about this. If a person merits, they say to him, you preceded all the works of Creation. If he does not merit, they say to him, a mosquito preceded you. What does it mean that a mosquito preceded you? And how can being created last mean two opposite things?

The answer comes from a line we sing every Friday night in Lecha Dodi (Rabbi Shlomo Alkabetz): sof maaseh, b’machshava techila. The end of the action is first in thought. What does that mean? Think about someone who goes to medical school. Getting the MD is the last thing that happens, after years of classes, exams and residency. But every one of those steps was taken because of the MD. The degree was the first thing in the person’s mind. It came last only because it was the goal everything else was built to reach.

But the order of events alone does not tell us which kind of “last” we are looking at. Sometimes something comes last because it is the purpose of everything before it. Sometimes it comes last simply because it is the least important thing on the list, an afterthought tacked on at the end.

That is exactly the choice the Midrash puts in front of us. If we rise to the level of Hashem’s purpose for us, if we grow, use our free will well and become who we were meant to be, then we are the machshava techila. All of Creation, the sun, the oceans, the mountains, every living thing, was built as the setting for that growth. We came last because we were the point.

But if we fail to live up to that purpose, we are just the final item on the list. Not the goal, only the last and least significant step in the process. A mosquito, a creature with no purpose beyond itself, preceded us, and we have nothing to say to it.

Same position in the order of Creation, two completely different meanings. Which one it is depends on us.

This is a sobering thought, but also an empowering one. The universe was not built to be a backdrop to our indifference. It was built to help us grow. Every day we choose whether we are the purpose of Creation or merely its final footnote.

May Hashem give us the clarity to see our place in His world, the strength to live up to it, and in that merit may we be blessed with a year of growth and connection, and bring Hashem’s purpose for all of Creation to fruition.