You Were Created as You Would Have Wanted to Be! (10 October, 2013, Cheshvan 6, 5774)
Whatever your color or race or whatever else you were born as, this is how you would have wanted to be if you have been asked before you were born.
Duration 10.14 minutes
This is the Biblical Message.
The sooner many of us wake up to the fact that we are what we are and need to make the best of it, the better. We all were created as we would have wished to be if we had have been asked beforehand. The article below discusses this issue from a Biblical perspective.
You might be dark or white, tall or short, etc.
We are against Racial Prejudice and have written articles on the subject.
See:
The Black Woman. Color Prejudice Forbidden
http://www.britam.org/CushiteWoman.html
We identify the Lost Ten Tribes with Western Peoples.
Most of these are white to some degree or other.
So too were most, but not necessary all, the Ancient Israelites.
This is historical reality.
See:
Hebrew Pictures
http://www.britam.org/HebrewTypes.html
The fact that the people we are concerned with are mostly white is sometimes a cause for antagonism from people who are darker.
There is nothing much we can do about this.
Most Israelites are white!
Despite this, Most white people are NOT Israelite!
Many white people are enemies of, or at least antagonistic towards, Israelites.
As far, as we know there is nothing about being white that is advantageous.
It is however an incidental condition of existence that appears to characterize most, but not all, Israelites.
This, as we said, seems to perturb some few of those who have been blessed with a different hue.
There is a message from the Bible: We are all the creations of the Almighty. Everyone has their own individual obligation in this world.
Whatever you are that is what you would want to have been if you had have been given the choice. You are suited to yourself. We should be pleased with what we are and do the best we can with it.
We learn this from a Derash or Extra-indicatory message in the Talmud basing itself on a Biblical Passage.
In general our Biblical Researches concentrate on the finding the Literal Meaning.
See:
The Literal Meaning of Prophecy
http://britam.org/Questions/QuesLiteral.html
In this particular case we are making an exception since the message is both important and interesting.
Despite our concentration on finding the simple straightforward literal meaning of Biblical verses we also occasionally make use of subsidiary methods of interpretation.
One of these is called Derash.
"Derash" literally means "searching" but in Exegetical (Bible Commentary) terms it may be explained as connoting "finding additional meaning".
"Drash" (or "Derash") is the root word for "Midrash" which is based on Derash. The "Derash" does not uproot any word or verse from its primary implication. The simple meaning of the Bible is usually the intended message. In many cases however the choice of words, combinations of expression, grammatical oddities, etc hint at additional meanings. These are found by "Derash" as employed in the Talmud and Rabbinical Literature.
Much of the Derash Literature bases istelf on different applications of the Hebrew Language.
The Talmud using a Derash teaches us that everyone who is born would have agreed before they came into the world to be born as they were.
One is suited to oneself.
Consider the verse,
Genesis 2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished.
The expression "all the host of them" in Hebrew is "Le-Tsava-am" and should be rendered "according to the host of them".
The word translated as host is "Tseva" which means army or host i.e. a large group usually in an ordered arrangement. This word however also means desire or will. The verse may therefore be alternately translated using the other meaning.
The Talmud (Chulin 60;a Rosh Hashana 13;a) says: # Do not read "Le-Tsava-am" [according to their hosts] but rather "Le-Tsivyon-am" [according to their choice].
In Hebrew and Aramaic the word "Tsva" implies "will, desire".
Rashi (Chulin 60;a): According to the form they chose for themselves.
Rosh Hashana 13;a:
# Said Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi, Everything that was created, was made according to its own level; according to its own awareness was it created; in accordance to how it would have wanted to become [Hebrew: "Be-Tsivyon-am] was it made as its says, 'Thus the heavens and the earth, according to all the host of them [Hebrew: "Le-Tsava-am"], were finished' (Genesis 2:1). Do not read "Tsava-am" [according to all the host of them] but rather "Tsivyon-am" [in accordance to how it would have wanted to become.] #
Rashi: "according to its own awareness" [Hebrew: "le-Daatam"] They were asked if they wished to be created and they answered, Yes.
Rashi: # "in accordance to how they would have wanted to become" [Hebrew: "Be-Tsivyon-am"] According to the reasoning of each and every one and in the individual imprinted formation of each one.#
It should be pointed out that this Derash is not so far fetched as it may seem to the English-speaking reader. In Hebrew the word translated as "according to the host of them" may also connote "how it would have wanted to become".
Genesis 2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them [Hebrew: Tsava-am], were finished.
Even though the Talmud says #Do not read "Tsava-am" [according to all the host of them] but rather "Tsivyon-am"# , it does not really need to do so.
"Tsava-am" and "Tsivyon-am" are almost interchangeable. "Tsava-am" as well as meaning "their hosts" may also imply "their desire" or will i.e. "how they would have wanted to become".
The verse we read as meaning:
Genesis 2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them [Hebrew: Tsava-am], were finished.
In Hebrew (according to the above) the verse might also be read as saying:
Genesis 2:1 The heavens and earth were completed and everthing as it would have wished to be.
We are all as we are for a reason.
Whether one agrees with the above Derash or not the message remains.
Each one of us is instinctively pleased to be what they are. They just wish that they were a bit better at it.
Not only that but whoever identified as an Israelite will be accepted as one especially if they live among Israelites.
Ezekiel (ESV) 47:
21 So you shall divide this land among you according to the tribes of Israel. 22 You shall allot it as an inheritance for yourselves and for the sojourners who reside among you and have had children among you. They shall be to you as native-born children of Israel. With you they shall be allotted an inheritance among the tribes of Israel. 23 In whatever tribe the sojourner resides, there you shall assign him his inheritance, declares the LORD God.