Guardians of the Torah: The Created Can Create

One of the major themes of Rosh Hashanah is honoring Hashem as the Creator of the universe.

Rosh Hashanah is Yom Harat Olam, the day on which the cosmos was created. G-d as Creator sets the foundation for the theology of the new year. The Creator and Sovereign of the universe is also the One who judges us.

The focus of the mahzor for Rosh Hashanah is that of judgment: This is Yom Hadin, the Day of Judgment.

The impact of Yom Hadin rests on the fact that the Divine Judge is also the Cosmic Creator. Creation comes before judgment. In the Torah, creation precedes revelation. Even more, the divine aspect of creation in Genesis is the basis for the acts of revelation and redemption found in Exodus.

This year I am thinking mostly of the divine gift of creation. We are made b’tzelem Elohim, in the divine image.

We as human beings are creative by nature, resembling in this aspect the Holy One. Thus, we can always re-create our world and ourselves in part. This is an important ability and indeed a gift.

In the new year I plan to focus on how I can re-create my world in crucial ways.

I urge you all to consider what the divine gift to humanity of creativity may mean for all of us. What might you create in the year ahead?

Hashem has fashioned us so that animals, plants and people all live in the world, but only human beings can rise above the world and change it.

Because we are all creators as well as created.

L’shana tova.

Rabbi Richard Baroff is the president of Guardians of the Torah (guardiansofthetorah.com).