Bereishit Excerpts

בראשית

Shabbat Shalom

Man, that was painful. I didn't expect the layning of Simchat torah to take so long. No more rookies up there.

You do it during the week. I can care less if people miss work. We are not sitting through all of these Aliyahs with a slow new reader.

We had everybody in the congregation get up. 80 Aliyahs. Pain. I wanted to give up my job. I would have ran out before my speech if I knew that was going to happen...

(4:23-24) Lemech kills and wants his wives to stick around. He did it by accident. Cain, who sources say he killed because he was bling and his son though he was an animal, was just a young lad. (5:14) He was just 910 years old. Didn't even make the 1,000 mark. But he didn't complain, because he didn't have to listen to a Bar Mitzvah boy, with 80 Aliyahs...

910 years, And you all complain about your backs. 40 years old and you can barely bend. I saw the way you all went down for the VaAnachnu Koreem on Yom Kippur, grabbing chairs at 60.

Want to talk tragedy?

(5:23) Chanoch lived to 365 years. A short life. The shortest of those listed here. His dad, Yered, was heart broken at the sudden death of his young child. His little boy of 365. Probably just moved out of the house a year or so ago...No, it is not a leap year, Michael. Death hits us hard. It hit Lemech as well. But Lemech didn't die. He killed by accident. Not a reason to leave your husband, Karen. Just because he doesn't have a good shot?...

(5:24) 'Chanoch walked with Gd and he was no more, because Gd had taken him.'

Being with H' is living.

Chanoch is the only one who 'walked with Gd,'  and thus his death was positive

What is living? What is death? Walking with Gd is living. And to that, death is beautiful. A great member of our congregation passed away, and she is still walking with Gd. Just on a new journey. When Frank dies, I do not know who he will be walking with...

They had time to accomplish. What have you done? People die before 100 years of age...Nothing.

When you walk with Gd, it is not always a long thing. Sometimes it is quick, beautiful, an experience to take with you on your next journey. Crying about Melvin, dying at 4 years old. Chanoch was a tragedy as well...He lived. Melvin lived those four years. He walked with Gd. Would he have walked with Gd in County Jewish Day? No. He would've ended up like Michael. See the positive.

(3:22) Eating from the tree of life was why they got kicked out of the Garden of Eden.  

Live forever in Gan Eden, not a good thing. 

Does H' want us living forever? No. Can you imagine sitting in board meetings for another 1,000 years?...1,000 years of Bar Mitzvah boys reading the Torah. Suicide would be a regular thing. 1,000 years with arthritis?

You live and make it beautiful. Make it a life of Gan Eden, but not forever. Even Feema, a beautiful and kind woman gets annoying at some point...We love you, but kindness has to walk with H' too. Maybe you can live to be 365, but even then, you will have to deal with the board.

May we all be Zoyche to live a life 'walking with Gd.' A life that leads to death...with Gd.