“And the Lord God made garments of skins for Adam and his wife, and He clothed them (Genesis 3:21).”
In the midst of all the greatness of God’s acts in this parsha – the creation of heaven and the earth, of the seas and the trees, of the animals and the humans – in the midst of all this wonder, we could easily lose sight of this simple and intensely intimate act of caring: God clothes Adam and Eve, like a parent clothes her child.
This act comes at the end of a story of sin and punishment – the eating of the forbidden fruit and the resultant punishments to each of the sinners and then their banishment from the Garden. Even at a time of punishment, in the midst of a first moment of distance, God does this warm and nurturing act. God didn’t say to them – you got yourself in this trouble; now get yourself out. He made them clothing. He took care of them even though it was their own fault they needed clothing in the first place (the fruit made them realize they were naked).
The Talmud (Sotah 14a) says that the Torah begins with an act of gemilut hasadim –loving kindness -- and ends with an act of gemilut hasadim. It begins, here in Genesis, with this act of clothing Adam and Eve, and it ends, in the parsha we just read on Simchat Torah, in Deuteuronomy, with the ultimate act of kindness, the act of burial – as the Torah reports that God Himself buried Moshe (34:6). In each case, God’s loving and intimate action surrounds an individual.
These are small acts, not like the wonders of the Red Sea or the 10 plagues or the creation of the world. Yet these are the book-ends of the Torah. Simple small acts of kindness done to one person. The message here is that it is really the simple daily acts of kindness, the most basic of things – clothing the naked, burying the dead – that are the stuff of God in the world.
God is our model for how to act in the world; at our core, there is something divine about us, as we also learn in this week’s parsha: we were created betzelem elokim – in God’s image. So when we speak in our prayers about God’s attributes -- when we say His hands are wide open or that He is full of compassion -- we are really telling ourselves how we should act. God is malbish arumim, “He who clothes the naked,” goes one of the morning blessings, reminding us to surround others with warmth and love as God first did to Adam and Eve.
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It's like getting kids off to school in the morning. You might yell at them to hurry up, or punish them for misbehaving, but then at the door you're putting on their coat and giving them a kiss (if they let). A very recognizable feeling of chesed. Thanks.
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