“Teaching is not a simple transfer of information. Rather, the teacher gives of her soul to the student and inspires by the quality of presence she has cultivated within herself from her own Torah study and how she has integrated that learning into her life. As Rabbi Avraham Joshua Heschel states: ‘There are no proofs for the existence of G-d, only witnesses…. The teacher is not an automatic fountain from which intellectual beverages may be obtained. He is either a witness or a stranger. To guide a pupil into the promised land, he must have been there himself. When asking himself: Do I stand for what I teach? Do I believe what I say? He must be able to answer in the affirmative.”
Pregnancy and Birth
Discover the Awesomeness of Creation…
Pregnancy is a time of hidden wonder as new life unfolds within us beyond the realm of vision. The long months of pregnancy give us the opportunity to connect with the baby growing inside of us in intuitive and emotional ways. It is also a time to reflect on issues that are relevant not only during pregnancy but for our lives in general:
- In a world that encourages us to take charge of our lives, how do I live with faith in the unknown?
- How am I to understand the struggle and pain involved with the process of creation? How do I prepare to give birth?
- Deep inside each of us is an "untouched" soul which, accompanying us from the time we were in the womb, gradually reveals itself throughout life. How does this awareness influence my experience of pregnancy and how I parent?
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In the Pregnancy and Birth Series we explore the wisdom of our tradition and discuss a wide range of existential issues that help prepare us for the new stage of life we are entering. In the session on childbirth we address women's fears in anticipation of the effort and struggle that are inseparable parts of childbirth, and through study of our Torah sources we receive guidance on the meaning of pain as well as on how to transform it. |
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The Pangs of Creation
When we think of the act of childbirth, one of the first things that comes to mind is the pain involved. And it is indeed a weighty question: Why must the act of childbirth involve so much pain? The question takes us back to Chava in Gan Eden, where this issue is first mentioned. After Chava gives Adam to taste of the Tree of Knowledge, Hashem tells her:
Unto the woman He said: 'I will greatly multiply your pain and your travail; in pain you shall bring forth children; and your desire shall be to your husband, and he shall rule over you.'
(Bereshit 3:16)
What is the relationship between Chava's act and Hashem's response? In what way is pain in childbirth a fitting consequence of giving Adam to taste of the forbidden fruit?
In order to answer this question, let's consider what the world of Gan Eden was like before Chava's act. Before Adam and Chava ate of the Tree of Knowledge, the reality of disobeying Hashem's will did not exist in the universe. The world of Gan Eden before the sin was a world without the real possibility of evil. Therefore, it was a world without real choice, challenge, or effort. Since true growth and self-creation come about through man consciously choosing his path, a world without sin also means a world without real growth.
When Chava took from the forbidden tree, she was expressing her individuality and independence from Hashem. Chava's action represents a desire for a world of creation. Only when decisions are not clear, when life's path is difficult, when real effort is required to clarify oneself to oneself, is true creation possible. Through effort, man now possesses the ability to shape both his inner reality, and the reality of the world around him.
On the one hand, Chava's action was a sin, a distancing from Hashem. At the same time, it seems that it was, in a sense, a Divine "set-up". Hashem wanted the world to be one in which we choose, rise to challenges, and through constant effort, create ourselves.
Tikva Frymer-Kensky, in her book Motherprayer, gives eloquent expression to this idea:
G-d's pronouncement in Genesis 3 is a predictive description of the nature of human life, not an expression of punitive action. By eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge, humans left the natural animal order of simplicity and entered the more turbulent world of wisdom and culture. They became quintessentially human. But there is a price to pay. The world of culture, with its greater demands, cannot be sustained without great effort, and beings of culture cannot come into being without the same type of intense effort. This gives rise to the pain in human births…
(Motherprayer, p. 185-186)
When a woman labors painfully to create life, she is continuing Chava's vision. She, "Mother of all Life," is expressing in the deepest way that true creation can only come about through effort, even pain – and that creation is so precious that it is worth all of the pain it entails.
In a similar vein, this affirmation of the value of creation is present in every choice that we make, in every conscious act that we perform. When we work to produce our own mini-creations, be it toiling to internalize an idea, or struggling to overcome a negative character trait, we are participating in the continuous progression towards individuality, which enables each person to find his/her unique place within the tapestry of existence.
~ Tziporah Levine