By Rabbi Josh Knobel
Just two weeks ago, Jews throughout the world celebrated as we completed reading the Pentateuch and turned immediately to the beginning chapters of Genesis, which illustrate how God creates the world, gently filling the universe with light, heavenly hosts, water, vegetation, animal life, and living beings created in the Divine image – humans. Though the tale fails to capture the thrilling history of the universe uncovered in the modern era by astronomers, geologists, and biologists, the ancients’ understanding of creation offers countless lessons regarding the human condition.
As beings crafted in the Divine image, humans, like God, possess the power to create. Through our actions, we shape the culture, landscape, and habitat of our world.
We often forget this inheritance in 21st Century America. With hopelessly out-of-touch representatives governing from afar… with multi-billionaires choosing what we and our representatives say and see and hear… with Alexa and Siri watching our every move… it can easily seem as if our powers of creation have been supplanted by forces much greater than ours.
However, never in human history have we exercised so much control over our world. As intently as a conglomerate of corporations and institutions watches our every move, so, too, does it respond to our choices, delivering commercial, legislative, and social content in response to our requests. With each mouse click, each finger swipe, and each press of the remote control, we weave another thread into the fabric of human civilization.
We witnessed our creative capacities in earnest in March 2017, when the purchasing powers and concerns of NBA and NCAA basketball fans aligned to generate boycotts which convinced North Carolina to repeal a state bill which required transgender people to use bathrooms according to the sex listed on their birth certificates.
Clearly, our powers of creation remain at our disposal, when we remember when and how to deploy them. In this new year, it is upon us to take the time and effort necessary to take responsibility for our world.