BERESHEIT

        (I had planned a less disturbing image but after the horror of October 7, 2023 this emerged)


The beginnings with possibilities of joy and pain as well.  We lived in an Eden and were expelled for foolish desires, kept out by an angel with a fiery sword and what happens next is our children killing each other.  Here Adam and Eve mourn over the slain Abel by his jealous brother Cain. The Midrash speaks of them not knowing what to do with this dead body and then they observed a bird burying its own dead and learned from this creature.  The sages say that this is in fact a pure form of kindness – caring for the dead body – for it is a one-sided giving as you get nothing back for your kindness.  Could not that be why we are here?  Kindness.