Bereishet – The Sweetest Thing

“And G-d said, ‘Let us make man in Our image, after Our likeness.” (1:26)

Here’s a thought for when you “dip the apple in the honey.” Apparently, a honey-bee’s life is around forty days long. In that brief span, it collects pollen sufficient for but one teaspoon of honey. At no point in that honey-bee’s life does it think of the tremendous effort expended for such a limited outcome. Like everything in Hashem’s world, the bee does its work because, on its level of understanding, that is its purpose, that’s what it’s here for. The sun doesn’t think about shining, the ocean waves do not think about their crashing assault on the beach and the trapdoor spider has no regrets as it sets its lure to seduce its unwary prey.

Everything is this creation does the bidding of its Creator without a second thought. With one exception — Man. Man is the only creation capable of rebellion. Man is the only creature with choice — “in Our image,” like Hashem, so to speak. Maybe that’s one of the ways we can understand the dictum of our Sages that a person should say to himself, “The world was created for me.” (Sanhedrin 37a) At every second of my life I have the ability to validate this creation of the world by choosing to serve my Creator with no less commitment than a honey bee.