Should Man Have Been Created?

Would it have been better had Man never been created, or is it better that Man was created? This philosophical question was debated by the schools of Hillel and Shamai for two and a half years.

And their conclusion? It would have been better that Man had never been created, but now that he is created, he is obligated to search and examine his deeds.

Using this Gemara as his basis of discussion, Rav Shach tries to understand the adage, “Dirshu es Hashem behimotz’o, Search for Hashem where you may find Him.” Where may you find Him? Now, during the Ten Days of Repentance, for this is the time we are more prone to examine our deeds and attempt to come close to Him.

But the Schools of Hillel and Shamai used two different terms for searching and examining our deeds yemashmesh, feel, and yepashpesh.search. What two different but related approaches were they trying to teach us?

Rabbi Wolbe in his opus Alei Shor targets the human psyche. We tend to live our life “in the middle”, seldom paying attention to the two ends, where we came from and where our final destination will be.

We live in the moment, and don’t contemplate our beginning and our end, as Pirkei Avos admonishes us to do. We take our lives for granted, neglecting to thank Hashem for all the loving kindness, chessed, He does for us. We live to cover our basic necessities, and enjoy our occasional fun and entertainment.

Is this the life for which Man was created? That may be the daily nitty gritty of life, but it should not constitute its essence. The essence is contained by incorporating the “bookends” of life into the day to day work, thanking God for giving us life and remembering that someday this life will end, that this life is merely the entranceway to everlasting life after 120 years.  

The “bookends” of our lives are acknowledged in our prayers, in the recitation of ModehAni every morning, as we begin life anew, and the recitation of the Shema when we retire for the night, acknowledging God’s sovereignty. All day we incorporate a recognition of the Creator in every aspect of our lives.

Daily, when we enjoy eating a fruit, for example, continues Rabbi Wolbe, we acknowledge the Creator of that fruit and thank Him for it. By extension, we are also acknowledging Him and thanking the Creator for our own life. We thank Him for His chessed for each new achievement and milestone in our lives.

We do not live a life of asceticism, but we recognize Who creates all this good through which we are capable of enjoying our existence.

The bookends of our lives parallel the dual themes of Rosh Hashanah. Rosh Hashanah is “The Day of the Creation of the World”, Hayom Haras Olam, as well as “The Day of Judgment” Yom Hadin.  “He is first (at the beginning) and He is last”, He created me from my first moment of life, and He will judge me after my last breath is drawn.

This is the essence of the debate between Hillel and Shamai. Perhaps it would indeed have been better had Man never been created, but now that Mankind was created, it behooves us to remember that we have a purpose and a mission decreed by our Creator just as the original creation of Man was decreed by God. It is therefore each person's responsibility to try to fulfill that mission, for it is purpose rather than empty pleasure and entertainment that gives meaning to life.

So the purpose of Yom Kippur, then, is to search our deeds to find those which are evil, which go counter to our mission of serving Hashem, and eliminate them from our lives. But, the Ohr Gedaliah explains, this is only part of our task for even in the performance of mitzvoth there are often elements that are not leshem Shamayim, that include egotistical motives, such as, “Others will praise and honor me for this.” While this may indeed happen, we must eliminate these thought processes when we perform our mitzvoth, thinking only that we are doing God’s will.

These are the two aspects of searching our deeds, of yemashmesh and yepashpesh to which Hillel and Shamai were referring. It is easy to recognize deeds that are totally contrary to God’s will, but how competent are we in detecting the flaws in our otherwise positive actions?

Rav Shach elaborates on our theme. We tend to live our lives by focusing on the requirements of day to day living. Our service to Hashem becomes an afterthought. In that scenario, it is better that Man had not been created.

But when Man puts God at the center of his life, recognizes and acknowledges Him constantly, gives thanks to Him for successful business dealings (as well as failures), for simple and great pleasures, and seeks to express his gratitude by searching for ways to serve Him through both the sacred and mundane aspects of his life, then it is good that he was created.

When Man puts God at the center of his life, recognizes and acknowledges Him constantly, then it is good that he was created.
Within this framework. Rav Shach includes sensitivity to those around us, to others that God Created in His image even as we do His bidding. Just as Moshe was loath to go to Pharaoh as God’s emissary out of love and sensitivity to the feelings his older brother Aaron might feel at being passed over for this mission, so must we be sensitive about flaunting our achievements in front of family or friends who may be struggling with similar issues.

Is what you are doing or saying, gratifying or even “correct” as it may be, really worth the emotional, financial, or physical pain  it might inflict on others?

Rav Shach continues to elucidate examples of how we can know if our performance of a mitzvah is truly leshem Shamayim. When we do a mitzvah in private that no one would know whether or not we do it, when we give extra charity that no one knows about or invest extra effort in our private prayers, only Hashem is our witness, and our sole motivation is to come closer to Him.

So how can we continue to search for Hashem where He can be found, how can we work at getting closer to Him? Rabbi Friefeld in In Search of Greatness understands that our powerlessness comes from our own psyches, for we sell ourselves short and feel inadequate. Citing Chovot Halevavot, he teaches us that living a proper life is a matter of habit.

Focus on one small mitzvah. Work on observing it constantly with the proper intention until it becomes such a habit that your day is empty without it, whether it’s performing a daily act of chessed or saying a particular bracha with proper kavanah. When it becomes second nature, when you cannot think of living without it as you cannot think of starting your day without breakfast, you are ready to move on the next level, to embrace another aspect of closeness to Hashem.

We know we are limited, continues Rabbi Friefeld in the name of Rav Dessler. Therefore we need to ask Hashem for His help in reaching ever higher levels than we may currently be capable of. He can teach us the path to proper sensitivity and give us the inner strength and resolve to live our lives as His children ready and willing to serve Him.

But we must not remain frozen in place at our perceived limitations. If we take the first step and ask Hashem to light up our eyes so that we can see through the darkness, we will be able to ascend from rung to rung over the course of our lives.

If we open our mouths in prayer as we seek Him, He will fill our hearts and open our eyes to the correct pathways toward achieving our goal of a close relationship with Him.

Let us not be misled during these Days of Awe as we focus on doing teshuvah. Teshuvah too must be “leshmah ” explains Rav Gamliel Rabinowitz. When we do teshuvah, are we focusing on the pain we have caused our Father by the distance we’ve created between us, or is our focus on repenting so that now we are in position to further receive God’s blessings?

Is our teshuvah egotistical or leshem Shamayim? Are we saying “I’m sorry” as a worker who asks his boss for a raise while still caught in the middle of the losses he has caused both financially and in the trust his boss had in him?

Rav Chaim Hakohen offers a beautiful parable of teshuvah. A young child wants to show his mother his love and surprise her by baking her a cake. He’s seen his mother do it many times; he thinks he can do it himself, but he obviously doesn’t have the necessary skills. In the process, he makes a total mess of the kitchen.

When his mother comes home, she’s aghast at what greets her eyes. Her son may be afraid of the consequences and be sorry for the mess, or he may cry that he wanted to show Mommy how much he loved her and failed so miserably. The first approach creates distance, while the second approach will probably bring Mommy to hug him, dry his tears, and bring them closer than before the “cake mess”.

Which approach are we using? As we confess our sins, do we feel we are constantly lefanecha, before You? Are we seeking Hashem so we can feel Him as a constant presence in our lives? Or are we doing teshuvah so we can then ask Hashem to give us health and sustenance?

May we be zocheh this year to repair the rifts in our relationship with Hakodosh Boruch Hu so that all will accept His sovereignty as our King and as our loving Father.