Are You Good Or Need Improvement?

If you would just look at the beauty of creation, analyze the beautiful world that Hashem created, you would see so many unbelievable miracles.

Look at the sun. It’s approximately 90-95 million miles away from planet earth. If it was any closer at any point, or any further to earth, then Chas Veshalom we would either freeze or burn to death. Perfect placement of the sun!

Look at the human body, yishtabach shemo! The heart, the lungs, the intestines, the eyes. Unbelievable creations!

But there’s one question about the creation of the universe that we want to highlight here.

If you look after Hashem created the sun, the moon, and the stars, the Torah states that Hashem proclaimed that it was Tov, good. He created the plants and the fruits and the vegetables, Hashem proclaimed that it was good. When Hashem created the dogs and the cats and the elephants and the giraffes, and, again, Hashem proclaimed it was good.

But when G-d created the first human beings, Adam and Chava, the pinnacle of creation, it doesn’t say that Hashem saw it was good. And the question is why not? A dog is good and we’re not? A cockroach is good and human beings are not good? What could be the message behind this?

The answer to this questions is truly a foundation of life. Our sages tell us something very phenomenal. If you look at every aspect of creation, you look at the fruits and vegetables, you look at the sun, the moon, the stars; they are what they are. They have no commandments, nor do they they have any sins. They were created complete.

A dog doesn’t have to honor his father and mother. A cat, when it goes to the dumpster, doesn’t have to look for the Kosher symbol. A dog is a dog and a cat is a cat. They are what they are with no room for improvement.

So Hashem says: They are Tov, they are good. They’re created complete.

But, when Hashem created Adam and Chava, when he created me and you, Hashem says you have to PROVE to me that you’re good!

And how do we prove that we’re good?

It’s not the house that we live in or how much money we have in the bank, or the kind of car we drive, and the clothing we wear.

כי לקח טוב נתתי לכם תורתי אל תעזבו

Hashem says I gave you a good gift, a gift that is good, the Torah, do not let go of it! Try to follow it, put your fullest effort, live by the ways of the Torah. Then after 120 years, the heavenly courts can proclaim that you lived a life of tov, a life of good. But if G-d forbid you didn’t fulfill your mission, you get yourself an NI: Needs Improvement. And chas Veshalom we don’t want to have to go through the process for those that need improvement.

Yehi Ratzon every single one of us should take it upon ourselves, to live a life of tov, of chesed (kindness), of Torah, and of ma’asim tovim (good deeds). And we should all be merit to fulfill our personal missions, amen v’amen.

 

Dedicated in Loving Memory of Tzivia bat Frecha

 

Transcribed from a class given by Rav Ilan Meirov